Secret of Mana remake announced!

You know, I think I do recall hearing that. Or rather, the other way around; that Chrono Trigger was going to be slated for the Seiken Densetsu franchise, while SoM was actually originally intended to be part of the Final Fantasy franchise. Or maybe that was only the first Mana game (Final Fantasy Adventure).

It's all very confusing. But I do know that one of the things that was intended for SoM was multiple routes, leading to different endings (which was what led me to suspect all those dead ends in SoM). Given that Chrono Trigger did have the multiple routes and endings, it does seem very plausible that they borrowed from the original SoM project.