Why the Hate?

[ThatOneGuyWithAFork]

I just finished playing through this version of Chrono Trigger, and I had an absolute blast. After I finished it, I found out that this port is widely believed to be of poor quality. Why is this? I have never played the original SNES release or any other versions of this game (PS1/DS).

[Rubens_BRA]

Because of the initial bugs on it, after all the ajusts and tests the game is working fine, or almost fine depend of the PC

[Odjn Ryu]

As someone who loves the SNES and DS versions, this one feels like a huge downgrade and I feel immense buyer's remorse even after buying it on sale.

*The field and battle UI was needlessly messed with and feels very tacky and visually unappealing in comparison to the SNES/DS versions.

*Diagonal movement on the field causes awkward stuttering in the sprites.

*Screen tearing and jittery scrolling as the screen moves

*BGM resets from the beginning after battle; both SNES/DS continues the BGM where it left off prior to battle.

*They forced in tacky-looking HP/ATB bars that you need to install a mod to remove instead of letting you turn them completely off.

*The pixel font they eventually patched in was "ok" but isn't as good as the original SNES font.

*No scanline or retro-style filters; you're stuck with smoothed out sprites or sharp sprites when they should've also taken into account proper integer scaling options in reference to the original game resolution.

My Steam play count shows around 2+ hours played and all I've been doing is trying to install mods and retro filters to make this look and perform better and I still feel nowhere near close to making this a desirable version of the game to play.

Some may dismiss my criticisms as nit-picking, but when we're talking about one of the most critically-acclaimed 16-bit JRPGs of all time, I think you're allowed to nitpick when aspects of the original game are bizarrely altered and not enough care and attention to detail is given in comparison to some of the other retro collections out there.

I so badly wanted this version to be the definitive way to play Chrono Trigger, but I'm just not feeling it. They could've plopped the SNES or DS rom into an emulator and call it a day and that still would've been better than this port.

[Darc]

To add to the above.

In combat on the steam version there is a lot of delay in input when changing from tech menu back out and to item menu or switching from character to character.

Also in the Snes and DS versions you can have your battle menu saved and it will change how the top face button works in combat. The top face button will instead choose attack without moving the cursor and you can just leave your cursor on tech/item. But with the steam version the top face button is auto battle and there is not a way to get this feature back.

TLDR Combat is clunkier on the steam version.

[Bloody Ring]

Originally posted by Odjn Ryu:

As someone who loves the SNES and DS versions, this one feels like a huge downgrade and I feel immense buyer's remorse even after buying it on sale.

*The field and battle UI was needlessly messed with and feels very tacky and visually unappealing in comparison to the SNES/DS versions.

*Diagonal movement on the field causes awkward stuttering in the sprites.

*Screen tearing and jittery scrolling as the screen moves

*BGM resets from the beginning after battle; both SNES/DS continues the BGM where it left off prior to battle.

*They forced in tacky-looking HP/ATB bars that you need to install a mod to remove instead of letting you turn them completely off.

*The pixel font they eventually patched in was "ok" but isn't as good as the original SNES font.

*No scanline or retro-style filters; you're stuck with smoothed out sprites or sharp sprites when they should've also taken into account proper integer scaling options in reference to the original game resolution.

My Steam play count shows around 2+ hours played and all I've been doing is trying to install mods and retro filters to make this look and perform better and I still feel nowhere near close to making this a desirable version of the game to play.

Some may dismiss my criticisms as nit-picking, but when we're talking about one of the most critically-acclaimed 16-bit JRPGs of all time, I think you're allowed to nitpick when aspects of the original game are bizarrely altered and not enough care and attention to detail is given in comparison to some of the other retro collections out there.

I so badly wanted this version to be the definitive way to play Chrono Trigger, but I'm just not feeling it. They could've plopped the SNES or DS rom into an emulator and call it a day and that still would've been better than this port.

anything fixed/added?

[mettlegear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxzFLfx0-tM

[Storm Reaver]

Yeah, the Battle UI is terrible.

Also. Lost Sanctum quests are garbage.
Why they never fixed them? I don't know.

[mettlegear]

But the Steam version at least has the more accurate translation, right? The original SNES game's writing was very censored. That may be a factor for some people when choosing which version to play.

[ThexRedxJester]

Honestly, the game plays fine. You have alot of "Elites" out around the field trying to critic the game to death because they're not happy. Well, go buy the DS version, half of you had the DS version then sold it to gamestop probably,,oh well, Enjoy the steam version or pay the money for the ds version back. Everything works great on my end for this game. small things you can simply overlook and enjoy the story without fail.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Originally posted by ThexRedxJester:

Honestly, the game plays fine. You have alot of "Elites" out around the field trying to critic the game to death because they're not happy. Well, go buy the DS version, half of you had the DS version then sold it to gamestop probably,,oh well, Enjoy the steam version or pay the money for the ds version back. Everything works great on my end for this game. small things you can simply overlook and enjoy the story without fail.

Im a old gamer...although i like my snes version the best, better than the ps1 or the ds version, this version is ok. Im not a elitest. Just a opinioner. Anyways, there is nothing wrong with the steam version. Played it several times already when i was camping and traveling.

[Daniel]

The original game is literally a 3.5MB rom. They sell a 3.5MB game for 10+ bucks in 2023, yet it doesn’t run on a 5k PC, which just feels like a scam.

Meanwhile I can just dl an emulator and said rom and it runs perfectly, for free. Logic fail.

[HenshinAria]

Honestly, this is the definitive version for me. I've emulated the SNES version and owned the DS version, and this version is just perfect. If you need scanlines you can just install ReShade.

[Zogtar]

Originally posted by Daniel:

The original game is literally a 3.5MB rom. They sell a 3.5MB game for 10+ bucks in 2023, yet it doesn’t run on a 5k PC, which just feels like a scam.

Meanwhile I can just dl an emulator and said rom and it runs perfectly, for free. Logic fail.

Yeah, but big money Nintendo and Square are pushing to end emulation forever. Good luck with that when you become a corporate owned production unit.

Fare well in the future, UPC #4236845

[Rampage]

because everything they did to it made the game worse.
The SNES version is still the best and thats a sad thing when its almost 2024

[Doctor Tex]

If you have no way to play the SNES or DS version, and your only option is Steam, it's ultimately harmless.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Originally posted by Doctor Tex:

If you have no way to play the SNES or DS version, and your only option is Steam, it's ultimately harmless.

Considering the price of it on ebay or other places, this is the best version for the price. BTW, did you hear this story about a bunch of old SNES games found in a closed store?

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/29/1215866633/video-games-nintendo-nebraska-collection-sega-genesis

It has a bunch of copies of Chrono Trigger never opened.