Crono

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Crono
Official artwork from PlayStation re-release
Game series	Chrono series
First game	Chrono Trigger
Designed by	Akira Toriyama
In-Universe Information
Native time period	1000 A.D.
Weapon	Katana
Magic element	Heaven (Japan) Lightning (US)

Crono (クロノ, Kurono^?) is the main character from the 1995 Super Famicom/SNES game Chrono Trigger, developed by Square Co., Ltd..

[edit] Background

Crono lives with his mother (called Gina in the Japanese version) in Truce Village within the Kingdom of Guardia. He meets Marle at the Millennial Fair by accidentally colliding with her near Leene's Bell. Being the princess of Guardia kingdom in disguise, Marle tells Crono that she is not familiar with the place, and asks to tag along. Later, upon returning to the castle, Crono is accused of kidnapping her by the King's Chancellor. Depending on Crono's actions at the Millennial Fair, he will either be pronounced guilty or innocent by the court. The sentence has no real effect on the plot; if he is found guilty, he will be sentenced to death, if he is found innocent, he will be sent to prison for three days and the Chancellor will tell the supervisor that he was sentenced to death in order to have him executed. Crono will then need to escape the prison; in the course of doing so with Lucca and Marle, he is pulled into another time warp into the future.

In the future, Crono's quest begins to focus on others rather than himself and his close group of friends; even his saving Queen Leene was motivated by a desire to prevent Marle from being removed from the timeline. He helps give the residents of Arris Dome hope when he recovers a seed from a store room (the only thing of use after the failure of the refrigeration unit) and in the course of investigating the basement, learns that the future was devastated as a result of the parasitic alien Lavos' emerging from within. He then investigates why and how Lavos came, and works to stop him.

In 12,000 B.C., when the party is confronted with Lavos in the Ocean Palace of the Kingdom of Zeal, Crono sacrifices himself in order to save his friends (and with this, the image Janus had foreseen turns out to be truth). Later, using the Chrono Trigger (Time Egg), he is saved from this fate.

Despite being the game's protagonist, Crono never speaks in the game's dialogue with the exception of player decisions (For example, when Marle asks if he would not have taken her if he knew she was a princess, he can say "Right" or "Wrong!"), as it is the case in some RPG and video-games, with the notable exception occurring in one of the game's many endings. Designed by Akira Toriyama, Crono shares many of Toriyama's standard "hero" design characteristics, including spiky hair, well-defined muscles, and large eyes. His weapon of choice is a katana.

After being drawn into a time vortex following the defeat of Magus at his lair, Crono has a dream about he and Marle being married and living in his mother's house(and that he is, at the time, unemployed). The PlayStation version of Chrono Trigger includes an FMV scene at the end that shows Crono and Marle proceeding through their wedding celebration. In the sequel, Chrono Cross, Crono, Marle and Lucca appear only as apparitions of themselves as children. While a bonus FMV in the PlayStation version of Chrono Trigger depicts the fall of Guardia Kingdom in the year 1005 A.D., it is unknown what happened to Crono in the 20 years between the two games.

[edit] Magic

Crono's original element in the Japanese and English version.

Crono's magical type is lightning in the English version of the game. In the original Japanese version, his magical type is specified as Ten (天, Ten^? "heaven"), which seems to be the holy equivalent of the shadow type. The original classification explains the fact that Crono's magic is not all electrically oriented, as it appears to include light magic and the occasional healing spell. Also, the spell Luminaire, called "Shining" in Japan, is of the strongest of the "holy" element, not the "lightning" element. The association of a 天 element with lightning attacks most likely relates to the association of 天 with weather, specifically tenki (天気, tenki^? "weather")

[edit] Reference in popular culture

In the official blog set up by NBC for Hiro Nakamura, one of the main character of the American TV series Heroes, Nakamura compares his supernatural ability to change the future with that of Crono.[1][2]