Death Knell for Chrono Break?

A winged imp discovers the real reason Chrono Break will never come to fruition - Turkey dinner induced coma

Brace yourselves.  It's been 17 years since Chrono Trigger.  17 years!  That's almost a Senior in High School.  Right now Chrono Trigger is preparing for Calculus.  It's putting off the summer reading of To Kill a Mochkingbird.  It's getting drunk for the first time at a party and telling everyone it's fine while it's actually puking on the shoes of the girl it likes.

...no?  That didn't happen to you?

Well, regardless of your pubescent origins, if you were born sometime around the 80's, odds are Chrono Trigger held a special place in your gamer soul.  It was a powerhouse masterpiece RPG sculpted from the clay of the heavens by none other then a dream team of immortal god-kings from House Square and House Enix.

Then, as Square was heading into it's "Golden Age of Localization," a somewhat less badass team united to bring us Chrono Chross in 1999.  Don't get me wrong, I loved CC and still swear it's in my top ten PS1 titles, but the general consensus among gamers was and still is that it was a lackluster follow-up to the kind of in your face presence CT had.

Two years after Chrono Cross, the murmurs of a third were already adrift in gaming currents.  In December of 2001, Square registered a trademark for the title "Chrono Break" in the US, Europe, and Japan (Japan's version being spelled "Brake").  Today, the final trademark, will expire with not so much as peep of it's return.

Let's take a look at some of the possible causes for the demise of Break.

Video Game R& D Teams are like Bacteria

Bacteria reproduce by binary fissure.  Remember that?  17 year old Chrono Trigger is probably learning that in Biology as you read this.  If you don't remember, it's a process where a single cell bacteria splits into two identical new bacterium and go off to lead different lives.

I don't mean to infer than Japanese developers split at the torso and a new dude jumps out (although, you know...I can't honestly say that's not awesome).  What I mean is that during a development cycle there are a pool of potential workers that are chosen akin to choosing teammates for dodgeball at recess.  Programmers, musicians, artists, producers; they all work on a project together day after day, sharing the same direction for the game.  Once the game ships, they get allocated to new projects and it's very possible they won't see their former coworkers again.

So, despite the inevitable (or...evitable?) unification of Square and Enix, getting the team that really poured every last drop of their miso shiru into Chrono Trigger back together would be a Herculean task.

Square-Enix Merger was Bad Timing

Takashi Tokita, the director of Chrono Trigger, mentioned in this 2003 interview that it was possible there were talks of a "Chrono Trigger 2" but the level of motivation between the executives and the developers was different.  In the newly fused company, people were making plans and budgets for it but there really was no interest in pursuing the sequel at that time.  

It's possible Break got lost on the cutting room floor as the main cash cow franchises were given priority.

Shinji Hashimot's Spooky Ultimatum

There's another camp that believes that Squeenix has the capability to develop and release the game but refuses in order to milk what it can out of the previous iterations.  

Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto famously said at the 2009 E3, "If people want a sequel, they should buy more!"  He was referring to the newly released Chrono Trigger DS port.  Was this just a ploy to get generate more sales for the DS game?  According to VGChartz it sold more than a million units worldwide.  You're not hurting, Hashimoto-san.

Whatever the cause, the last bastion of hope for Chrono fans has just slipped away.  Perhaps we need to buy another million copies to show them how much we want a new title.