Amdall Gallery

For the sixth oil painting in my classic RPG series, I painted another scene from Chrono Trigger, this time featuring Magus and Schala in Zeal Palace. The Zeal plotline in Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite parts of the game, following Magus’ journey through time and his search for his sister. You could argue that Schala’s role and Magus’ journey are central to the entire story, shaping events and connecting time periods. I felt like this would be a great scene to attempt, but a challenging one. Trying to capture the right emotional tone was definitely at the front of my mind when trying to figure out the composition.

This Magus and Schala Chrono Trigger oil painting was done on 12″ X 12″ oil paper and was my 281st overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.

Chrono Trigger Painting | Frog, Marle, and Chrono

Final Fantasy VI Painting | Video Games Inspiring Art

So, I wanted to mention a few more things on the story here, but fair warning – there will be spoilers. The game is over 30 years old, so maybe spoiler warnings aren’t necessary. Anyhow, as I mentioned at the top, there is a certain emotional impact I wanted to convey with this piece that should fit the story to some extent. You first meet Magus in Chrono Trigger as a villain; he’s the leader of an evil faction at war with your allies, and is responsible for the curse that turned one of your party members into a frog. It turns out, Magus and his relationship to the primary antagonist of the game, Lavos, is much deeper than you first realize. Magus is actually from another time, and seeks to destroy Lavos and save his sister. Although Magus and the party’s presence in his original time creates an alternate time line that eventually allows the world to be saved, he is unable to save Schala, who sacrifices herself to save everyone.

This was a pretty heavy hitting plotline when I was younger; perhaps heavy concepts like this weighed into some of the lasting impact these 90s RPGs had on me. I wanted to try to incorporate some of these impacts into this artwork, which was admittedly a tall order. I thought about some of the art from others that I’ve found emotionally compelling, and how I might use the composition to tell the right story. My basic concept was to place Schala, young Magus (Janus), and his cat Alfador in the soft but direct light. And then to place older Magus, watching himself and his sister, more in the darkness, but with a small warm light source behind him to represent the hope he might have from his plan to save her.