Credit the place credit score is due: Square Enix has carried out proper by Chrono Trigger for its PC launch. Praise is deserved.
Back in March, I went to town on the then-new PC re-release of basic Japanese RPG Chrono Trigger. Honestly, I used to be livid – I regard Chrono Trigger as certainly one of Square’s most essential video games, one of many high Japanese RPGs of all time and subsequent to Final Fantasy 7 most likely among the finest ‘gateway drug’ entrance factors there may be to the normal Japanese-style RPG style.
So in fact I used to be mad. Square messed it up. Not just a little, both – loads. It was a catastrophe of a port with mismatched background tiles, once-characterful sprites smeared with an unpleasant vaseline filter and mobile-esque menus that regarded like one thing spat out by RPG Maker. I known as it a perfect example of how not to re-release a classic game. More than something, it felt just like the port lacked respect for its extremely revered and beloved supply.
Well, credit score is owed to the behemoth Japanese writer: I’ve been enjoying the sport just a little since its last patch final week, and most complaints have been totally sorted out. Square Enix took the criticism to coronary heart and over the course of a string of hefty patches have slowly turned this into one thing that really may very well be argued as the perfect model of Chrono Trigger.
I lit up Square Enix for the poor preliminary launch, and now it solely feels proper to set the file straight: submit patch, that is now a worthwhile model.
This is actually a very surprising improvement, not least as a result of Square Enix has left the additionally hideous cellular variations of Final Fantasy 5 and 6 on Steam untouched for years. At greatest I’d anticipated a sprucing of the proverbial turd, however this can be a do-over the likes of which is never seen.
Whatever space of the sport you have a look at many of the points raised with the preliminary launch have been vigorously attacked and stuck. The nasty filtered sprites and mismatched background tiles had been handled early on, as pictured above. The font, which had been modified to a reasonably generic one, has been restored to one thing extra evocative of the Super NES authentic.
The greatest modifications are to the UI and menus, all of which have been ripped inside out with the builders clearly working laborious to discover a approach to restore menus which can be extra harking back to these from the controller-based SNES authentic whereas maybe protecting one or two quality-of-life modifications extra suited to a contemporary launch of the sport.
There’s even new content material together with an extras menu that incorporates a bunch of frequent fan-requested additions. Via this part gamers can now repeat view the animated story scenes that had been added to the PS1 launch of the sport and have on this model – and one patch additionally improved the decision of those film information. You may also hearken to the soundtrack, view paintings of from the sport’s improvement and advertising and marketing and re-watch any of Chrono Trigger’s endings that you simply’ve unlocked by way of common play.
Some options are sadly nonetheless lacking: a couple of FMVs stay left on the slicing room ground and the beastiary and dojo discovered within the Nintendo DS launch are additionally nonetheless absent. Others would nonetheless like a carbon copy of the SNES interface to at the very least be an possibility, too.
It’s a disgrace these are lacking, and twice as a lot so on condition that Square say the sport has now seen its last patch of this kind – however it’s however troublesome to understate how spectacular a job that is of fixing this port and making it a worthy model of a basic. Sure, the way in which these updates had been dished out slowly however absolutely over the course of some months whereas gathering fan suggestions does now imply that those that bought Chrono Trigger early on had a type of early entry expertise, however the level is that Square made the trouble to pay attention and make important modifications.
This is actually now a extra spectacular port than, say, the PS4 model of Final Fantasy 7, which is stable however doesn’t have any of the nifty little further options like a CG film gallery. It’s additionally corrected errors that even the higher ports made – so whereas the PC, PS4 cellular variations of Final Fantasy 9 nonetheless function an terrible substitute font that loses the characterful, world-appropriate font from the PS1 days, Chrono Trigger on Steam has mounted that exact same downside.
At greatest I’d anticipated a sprucing of the proverbial turd, however this can be a do-over the likes of which is never seen.
Obviously, I’m happy. Chrono Trigger is a recreation that I take pleasure in a replay of every so often and it’s additionally a recreation as many individuals ought to expertise as doable. That this model is now so prime quality primarily permits extra individuals to discover the thrill of this distinctive little gem, and that’s good. I lit up Square Enix for the poor preliminary launch, and now it solely feels proper to set the file straight: submit patch that is now a worthwhile model, and a must-play for anyone unlucky sufficient to have by no means skilled this basic earlier than.
The title of definitive model will certainly be heartily debated by hardcore followers sooner or later, with the defining factors of the argument now left to extra subjective issues such because the deserves of the much less correct however charming SNES-era translation versus the fashionable one, or the appropriateness of the PS1-era animated cutscenes. Those debates are acceptable.
Of course, the one correct factor to do as a online game fan is now ask for one thing else, proper? That’s what we do to builders, I believe – we’re by no means fairly glad. With the PC model of Chrono Trigger now an absolute magnificence, the following query is apparent: will Square Enix prolong this type of courtesy to the remainder of its basic Steam catalog?
Final Fantasy 8’s PC model nonetheless options really terrible midi music (unusually this downside additionally existed in 7 however was patched – Eight was left with the inferior sound), whereas FF7 lacks function parity with the PS4 and cellular variations. FF9 nonetheless has the garbage font, and naturally the much less stated in regards to the PC variations of FF5 and FF6 with sprite artwork that’s vaguely harking back to that botched restoration of a painting of Jesus the higher. These are all basic video games – so I hope they’re finally all handled with the care, respect and a spotlight to element Chrono Trigger has been within the wake of its botched launch.
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