Sea of Stars: A Worthy Successor to Chrono Trigger

The Influence of Chrono Trigger

The creative minds behind Square Enix's incredibly influential Chrono Trigger praise one of 2023's strongest indie RPG releases. Three creators behind Square Enix's Chrono Trigger have praised one of the best RPGs released in 2023, Sea of Stars. Chrono Trigger was first released in 1995 for the SNES, with its team led by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi from Square, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii from Enix, and Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball and character designer for Dragon Quest. These three were internally known as the 'Dream Team' within Square when Chrono Trigger was in development. With these three creative minds, Chrono Trigger would become one of the most revolutionary and influential RPGs of all time.

Sea of Stars' director cited that Chrono Trigger was a direct influence, alongside Super Mario RPG and the Paper Mario series, for the indie RPG. Sea of Stars launched earlier in August, receiving nearly universal acclaim from critics across all platforms, with many praising how it recaptured the spirit of Square Enix's 16-bit RPGs. Some of the creative minds behind Chrono Trigger think the praise is well-warranted.

Twitter article posted by Genki

Praise from the Creators

Translated by Genki on Twitter, in a radio show episode hosted by Yuji Horii, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Kazuhiro Torishima (a former editor of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga), the three all praised Sea of Stars as a beautiful game. The three were all initially discussing a possible sequel to Chrono Trigger, which Horii and Torishima thought it would be hard to see themselves doing. This segued into Sakaguchi bringing up Sea of Stars, along with him showing off a trailer for the game itself. Torishima and Horii were blown away by the trailer, praising Sea of Stars' beauty. 'Wow, they did a great job, it looks just like Chrono Trigger... it's beautiful... that's great!' said Horii. Torishima similarly praised the trailer, stating it was 'nostalgic' for him. Sakaguchi then commented on how it looked and replicated Chrono Trigger, praising the developers for doing a great job. The team behind Sea of Stars getting praised by some of the creators behind one of the influences of their work is perhaps one of the greatest things they could hear.

Sea of Stars and Its Impact

Sea of Stars being one of 2023's best RPGs is no small feat, considering that other amazing RPGs like Square Enix's own Octopath Traveler 2, Final Fantasy 16, and Star Ocean: The Second Story R were all released this year too. Even if Chrono Trigger doesn't get a direct sequel, Sea of Stars seems like it is a worthy successor in its place, with its original creators endorsing this notion as well.