Square was known as an RPG powerhouse even back in the '90s, which made its dip into the world of fighting games with the PS1 title Tobal No. 1 a bit of a curiosity. It turns out, however, that Tobal was originally meant to be an action adaptation of the beloved JRPG classic Chrono Trigger.
Development of Tobal No. 1 was led at Square collaborator Dream Factory by Virtua Fighter designer Seiichi Ishii, who wanted to work with Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. "This was around the time that Trunks appeared in Dragon Ball Z and I wanted to have a character like that in the game," Ishii says in a recent interview with 4Gamer (translated by Automaton West).
Toriyama had previously worked with Square to design the characters for Chrono Trigger, and Ishii says "at first, we were going to do a fighting game using characters from Chrono Trigger. But as we were making the prototype, Toriyama came along and said, 'I'll draw some new characters.'" And so, Tobal No. 1 became an original fighter with a roster of all-new characters designed by Toriyama.
While Chrono Trigger has always enjoyed a much, much greater reputation than Tobal - there's a reason it still tops lists of the best JRPGs to this day - it has sadly also slipped into the ether of Square history. It got a somewhat controversial sequel in 1999's Chrono Cross, but since then Square has been oddly reluctant to revisit the game, outside numerous ports and remasters of varying qualities.
