An old interview with Yasunori Mitsuda has been translated and it reveals that Chrono Trigger was almost scored by Kenji Ito And Nobuo Uematsu.

Chrono Trigger is considered to have one of the best soundtracks of all time, which is no small claim, especially when compared to its cousins in the Final Fantasy series. The people at Square Enix (then known as Squaresoft) managed to squeeze every bit of power out of the Super Nintendo, in order to craft some of the most impressive games of any era, and the soundtracks were no exception.

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The Chrono Trigger soundtrack was created by Yasunori Mitsuda, with Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame contributing toward its development. This wasn't always the plan. According to an interview with Mitsuda from Nice Games magazine (as translated by Shmuplations), the original plan was for Kenji Ito of Saga Frontier fame to compose the score for Chrono Trigger. Mitsuda put his foot down and threatened to leave Squaresoft if he wasn't given the chance to score a game, and Chrono Trigger just happened to be coming up the development pipeline.

Mitsuda: At first, they were talking about having Kenji Ito and Uematsu do it together. But then I intervened, and I think it was sort of like, “sure, give it a shot.” I was as nervous as you’d expect—and I’m sure Sakaguchi and the others were too. (laughs) I’m sure they were wondering if it was really a good idea to entrust a big title like this to a new hire. (laughs)

Frog Lucca Magus and Crono in Chrono Trigger

The intention was for Mitsuda to compose the soundtrack on his own, but he developed a painful stomach ulcer during the development of the game. Uematsu stepped in and contributed a few tracks to help Mitsuda out, including "Bike Chase" and "Silent Light". The bulk of the soundtrack was created by Mitsuda, and he was able to finish it when he recovered from the ulcer.

Mitsuda scored a couple of other classic Square Enix games, including the two Chrono Trigger sequels (Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross). He left Square Enix in '98 and has since worked as a freelance music producer, as has Uematsu. The two of them have scored some of the greatest soundtracks in video game history, but there are many fans who consider the music from Chrono Trigger to be the highlight of both men's careers.

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Source: Shmuplations