Crono

"What ARE you two doing?! I thought you said something about a nice little slide show?" — Crono, in one of his two lines of dialogue in the game.

Crono (クロノ, Kurono^?) is the silent protagonist in Chrono Trigger. He lives with his mother in Truce in the Present. His personality matches that of the conventional hero archetype and he is willing to place his life on the line for the sake of others.

Physical Appearance

Crono has red spiky hair. He has blue eyes and wears a short-sleeved green shirt underneath a light blue tunic. He also wears a black belt, along with yellow pants, a pair of dark brown boots and bracers, a white headband around his forehead, and an orange ascot around his neck. He always keeps a katana close at hand. He wields his katana with his right hand, but in the FMV and official artwork, he is seen using his left.

Personality

Chrono possesses the archetype of the hero. He is brave, daring and selfless.

Storyline

Chrono Trigger

Crono was born sometime prior to the year 1000 AD to a single woman named Gina in the city of Truce. In his youth, Crono befriended a girl named Lucca. During the year 1000 AD, on the day of the Millennial Fair, Crono met Princess Nadia under the name of Marle, though he did not know it at the time. Together, they enjoyed the fair's festivities until the unveiling of Lucca's new invention, the Telepod. Always faithful to his friend, he agrees to test the device despite the potential danger. The transportation was successful, however, when Marle wanted to tests it, she is sent back in time. Crono bravely decides to follow her, and the ensuing quest has him rescuing her lost ancestor Queen Leene to ensure Marle's existence in modern times. Crono, Lucca, and Marle all return to the present, after which Lucca suggests he escort Marle back home, as Lucca had to more work to do.

While returning Marle home back to Guardia Castle, he is accused of kidnapping her in attempts to thwart the throne. Represented by Pierre in a trial, Crono is sentenced to death by the Chancellor, regardless of whether he is found guilty or not guilty. While in prison Lucca frees him seconds before he is brought to the guillotine and together, they flee the Prison Towers. On their way to Guardia Forest, Marle tags along and the three travel to the Future era via an open Time Gate. Investigating the area in search of a means to return home, Crono and his friends find food supplies for the inhabitants of Arris Dome, where he also meets his descendant Doan and learns that the ruined future was caused by Lavos. He vows to save the planet from destruction through the use of time travel. Shortly after, he assists a robotic robot named Robo in activating the Derelict Factory's doors to find a way back home.

After activating the Derelict Factory the four entered the Time Gate where they arrive at the End of Time where he received magical abilities. With the aid of these powers and the power of his allies, Crono successfully reforges the Masamune by acquiring Dreamstone in the Prehistory era and attempts to slay the Fiendlord, Magus, whom he believes is the root of Lavos's presence in the timeline. This leads him back to the Prehistory era where helps the Iokans destroy the Reptites, thus securing the evolution and prosperity of the human race whose lives were jeopardized by these sentient lizards. Directly afterward, he realizes Lavos was not summoned by Magus but is an alien species who fell from the sky in this time period. Attempting to follow the beast to the crater it created by landing, he is transported to the Antiquity era.

Meanwhile in the Antiquity time era, he rescues Melchior from the Mountain of Woe and subsequently attempts to rescue Schala, the innocent Zeal Princess who is being exploited by her mother, Queen Zeal. When Crono confronts Lavos in the Ocean Palace of the Kingdom of Zeal as a result of the rescue mission, Crono sacrifices himself to save everyone present. With the help of time travel, his friends manage to replace him at the moment before he dies with a clone received from the Millennial Fair in 1000 AD. thus saving his life. While the other six playable characters have many lines of dialog, Crono's responses to events are usually implied only through reaction and gesture, often for a humorous effect, which wrongfully depicts him as insincere at the moment of his resurrection, as Crono and the others confront Lavos, destroy it, and return peace to Guardia. After, Crono travels back in time to rescue his mother who haphazardly stumbled into a Time Gate.

There was some point where he's shown to have strong romantic feelings for Marle. At one point where he's knocked out, he has a dream where Marle is his wife. The PlayStation, DS, and Windows versions of Chrono Trigger include an FMV scene at the end that shows Crono and Marle were getting married. While a second FMV depicts the fall of Guardia Kingdom in the year 1005 AD, it is unknown what happened to him during those events.

In the entire game, Crono never spoke except in Ending 12: Memory Lane.

It is possible that he and Marle are still alive during the events of Chrono Cross, as Doan (Crono's descendent) still exists in the new timeline of the year 2300 AD. although it's also possible that both of them died in the fall of Guardia, but were survived by any children that they may have had during their five years of marriage.

Chrono Cross

Crono's fate is alluded to in Radius's statement about how the Kingdom of Guardia is no longer being peaceful. Much like Marle, he is very likely alive as referenced in Lucca's letter about her friends. Three times in the timeline, a child version of him appears as one of the Ghost Children along with Marle and Lucca. The first time, he states that the future in which Earth is ruined by Lavos is going to be brought back into being due to the interference of Serge, who caused the Home World and Another World split. The second time is in an illusory space at Terra Tower, in which Belthasar enlightens Serge's party about some of the affairs of the Dragons. Crono's final appearance in Chrono Cross comes immediately before the final battle of the game, as Crono tells Serge that Serge's father Wazuki was turned into Lynx by FATE, and along with his fellow "Ghosts," the other two members of the original time-traveling group, implores Serge to destroy Lavos once and for all.

Gameplay

While Crono wields katanas as his main weapon of choice, typical among much other silent role-playing game main protagonists, Crono is a well-balanced character with no major weakness and is very useful in battle. His physical damage is respectable, along with his speed, health, and defense. Because he can equip some very strong weapons (including the Dreamseeker, the strongest weapon in the game overall), he is one of the main damage dealers. Crono possesses a variety of techs, which include offensive and support techs. He can cast Raise on allies to revive them, and for offensive techs, he can inflict both physical damage and magical damage, and his higher level magic techs hit all enemies.

In the original Japanese version of the game, Crono's element was Ten (天, Ten^?), which means "heaven". In the Nintendo DS version of Chrono Trigger, Crono's element is translated to Light, which is more in line with the original Japanese translation.

As Crono's Magic element is Lightning/Heaven/Light, he takes less damage from Light element attacks.

His base critical hit rate for most of his weapons is 10%, with the exceptions of Swallow increasing it further to 30% and Rainbow increasing it to 70%.

Single Techs

Stats

Crono is a character specialized in physical combat, therefore his highest stats are his Strength and Stamina, the latter being his highest stat. On the other hand, his Accuracy is the lowest of all, despite being on par with his Stamina and Evasion at the beginning. His Magic is the lowest at first, but then ends up being almost even with Evasion at more advanced levels.

Later in the DS and Steam versions, Crono can increase his Strength, Accuracy, and Speed after defeating Steel Shade in the Dimensional Vortex.

Name Etymology

Crono's name is a condensed form of Chrono, a Greek prefix for time. Since Chrono Trigger has time travel as a prominent theme, this name is very suitable. The H was omitted due to a name character limit. In the remake, he can be named Chrono.

Trivia

• Crono's design appears to be inspired by Goku from the Dragon Ball Z anime series, which Akira Toriyama also worked on.
• Crono is the only character confirmed to be left-handed.
• Crono has no dialogue in the game. Although, he has a few lines of dialogue in the Ending 12: Memory Lane.

Gallery

In-game

Animated sprites

Artwork

FMV

Other

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