Chrono Orchestral Arrangement Box Set

[Razig]

https://store.na.square-enix-games.com/en_US/product/570577/chrono-orchestral-arrangement-box-set-cd

Music from the upcoming Chrono Orchestra concert in Japan. Frankly, I'm surprised to see more acknowledgement from Square that Chrono Cross does, indeed, exist.

There are also standalone versions for each game's music if you'd rather have only one or the other, but the box set contains an exclusive bonus disc.

https://store.na.square-enix-games.com/en_US/product/570578/chrono-trigger-orchestral-arrangement-cd

https://store.na.square-enix-games.com/en_US/product/570579/chrono-cross-orchestral-arrangement-cd

[CptOvaltine]

Hey!  This is finally available in the US!  I posted about this when they first announced it, but at the time it was a Japan exclusive.

[Vehek]

I was thinking of posting this in a new thread to focus on the images I'm about to link to, but it is related to this performance.

A few months ago (edit - actually just last month, on Reddit), I was looking something up and found this old thread with some scans in high resolution from the box set's pamphlet
https://www.resetera.com/threads/check-out-these-rare-chrono-trigger-concept-arts-from-1993-before-akira-toriyama.639126/
A few are the familiar early artworks from Kato seen in the Ultimania and elsewhere, but others I hadn't seen before.

(Judging from the file names, the thread was the source for the Queen Zeal sketch already on the site, but the source material wasn't credited before.)

And this one from the same user has scans from the Cross section
https://www.resetera.com/threads/masato-kato-reveals-some-of-early-tentative-titles-for-chrono-cross.422087/

(The main focus there was on the alternate titles, but those were visible enough in the preview images for the pamphlet.)

[Reld]

I think that first image just solved a mystery for me.

In the unpointed Prerelease text there's a part that takes place in prehistory in block 5 that briefly mentions a character called "Migo" (ミゴー). He seems to surprise the party somehow, and Lucca reacts by saying something like "What the, It's only Migo..."

Then there's the unused triceratops graphics from the Prerelease. This guy:


I think that's Migo. The big triceratops in the background of the first sketch you posted is labeled "ミゴー", just like the character mentioned in the unpointed text. Rather than an unused enemy, I think he was a friendly NPC. Like Ayla's pet or something. Explains the happy-faced tail wagging animation (the animation data seems to be gone, but the sprite assembly data is still there, and I used it to make this image. The palette is Nizbel's. Only this palette and the Frog King palette really seemed to have the color ramps in the right place, and the Frog King palette makes him look borderline radioactive.)

Edit: Just for funsies, here's a gif of Migo puttering around the house.

[Vehek]

There are some other interesting names as well:

• Early Lucca, who was labeled by her role as "Inventor Girl" in the sketches that also appeared in Ultimania, is named Riddel (リデル)
• The big figure in back is Gyadou (ギャドウ). AcaciaSgt transcribed this as a potential game title in the Gendai Plus segment, and observed that it was a name mentioned in the purple book in the library in Radical Dreamers ("Gadoh" in the official localization)
• Probably obvious enough, but the long-haired figure on the right is Glenn, and the name appears below one of the Frog sketches as well. So, official early Human Glenn concept?

[ZeaLitY]

That's insane news. It makes me wonder if Migo was going to have a travel-related ability, like riding him in the overworld, or if he would've just been a pet of some sort. Either way, to get featured with the other player characters in a team illustration...it feels like Migo was a big deal.

I need to go check the unpointed CTP text. Did we ultimately get almost all of it translated with RyogaMasaki's help? I wonder if an LLM could devise a pattern or decipher any of the rest.

Edit: Also, the level to which Schala features in all the art; should we almost assume at this point that she would've been a playable character?

[ZeaLitY]

www.chronocompendium.com/wiki/index.php/Official_Art

Let me know if I've got everything down accurately there. I greatly expanded the Masato Kato section.

[Vehek]

When I mentioned "the big figure in back" named Gyadou/Gyadoh, I was referring to the one you seem to be calling "Queen Zeal (floating in the background)" in the team sketch with the triceratops. After all, that sketch was new to us, while #5 was in the Ultimania and previously translated. That one had no names at all, only descriptors.
And going from left-to-right in listing the team members, the apparent human Glenn (the guy with the name originally) is the one you've labeled as Magus.
Well, I guess those early names can make it tough to accurately align with their later counterparts, as one can see with the unexpected case of Lucca/Riddel.

[ZeaLitY]

Got it fixed. Coincidentally, I'm back studying and I'm so close to being able to just read those names in katakana. Hiragana's memorized, but I'm only halfway through katakana, alas...