Eternal Anima Hands-On Reveals Time Travel JRPG From Chrono Trigger Veterans
The battle system turns the weakness-exploit loop into a scheduling puzzle, since stunning an enemy costs the party that element on the next turn.
Key Facts
- Eternal Anima is scheduled for release on March 4, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows.
- Katsuhisa Higuchi directs Eternal Anima and was the lead programmer on Chrono Trigger.
- Kazushige Nojima wrote the story for Eternal Anima and was a scenario writer on multiple Final Fantasy titles and the Kingdom Hearts series.
- Eternal Anima's Future Sight battle system reveals turn order, incoming targets, and enemy weaknesses, and stunning an enemy with a weakness makes it immune to that weakness on the next turn.
- Producer Makoto Shioda said development on Eternal Anima began over five years ago.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Marvelous showed Eternal Anima at its Pre-Tokyo Game Show 2026 event, and the time travel JRPG is scheduled for March 4, 2027, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows. Katsuhisa Higuchi, who was lead programmer on Chrono Trigger and worked on early Final Fantasy games, directs. Kazushige Nojima, a scenario writer on several Final Fantasy titles and the Kingdom Hearts series, wrote the story. The protagonist, Wade, sees the near future and reads the past by touching objects. Players travel between two eras to stop continents from sinking, and the choices made while altering the timeline carry consequences. In battle, Future Sight shows the turn order, incoming targets, and enemy weaknesses. Hitting a weakness stuns an enemy and delays its action, and repeated hits can remove it from the turn entirely, but the exploited weakness becomes an immunity on the following turn. Producer Makoto Shioda said the team spent over five years on the concept, built around the theme of legacy.
The soundtrack is by Hitoshi Sakimoto, the music producer Higuchi invited partly through connections from their days at Square. The wider team includes scenario draft writer Keisuke Makino, scenario director Hironao Fukuda, and character designer Max Berthelot.
Higuchi said working with the returning Square veterans "felt like a reunion," and that the creative freedom on an entirely new title outweighed the difficulties of development. He has been making JRPGs for over 40 years, going back to the 8-bit era, and named battle programming as his background.
Wade's out-of-battle ability feeds into progression. Touching a weapon shows a short story about the long-dead hero who wielded it, and reading it unlocks a new job class or a special attack for that weapon.
Producer Makoto Shioda framed the protagonist as a departure from genre norms: Wade combines the composure of an adult with a more emotional side, where JRPGs traditionally tell coming-of-age stories about young male protagonists. Higuchi cited Chrono Trigger as the first title on which he was lead programmer, while Shioda named Back to the Future alongside it.
The visuals changed during development. Early builds had a brighter, cuter look, and the team adjusted characters' body proportions and environment colors before settling on the current style.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.