Chrono Trigger is, hands down, one of my favorite games off all time, if not my favorite game of all time (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is another that battles for top spot).
With that said, I don't think it's a sacred cow that deserves to only have two entries. I loved Chrono Cross as well, even if I prefer Trigger. I feel like, if there is a quality story to be told in that universe (which has infinite possibilities), then the story should be told. Does it need the original creators of Chrono Trigger to accomplish that? No. There are some amazingly talented developers out there, many of which probably grew up playing the original 2 entries in the series. There is, in my mind, no reason why a talented dream team of designers couldn't come up with an amazing game set in the Chrono universe.
I'm 40 years old, but I'm not beholden to the feelings and memories of the past. I will always, always, have a fond love and nostalgia for the first time I popped Chrono Trigger into my SNES, or Chrono Cross into my PS1. I'm not looking to relive that moment, but I'm 100% open to the idea of a young, fresh, talented team revisiting that world and telling a cool, endearing story. I hold no reservations that it'd never recapture that feeling of 16 year old me playing CT for the first time (which also had the impact of being the first real JRPG I ever played, and is the reason why I became a fan of the genre in the first place). But I want good games, and the CT universe is rife with potential for good games and stories. The combat system is still one of the best in the industry for JRPGs, and growing and iterating on that system isn't a bad thing, especially with modern game design sensibilities and philosophies.
The thing that a new Chrono game would absolutely have to have to be worthy of its existence is support, time, and a truly talented team behind it. As I said before, we have quite a number of talented developers around the world that would no doubt crush it if given the opportunity to delve into the CT world. Then, it'd be up to the gamers to not be so beholden to the past, and the "dream team" of the original Chrono Trigger. I'm not a sports person, so forgive the poor analogy, but it'd be like dismissing the Olympic Dream Teams that came after 1992, because the Dream Team of 1992 was so stacked full of remarkable basketball players. They were no doubt the best of the best of the field back in 1992, but players just as talented and capable came after them, and there will be players more talented than that after.
Game design, and quality game design, isn't locked to a particular generation of designers. Each year, talented creators are finding their voice, skill, and expertise in the field , and I'd personally be excited to see what a 2020 dream team of designers could do with a quality IP like Chrono. The combination of technological advancement since 1995, and the maturation of game design philosophy in the 25 years since Chrono Trigger's release could lead to a rather spectacular return of the series. I think about not just visual representation (I'd personally love a return to Toriyama's style, but realized in full 3D; like Dragon Quest XI, for example), and the improvement of things like SSD speeds, rendering pipelines, AI advancements, etc, etc. You could craft an incredibly dynamic world, and with talented scenario writers and game designers... man. It could be something else.
But that's up to Square-Enix, and they don't seem to have an interest in revisiting the IP, which is a real shame. Back in '95, I imagined that the Chrono series would become something like Final Fantasy; long-running, with each game introducing us to a new cast of characters, timelines, and scenarios. It's a shame we never got that, and that seemingly Square had no faith in the teams under their charge to carry that torch forward after Chrono Cross (a rather fantastic game in its own right, even though it was different from Trigger).
