Square Enix created an updated Chrono Trigger ($9.99) port, released it for Steam, and is bringing some enhancements to the iOS and Android versions. “Updated graphics and sound" mean the game looks different than the previous port, though the font is still a bit jarring. Controls and screen layout got an update, along with support for controllers. The game properly supports playing across multiple devices, as you can now use cloud saves and play on the iPad and Apple TV. A new autosave function will help make the game feel a bit more modern, and achievements are there for y’all who like brownie points.
I’m really glad to see Chrono Trigger getting these enhancmenets so long after its initial mobile release. It’s reminiscent of Sega updating the Sonic the Hedgehog titles years later with the Christian Whitehead and Headcannon updates. While this version isn’t perhaps of the same, nitpicky quality as those ports, Square Enix is at least making sure that this port of a timeless classic stays fresh and relevant for new and existing players. Plus, this port is arguably the definitive port, content-wise, as it has the new features from the DS version. Whether you like the re-recorded soundtrack is a matter of taste.
What’s kind of funny is that PC people are complaining that this is the mobile version just ported to PC, as the touch controls are available. Some of the other tweaks made to the PC version are either inconvenient or just plain ugly, like the font.
Okay yeah, fuck. This is what I was scared of. It's just the phone version ported to Windows. Touch controls and all. pic.twitter.com/ek8KJL94wu
— Fred Wood (@thatsmytrunks) February 27, 2018
Of course, if you wanted to play Chrono Trigger as it was intended, there are ways to do that! Otherwise, while some of the modernizing changes might be controversial, this is still a classic game available for a few bucks. You can check out the new Chrono Trigger update right now, and be sure to read Shaun’s RPG Reload on the title.
How is it weak Shaun? I've never played Chrono Trigger and often looked at the old version but was put off by some of the reviews and comments on the controls. Is this a version to try or to avoid?
I’d say avoid unless you truly have no other means to play the game. The screenshots may seem fine, but in motion the look is off-putting. The modern interface and the pixelated sprites don’t mesh well. There is at least one inexcusable bug in the early going; a cat that’s supposed to follow you just plain disappears when you interact with it (this has consequences down the line). I had to see it for myself, but it seems the outcry is justified on this one.
Excellent points throughout this article.
On one hand, I get how a business manager would look at Option A, which is to do individual platform-specific versions some or all of PC/Mac, handheld consoles, iOS, and Android, which play great, but at 4x the development cost; or Option B, which is to develop a single version using some cross-platform engine which plays adequately but not great on each platform at 1x the development cost; and opt for Option B.
On the other hand, it's hard to measure the long-term cost of all of those negative Steam reviews to the company's reputation.
Yeah, as a video producer/editor and businessman, I see way more upsides to creating one product that can be used on many platforms instead of many versions used on one platform each. People are going to just have to learn to enjoy classics like this in their one, modern form if they want to play the updated versions on modern devices/consoles/computers. After this annoying acclimation phase in gaming history, maybe we can all just enjoy the games again and introduce newer generations to beloved classics.
We have different definitions of "adequate". I can fire up a SNES emulator and play the game, as it was. This new version is inferior other than being available on mobile, and costs a lot considering the quality of it.
Great article! I just want Chrono on Switch!
I bet we'll see this version on Switch... and hopefully Vita and PS4 too.
It clearly is a mobile port. It just coincides with a actual mobile release.
I think its still worth buying. But they really should do something about the hideous filters and odd tile edge bug.
I think you need to recheck the definition of the word “port.”
It’s not ported FROM anywhere. It’s a newly redeveloped release, apparently made to be workable across multiple platforms but not optimized for any platform.
Even if it was made with mobile in mind along with other outlets, that doesn’t make it a mobile game ported elsewhere etc. It could just as well be called a PC port in this case. Shaun’s point is that it’s irritating that the “mobile” descriptor is assumed to be useable synonymously with sloppy or lazy.
You are wrong. This was made and designed for mobile and PORTED to PC. It was LAZY. very very lazy.
Overall I like it. But the interface and filters leave a lot to be desired. I just wish it was not targeted for mobile, and wedged onto PC.
Lol,. no, it isn't. It's a straight port from Android.
You probably shouldn't be writing about games if y ou have absolutely no knowledge on games or software development.
Just a hint. Maybe you can gt picked up by Motherboard or Vox or one of the other dozens of sites staffed by people who have not only never written a line of code in their life, but also have never even seen a video game. You and the author.
I’m super happy with this new version on mobile
At least the graphics fog is gone :)
Classic game and I’m just glad I can play it
Hope something like this is done with Secret Of Mana
I totally agree! I fired it up, dove into my saves, played for a few minutes, and uploaded them to the cloud. It looks nice and somewhat pixely still. So, I'm pretty happy with it. I sure wish they would have just updated Secret of Mana's 2D version with a bunch of new quality-of-life improvements instead of making the 3D version. Then maybe they would've implemented cross save. Anyway, I hope they do give the 2D Secret of Mana the same treatment.
I think that CT is the greatest game ever made, and I still have by SNES cartridge of the game. I also love Chrono Cross, and Radical Dreamers. I have the Crimson Echoes and Flames of Eternity fan games. I have the soundtrack for Chrono Resurrection, and emailed its composer in the day. I argued for that project to not be stopped despite Square-Enix's C&D.
But this PC port of Chrono Trigger is garbage, and I will not be buying it.
Through repeated actions, including with this abysmal release of CT, Square-Enix has shown themselves to be an entirely dishonourable company that doesn't respect its fans and customers, and which doesn't value its IPs beyond the money they can bring in - and even for the sake of that SE, in their arrogance, wasn't capable of being bothered to put in a modicum of effort for this release of a most-revered game.
Bad interface
Bad visuals
Lack of options
No choice between which translation to use
The music has been made worse with its new mix and master.
The SNES and NDS versions of the game are far superior to this PC port. Just play one of those.
I genuinely don't think that critics of this release are using the term 'Mobile Port' in a way that's meant to deride mobile gaming as a whole. It's actually much more akin to the way that PC gamers, myself included, express their disdain for console ports. Many games that are built for consoles first and are then ported to the PC come with very limited customization options and they generally lack visual and sound quality optimizations.
When you're paying the same price for a game as console gamers did upon the title's release, and you're playing it on superior hardware (debateable, I know) you expect your experience to at least mirror, if not exceed, that of the console gamers. However, the reality is that PC gamers are typically stuck with an incredibly buggy, poorly optimized, and graphically inferior shell of a game.
I know you touched on this in your article, but it bears repeating.
The Final Fantasy XV PC port is a prime example of how to do it right. Square has added true 4K support (vs upscaling), a first-person view mode, ambient occlusion lighting and HDR effects. They've also partnered with NVIDIA to include their proprietary HairWorks and Turf Effects tech in the port.
While there's not much you can do to revolutionize the look and feel of Chrono Trigger, at the very least they could have splurged a little for a QA tester. Not catching a major game-breaking bug such as having the cat run off-screen at the fair just shows that not a lot of care went into this. That's not even touching on just how unrefined the graphics look.
It may not be a rushed mobile to PC port, but it sure carries all the hallmarks of a mobile game that's simply had the assets resized to fit on a much larger screen instead of being properly optimized for it's intended platform. Which in no way reflects poorly on mobile gaming, just bad developer/publisher practices.
Yeah, that's part of their new mentality towards classics and mobile gaming. I'm surprised they haven't put FFXV Pocket Edition on consoles yet. But they probably wouldn't optimize it either. The new version of FFIX on mobile was put on PS4, and it took a lot of complaining before SE resized the interface. Someone on Steam's community brought up having the option to turn off the touchscreen interface. It would've been smart to put that in there at least.
I don't mind it, and will still play this version on Vita, PS4, or even Switch someday. But, it could have subsided a lot of frustration if they just added that one option.
People, the PC version of CT is definitively a port from the mobile version. Here's a "Saving data. Don't turn off your phone" message in Spanish in the Steam PC release:
https://twitter.com/Topofar...
The only way that the PC Steam release of CT would not be a port is if S-E had rebuilt the game's engine from the ground up. But, they clearly didn't do that, as the interface is directly the tablet mobile interface, with the mobile font, the mobile enter text boxes, the mobile settings menu... and, of course, the mobile "Saving data. Don't turn off your phone" message.
I just cant help but laugh at this. Square can do proper ports when they want to but this is the very definition of lazy. Its FF5 and 6 all over again.
Anyway, it's a mobile quality port, which is the same as crap.
TIL a mobile port is not, in fact, a mobile port
It even has the same content as the mobile version, come on. Look for the Arena of Ages.
Yes there are FMVs but that's why it's 2GB.
I totally agree! I fired it up, dove into my saves, played for a few minutes, and uploaded them to the cloud. It looks nice and somewhat pixely still. So, I'm pretty happy with it. I sure wish they would have just updated Secret of Mana's 2D version with a bunch of new quality-of-life improvements instead of making the 3D version
I might want to wait for the price to drop for a bit. The game looks good after upgraded.
It’s def better
Hery square does sales usually around Christmas time though
It’s rare but every once in a while they do a quick sale... not sure if CHRONO is usually one that goes on sale though
Anyway, it's a mobile quality port, which is the same as crap.
It is in fact a mobile port, sorry. The big giveaway is in how you name characters and do other similar tasks. You type it into a dialog box that obviously came from Windows.
In a mobile game, using the phone's own keyboard is easy, familiar, and provides services like autocorrect, so for the purpose of a phone-only game, most developers let the keyboard do its thing and just read in the final text.
So the easy way to port an already mobile game to the PC is to do something similar: Provide a dialog so that you can read the final text. You don't need to make substantial changes to the way your mobile game worked if you do it this way in the port.
This isn't the way the developers would do it if they knew ahead of time this would make it to the PC. Mobile keyboards do in fact allow you to read the individual keystrokes, as demonstrated by apps like TeamViewer. If they knew ahead of time that the game would make it to the PC, they would in fact have it read the individual keystrokes so they don't need to spend the extra effort of making a dialog box in Windows.
Let's not forget how ChronoTrigger was actually designed to begin with: There were no fancy keyboards provided by the OS in the days of the SNES. You had to code your own keyboard from scratch, and in a way that works with a controller. There had to be some substantial effort to make it work with mobile keyboards.
So they put in a substantial effort to make it work with mobile OS keyboards, while at the same time ignoring and going completely lazy with the PC keyboard. That's a bit of a paradox, if you ask me - I'm not buying it.
To me, it's a pretty clear port of a version of the game that was originally meant to be mobile-only.
As they had already released mobile ports to Steam to pretty good success by the time development on this new version started, I can't imagine they didn't plan to release it on Steam from the very start. What you say would be true if we were operating under the assumption that the developer cared. I can't imagine TOSE really gives a fig, though. They rarely do.
This was obviously designed with mobile users primarily in mind, but almost certainly the expected Steam (and eventual PS4/etc) sales were why they put resources into developing a new app to replace one that was functioning just fine. I submit that Square knew all along this was going to release on multiple platforms, and that it was considered a multi-plat SKU from the get-go. From there all it takes is a little TOSE corner-cutting (they had already done the PS1, DS, and 2011 iOS versions of CT as well as the maligned mobile remakes of FF5/6) and we arrive at the present situation.
I certainly agree this was made with little consideration for the needs of PC players. But I disagree that this is a port, as that implies a pre-existing version that wasn't originally planned to release on PC, and there's realistically no way that could have been the case.
im confused. are we mad that this was made? or mad at the steam port, but mobile is ok? or is the mobile version bad too?
im playing the mobile port now. just like i remember from back in the day, but now there is an auto battle. 👍🏻👍🏻
Square-Enix in general, most likely. Their porting history these days including mobile is... extremely varied in quality, to say the least. In a way their porting history in general is, if you look at the PS1. These days they tend to take lowest costing path and hope that people don't look at an emulator before they pick up something they haven't played in 20 years. Compare Dragon Quest IV-VI to FF V/VI or Chrono Trigger and the quality difference is much more apparent.
Not to mention the Chrono Trigger port itself has a rocky history: this is the mobile port where earlier, Square took a whole year to give a crap enough to fix startup crashes on latest devices both in iOS and Android. Before the PC port and update it was very aged, without much care put into it as time went by.
Are you joking?
Yes it literally is. There's literally untranslated Spanish text left over in the Steam build that says "please do not turn off your phone while saving."
The touch screen controls are STILL visible on the screen if you left click and move the mouse. Still functional, for that matter.
You're wrong. Stop.