Chrono Trigger writer Masato Kato reveals Dragon Quest made him believe in video games as he “actually hated” them before playing the JRPG

While many may prefer Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest is the quintessential JRPG, and it’s beloved for a very good reason. While it’s very well known that many RPGs wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Dragon Quest, the writer behind Chrono Trigger revealed that he “actually hated” all video games prior to playing the game.

Speaking to Denfaminicogamer and translated by Automaton, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 11 writer Masato Kato reveals that he only got into video games because of Dragon Quest, and the way that form of RPG turned players into the protagonist of an existing story.

Chrono Trigger exists because of Dragon Quest

In an interview with the outlet, Kato explained that he avoided video games in their entirety, saying: “Not only did I not play games at all, but I actually hated them.” Well, you might say, ‘Oh, he’s just a hater, he wants to be different’. And you’d be right.

“There were quite a few people who played games at my university, but… I basically just hated doing what everyone else was doing,” the Chrono Trigger writer said. “if I’m going to spend two hours playing a game, I can’t help but think about how many books I could read in that same amount of time. I was aware that games had their own value, but for me, reading was the top priority.”

When Kato saw his sister playing through the original Dragon Quest, everything changed, and the Chrono Trigger writer became enamoured with what the RPG genre could do.

“RPGs were completely different [from other games],” he explained. “In an RPG, the player becomes the protagonist and can live through the story themselves… the player can move around freely, choose to fight, run away, stay at an inn, and experience the story of saving the world. That concept really stunned me.”

Masato would eventually join Tecmo and work on the Captain Tsubasa football games and Ninja Gaiden as an artist and a scenario writer. Eventually, he made his way to Square (prior to the Enix) and wrote Chrono Trigger. Kato was so involved in the game’s development that many considered him to be a director on the project.

Kato would eventually work on Final Fantasy 7, Xenogears, Chrono Chross, Final Fantasy XI and much more. The writer’s last game was 2017’s Another Eden, a free-to-play spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger.