Regarding Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, the truth is that I did imagine a final episode of the Chrono trilogy, later in time than Chrono Trigger, in which Kid and the others had to save Crono, Marle and Lucca.
Mother of God.
Regarding some new release from the series, as I already mentioned, it would be a final chapter to the trilogy. But is not going to come out [laughs].
You can almost feel the pain in that statement. And that nails down that he probably has the story draft somewhere. We need to determine whether that other game he was working on, Another Eden, culminates at some point storywise with the rescue of three characters analogous to Crono, Marle, and Lucca. Boo's been working on it
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This raises the additional question of how this interfaces with the Ghost Children:
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Ghost_Children.htmlDepending on which theory is correct, it's either, they need to be saved because they died in the Fall of Guardia + burning orphanage, or, they need to be saved because of the Home World shenanigans related to that incredibly convoluted Dead Sea issue (why is Lavos's future restored in Home World, etc.) I'm inclined to believe it's the former, since the healing of dimensions with the Chrono Cross doesn't leave much room for Home World's future catastrophe to remain a problem.
So that probably means Crono and Marle definitively died in the Fall of Guardia, and as shades, perhaps through the planet or in some other way (like the ghost of Cyrus), appeared with Lucca to the Chrono Cross party. This could also open the question of whether the shades of Crono, Marle, and Lucca in Chrono Trigger DS's dimensional distortion also represent post-CT ending shades of themselves after their deaths.
"[Another Eden] has nothing to do with the Chrono series"
Cue talking Frog knight.
Huge thanks for translating this. Who knew, who knew...
Edit: This also begs the question, how do you save Crono/Marle/Lucca? Because there's a pretty established, canonical way to pull that off, using clone dolls and a Time Egg. I have to assume he wouldn't have gone via an established route like that...if Crono/Marle died in the Fall of Guardia, that's fairly straightforwardyou just roll in and substitute the dolls with time frozen...or if you lacked the time freeze effect, you give Dalton and Porre a beatdown, and then enjoy the complete and utter clusterfuck in the timeline from stopping Porre's ascent. Likewise, if Lucca still dies in the orphanage, it suggests that Lynx/Harle's visitation is preserved in time despite the Ideal Timeline coming into existence via the healed dimensionsthat'd be some truly hardcore Time Traveler's Immunity at work. Again, straightforwardgrab Lucca at the right moment and get the hell out of there with the kids.
Surely, there has to have been a grander design; maybe Crono, Marle, and Lucca survive in the Ideal Timeline but got into some other kind of trouble?