[quote=@Dark Light]
I like Chrono Trigger so the idea appeals to me just not sure on the freeform sandbox approach. 
How do you envision that working. What keeps the players together and dictates the enemies actions?
[/quote]

It will be done from a chapter based system. Chapter 1, or maybe what's called the Prologue, will be the player characters doing their intro, Chapter 1 or Chapter 2 will be characters meeting under their common goal, and we'll keep going from there.