Masato Kato (加藤正人 Katō Masato?) (born March 28, 1963) is a Japanese game developer and scenario writer. He first worked for Tecmo on Captain Tsubasa and the Ninja Gaiden series. He went on to work for Gainax, then Square. He is mostly known for having penned the script of Chrono Trigger (based on a story draft by Yuuji Horii), as well as Radical Dreamers, parts of Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross.
Kato left Square after designing the plot of Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart to become a freelance scenario writer. In addition to games for different companies, he has continued to work on Square Enix projects such as the World of Mana series, an enhanced port of Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS, and three more expansion chapters for Final Fantasy XI.
In 2005, Masato Kato also collaborated with Yasunori Mitsuda, longtime friend and music composer, to write a short story titled Five Seasons of kiЯitɘ, which Mitsuda accompanied with music on his album kiЯitɘ. The story and soundtrack have also been presented in opera form.