Start Date: January 21. 2022

Windwillow

Chrono Trigger

Postscript

This has been a labor of love for a number of years. I first had the idea in 2014, but stalled quickly after that. Almost everything I've written here was created in 2021 and early 2022, and let me tell you, it's been a blast. This is my first real published work since I called myself Astraleon, but that was ages ago.

I will first give full credit for this work to Masato Kato and the Dream Team at Square-Enix. Obviously, without them this would never have happened. Heaven knows I could never come up with the masterpiece they created. All other members of the Dream Team, I salute you! Akira Toriyama's art, Yasunori Mitsuda's music - everyone's contribution led to the greatest RPG of all time!

Next we address another major source, the Chrono Compendium.

Their archives of information was invaluable to this work, and more than that, much of their theories and discussions led directly to parts of this work. I humbly dedicate this fanfic to them, their contributors, and everyone involved with the site. Anyone who likes this, go to them and marvel at their dedication and thoroughness. They MADE this fic happen.

Also important, another writer named 0ccam's Razor inspired much of my style. He's written some AMAZING Yu-Gi-Oh! fics, and I encourage anyone who reads this to check them out. He's absolutely masterful, and having read his works I adapted much of his style to mine. Credit to him for the style.

Another Chrono Trigger fanfic inspired me, the link to which I'll add after this. He's got an astonishingly fun and readable fic, and again, check it out if you like this. Even if you don't, I suggest it. He's made one hell of a piece of work.

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Now I want to address some of the more notable liberties I've taken here. This will be in no particular order and I may leave something out, so please forgive me if I do. PM me and I'll answer your questions.

Looking back as I compiled this, my style changed considerably. I guess at a certain point I couldn't keep up the original style and changed it around the trial. I don't regret it, though... Writing the Ocean Palace and Death Peak scenes made me tear up, and I think that style did it justice.

One of the things I wanted to do was avoid as many game mechanics as possible. That's why I didn't name most Techs, and changed the encounters slightly (more than slightly?) to fit my own interpretation. Much of my inspiration for the action scenes came from series like Dragon Ball Z and Rurouni Kenshin, among others. Bleach was big too.

My intention was to make things more... streamlined. Thus, stuff like Crono's lightning mode was based on A's Lightning Chakra Mode from Naruto. It wasn't in the original, but I wanted to go somewhat more believable than calling out Tech names and using stuff like Laser Spin, Red Needle, etc.

There are a lot of controversial things I'll get knocked on for. Let me explain a few, again in no particular order...

I wanted to change the travel time a bit so everyone didn't take twenty minutes to pass half the globe. That's why I made it take a couple days to go from one place to the other. Also, I guess I just wanted to add a bit of a twist to it.

Fans of Dragon Ball will immediately recognize the Capsules. I first had the idea from seeing Toriyama-sensei's artwork and connecting the dots between the two series. Overall I'm satisfied by what I put out for them...

For Crono and Marle, I tried to make their relationship grow a bit more than just, "we fought together and fell in love." Scenes like at the prehistoric party and what happened leading up to the Ocean Palace? I wanted to give their relationship some oomph.

On that topic, writing Crono's death and resurrection gave me chills. I hope some of you also enjoy the feelings I tried to evoke. In fact, the images in my head of those scenes partially inspired me to start the project.

This is somewhat irrelevant, but I figure I'll add it anyway. All of this was improvised off the top of my head. No idea webs or notes, just images in my head. If the scenes came off bad or stupid, it's all on me... I just pictured the scenes in my head beforehand and wrote it out.

Let me talk about the ending scenes a bit. I wanted to link up to Chrono Cross, hence the small scene of Dalton in Porre. Naturally, the more pertinent scenes involve Magus, Schala, and the ending of Chrono Cross. I've always loved the game despite what some people say, and I figured it'd be fun to tinker with it. Might even novelize that someday, too.

I've peppered the piece with pop culture references from anime, video games, etc. If you notice them and like them, great. If not, I'm just a weirdo who threw it in for kicks. Whatever you guys get out of this is what matters.

In the matter of Crono's father, I named him Joaquim in reference to the theory that Crono is Miguel from Chrono Cross. I'm ready for flames, but I wanted to give the theory a nod.

Having written this, I've kind of gotten hooked. I might novelize some other games soon, maybe complete the Final Fantasy Chronicles package with FFIV. Already got some ideas for that one. Others include FFVI and Chrono Cross, and if I feel ambitious/ready for flames, Wild Arms 2 and 3.

But I digress. For all I know you stopped reading this ten paragraphs ago, and I couldn't blame you. I just hope someone can enjoy what I've made as much as I had fun writing it.

I dedicate this fic to anyone who gets any joy out of it. Please, leave a comment or send a PM. I won't respond to the comments in that actual section, but I'll be reading.

God bless Square-Enix.