The PC Port of Chrono Trigger Is Not What People Expected

rgMekanic

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Square Enix surprised everyone with a re-release of 1995s "Chrono Trigger" which gave PC users the ability to buy it for the first time. However disappointment soon set in when people heading to the Steam store page realized that this port is not of the original SNES release, but the mobile version of the game.

As you would expect, many people are unhappy with this, and at the time of writing the Steam reviews are "Mostly Negative" with only 31% of the 82 reviews being positive. Who would have thought selling a bad $10 port of a 23 year old game for $15 would upset people?
 
People clearly love the game. They'd probably much just as much profit if not more doing a proper port. Now they just lost 15$.
 
I wonder how game developers decide how to 'remake' a classic game? Everyone wanted a Chrono Trigger 2 since Chrono Cross disappointed so many people.
 
There is not a single thing these devs can do to appease nostalgia so they probably said f-it.

I do think that some of the devs are missing the boat not releasing fully functional emulators though. I believe it would be a gold mine, but not at $14.99 a game.

Also you can't sell the feeling that you got at 12 years old booting up these games... it isn't attainable again.
 
I wonder how game developers decide how to 'remake' a classic game? Everyone wanted a Chrono Trigger 2 since Chrono Cross disappointed so many people.

The second I hear Millenial Fair tune, I get transported back to a better time. *Sniff*
I've listened to Chrono Cross music, but I've never actually played it.
 
Anyone here tried the PC version of FFV? The reviews aren't that great but it's hard to tell how much of that is simply rose-tinted glasses.
 
There is not a single thing these devs can do to appease nostalgia so they probably said f-it.

I do think that some of the devs are missing the boat not releasing fully functional emulators though. I believe it would be a gold mine, but not at $14.99 a game.

Also you can't sell the feeling that you got at 12 years old booting up these games... it isn't attainable again.

Maybe some of the devs should see if they can license an official emulator. I wouldn't mind buying the game off Steam even if it came packaged that way. Hell if they tossed in the SNES game and an emulator in addition to the mobile port, I think that most people wouldn't complain.
 
Yar, no idea why SE bothers releasing these mobile ports on Steam (reason why I avoided FF V and FF VI for Steam).

Two reasons:

1) They are easy to port to Steam. The engine that gets used (usually either Unity or some hack custom POS that Matrix Software made) can be made to run on the PC with little effort. So it is a cheap, easy, way to add another platform.

2) Dummies will buy and defend it. When FF5 came out I decided to give it a go, since refunds on Steam were a thing. I played it for about an hour, determined that it looked like utter crap, and got a refund. Wrote a review to that effect. I got hundreds of people jumping down my throat defending the game because how dare I speak poorly of a FF title.

If enough people will pay vs how much it costs, they'll keep doing it.
 
Maybe some of the devs should see if they can license an official emulator. I wouldn't mind buying the game off Steam even if it came packaged that way. Hell if they tossed in the SNES game and an emulator in addition to the mobile port, I think that most people wouldn't complain.

Never happen with Nintendo, sadly. Some companies have done just that, the Sega Genesis Classics Collection on Steam, as well as others like it, use an emulator, a customized version of Kega to be precise. Sega approached Steve Snake and asked if he'd be interested in making an emulator for them. He said maybe, but he didn't want to discontinue Kega. They said no problem, he'd be allowed to continue his own work. As such, we have offically sanctioned Sega games running on an emulator that is quite good.

Nintendo though? They HAAAAATE emulation. They believe only they should be allowed to distribute their games, and only on their own platforms, and then only when they want to (like you get a game for awhile and they take it away). They are not at all interested in licensing an emulator and doing it on Steam, it completely goes against their corporate ethos.
 
Ouch

I bet the final fanstasy seven remake is gonna disappoint too.
That is a given. It could be well done and awesome and the nerds will still come out with all the rage. It is impossible to live it to people expectations when something is so hyped up. HL3 could be released tomorrow and people would fucking bitch.
 
Ouch

I bet the final fanstasy seven remake is gonna disappoint too.
Well on one hand there isn't a mobile port, so that aspect isn't going to disappoint. On the other hand people have put FF7 on such a high pedestal, it absolutely will disappoint, I mean it has not aged well, say all you will about how much it touched you, or innovation, or whatever, you play a rom/port of it it today and your first thought is "WTF is this shit?"

I also recall hearing they're going to make it "episodes" so you won't actually get the whole game in one shot, not sure how true that is or if it changed.

That said, these old games should stay right where they are as a part of my nostalgia and that's it, I don't want my warped memory of how great they were being destroyed when I see them with today's hardware.
 
Never happen with Nintendo, sadly. Some companies have done just that, the Sega Genesis Classics Collection on Steam, as well as others like it, use an emulator, a customized version of Kega to be precise. Sega approached Steve Snake and asked if he'd be interested in making an emulator for them. He said maybe, but he didn't want to discontinue Kega. They said no problem, he'd be allowed to continue his own work. As such, we have offically sanctioned Sega games running on an emulator that is quite good.

Nintendo though? They HAAAAATE emulation. They believe only they should be allowed to distribute their games, and only on their own platforms, and then only when they want to (like you get a game for awhile and they take it away). They are not at all interested in licensing an emulator and doing it on Steam, it completely goes against their corporate ethos.

They don't mind licensing an emulator when they sell the "Classic" editions for $60 and $80 running on an ARM chip.
 
There is not a single thing these devs can do to appease nostalgia so they probably said f-it.
I'm pretty sure if they released the game to play almost the same as the SNES version that would have satisfied the nostalgia crowd.

Also you can't sell the feeling that you got at 12 years old booting up these games... it isn't attainable again.
I didn't play Chrono Trigger until years after the fact and I was in my 20s. I thought it was a very solid and deep (experience wise) game and it was easy to see the appeal.
 
I'm pretty sure if they released the game to play almost the same as the SNES version that would have satisfied the nostalgia crowd.

I didn't play Chrono Trigger until years after the fact and I was in my 20s. I thought it was a very solid and deep (experience wise) game and it was easy to see the appeal.

I don't think he was speaking of Chrono Trigger alone, but the general feeling of playing old games when you were younger.

For example, my cousin once said he wished he could wipe his memory and go play FFVII for the first time all over again. Or the feeling when I realized that there was a whole Dark World to A Link to the Past or beating Ocarina of Time for the first time. You can't replicate these feelings with nostalgia systems is his point.
 
It better not be. If there's one remake that shouldn't be F'd up, it's this.

Bad enough it isn't going to be released all at once.

The problem will be that they aren't just upgrading the graphics but making an entirely different game. So it won't be the game that you know but a whole new series of games instead.
 
Well on one hand there isn't a mobile port, so that aspect isn't going to disappoint. On the other hand people have put FF7 on such a high pedestal, it absolutely will disappoint, I mean it has not aged well, say all you will about how much it touched you, or innovation, or whatever, you play a rom/port of it it today and your first thought is "WTF is this shit?"

I also recall hearing they're going to make it "episodes" so you won't actually get the whole game in one shot, not sure how true that is or if it changed.

That said, these old games should stay right where they are as a part of my nostalgia and that's it, I don't want my warped memory of how great they were being destroyed when I see them with today's hardware.

it isn't so much episodes as they are breaking it into 3 games. They are taking the story of the original game, the movie and the multiple FF7 mobile games and having the new game span all stories. So one game say might cover most of the original game, the next will be the rest of that and the movie. Then the last could be all the mobile games combined into one game. i don't know where they are drawing the lines but it isn't that they are taking the game and split it. They are making 3 full length games. Just like how they have multiple games for other parts of the series to tell a full story.
 
On a more positive note a 3D remake of Secret of Mana was released on steam near Valentine’s Day.

Oh ... and just to stir the pot FF6(3 US) > FF7
 
weak-sauce.jpg
 
There is not a single thing these devs can do to appease nostalgia so they probably said f-it.

I do think that some of the devs are missing the boat not releasing fully functional emulators though. I believe it would be a gold mine, but not at $14.99 a game.

Also you can't sell the feeling that you got at 12 years old booting up these games... it isn't attainable again.
Some games are just exciting. I beat Super MARIO RPG this year for the first time and it blew my mind. Started Chrono Trigger right after.

My Vive sits (mostly) unused while I beat classics from the 90s. Maybe it’s more about story then anything else.

Plus these were the games of my generation my parents just wouldn’t buy me an SNES as I had a genesis.
 
Lol that's nothing. I've got a working SNES copy AND a working NDS copy AND a working PS1 copy AND the official soundtrack.

I also have the OST. But the psx port truly was hell. NOT owning that wins that point.
 
It better not be. If there's one remake that shouldn't be F'd up, it's this.

Bad enough it isn't going to be released all at once.

Too much hype, they already said they are changing elements of it..there is less chance at this point that it isn't an embarrassment. There is A LOT of very not "PC by today's standards" stuff in it that honestly if removed takes away from the game.
 
Some games are just exciting. I beat Super MARIO RPG this year for the first time and it blew my mind. Started Chrono Trigger right after.

My Vive sits (mostly) unused while I beat classics from the 90s. Maybe it’s more about story then anything else.

Plus these were the games of my generation my parents just wouldn’t buy me an SNES as I had a genesis.

Man, that was the golden age for square. FF6, Mario RPG, and Chrono were such good games. I own all of the SNES carts as well as several of the re-releases. People heap praise on FF4 too, but I don't think it's even close. FF6 had a friggin opera.

Sorry you missed out. SNES was a really amazing system. Unlike N64, many of the great games still hold up really well. Mario World, Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and so many others still are fun to play.
 
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