Web Video / Chrono Trigger: The Musical

Saving history one song at a time.

Chrono Trigger the Musical is a musical adaptation of Chrono Trigger created by Man on the Internet (also the creator of Undertale the Musical). With a total of 60 songs and a diverse cast, it follows the main events of the game.

All of the musical's currently-available songs can be found here. In early February 2019, the project was put on break due to scheduling conflicts and resumed with new songs on April 1, 2021. A video of all songs has been released with the full musical released on December 16, 2022.

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These tropes have left their names in history:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Unlike in the game, "History, Our Story" shows the protagonists are highly distraught after defeating Magus, and learning he only summoned Lavos, rather than creating him, so they have no idea how to go about stopping Lavos. At least, until Lucca has enough of their moping, and gives them a Rousing Speech, restoring their resolve.
• Adaptational Curves:
  • Ayla is depicted as being extremely muscular and quite tall in her artwork, when in-game, she's not quite at that level of buffness or tallness.
  • Mother Brain's holographic representation is depicted as being a full-figured woman, rather than just the head and cape.
• Adaptational Expansion: A number of characters get more fleshed out due to the musical numbers giving them more dialogue in a scene. Crono most notably gets a personality instead of being a Heroic Mime. On the flip side, Lavos gets a personality as well, establishing him as a nihilistic monster contrasting Crono's heroic nature and the faith he puts in others.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Lavos, instead of being an indescribable Eldritch Abomination, is sapient and actively malicious. He also now sings, as opposed to just roaring.
  • Weirdly enough, Magus during "Battle with Magus". While his lines about the weak deserving to die fit with his game characterization, he also has many lines that imply that he wants to summon Lavos to destroy the world and drive humanity to extinction. The very next song, "Lavos' Theme Reprise", subverts this as it rerails his motivations to wanting to summon Lavos to kill the monster himself for revenge, as in the game. That being said, he's been obscuring his true motivations from everyone up to this point, including his own allies, and he only drops the charade after he's defeated in battle.
• Adaptational Wimp: The Chancellor/Yakra XIII is a pretty tanky boss in the game, having about 18,000 HP. Here? He dies literally moments after revealing his true form.
• Adaptation Deviation: In the game's battle with Lavos Core, the humanoid form is a decoy while the right bit is the real core. In this version, the humanoid form is the real core, as evidenced by Lavos being killed when it is taken out.
• Adaptation Distillation: Multiple endgame sidequests are merged together for the sake of pacing, with the Rainbow Shell in particular being acquired from Ozzie's Fort as Magus, Frog and Ayla raid the place. They also seemingly acquire Cyrus' cape (based on Magus' dialogue), connecting it to Frog's endgame sidequest. Considering the Rust Tyranno wouldn't be able to sing and the sidequest with Cyrus' Grave probably would've dragged the pacing down a lot, it's likely for the best.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • The musical doesn't show the Black Omen rising so its existence seemingly comes out of nowhere.
  • Robo helping Fiona restore the desert isn't in the musical, thus there is no explanation for his comments about four hundred years of thinking and using sap to make amber.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Crono has been changed from a Heroic Mime to a more vocal Ideal Hero with Endearingly Dorky traits. Justified, as it would be difficult to make a musical with a silent protagonist.
• Adapted Out:
  • Several characters do not appear at all: The Dragon Tank, the Guardian, Johnny and Heckran for example.
  • The trick to defeating Lavos is adapted out, as Man on the Internet couldn't find a way to incorporate it in any meaningful way.
• All of Them: During the first Lavos song, some overseers are analyzing the cataclysm as it happens and report to the director that the city domes are going down.
  Director: Which domes?
  Overseer: ALL OF THEM!
• Amazonian Beauty: Ayla already had shades of this in the game's official artwork, but in the accompanying artwork within her songs, she's depicted as much larger and more muscular than her original art/sprite.
• Arc Words:
  • "Save history" for the heroes.
  • "The future refuses change" for everything related to Lavos.
  • Mystics/Fiends often have lines about how humanity "won't live to see the dawn".
  • Frog, and by extension Cyrus, have several lines relating to their Code of Honor, most prominently "the hero's way".
• Bilingual Bonus: Ozzie's mention of Zombor "dragging you through the junk" is a reference to the latter's Japanese name, Junk Dragger.
• The Cameo: All over the place in the background in "The Millennial Fair" with easily spotted ones being Mario and Luigi and Ephraim and Eirika.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: All it takes is just one cup of Skull Smash in "Burn! Bobonga!" for Lucca to go off her rocker.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Mystics/Fiends seem to be proud of how evil they are, and often have lines involving things like covering the sky in darkness or setting the whole world on fire.
• Cassandra Truth: Azala, when she is examining the Gate Key, asks the main characters what it is. Robo explains it opens portals through time, and Azala assumes he's lying, believing nobody would ever willingly give up information like that.
• Cold Ham:
  • Magus starts off this. When he starts his Villain Song, he goes full Large Ham.
  • Lavos is mostly this, speaking softly, but his lyrics are the most elaborate. He breaks into Large Ham towards the end of his songs.
• The Comically Serious: Robo. As a Running Gag, when the human characters hesitate to give an answer, he gives one for them with a straightforward dose of Brutal Honesty.
• Composite Character: Since Tata does not appear in the musical, his role from the original game (namely providing Crono with the hero's badge) is filled by Toma.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Nizbel II is on the receiving end of one in "Tyranno Rebellion."
  • Yakra XIII in "The Trial of Guardia." He boasts about how he knows all the heroes' weaknesses, only to get Killed Mid-Sentence.
• Darker and Edgier: Not exceptionally dark, but it is darker compared to the game it was based on. Musical numbers often put more focus on the danger humanity is in, the main characters are horribly distraught after they learn Magus didn't create Lavos, so their efforts to stop him didn't save the future. And last but certainly not least, Crono's death is an even deeper Darkest Hour for the heroes.
• Darkest Hour: Two notable ones - "History, Our Story" happens after our heroes discover that Magus didn't create Lavos and they've failed to changed history once again, though Lucca is able to restore their spirits. Unfortunately, the second one comes around to hit even harder in the form of "Depths of Night", right after Crono dies, with the only hopeful note being that, despite their despair, the heroes know they can't just give up and have to continue their quest, with Crono's own spirit trying to encourage them to keep going.
• Dark Reprise: While "Battle with Magus" is an awesome Villain Song where Magus boasts about his power and declares that those who get in his way will perish, the reprise, set after Crono's death and Zeal's destruction, is an ode to despair sung by a man who has nothing left to live for.
• Death Seeker: Implied for Magus after his failure to defeat Lavos, which gets Crono killed, based on the lyrics to his reprise. Frog's decision to Sheath Your Sword during their battle comes from realizing that Magus wants a Suicide by Cop.
• Drinking Contest: Played straight with the original game in how Crono must win the Dreamstone from Ayla. Crono still wins, but it is not a pleasant experience for him.
• Drunken Song: The second half of "Burn! Bobonga!" delves into complete insanity after Crono gets drunk on Skull Smash, to the point that he can't keep up with the lyrics, and the screen suffers serious Interface Screw.
• Evil Is Hammy: Lavos is one of the Cold Ham variety. He's mostly restrained with his volume, but all of his lyrics are littered with Purple Prose. At the end of his first two songs, however, he descends into full Large Ham as he repeats the words "We remain" with increasing volume.
• Evil Sounds Deep:
  • Lavos speaks with three voices, the main one sounding deep to the point of being inhuman.
  • Magus, to a lesser extent.
• Eye Scream: While Lavos is destroying the world, one of his falling needles lands directly into a poor woman's eyeballs.
• Fan Edit: A few fans of the musical have taken it upon themselves to create 1-hour versions of some of the songs.
• Foreshadowing: Mixed with a Call-Forward. As Schala finishes singing "Schala's Theme: Reprise", her picture is shown being absorbed into Lavos's battle sprite.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Played for Laughs during Crono and Toma's conversation in "Yearnings of the Wind" as any text referring to drink/alcohol/beer is crossed out and replaced with soda pop/sugar in the dialogue.
• Fun Personified: Ayla is depicted as this, especially in "Ayla's Theme" and "Burn! Bobonga!".
• Giver of Lame Names: When Crono gives Robo his new name, Lucca reacts with annoyance but accepts it when Marle does. When he tries to name Belthasar's time machine "The Amazing Flying Thing", Lucca shoots it down and comes up with "Epoch".
• Good Morning, Crono: The story begins with the original Trope Namer, just like in the SNES and PlayStation versions.
• Graceful Loser: Ayla happily laughs away her loss and gives the Dreamstone to Crono without any qualms.
• Groin Attack: Dalton receives one of these while he's holding a note, courtesy of Ayla. He promptly shifts to a higher pitch.
• Hope Crusher: Lavos fully intends on leaving the survivors of his apocalypse with no hope as everything they know and love gets destroyed.
  Needles rain
  Your life be drained
  Devour 'til
  No hope remains
  On this world we feed.
• Hope Spot: "Lavos Awakens" features a reprise of "Chrono Trigger" as Crono prepares to face down Lavos by himself... right before Lavos kills him.
• Hulk Speak: Ayla, Kino, and all of the human characters from the prehistoric age. As a result, the lyrics of "Ayla's Theme", "Burn! Bobonga" and "Tyranno Rebellion" are all written in this manner.
• "I Am" Song: "Robo's Theme", "Frog's Theme" and "Ayla's Theme" introduce their characters and establish their core traits.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Said word-for-word by Magus when Frog states that the inside of Lavos is even more ghastly than Magus' keep.
• Ironic Echo: "Broken Machine" has the R-Series robots belittling Robo as one. By the end, as Crono and Lucca destroy the last of them, they boast that they will save the future and all they see are "broken machines."
• "I Want" Song: The running theme especially in "Peaceful Days" and "Chrono Trigger" is Crono wanting history to know his name and to not be just another nobody.
• Jumped at the Call: Crono in the "Chrono Trigger" theme. After seeing how Lavos caused the Bad Future, he eagerly jumps at the chance to start the real adventure.
• Kick the Dog: "Lavos Reprise". After Magus' ritual is disrupted, Lavos sends everyone through time. He also makes a point of doing a reprise of his Villain Song, mocking the heroes for how all their efforts to stop him have thus far been for nothing and he will still destroy the world.
• Knight of Cerebus: Lavos, much like in the game, with the addition of a distinct character this time. His appearance comes with a Villain Song where he is causing the apocalypse, gloating about the devastation he's wreaking on the world.
• Large Ham:
  • Almost everyone, but Frog stands out even among them. "That's the hero's way!"
  • Magus manages to one up him when he gets a Villain Song in "Battle with Magus."
  • Lavos. "We remain. We remain! WE REMAIN!"
  • Ayla stands out as by far the most bombastic member of the party. "Ayla strong! NO LOSE!"
• Last Note Nightmare: We get treated to one of these in the reprisal of Schala's theme, where her melancholic, soft-spoken voice is abruptly replaced by...
  Schala: The future remains, and refuses—
  Lavos: CHAAAAAANGE!
• Meaningful Name: The title and lyrics in "World Revolution" have a double meaning as the cast sings not only about the entire world revolting against Lavos, but how the world will continue to revolve and live on without Lavos dictating the direction of history.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The opening lines of "The End of Time" paraphrase the same lyrics from Metallica's "Sanitarium" that were previously recited in Man on the Internet's earlier project Undertale the Musical.
  • Certain songs feature dialogue lifted wholesale from the source material. For example, "Corridors of Time" feature signature lines from the corresponding arc, like Doreen's "am I a butterfly" speech and Janus' line when he first meets the party.
  • Part of the user interface on Taban's machine when Lucca inputs the password in "Lucca's House" is a Super Nintendo controller.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Reptites, who, on top of their desire to Kill All Humans, flat out call their war on humans a Final Solution.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Flea is drawn holding the classic pose associated with the laugh to match the original sprite version in the group artwork in "Ozzie's Fort".
• No Indoor Voice: AYLA TOO STRONG SPEAK SOFTLY!!!
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Crono's reaction to Ayla wanting to face off in a Drinking Contest for the Dreamstone.
  • Lucca upon realizing that she traveled back to the day her mother became crippled as depicted in the accompanying artwork.
  • Lucca again when she notices that the Readings Are Off the Scale prior to the "Destruction rains from the heavens" attack in "Lavos Beckons."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Most songs during a fight have the heroes talking about how they are going to win. "Broken Machine" has Crono and Lucca delivering badass boasts about how they will destroy the R series robots for assaulting Robo, their voices dripping with anger.
  • Similarly, in "Last Battle", Lavos undergoes a Villainous Breakdown and begins singing at a much more rapid tempo, to signify that his patience has run out.
• Quarreling Song:
  • "Battle with Yakra" has Yakra boasting how, thanks to Magus, the Fiends/Mystics are going to take over the world and destroy humanity, with Crono, Lucca and Frog claiming that they'll put an end to his and Magus' plans.
  • "Battle with Magus" qualifies, with Magus' constant badass boasts towards the party met with Frog repeating his code of honor in defiance.
  • Potentially also "Battle with Ozzie", where Ozzie spends his part boasting about how his skeleton army is unstoppable and Crono’s party spending their part proving him wrong.
  • Also, "Lavos Beckons", which is a deliberate Call-Back to "Battle with Yakra", with Lavos even using some of Yakra's lines.
  • A more traditional example is "Fall of House Guardia", which shows Marle and her father getting into a heated back and forth argument about the death of her mother, before she storms off with the rest of the party.
• Ramming Always Works: Robo comes to this conclusion to rescue the main team by ramming the Epoch into Lavos during "Lavos Beckons."
• Royal "We": Lavos refers to himself as "we," while also speaking with the Voice of the Legion. He begins dropping it as he enters his Villainous Breakdown.
• Running Gag: Every time the party is asked a question, the humans will hesitate to answer while Robo jumps in to answer for them.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Invoked by Magus when the reserve team breaks the rule of only three of the party being away from the End of Time at once when everyone joins in the fight, saying "To fight Lavos... I think [time] will make an exception."
• Shout-Out: "Robo's Theme" contains the line "I'll never give up", which is likely a reference to the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, which more than a few fans have noticed sounds very similar to Robo's Theme.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • The R series robots in "Broken Machine" open up by singing about how Robo was defective and needed to be reset. Crono and Lucca's opening lyrics in response No more games, go down in flames, showing they don't care what the robots have to say, they are going to kill them.
  • The battle with Mother Brain in "Prometheus Unbound" is much of the same, with Mother Brain boasting about how evolution has chosen the robots and the heroes keep saying "Now to take down the mainframe! Now to take down Mother Brain!"
• Skyward Scream: One of the survivors in "Lavos" during the apocalypse as she cradles a dead child's corpse in her arms—one that looks surprisingly like a certain human child...
• Snot Bubble: Ayla gets one upon falling asleep after drinking too much Skull Smash.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The Epoch itself. Although Robo rams it into Lavos in "Lavos Beckons," Lucca mentions having repaired it by the time of "Epilogue/Moonlight Parade" to allow the musical to follow the game's ending where the Epoch is not destroyed.
• This Cannot Be!: The combined Masa & Mune's reaction when Crono dissipates their stored wind energy and defeats them.
• Took a Level in Badass: After Kino is broken out of prison in "Tyranno Rebellion," he takes the lead in the song itself and becomes the Hero of Another Story as he leads all of the humans in fighting off Reptite forces outside of Tyranno Lair while Ayla, Marle, and Crono head for Azala.
• Traitor Shot: In "Manoria Cathedral", the nuns at first appear to be deep in a serene prayer... and after Crono and Lucca walk past them, they give a hint of Slasher Smiles.
• Triumphant Reprise:
  • While "Robo's Theme" is pretty upbeat and optimistic, its reprise towards the end of "Prometheus Unbound" cranks the optimism up to eleven when, after defeating Mother Brain for good, Robo once again declares his loyaltly to his new friends and reaffirms his intention to help them build a better future for humanity.
  • The last part of "Black Omen" is this to "Battle With Magus - Reprise", where Magus declares that, no matter what he must go through, no matter what Queen Zeal and Lavos throw at him, nothing will stop him from his revenge.
  • "Epilogue/Moonlight Parade" acts as one to "Guardia Millennial Fair".
• Villainous Breakdown: "World Revolution" has shades of this, but "Last Battle" is Lavos's breakdown in song form, as he's finally on the back foot and is utterly livid that mere "cattle" are trying to defy the destiny he set for them.
• Villain Song: "Remains of the Factory," "Azala," "The Battle Against Magus," and "Queen Zeal's Theme" are all one for the villains of their respective time periods. And of course "Lavos" for the Big Bad himself.
• Voice of the Legion: How does one voice Lavos? With three different voices singing together, with the primary male voice being deep as the bowels of hell itself.
• With Lyrics: A key component of the musical, applying lyrics that explain the game's plot set to its soundtrack.
• World of Ham: It's a musical where characters break into song, with very grandiose lyrics.
• You Don't Look Like You: Some of the characters in the original artwork for the videos differ from their in-game sprites.
  • Crono's mother, Jina, has blonde hair in "Peaceful Days." She looks much more like her in-game sprite in "Epilogue/Moonlight Parade."
  • Lucca's father, Taban, has a smaller build, darker skin, black hair, facial hair, and a hat.
  • Frog's human side looks much different from earlier and later depictions in "The Hero's Grave" with brown hair and a mustache.

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