Will fans of this classic SNES gem be lost to Lavos, or will they endure, like Gaspar at the end of time? Where does Chrono Cross figure into the whole situation? Fortunately, we know someone who wrote the book (well, _a_ book) on the subject: we're talking with Michael P. Williams, author of _Chrono Trigger_, about fans of... well, Chrono Trigger!
Next week, it'll be the (smile) bomb, as we talk about fans, of a certain popular shonen 'sho' from the 90s!
## Where can I learn more about Michael P. Williams?
If you want to learn more about Michael's work, your best bet is to check out...
- His book, [Chrono Trigger](https://bossfightbooks.com/products/chrono-trigger-by-michael-p-williams), published by Boss Fight Books (now available in [audiobook form](https://www.audible.ca/pd/Chrono-Trigger-Audiobook/B07G4L4VFT))!
- [Boss Fight Books](https://bossfightbooks.com/) where he does a lot of editting
- The Boss Fight Books twitter, [@bossfightbooks](https://twitter.com/bossfightbooks) (Yes, there is a trend here)
## Episode outline
### Fandom Facts
**History and Origins:**
Chrono Trigger is a Super Nintendo JRPG released in 1995. It was developed by Square (notable for such other games as Final Fantasy) and its so-called "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi (the creator of the Final Fantasy Series), Yuji Horii (creator of Enix's popular Dragon Quest series), and Akira Toriyama (an artist well known for his work with Dragon Quest and his ongoing manga / anime series: Dragonball, among other things). It also featured music composed by Yasunori Mitsuda (the _Chrono_ series, Mario Party, Xenosaga) and Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy).
To put it succinctly: The game follows a group of adventurers who travel through time to prevent a global catastrophe... that they will never personally encounter.
It has since been released and re-released multiple times with the SNES and Playstation versions shipping over 2.65 million copies, and the Nintendo DS version having sold over 790 000 copies more than a decade later.
**Search Data:**
Interest in Chrono Trigger [has definitely dropped since the earliest data we have from Google Trends (2004)](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F01y59). There was a huge spike in interest in November 2008 (the Nintendo DS re-release of the game), and to a much lesser extent in March of 2018 (corresponding to the unexpected Steam release of the game).
The top ten countries, by search volume, are as follows: Japan, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, United States, Dominican Republic, Phillipines, and Taiwan.
**Size of Fandom:**
Based on a few data points:
- The original game has sold more than 2.6 million copies
- The DS version sold over 500 000 copies
- The [Chrono Trigger subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/chronotrigger/) has about 6600 subscribers
It's hard to guess, but there are probably hundreds of thousands of Chrono Trigger fans?
**Fast Facts:**
- According to a thread on [r/truegaming by GICN](https://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/8th8ed/data_game_completion_we_dont_finish_games/?sort=confidence), Chrono Trigger has a self-reported completion rate of 66% (slightly above the overall self-reported average of 63%). Steam global play stats reports that only [10.4% have completed the game](https://steamcommunity.com/stats/613830/achievements)
- Chrono Trigger has only about [150 fanfics on Archive Of Our Own](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Chrono%20Trigger/works)
- Most of which are Gen (about 56%)
- The most referenced fandoms, other than Chrono Trigger, are Final Fantasy VII (about 10%), Chrono Cross (about 10%), and Final Fantasy VI (about 10%)
### [Last Episode's](http://fanthropological.com/e/3683f48c359a8c/#player) Famous Last Words
**T**
Has anyone written a musical about Chrono Trigger?
**G**
Is anyone out there who has attempted to write Chrono Trigger into the Final Fantasy continuity?
**Z**
Is there a fan-work (comic, VG,...
