Chrono Trigger (SNES)

Chrono Trigger is a well-known RPG featuring excellent graphics and music, and a plot focusing on time-travel.

Unused Enemies
There are six unused enemies hidden away in the game's code. Most of them are still present in the sense that they can be seen normally, but only through hacking can they be fought. Most also feature either a very basic script (usually just repeatedly attacking), or no script whatsoever.

Omicrone


Though its name is similar to the "Omnicrone" enemy, this one is different. It uses the same magenta palette as Spekkio's fourth form, but is graphically glitched in battle. In-game, it appears in the Ocean Palace to summon a few enemies, but flees before the battle begins.

Octobino


This enemy looks identical to the Octoblushes encountered in Heckran's Cave, and appears to have all the same attacks. Its purpose is unknown, but it may have been intended to be a "henchman" in a boss battle.

Octorider


A Blue Imp riding an Octoblush. In the prototype, these can be seen at Heckran's Cave, which is where they'd likely be fought had they not ended up cut. In the final, the only place to see one is in the secret "Developers' Room" ending.

Bull Frog


These are the two mouthy and cowardly frogs seen periodically throughout the Sewer Access in 2300 AD. Since you never technically meet them, obviously, you never fight them.

Frog King


Cyrus and Glenn fight this guy during a flashback. It's otherwise never even encountered, much less fought. Like the Omicrone, it's rather glitchy in battle.

Johnny


Or as he's known to his robot lackeys... THE MAN! Evidently, he was supposed to be fought at some point. Unlike the other unused enemies, he appears to have actual stats, but still does nothing more than attack.

Unused Areas
While the developers were generally fairly good about making sure all areas were used or deleted accordingly, a few unused maps still remain.

Choras Residence


An extra house located in the same map as the Choras Inn. This is actually present in the prototype, but despite existing in the final (unlike many prototype maps), there are no longer any pointers or events associated with it.

Unknown House


This small house is never used, not even in the prototype, and it's unknown where it even could have been located, as it exists on a single large map used for numerous building interiors in Truce, Porre, and Medina. It's slightly glitchy in appearance, due to several black boxes surrounding it, overlapping some of the wall tiles.

Unused Items
There are five unused items in the game's code.


 * Dark Saber - Attack Power: 50. This is a weapon for Crono without any specific special effects. As it's sandwiched between the two prehistoric swords (Flint Edge and Aeon Blade), it seems likely that this would have been found in Magus' Castle, but was cut in favor of the Slasher. Earlier in development, the Slasher was known as the "Soy Sword", and was a weapon for Frog. The developers obviously (wisely) decided that it made no sense for Frog to gain a new weapon so soon after having you finish a rather long quest to get the Masamune, so the Soy Sword/Slasher was changed to a weapon for Crono, and the Dark Saber was dropped.
 * PicoMagnum - Attack Power: 20. A rather weak, featureless weapon for Lucca. This would likely have been found either in 2300 AD, or in 1000 AD after returning from the future. It's unknown why it was cut.
 * Graedus - Attack Power: 60. Another weapon for Lucca... and a weird one, to boot: if it hits, the target's HP is halved. However, it doesn't seem to work very well, and obviously wouldn't have worked at all on bosses. It's likely it was deemed too gimmicky to keep.
 * Relic - An accessory with the same effect as the SightScope (showing enemies' HP when equipped). This was probably unfinished.
 * SeraphSong - An accessory which gradually restored your MP while equipped. It would have been rather useful, but given the Gold Stud reduces your MP cost to such a degree that MP restoration is rather trivial, this was probably rendered unnecessary.

While all of these items are also in the DS port (some renamed), they're just as unused there and are not included in the in-game item list. Also, of these items only the Dark Saber and PicoMagnum are in the prototype; this means that the Graedus, Relic, and SeraphSong were added later, but inexplicably left unused.

Unused Music
Famously, two songs appeared on the Chrono Trigger OST but were not used in-game. There also exists a third, lesser-known unused song.

Battle 2


(Track 2-11 on the OST)

Just as the name suggests, this was intended to be a secondary normal battle theme. It was used in the DS port for the monster arena.

Singing Mountain


(Track 3-01 on the OST)

This beautiful song imitative of Joe Hisaishi's "Laputa: The Castle in the Sky" is more or less all that remains of a dropped prehistoric dungeon, an unfinished version of which is present in the prototype and indeed uses this song. It was also used in the DS port for one of the Dimensional Vortex dungeons.

Rat-a-Tat-Tat It's... Mitsuda


This song isn't on the OST, and as such was only named later. It's just a short fanfare, the melody taken from the traditional "Shave And A Haircut", possibly intended to be used when you talked to Yasunori Mitsuda in the Developers' Room ending. While this also appears in the DS port, it only appears on the in-game music test.

Unused Location Names
There are several bits of text for world map location pop-ups that exist in the game, but don't correspond to anything.


 * Gobb's house - Two possibilities exist for this one. Either "Gobb" is the name of the friendly imp you encounter when you first arrive at Medina, or "Gobb" lived in one of the extra houses that existed in Medina in the prototype.
 * Eternal Repose - On its own, this doesn't seem to relate to much of anything. However, the Japanese version appends this with "亭", meaning "stop" (as in, a rest stop), suggesting this was intended for an inn or cafe, presumably in Truce or Porre.
 * Breakwave Pt. - This one brings to mind "Vortex Pt.", the name displayed for the whirlpool outside Lucca's house in 1000 AD. But it too features the "亭" character in the Japanese version, suggesting another inn/pub.
 * Robot village - This is mixed in with the 2300 AD location names. Either it was an early name for the Proto Dome, or it was linked to the odd coliseum-like building found in the prototype.
 * Chanting Mt - An alternate translation of the Singing Mountain, a well-known scrapped prehistoric dungeon.
 * Ayla's tent - Intended, rather obviously, for Ayla's home in Ioka. However, in-game, "Chief's Hut" is displayed instead, probably because Ayla can be renamed.
 * Ocean Palace - The Ocean Palace is technically present on the surface world in 12,000 BC, but it's entered via a teleporter from Zeal Palace, and not the world map itself. As a result, this text never appears.
 * Exoskeleton - The absolute only thing that this brings to mind is Lavos' shell, after defeating the "head". Perhaps Lavos was intended to be present on the world map at one point.

Title Screen
The opening copyright does not appear in the Japanese version. It is simply a black space.

Menu Icons
The "Item" menu marker is darker and more rounded in the American version.

The "Technique" menu marker was changed to read "TEC" in the American version. It was also changed from a tan color to an off-white.

The "cursor memory" icon on the options menu was likewise translated. A thin border around it was removed, and the word "ITEM" was enlarged and re-colored.

Elements
The element graphics used on the menu weren't so much "translated" as "completely redrawn from scratch". The English versions are considerably larger and more elaborate than their Japanese counterparts.

Era Markers
The era markers that pop up on the world maps were in reverse order (A.D./B.C., then the year) in the Japanese version. The boxes themselves also appear to have been flipped horizontally.

Ending Photo
An in-game depiction of some official art is absent in one of the endings in the American version. It is the ending that occurs if Lavos is beaten after getting the Epoch's wings but before completing Death Peak.

Lucca's Mother
The name of Lucca's mother in the Japanese version is apparently "Lala" rather than "Lara". This has significance with the button input during a sidequest!

Truce Inn Chest


For reasons only known to the developers, the chest behind the counter in Truce Inn, quite unlike every other "behind the shop counter" chest in the game (and most RPGs in general) inexplicably contains a whopping 57,342G. This chest can't be reached without cheating, however; it was likely used for debugging purposes.

Odd Chest Placements
There are four instances in the game where there are treasure chests hidden under floor/wall tiles, which can be viewed by disabling graphic layers on an emulator. They're just graphics, however, and don't contain anything. Why they're there is a mystery.

The first one appears near the entrance to Mystic Mountains. There's some speculation that this chest would have held the unused Dark Saber, but due to the sword's power and the chest's ease of accessibility, this is exceedingly unlikely.

The second one appears in the "warp room" in the Tyrano Lair, buried under a wall in the lower-right corner. There's really no good explanation for why this one is here...

The third chest is on the raised platform in the center of the second area of the Sunken Desert. It's right next to another chest, however, so it was probably going to be used.

The fourth and final instance of odd chests is in the western tower of Guardia Castle. Go up one flight of stairs and disable the background layer to see them way up in the upper-left corner. One is closed and one is open.

Missing Carpet


In the back of Zeal Palace, there are three doorways. While the right doorway leads to another two doorways (one of which goes to Schala's room), the left and middle doorways lead to rooms with a flight of stairs going up. Removing Background Layer 1 with an emulator reveals that these stairs were originally meant to be carpeted.



While this was probably a design choice, it also seems like it could have been a programming mistake, since there is carpet leading to the stairs and from the stairs that the missing piece neatly fits between. Also, the previous room in the palace had carpeted stairs, so why remove it from these rooms?

These carpet placements can be seen normally in the prototype, albeit with a different palette.

Jet Bike Race
This string can be found in plain ASCII text in the US version. The people responsible for the design of the bike race are credited in the game's ending for map design (Mami Kawai, Kaname Tanaka, Akane Haruki, Hiroto Yamamoto) and character graphics (Tazuyo Inukai).

-- JET BIKE RACE -- BIKE OBJECT :MAMI KAWAI JONNY OBJECT :TAYZO INUKAI MODE7 ROAD  :KANAME TANAKA BACK GROUND :AKANE HARUKI PANEL & FONT :HIROTO YAMAMOTO THANK YOU FOR 5(!) GRAPHIC DESIGNERS.

Anti-Piracy
If a certain subroutine detects an unusual amount of SRAM that would indicate the use of a cartridge copier, the first time travel animation will infinitely loop, rendering further progress impossible. Curiously, this same loop is present as a copy protection measure in the DS port.