Whats with the pixelated sprites and why do people like them so much?

[肥鸽]

Sorry, i really want to buy this, because i have never played this on the SNES. I did play Secret Of Mana though and i thought it was good.

Anyway fastforward less than 2 decades later, i thoroughly welcome the FF VI remake. better backgrounds. HD character sprites. Awesome. I thought the game retained the flavor and feel of the SNES original, but refreshed for a new era of gamers, and importantly, resolution.

FOR GOD'S SAKE when it was made, we were already @ 1920 X 1080 resolution. Not 640 X 480.

I literally cried when i saw the Secret Of Mana remake. I thought it was the best thing ever. Don't quite understand why people are giving it so much poop on Steam reviews? Mixed? Only 68% positive? what the frat was that?

Looking at the Legend Of Mana, and even this Chronotrigger, i really cringe. All that time spent on beauitful backgrounds for that game. and the sprites r so pixelized, i wanna beat myself so bad.

I know people want to feel nostalgia and all that. Then go back to play the game on the PS1 and SNES. I have waited for eons just for someone to do a sprite rework on Chronotrigger. But i guess thats not happening. I want to play the game but i can't stand the stupid sprites.

If i want to see sprites, i'll go back to an SNES and a PS1.

For God's sake we are in the era of 4K, thats 3840 x 2160, not 640 x 480.


@ least something to the standards of Final Fantasy VI. that was very very well done.

This lvl of low reso sprites, it shouldnt have been released in the first place. and they call those games remasters/remakes....

Come on.

[[deleted]]

Well to start.
Pixel Art = Pixelated.
Yeah the old were meant to blend on old crt monitors, but they look good is raw pixel on High res monitors.

Don't compare this to other games and you should gain some appreciation for it.

[NairBoT]

Both 3D mobile quality and pixelated 2D quality suck.
I go a 3rd direction.

Legend Of Mana, I pretty sure they just turned that into a 3D mobile game.

For Chrono and Legend, if you don't like the pixelated 2D art than just apply your own 2D shader filter to smooth it out and make it look more modern.
2D Scaler Shader is my favorite, you can apply it to game with ReShade shader overlay.

I will take 2D with a nice filter over crappy 3D mobile quality all day.

[Sifer2]

The Secret of Mana remake was visually pretty neat but changed a lot of other stuff related to the gameplay which I think was part of why a lot of people hated it. If all they did was faithfully remake Chrono Trigger like that most would probably be ok with it. It would be similar to that fan made 3D remake that was in the works before Square shut it down, then proceeded to do nothing with this IP for the past decade afterwards.

[Gamephreak5]

Original pixelated sprites are more charming and look more authentic to how they were originally made.

The FFV and FFVI remakes look ugly by comparison because their HD sprites aren't proportional to the world, the screen, the rooms, the battle arenas, etc. HD sprites look VERY out of place and look fake in what was originally a SNES game, like they were made in RPG Maker V by someone who didn't get the charm or appeal for the original design and artwork.

The HD sprites look sterile, like they were naked, bald, human shaped templates that were then made to look "similar" to the original characters.

[Daedalus007]

Originally posted by 肥鸽:

Sorry, i really want to buy this, because i have never played this on the SNES. I did play Secret Of Mana though and i thought it was good.
Anyway fastforward less than 2 decades later, i thoroughly welcome the FF VI remake. better backgrounds. HD character sprites. Awesome. I thought the game retained the flavor and feel of the SNES original, but refreshed for a new era of gamers, and importantly, resolution.
FOR GOD'S SAKE when it was made, we were already @ 1920 X 1080 resolution. Not 640 X 480.
I literally cried when i saw the Secret Of Mana remake. I thought it was the best thing ever. Don't quite understand why people are giving it so much poop on Steam reviews? Mixed? Only 68% positive? what the frat was that?
Looking at the Legend Of Mana, and even this Chronotrigger, i really cringe. All that time spent on beauitful backgrounds for that game. and the sprites r so pixelized, i wanna beat myself so bad.
I know people want to feel nostalgia and all that. Then go back to play the game on the PS1 and SNES. I have waited for eons just for someone to do a sprite rework on Chronotrigger. But i guess thats not happening. I want to play the game but i can't stand the stupid sprites.
If i want to see sprites, i'll go back to an SNES and a PS1.
For God's sake we are in the era of 4K, thats 3840 x 2160, not 640 x 480.
@ least something to the standards of Final Fantasy VI. that was very very well done.
This lvl of low reso sprites, it shouldnt have been released in the first place. and they call those games remasters/remakes....
Come on.

I don't know the standards of the gamers from Singapore, but I'm disheartened by how little you are aware of the glory of pixel art. 2D pixel art is not only in demand with older gamers but gamers across multiple generations (basically everyone) who enjoys that aesthetic. It is similar to how there are people who like 35mm film and black & white films and 1930s fashion and jazz music and a lot of 'old timey' things.

Everyone has their own preferences and even hobbies with gaming being one of the most popular entertainment-related hobbies in the entire world that has gotten so large it completely dwarfs all other media COMBINED (well only if you include mobile gaming in the mix so eh).

Chrono Trigger originally released for the SNES. This is more of a (lazy) port to PC using the mobile version as a base. Contrary to what you believe, replacing beautiful pixel art with absolutely ATROCIOUS fugly mobile garbage smudges instead of using the original sprites was NOT a popular move. The game offers an option for 'original' SNES pixel art and the 'new' art they did if you are more into that.

Appreciate the game for what it is, more than two decades later still being a fantastic and amazing engaging experience for gamers of all generations to enjoy.

It is nowhere near perfect, far from it. I've modded CT and I know how some things work while the rest might as well be spaghetti-code to me. But it is very elegant code regardless, even if beyond my full comprehension. There are triggers, timers, event tiles, and so much more. What many pundits in articles online don't realize is those 'unreachable' chests in certain areas may just be 'trigger' chests that open/close to activate certain events or not. RPGMaker has a similar system (at least it did back in RPGMaker XP days) but I'm not sure if there are modern RPGMaker games that use a similar tactic. It allows for easier debugging and visually checking if a certain event trigger has activated.

CT has a lot of issues, as stated. Many bugs from the original SNES version were semi-recently patched in an updated compilation[www.chronocompendium.com] of community fixes[www.romhacking.net], I'm credited there under an old username I used way back before I realized Steam censored it. I put both links so people can grab from whichever one they find easier to use.

I cannot speak confidently about the Secret of Mana remake, but I believe the poor reviews may be due to design and/or technical decisions made that upset those who purchased the game. The major one I noticed were the fetishistic/inappropriate 'fanservice' costumes released for female characters.

[Psythik]

I couldn't agree more with you OP. I just bought the game and I am EXTREMELY disappointed by how pixelated the game looks compared to how it looked on an actual SNES on a CRT TV. The game was NOT the blocky mess back then that it is today. The limitations of those TVs smoothed out the image and made the game look WAY better than the blocky sharp pixels that we're getting in the Steam version.

Playing the game in a SNES emulator with an HQx filter (like HQ4x) looks so much better, and closer to how I remember it looking back in the day (except in HD now). I'm disappointed that I wasted $8 on a official version of a game that looks so much worse than an illegal version in an emulator. I am going to request a refund and wait for a version that has all the extra content missing from the SNES version + decent pixel filtering, even if it takes a lifetime.

[J[Y]anin]

Urg, the fluffy 'new' sprites of FFVI make me not want to play the newer remake versions on various platforms. And I loved the hell out of it when I was a kid. I'd imported a SNES from the US and the game at great cost to future pocket money, lol

[Daedalus007]

I still own a copy of Chrono Trigger on PS1, but I emulate the SNES version for convenience and modding capabilities :)
The best port of the game to this day is still the Nintendo DS version. Shame that the PC port was based on the trash mobile one instead of the DS version as it lacks many of the features from it (Monster Arena, Bestiary, etc).