Picking up where Chrono Trigger left off 30 years later, this love letter to the classic JRPG has me in awe of its stunning pixel art – and now there's even a sky pirate

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I can't think of a better way to celebrate Chrono Trigger's 30th birthday than with an updated trailer for Threads of Time

Threads of Time
(Image credit: Riyo Games/Humble Games)

Threads of Time has been an absolute stunner every time we've seen it, and just when I thought it couldn't look any better the devs have gone and added a sky pirate to the cast of the JRPG love letter.

Developer Riyo Games has been very forthcoming about Threads of Time's inspirations, as this is a time-traveling JRPG in the SNES style that owes no shortage of debt to Chrono Trigger. You'll fight dinosaurs in a prehistoric age, journey to a futuristic city, and fight impossible monsters at the edge of apocalypse. Even the combat takes a familiar form: turn-based battles built around using team combos within your party.

The "new" Threads of Time trailer that appeared during today's Humble Games Showcase might look pretty familiar if you've been following the game's development – it's mostly identical to the Tokyo Game Show trailer that debuted last year – but holy heck does it still look good. Fantastic character designs, impeccable pixel art, and a blend of dynamic camera angles and modern lighting giving it a look to rival Square Enix's HD-2D stunners, and this is still one of the prettiest games I've ever seen.

The actually new part of this teaser is the animated scene at the end, where we're introduced to a new, rodent-like sky pirate character named Barza who's downright adorable. JRPGs and sky pirates go together like peanut butter and jelly, and it's tough to imagine a more perfect addition to the cast.

There's a reason Chrono Trigger still tops our list of the best JRPGs.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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