Square’s Chrono Trigger almost had a fighting game, according to veteran dev Seiichi Ishii

In a recently published interview with 4Gamer, veteran fighting game developer and Tekken creator Seiichi Ishii gave some interesting insights into the games he developed under Square (now Square Enix) during the PS1 and PS2 eras. Among the behind-the-scenes tidbits revealed in the interview, Ishii explained that PS1 fighting game Tobal No. 1 was originally set to have a completely different roster of playable characters, belonging to the much-loved Square RPG Chrono Trigger. 

Seiichi Ishii had a huge impact on the development of the 3D fighting game genre in the early 1990s. After working as a designer on Virtua Racer and Virtua Fighter at Sega, he switched to Namco, becoming the director of Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 on the PlayStation 1. Catching the eye of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Square’s president at the time, he then established the game development studio Dream Factory as a subsidiary of Square in November 1995.  

The first game that Dream Factory made was the 3D fighter Tobal No. 1 for the PS1. Praised for its unique action RPG-style quest mode and distinctive visual style, Tobal No.1 became a big hit in Japan upon its release in 1996. Its sales were probably also helped by the fact that it came with a demo of the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy 7. It was less successful in the USA and Europe at the time, but has since become a cult classic.  

Ishii had a request when making Tobal No. 1, which was that he wanted to work with the late Dragon Ball Z manga artist Akira Toriyama. “This was around the time that Trunks appeared in Dragon Ball Z and I wanted to have a character like that in the game,” Ishii explains.  

Square had released its 2D RPG Chrono Trigger on the SNES in March 1995 to critical acclaim. The game’s characters had been designed by Toriyama. “So, at first, we were going to do a fighting game using characters from Chrono Trigger. But as we were making the prototype, Toriyama came along and said, “I’ll draw some new characters.”  

Tobal ended up with a full cast of original characters designed by Akira Toriyama, with fighter Chuji Wu having a bit of a Trunks vibe (as shown in the still from Tobal’s opening FMV at the top of this article). Although no Square characters from other franchises would appear in Tobal No. 1, later games by Ishii’s Dream Factory would feature some interesting unlockable cameos. The Japan exclusive sequel Tobal 2 got a Final Fantasy Chocobo. But 1998’s wrestling inspired fighter Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring would go further by featuring Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud, Sephiroth, Tifa, Vincent, Yuffie and Zack as playable characters.  

Although the Chrono Trigger fighting game never happened, it would have been fun to duke it out as Crono, Marle or even Frog. The characters’ varied weapons could have given the game a SoulCalibur feel.