January 1, 2007 - Jeux-France Interview with Hiromichi Tanaka

As it appeared at http://www.jeux-france.com/news18999.html, with translation by Chrono'99.

Q: I know you've worked on Chrono Cross. There are a lot of fans of this game even here in France where it wasn't released, so could we expect to see a sequel, one day?

(Tanaka takes a huge breath when he hears the translation, then he laughes a little bit, as if he had been expecting the question or something...)

A: Well, the problem with Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger is that, the Chrono series is what it is because we always had a very particular team to develop it. Chrono Trigger is kind of the "game of the miracle" because it was a period when great creators like Akira Toriyama and others were available at that moment, and that's how the game could be made. And for Chrono Cross it's the same thing. The producer for Chrono Cross who is now the scenario writer for Secret of Mana 4[see note 1], the producer for Chrono Cross who was Mr Kitase[see note 2] who is now very busy on the Final Fantasy games since the VII or VIII... And so this means that it's very difficult to be able to reunite the original team, to be able to make a sequel to the Chrono series... Simply because if we don't try to reunite these people but take other people instead, we will find ourselves at that point with a game which will feel different, since there would be different persons in charge and we would possibly lose the Chrono spirit, if we make a sequel that way.

Q: So for the moment it's a no?

A: As of now, there is no sequel planned.

Note 1 - Unless Tanaka slipped and accidentally revealed the name of a new, still top-secret project or something, the interpreter is probably referring to Seiken Densetsu 4 alias Dawn of Mana, which has just been released in Japan. And of course, the scenario writer referred to is Masato Kato, who was not producer for Chrono Cross (that's Tanaka right here!) but director.

Note 2 - Yes, the interpreter says "producer for Chrono Cross" twice, he made a little mix-up. Kitase was co-producer for Chrono Trigger, not Cross. I think Tanaka also mentioned in Japanese the name of one of the other co-producers for Trigger, Tokita, but the translator just said Kitase. Don't criticize him, it's hard to translate Japanese to French orally with all those names and functions!

From: Interviews