The making of Chrono Trigger & Secret of Mana

[Music] time flows like a river a well-known quote from the opening of Secret of Mana a river is a fitting symbol for game development it's not uncommon for developers to be faced with the twists and turns that come with creative Productions this was certainly the case with two of Square's defining games from the 16bit error both were born from a desire at Square to start experimenting with new ideas to break from the RPG mold ideas that wouldn't necessarily fit their Flagship series final fantasy it was a desire further strengthened when Final Fantasy director sakaguchi brainstormed with two of the key talents behind the massively popular Dragon Quest series scenario writer hori and character designer Toriyama a research trip to investigate the latest developments in CGI in the US had brought the three together and was the start of their dream to Breathe new life into the genre a dream that would go beyond their own individual company boundaries but also push the limits of contemporary Hardware particularly the memory capacity of Game cartridges a possible solution to that came in the form of a CD ROM extension for Nintendo's 16-bit console this offered more than enough storage space to accommodate one of their core ideas time travel concept that would lend depth and variety to the storytelling and gameplay Square was one of the development Studios that expanded rapidly during the transition to the 16-bit generation turning essentially a hobby Club into a professional game Studio by 1991 the workforce was divided into four teams each with their dedicated game project to work on ranging from the continuation of Final Fantasy to new intriguing game Concepts the dream project was assigned to the so-called bird team led by hiroichi Tanaka a game designer who had already earned his stripes working on Final Fantasy most of the senior graphic artists at Square were already assigned to their designated projects this gave the young recruit shinichi kamoka the opportunity to freely experiment how he could replicate toriyama's style into pixels however a turn of events ranging from the delay of the CD ROM drive to personal scheduling would quickly stall the their dream project team lead Tanaka now in need of a new project decided to join up with his final fantasy colleague kichi isi isi had just wrapped on his first directorial debut seen densetsu a Game Boy Adventure game that combined zelda-like action with The Narrative of Final Fantasy after seen densetsu hit stor shelves in 1991 isi and Tanaka started making plans for a sequel for the Super Nintendo a game that became known as Secret of Mana in the west Secret of Mana was a great opportunity for the new recruits like kamoka to show their skill in the months prior to its development they were given the time to get themselves acquainted with the pixel art tool some began drawing characters and monsters While others decided to draw background elements this helped the project leads naturally assign the artists final roles while ishi and Taneka started work on their game plan A design contest was held to shape the leading cast kamoka came up with Randy and Prim this was his big break as he was put in charge of drawing and animating the leading cast to complete the hero team a proposal from a fellow designer was selected a Sprite child kamoka adapted this mischievous character to fit the style of the other two leading Heroes for the remainder of the cast the team could tap from the design work done for the Game Boy game the rich tapestry of already established creatures ranging from rabit to Watts the blacksmith gave them a kickart another new recruit who significantly helped to shape the final product was composer hiroi kikuta like the other new colleagues he started out with support chores like debugging Final Fantasy 4 Secret of Mana also provided him with his first big assignment as the project composer to further round out the production crew Square assembled a team of programmers each with their own assignment like implementing the enemy attack patterns or the menu system they also called upon the talents of Nasser jbell for the main programming he'd been a regular face at Square since their startup days working as a freelance programmer on projects like rad Racer and Final Fantasy with a full crew assembled production could steadily move forward under the supervision of isi and [Music] tanuka a defining new feature which would be a deviation from both the predecessor as well as Final Fantasy was the battle system tanuka already had a desire to stray from The Proven turn-based battle system isi had a similar Vision he longed to give the player a sense of immersion from controlling the characters through battle instead of selecting commands from a menu thus their Journey began to come up with an interactive and accessible combat system that still kept some RPG Essence and complexities intact although Secret of Mana and the dream project were to be completely separate games on this topic they had similar goals for the game's storyline Taneka and ishi integrated two separate ideas a plot revolving around core fundamentals like bravery love and wisdom but set against the larger backstory of the world world of Mana ish took inspiration from countless animated films and children's story books Alice in Wonderland as well as cartoons based on northern European literature and folklore they were often set in a more tranquil Country Life setting featuring nature as an important overarching theme Secret of Mana was to have a similar story book feel the supporting character flammy per perfectly aligned with the story book concept he was conceptualized during production as they realized the heroes needed a form of transportation unlike the other proposed ideas like a robot and spaceship flammy the mystical young dragon would contribute to both gameplay and story it was a creature the heroes could bond with as they soared through the skies reliving that iconic scene from The Neverending Story to further add to the immersion the developers envisioned a fluid wave movement of the dragon's body it was actually quite complex and timec consuming to implement because of the memory space limitations most of his animation was done through coding moving and swapping tiles all perfectly timed through a complex routine Secret of Mana was a further exploration of new opportunities of the Super Nintendo hardware for square an area in which the console really shined was its graphical capabilities the graphic chipset supports a range of features like blend modes to implement translucency effects these calculations were done on a per layer basis rather than on individual objects so it required the necessary planning from the graphics team to produce seamless effects the developers also took advantage of the various graphic modes of the console in mode 5 the console outputs a high resolution image with a lower color depth as a trade-off a perfect fit for the text Heavy configuration screen graphic mode 7 with its ability to scale and rotate the background was a natural fit for the travel sequences combined with raster effects to skew the image it would simulate a moving landscape in 3D perspective in stark contrast to the idyllic scenery the development struggled with the realities of production and Innovation the new battle system central to the game's Direction went through a long and tedious process of revision aiming for a hybrid between realtime action and traditional RPG gameplay required some Innovative thinking a stamina system was integrated to prevent players from continuously smashing the attack button it forced them to wait for the hero to regain their strength thereby keeping some of that turn-based Essence intact seamlessly integrating the battle system in the environments was also demanding for the planners and programmers the complex turn-based calculations had to be done alongside the core gameplay routines for instance the outcome of the enemy attacks were not simply reliant on hit boxes like action games but also depended on a number of stats the game play was an aspect that kept the game designers and assigned battle system programmers busy during the whole production aside from CPU power the cartridge space limitation was another boundary they kept running into the realtime action demanded far more animation frames compared to traditional RPGs in in addition they had to be drawn from various angles to support the top- down [Music] gameplay Secret of Mana was a next step in Breaking from the tile based look the game's art style demanded more organic shapes and thus more artwork relying heavily on pallet swaps was a necessity in implementing large detailed set pieces the developers originally longed for big imposing bosses to take full advantage of the integrated battle system yet another element that could be taxing on the overall cartridge memory however with some clever trickery they were still able to partially realize their Vision the Mana Beast would achieve his imposing size with the use of realtime scaling in mode 7 the Doom wall was an example of successfully incorporating battle with the environment relying mostly on repeatable artwork an aspect of the game that turned out to be lightning in a bottle was the opening sequence the wellestablished illustrator hero ISO was contracted to paint an illustration initially only to be used for the game's packaging the jungle was a recurring theme in his artwork always portrayed as the leading subject in similar fashion iso's art for the game centered around the imposing Mana tree towering over the three leading characters this in itself was a big trend breaker when it came to game cover art the illustration was also a perfect fit as an introduction screen the artwork was scanned and altered in the computer to conform it to the Super Nintendo specifications the development team decided to make use of graphic mode 3 allowing them to Define colors directly with RGB values instead of using the color palettes this was crucial since the image needed to be compressed using a lossy compression algorithm in order to fit it on the cartridge however this results in a huge load for the Super Nintendo CPU it takes no less than 40 seconds for the console to fully decompress the image so the team carefully constructed the game's opening to hide this process the decompression starts in the background as soon as the game boots after 3/4s of it are decompressed a slow wipe starts to reveal the image while the CPU crunches on the remaining part hiroi kikuta perfectly timed his composition to these events the slow buildup of both music and visuals not only hide the loading but made for a truly impactful opening starting with a whale cry to represent the voice of the Mana tree calling for help ending the sequence with the fully revealed Mana tree and swelling music with a flock of flamingos passing by the latter was actually an afterthought one of the designers on the team decided to cut out the birds from the cover art and turn them into animated Sprites and so the game's iconic introduction piece was a true team effort and would draw the player immediately into the magical world despite their packed schedule the developers still allowed for time to experiment with ideas brought up during production for example they added the ability for a second player to jump in at any point in the game to control one of the heroes they even implemented support for the multitap accessory so the full cast could be controlled controlled by human players a unique concept especially for an adventure game after a year had passed since development started all the game's individual components began to come together to follow through on their desire for an accessible game a new way of selecting items was implemented called The Ring system it allows the player to visually change equipment and select items or Magic the game's music was also shaping up one aspect in which a composer could set themselves apart was in the audio samples particularly balancing the compression and quality kikuta took a lot of time tinkering with the samples recorded from his Yamaha Keyboard he found that lower frequency instruments like the bass could handle more aggressive compression in contrast to Strings or symbols kikuta also made extensive use of the stereo and Reverb features to provide the score with depth tweaking and implementing his compositions was a tedious process involving a ton of coding but all technicalities aside his score really strengthened the emotional impact and painted landscapes in the player's Mind through music Secret of Mana still underwent a considerable amount of tweaking during its final stage for instance the game's world map had been significantly altered during production all the fine tuning forced Square to postpone its release not once but twice this had an unfortunate side effect for the lead programmer NASA jbell as his Visa expired forcing him to finish work on the game remotely it was an example of Square's Boutique Roots still noticeable at this point granting them freedom but also specific production challenges after its intensive development cycle the game finally hit the Japanese Market in August of 1993 the localization was started even before its release to get the game in Us stores before the holiday season the pal Market was treated to a release the following year a rarity for the company as all Final Fantasy games up till this point never got a proper pal release the system that had given the developers so much trouble during production the combat was praised by Gaming press and Gamers alike secret of mana's unique blend between action and RPG was certainly an important feature in attracting a broader Western audience to their games Secret of Mana made it into the hearts of many thanks to its captivating storybook atmosphere and with the release of Secret of Mana the four teams at Square had successfully finished their individual projects Tanaka and isi would continue their involv m in the Mana series and began making plans for a [Music] followup Zen densetsu 3 was given a larger cartridge capacity essentially doubling the amount of storage space allowing the team to think big and truly realize their vision of blending the action with the environment the heroes were frequently faced with truly king-sized bosses some of whom were fully integrated into the natural flowing Landscapes the game would also be a true Showcase of how far art Direction had come the various Landscapes were drawn with a specific color temperature in mind instead of the traditional white balance look for instance in the ice Fields the Shadows were all in the purple blue Spectrum conveying the sense of cold with a touch of warmth from the winter sun in the more tropical regions the colors were leaning towards a warmer Spectrum but also had a few spots where the sky would cast a blue Highlight all resulting in exceptionally sophisticated pixel [Music] art the final fantasy team had also started working on their new installment equally determined to push their series forward in scope and art the final fantasy series had been growing more successful by the release further strength in the company's financial position which was perfect for supporting their dream project while Secret of Mana had been in production sakaguchi hori and Toriyama were able to match their schedule and start making their initial plans more concrete as their concept expanded in scope a sense of Doubt struck them questioning its practicality at this point a key figure who stepped into the picture was kazuhiko Aoki he took on the role of producer supporting the supervisors and director actors in making the project a reality he was also one of the leads who shifted through the pile of proposed ideas for several months meetings were held frequently brainstorming story ideas shaping gameplay ideas and drawing concept art it was the start of a long road on the development of a game that would become known as Chrono [Music] Trigger Toriyama as conceptual designer on the project was the pivotal figure in visualizing the ideas that were brought up Hy handed him his character sketches as a starting point this can sometimes prove a limiting approach to the creative process however H's drawings were very rough and so wouldn't hinder Toriyama from coming up with his own interpretations free to develop details or looks the supervisors wouldn't have imagined toriyama's work brought the written concept to life and so inspired the team in their world building with Square's first division already occupied with Final Fantasy 6 Chrono Trigger was assigned to their fourth division the art team on Chrono Trigger initially spanned 15 artists which made it already considerably larger than any typical production of its era under the supervision of two graphic directors they began working on their dedicated assignments drawing Monsters characters effects fields and countless background objects toriyama's concept art would lead their work the character artists made sure the essence would still be conveyed in their low resolution pixel art they also had to Envision how the characters looked from different angles and poses Additionally the art style of the backgrounds had to match the feel they were able to develop a more sophisticated look thanks to various shading techniques to make them feel like cohesive environments the dream project had started with the concept of CD ROM storage in mind while the future of Nintendo's CD ROM drive grew ever more uncertain prices of ROM memory luckily dropped a large cartridge of 24 megabit therefore became financially viable this was already triple the size of a typical cartridge back when the project was first conceived drawing the pixel art is just part of the visual process a number of timec consuming procedures were required to incorporate them into the game all the artwork had to be split up into small tiles and carefully logged optimizing backgrounds in a way that would use the least number of individual tiles was an art in itself the background tiles were handed down to the team of map designers who constructed all the field layouts the event planners and programmers would subsequently add the interactivity and incorporate the data into the game it was still quite uncommon in the industry for these individual procedures to be treated as dedicated tasks for crew members working with such a large team demanded a head strong producer and directors to manage the crew and funnel all ideas that were brought [Music] [Applause] [Music] forward in keeping with Tradition at Square the duty of composing the score initially fell on the shoulders of one person yasunori mitsa was given the opportunity to compose the sound track an opportunity he had longed for ever since joining the company having spent a few years in supportive roles like doing sound effects for Secret of Mana he was passionate in undertaking his assignment composing the game's main theme within a few days [Music] notice his workflow aligned with the sample-based nature of the Super NES audio chip starting the process by SEL collecting samples from Sound Library CDs and loading them into his sampler to create his virtual Orchestra inside his [Music] keyboard the time travel concept Central to the game gave the composer but also the artists and writers a great deal of variety to work with although the full production was in the hands of square Yugi Hy continued his involvement particularly where the story and dialogue were concerned one of Square's story planners met up with him on a regular basis to discuss the finer plot points the team made sure to make the countless subquests both engaging and varied avoiding simple fetch quests and rather using the Intriguing aspect of time travel to its fullest Chrono Trigger also signified a break in tone compared to their Flagship series it could be more accessible for players in terms of difficulty and with a smaller cast The Writers were able to fully flesh out each character and let them be of use throughout the game deviating from the RPG mold was in the core DNA of the Chrono Trigger project like with Secret of Mana there was a lot of experimentation early on to come up with a new iteration of the battle system integrating the battles within the environments was one of their key goals this removed some of the frustration of Random Encounters and also allowed for original Concepts many of the enemy encounters were written and staged as many events monsters could Ambush the heroes call for help or enter the battle in other creative ways often using their environments it added a certain charm to the adversaries and made the field maps feel more immersive but it was also much more timec consuming to implement under the hood the game had an event oriented system which also crossed over to the dialogue scenes the main programmer created a macro scripting language as an accessible means for the other the team members to implement the wide range of events the system described the characters as individual actors a virtual director was also implemented as a means of leading the team during specific events Chrono trigger's field integrated battle system also demanded careful planning from a memory standpoint like in secr of Mana the character animations are all streamed directly from the cartridge to keep their footprint in the video RAM to a minimum a portion of the video RAM is reserved to dynamically load visuals when they're needed for instance the visuals for magic attacks are transferred from the cartridge to the video memory on each turn the fast memory access was a big benefit of rum cartridges as opposed to CD the more elaborate magic attacks generally relied on the console's graphic features rather than pre-drawn animations applying blend modes for transparen and offsetting lines of pixels for each scan line to create wavy effects their implementation required both programming and graphic [Music] design Chrono Trigger was now in the middle of production but it was clear there was still much to be done Square's first division had wrapped up Final Fantasy 6 it was decided they would ass assign a number of the first division crew members to Chrono Trigger to help out for the remainder of 1994 the graphics team in particular was bolstered with half of the Final Fantasy 6 art team joining in adding an additional Graphics director and a handful of background artists because the process of drawing all pixel art spanned such a long period and a sizable crew it was almost unavoidable that some inconsistencies in art style slipped in with the amount of artwork produced by a force of almost 25 pixel artists they soon hit the boundaries of cartridge capacity Square decided to go all the way and released the game on the most expensive Super Nintendo cartridges offering them 32 megabit and thus 8 megabits more than initially planned this chunk of memory that a few years prior had to fit a whole game was now allowed as extra space for the visuals which meant more freedom to draw elaborate set pieces Chrono Trigger was another showcase for how the AR of pixel Graphics had evolved over the past years the artists at Square were at this point at the top of the game in producing pixel art but the rapid expansion of computer generated imagery had not been lost on the company they became ever more interested in this new art form and met up with lucasfilm for a tour through their facilities Square invested in an SGI workstation and Alias power animator 3D software Chrono Trigger was among their first projects to feature pre-rendered 3 3D imagery the court scene was an example where more Advanced Digital Imaging tools were used to realize the more sophisticated lighting although a large chunk of memory was allocated for set pieces that were only seen in a small fraction of the overall game their impact was not to be underestimated it was these specific moments that became some of the most memorable for players [Music] Chrono Trigger had undergone an abundance of revisions it was during production that many aspects and game mechanics were shaped which allowed them to experiment and test which of their many Concepts worked in practice and which didn't although this also accounted for a very lengthy development in early 1995 the dream project finally came to a close Final Fantasy composer no uratsu had joined to compose a few remaining tracks and after the complex debug phase the finished project was signed off and ready for manufacturing the final game would pack various possible endings some of which are only available through the new game plus mode which was at the time a novel concept allowing players to replay the adventure while retaining their endgame stats krono trigger quickly became a fan favorite but for square it was of even greater importance it was one of their projects that helped them to set up for the elaborate Productions of the following console generation demanding big development teams and new Tools in digital imaging the dream Project's realization had spanned almost half of the 16-bit generation numerous events happened after it was first conceived from Nintendo abandoning the CD ROM format the further dropping price of ROM chips to the creation of Secret of Mana and last but not least 3D imagery taking the video game industry by storm a trend that would become a defining feature for Square from this moment [Music] on [Music]

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Views: 87,620

Keywords: Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, super nintendo, snes, 16-bit, square, development, retro gaming, 90s, nintendo, rpg, seiken densetsu, making of

Id: O-rtoLu4Mnk

Length: 30min 15sec (1815 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023