Games Like Chrono Trigger
Quick Answer
The closest games to Chrono Trigger are Chrono Cross, Sea of Stars, Final Fantasy VI, Live A Live and Radiant Historia. Below are 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Chrono Trigger, and what does not.
What Made Chrono Trigger Work
Chrono Trigger has no filler. Battles happen on the map with no transition, techs combine between characters, the story crosses seven eras, and it has multiple endings built around New Game Plus. It is about twenty hours long, which is why it still holds up when its contemporaries do not.
Chrono Trigger is Square's 1995 Super Famicom and SNES RPG, created by a team that included Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii and artist Akira Toriyama, with music mainly by Yasunori Mitsuda. Crono and his friends travel through time to prevent a global catastrophe. Battles take place on the field with no transition, party members combine techniques, and New Game Plus leads to multiple endings. Fans usually want a tightly paced classic JRPG with memorable characters.
9 Games Like Chrono Trigger
1.Chrono Cross
The sequel, and a very different game, but the same team and world.
Why it fits: Squaresoft's 1999 PlayStation sequel is set in parallel worlds with a large cast. It was remastered in 2022 as The Radical Dreamers Edition.
What is different: Parallel dimensions rather than time travel, a cast of over forty, and a colour-based battle system that takes getting used to.
Where to play it: PlayStation; remastered for PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
More about this game →2.Sea of Stars
Made explicitly to be Chrono Trigger again, and it comes close.
Why it fits: Sabotage Studio's 2023 RPG, inspired by Chrono Trigger, has combo attacks between party members and guest compositions by Yasunori Mitsuda.
What is different: Timed button presses and locks on enemy attacks make battles more active, and there is no time travel.
Where to play it: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Switch.
More about this game →3.Final Fantasy VI
The other peak of the SNES RPG era, with the largest cast.
Why it fits: Square's 1994 SNES RPG features a large cast of playable characters and is often ranked alongside Chrono Trigger as the era's best.
What is different: Darker and longer, with a larger cast and no time travel; the world itself is broken halfway through.
Where to play it: SNES; Pixel Remaster on PC, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android.
More about this game →4.Live A Live
Squaresoft's other era-hopping RPG, remade and finally available.
Why it fits: Square's 1994 Super Famicom RPG tells stories across different eras. It was only released in Japan until its 2022 HD-2D remake.
What is different: Separate short chapters with different heroes, fought on a grid; there is no single party travelling together until the end.
Where to play it: Super Famicom; remade for Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC.
More about this game →5.Radiant Historia
Time travel as a mechanic rather than a plot device.
Why it fits: Atlus' 2010 DS RPG uses time travel between two timelines as the core of the story, and was remade as Perfect Chronology for 3DS in 2017.
What is different: Battles are on a grid where you push enemies together, and the time travel is jumping between branches, not eras.
Where to play it: DS; remade for 3DS.
More about this game →6.Xenogears
Same studio, PS1, and far more ambitious in story.
Why it fits: Square's 1998 PlayStation RPG, scored by Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda, is a story-heavy game with combo-based battles.
What is different: Far longer and heavier, with giant robots and philosophy; the second half famously runs short on gameplay.
Where to play it: PlayStation.
Games like this →7.Octopath Traveler II
Modern Square-Enix turn-based RPG with excellent combat.
Why it fits: Square Enix's 2023 RPG, developed with Acquire, has eight separate stories and a turn-based battle system built around weaknesses and boosts.
What is different: Eight separate stories that rarely cross, told one character at a time, instead of one tight party.
Where to play it: Switch, PS4, PS5, PC and Xbox.
More about this game →8.Earthbound
Same era, same lack of padding, entirely different tone.
Why it fits: Ape and HAL Laboratory's 1994 SNES RPG is a contemporary with a very different, satirical modern setting.
What is different: Modern suburbia and satire, first-person battles and no time travel; it is odder and funnier.
Where to play it: SNES; on Switch through Nintendo Switch Online.
Games like this →9.Bravely Default II
The best pure turn-based battle system on Switch.
Why it fits: Claytechworks' 2021 Switch RPG, published by Square Enix, has a job system and a Brave/Default mechanic for banking or borrowing turns.
What is different: The job system and turn banking are the focus; the story is more traditional and the pace is slower.
Where to play it: Switch and PC.
More about this game →
Where to Start
Sea of Stars is the best modern choice, and even features music by Mitsuda. Chrono Cross is the direct follow-up, though very different. Final Fantasy VI is the other SNES classic to play if you have not.
How We Picked These Games
Every pick is a turn-based or timeline-based JRPG, and we gave priority to time-travel stories, Square's own classics and modern games that explicitly aim for the 16-bit style. Long games with heavy grinding were left out.
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How These Picks Match Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is catalogued here as a Japanese RPG on the Super Nintendo. All nine picks share at least one of its genre tags — nine RPGs and seven adventures among them.
Going by the "where to play it" notes, six can be played on PC, six can be played on a PlayStation, eight can be played on a Nintendo system and three can be played on an Xbox. Sea of Stars is from a small or self-published studio.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Chrono Trigger | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chrono Cross | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PlayStation; remastered for PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. |
| Sea of Stars | RPG, Adventure, Indie | RPG, Adventure | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Switch. |
| Final Fantasy VI | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | SNES; Pixel Remaster on PC, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android. |
| Live A Live | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | Super Famicom; remade for Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC. |
| Radiant Historia | RPG, Strategy | RPG | DS; remade for 3DS. |
| Xenogears | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | PlayStation. |
| Octopath Traveler II | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | Switch, PS4, PS5, PC and Xbox. |
| Earthbound | RPG, Adventure | RPG, Adventure | SNES; on Switch through Nintendo Switch Online. |
| Bravely Default II | RPG, Strategy | RPG | Switch and PC. |
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