Chrono Trigger, a true classic in the Square Enix library, hit store shelves in 1995. That means 2025 was its 30th anniversary. As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, Square Enix published Chrono Trigger Piano Soundscape Arrangement. When Square Enix Music first announced this album, all my neurons lit up. I’ve been wanting this for so long.
However! A brief caveat. There’s a reason this album is titled with the word “Soundscape.” This is not a pure piano solo album. I am pretty sure that every single sound we hear on this album was originally produced by the piano (extended techniques), especially on “Robo’s Theme.” Beyond that, several tracks on this album utilize post-production effects to add additional layers alongside the main piano track. This goes outside traditional piano collections we’ve seen from Square Enix for Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and NieR. I think I like this new soundscape approach, though it took some getting used to.
This album was co-arranged by two individuals: Shogo Nomura and Sachiko Miyano (who is now spelling her name “Sachico,” according to the liner notes). Nomura seems to be the one more interested in the “soundscape” approach. His past piano works started as doujin projects released at Comiket from 2017 to 2019 before he started doing arrangement officially with Bandai Namco in the early 2020s. Currently, he does freelance work. This is his first project on a Square Enix title, and since it’s Chrono Trigger, the pressure is on.
I think Nomura has definitely delivered with the soundscape vibes. He’s the one behind the incredibly fun and catchy arrangement for “Robo’s Theme,” and he also offers up a beautiful, padded-soft, effect-laden “Corridors of Time.” I imagine myself sitting in a room in the floating islands, one or two rooms down from a music room, and a young Janus is practicing piano. And this is the music he’s playing. It feels warm, magical, and just the slightest bit sorrowful. He knows the black wind will howl, but not just yet.
Nomura also offers up a few pure, clean-mix piano solo performances. Among them, my favorite is “Wind Scene.” The initial statement is fairly vanilla. But with each repeat of the melodic line, Nomura leans a little more into jazz, playing with the melody’s timing, even cutting up the time signature where he sees fit. Around the three-minute mark, Nomura does a full “hold my beer” moment with some wildly impressive jazz chops before pulling himself back down.
I’ll also point out that Nomura’s “Lavos’ Theme” covers a lot more than Lavos’ Theme. There are several melodies from the full Chrono Trigger score here. The RPGFan crew discussed this in episode 174 of Rhythm Encounter. I would encourage readers to jump to the timestamp position for this album to get more insight into this particular track!
Sachico Miyano’s portions are not the same approach as Nomura’s, but boy howdy, they are masterful. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Miyano has been doing incredible piano and orchestral arrangement with Square Enix for decades now, often aligned with Yoko Shimomura’s projects (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy XV, the tribute album memória!). She has also worked on Chrono Trigger projects in the past, including one of my all-time favorites, the 20th anniversary To Far Away Times album.
The four songs Miyano handled are: “Gato’s Song / Battle 1 / Fanfare 1,” “Ayla’s Theme,” “Sarah’s Theme” (aka Schala’s Theme), and “Far Off Promise.” Interestingly, that opening medley also includes the “Millennial Fair” motif, but it isn’t listed. This is basically a “music you hear in the first hour of gameplay” medley. It lands very nicely, blending the playfulness of Gato’s Song and the slight danger and tricky balance of the highly syncopated “Battle 1.” As far as medleys go, this is a strong entry.
Speaking of medleys, “Ayla’s Theme” is not just Ayla’s Theme. Perhaps this is part of what the term “soundscape” refers to. While the song keeps Ayla’s leitmotif at its center, there is musical exploration all around the 65,000,000 B.C. era. Also, this track is another one that plays with the piano—something is rattling the strings, so this is either extended technique or fiddling with the piano prior to the actual performance. This is very clever, and I found myself quickly falling in love with this arrangement.
The theme for Sarah (or Schala, take your pick on the localized name!) is one that you’d have to intentionally butcher to make it sound bad. I think we can all agree that this is a near-perfect Mitsuda composition. For the first half of this track, Sachico Miyano stays close to the original. But she starts to wander away from the focus on the melody in the second half, opting to play out the patterned harmony in both hands, occasionally veering from the chord progression to create something that sounds neo-Baroque, if only for a few measures. This was an interesting artistic choice, and one I’ve come to love in subsequent listens.
The album concludes with Miyano’s “Far Off Promise” and Nomura’s “To Far Away Times.” These are fitting ending tracks, to be sure. The singular-tone reversals in “To Far Away Times” help suggest a move through time … the hellos and goodbyes to our friends in each era.
While this isn’t my all-time favorite album in Chrono arrangements, nor is it my favorite piano album from Square Enix, Chrono Trigger Piano Soundscape Arrangement plants a flag, a mile-marker for trying something new. I think it paid off. These arrangements are great to listen to on repeat, and they invite a sense of nostalgia better than a “clean” piano collection would. I am curious to see if Square Enix will do another “piano soundscape” project with other franchises in the future. Even if they don’t, I am glad they produced this unique album for the 30th anniversary, and I definitely want to hear more from Shogo Nomura after hearing what he could do with Mitsuda’s seminal work!
