EPOCH: A Tribute to Chrono Trigger Features a Ton of New Music

Joseph Schaffner October 22, 2019 8:30 PM EST

Chrono Trigger has the best music. Here's a huge new album dedicated to it.

Materia Collective is staying busy. They recently released the excellent Celeste: Farewell soundtrack, and since then they’ve released the soundtracks of a couple of other indie games too. Today they give us a massive tribute album for the music of Chrono Trigger. EPOCH: A Tribute to Chrono Trigger is available now on all major music streaming platforms. 60 tracks of glorious Chrono Trigger melodies and music.

To be clear–this is not a release of the game’s original soundtrack. Rather, it is a re-imagining of it. The artists have reproduced iconic Chrono Trigger songs in various genres. While all of the songs work to maintain the original “mood,” there are some interesting new takes in the mix.

When we set out to produce EPOCH, we wanted to honor this spirit of teamwork by encouraging musicians of different backgrounds and skill sets to band together to make each track truly special and unique. Just as Crono and his friends had myriad ways to combine their individual skills into dual techs and triple techs, so too did our Materia Collective friends come together to bring you unique performances in Latin jazz, orchestra, musical theater, progressive metal with horns, and many other genre combinations.

I’m mostly just thrilled that the Chrono Trigger soundtrack is still alive in 2019. I loved this soundtrack as a kid, and it continues to mean a lot to me now. And while some of these renditions don’t really grab me, personally, I appreciate the effort and love that went into them. So many artists assisted in making this thing happen.

And that being said, some of these tracks are just plain awesome. There are two variations of “Secret in the Forest,” and they are both great. There are also two versions of “Frog’s Theme”. One of these features a soaring electric guitar, which suits the theme so well. Deep, resonant strings flesh out the haunting yet alluring melody of “Schala’s Theme,” and “Gato’s Theme” also gets an upgrade–“Gato’s Symphony” features a fun rap and diverse instrumentation, among which some big brass accompaniment stands out. Fantastic.

Square is finally giving us a proper Final Fantasy 7 remake, so perhaps now the campaign for a Chrono Trigger remake can begin in earnest. It’s one of my favorite games, and I think it could translate well to a next-gen environment. Here’s to hoping.

