Owlboy creator releases trailer for fictitious Chrono Trigger sequel
And it's predictably gorgeous.
Owlboy creator and pixel manipulator extraordinaire Simon Stafsnes Andersen has unveiled his latest passion project: a meticulously crafted trailer for a sadly-only-hypothetical sequel to Square Enix's classic time-hopping J-RPG, Chrono Trigger - and it's as beautiful as you'd expect.
Andersen posted the video to YouTube a few days ago, explaining that he's been designing mock-ups for hypothetical game sequels, purely for his own amusement, "for many years". Most are simply static images, but his Chrono Trigger effort, crafted in his spare time, presents a fictitious sequel by the name of Chrono Break in fully-animated form.
Chrono Break, incidentally, isn't entirely fictitious; Square trademarked the name in 2001, and Chrono Trigger's creators have, over the years, confirmed that the game, while never officially announced or seen, was originally planned as the third mainline entry in the Chrono series.
Andersen's completed Chrono Break project is the result of around two months of work (Owlboy composer Jonathan Geer created the trailer's authentic musical score), and was undertaken as a bit of a palate cleanser following Owlboy's incredibly protracted development time. "After finishing a massive game project spanning a decade of development," Andersen explained on YouTube, "I was ready to tackle a new series.
"I had already known for years I wanted to explore a hypothetical sequel to Chrono Trigger, Cross and Radical Dreamers, but it took me a full year until I figured out how I wanted it to look."
The result, which Andersen is keen to stress is neither endorsed or licensed by Square Enix, looks and sounds absolutely beautiful - as you'd expect from the talent behind the visually and aurally sublime Owlboy - and it's hard not to dwell on the thought of an entire game sporting Andersen and Geer's glorious aesthetic.