But things only get interesting about three minutes in, when the song suddenly gives way to thick and fuzzy chords, which then change to dreamy cascades of notes, from which the original opening melody quietly emerges. “CHRONO CROSS -Scars of Time-“ is the first of these, and its first portion of the song doesn’t offer anything too unexpected the duet aspect of the song allows the duo to offer a more faithful transcription of the original, though there are also some extra ornamental lines and new accompaniment patterns too.
The Chrono Cross pieces are arranged on the other hand by Yui Morishita. If only there had been an orchestral equivalent of this. The jazzy additions are quite wonderful and fun, while the ending sequence of the track is virtuosic and dazzling. This mostly just entails extra lines that provide more underlying textures, but it means that the newly added middle section of improvisation is that much more rich and impressive. The other piece is the main theme, “Chrono Trigger”, which is more bombastic, and thus gives the pianists much more to do. The arrangement is quite long at almost seven minutes, but the melody is so great and the performance so moving that it is hardly a problem. The additional piano player allows for more textures to be added to the track, which work particularly well with the nice new re-harmonizations, as well as the new midsection of improvisation. The first of these is “Schala’s Theme”, a quiet and introspective piece.
The Chrono Trigger pieces are arranged by Takuro Iga. These arrangements are comparatively more adventurous than their orchestral counterparts, making it the most interesting disc of the package. Clocking in at just 25 minutes, the disc has four piano duet arrangements, two for each Chrono game, with all four tracks having already appeared on their respective orchestral arrangement albums. In contrast to these two discs is the Chrono Special Disc ~ Piano Duo ~. Since this disc is also quite short, it feels more inessential compared to the Chrono Trigger disc. Only “Radical Dreamers -Le Trésor interdit-“ makes an attempt to depart from the original and build a fresh new arrangement that is dynamic, but it falls short in being too musically simple. The disc works better sequentially than in the Chrono Trigger album, as medleys like “The Girl Who Stole the Stars / Dreams of the Ages” and “The Frozen Flame / Dragon God” have a consistent emotional register, though the themes still don’t interact with each other. Thus while some tracks like “Bound by Fate” benefit a lot from having live strings to really give it the texture and atmosphere that the original was going for, other tracks like “CHRONO CROSS -Scars of Time-” don’t feel like a major improvement. These issues are much more prevalent in the Chrono Cross Orchestral Arrangement Album, since the original soundtrack sounded quite good to begin with, even utilizing live instruments at times. This at times makes too much contrast as in “The Day the World Revived / Robo’s Theme”, but it works better for the more steadily emotional “Corridors of Time / Schala’s Theme.” Although it’s nice to hear these tracks played by the orchestra, but it would have been nice to also hear some new developments in the music, especially given the short album length. Tracks are often combined with others, but only in that one plays after the other, with little to no interplay between the two halves. Thus tracks like “Presentiment / Chrono Trigger” and “Wind Scene / Frog’s Theme” effectively realize the potential of the original tracks, and even occasionally add new crescendoes and climaxes to give the songs more development. The appeal of these tracks is the improvement in sound over the original tracks, which often attempted to emulate the orchestra sound but always fell short. The Chrono Trigger Orchestral Arrangement Album focuses on the more popular songs from the soundtrack, with arrangements that for the most part very closely follow the originals. The set comes at the same price as the NieR set, but the unambitious arrangements and the incredibly short length of the albums make this set a harder recommendation. While the orchestral albums are very straightforward in their arranging approach, the piano duets are a bit freer. Thus the release follows the same pattern as the NieR orchestral albums from the previous year. The box set also comes with an exclusive bonus album titled Chrono Special Disc ~ Piano Duo ~, with four piano duet arrangements. Chrono Orchestra Arrangement Box is a box set release that includes the Chrono Trigger Orchestral Arrangement and the Chrono Cross Orchestral Arrangement albums, both of which are also available separately.