If Final Fantasy is the holy father of RPGs, Chrono Trigger is essentially the mother god.

Since emulators and roms are just illegal and hard to find these days (pun me), this version still remains the easiest and the best option for any computer, assuming you don't own any other console who has it. This is the first time I get to pay for Chrono Trigger's game directly, because on the 90s I could only afford to rent the cartridge. Rental ended up more expensive in the long run.

Over Playstation 1's case it isn't illegal to own an emulator if you have the original CD - if that still exists, since you can port a physical drive to use the original's. I'm back to play Chrono after more than 25 years, thus my impression may be different from yours. On Steam its about how easy it is to grab it already. Yet I believe it was a good call to wait for a discount. Explaining why after this;



https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2976337882

A little friend I made I call "Bigode" (Brazilian for mustache) came exactly the day I installed Chrono Trigger, after years without playing it. Funny coincidence, since cats are everywhere in there. This game holds an special place on the heart, best companion I had as an isolated kid I used to be. Now revisiting as an adult, the game looks far better than I could see.

This version seems to pull from the Playstation era due Akira Toriyama's anime that has been inserted to give more life to the game's main events. Original characters were his own design from the start, it all gives the game this coziness only such design could offer, very easy to get attached to.

The story is epic but cute. Written by Masato Kato and Takashi Tokita, Yoshinori Kitase and Yuji Horii, mostly due the character's psychology and time-travel. It is not just the story, time travel is downright a game mechanic that impact the world. "The egg of time" chapter sounds funny and cute, but has the smartest time-bending paradox from any sci-fi I have seen. Funny this ancient game got real choice structures along it, not just "final decisions" like today.

Chrono Trigger has 12 different endings, while games of today finds 1000 excuses just to have 2 endings. Game is old, yes. Outdated? Never.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2976378990

Chrono Trigger got the best turn-based combat due innovative and intuitive mechanics, giving it real-time rather than dices rolling. Back when CC (critical chance) and AOD (area of damage) really mattered, before action-RPG became a norm. It will be a challenge, since this version is the hardest to play than any other I tried. The difficulty can be swapped by speed, even halt time, so the default mode is easier, but proper tactics always matters. You must pay attention, observe and act to succeed.

The music does not strike exactly because of instruments, since this is 16 bits era. It is the notes that are important. Not even the 32 bits had any remixes but there are plenty on the internet still. There are no voices to hear but only text to read, but as soon immersion is on, then the BGM - old term for original sound track, strikes beautifully. Music is great, all thanks to god-like composers; Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. Zeal in particular stands the corridors of time it preaches about, as an immortal classic.

Looks nothing now, but the attention to details gave the devs a lot of work back then. Usually the pixel RPGs of the 16 bit era didn't had it like this, games like Lufia or even Zelda or Phantasy Star used to ignore it for memory saving. Chrono Trigger makes it cooler and even funnier by adding scripted little moves to conversations.

Back when Japanese products such as anime and games were not just self-absorbed, it was an actual experience to have. It was an honor to have it all again, and I can only thank the original creators. I hope this game never has any remake, I fear losing the game's soul.


It was nice to go back in time and I mean literally. My first 10 as a curator! A game so enjoyable, compelling and complete. Replay-factor is awesome due the New Game+ and multiple different endings. If you love RPG this game is a must, if you're not, then maybe its time to be.


Some people says that gamers complains too much. Well I believe we don't complain enough, as companies keep pulling dumb moves;

Resolution is a crazy mess and you're better off trying to find mods such as Pixel Demaster[www.nexusmods.com] and others alike. Honestly, you can tweak better graphics with emulators. In any case, fans programmed, assembled and released them for free. Corporations wants our money and won't even provide a complete product because we rarely hold them accountable.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2976376827


For the gameplay, in-game codes such as "LARA" or "XABY" etc. using the controller, won't work like that anymore, not even with Xbox controller which has a similar layout of the keys from the Snes. For PC, there is no in-game option to go back to the menu. Want to load another save? Then exit the game, reload it all again.

There is also some sort of issue with the always-run, so you're better off with the manual running. The running is glitchy, just toggling manual assignment on the settings works better. Yep. They managed to screw with the most basic true/false command ever; Run? Yes/no.

There are good new stuff on the interface such as direct equip via the store menu, assembling numbers of items before buying, cool and all, but not when it acts up weird.

What really worries me; Lots of dialogues have been badly translated or revised wrongly, actually since PS1 version. The worst lines comes from Frog's. They removed most of his middle-ages style; "thou, art, covereth," etc. Melchior's philosophy about weapons is gone or rewritten. Strange changes like Johnny's nickname to "Bro" instead of "The Man."

First fight against Magus after acquiring the Masamune is really hard, but also pivotal to the plot. On the Snes version, If you bring Robo he'll scold Magus with science and history, it reveals key points to it. However on the PC, he'll just accepts Magus wrong statements, it adds nothing. This was one example of a hundred others.

Someone from SquarEnix did an inferior job that a fan would never do, whilst charging you. Plus several glitches both graphical and of FPS timing, undermining the awesome work done by Snes engineers even without the FX microchip. Back in the days it costed Square a heap of money to make the game and to convert it between generations.

It is playable, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much better. Nowadays SquarEnix probably spent 12 bucks, 100g of weed and some La Blue Girl issue to pay for this port and still came up weird, despise the rewards. I even had some crashes.

Well then, given this situation I'm forced to build up the following theories;

- Our time sucks and karma may be the responsible for low-effort spawns.

- Old developers are all retired, dead or became all greedy.

- New devs lacks inspiration or passion or whatever.

- Maybe it was a single person doing it for only half a month. Like Doom for 32x was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs_EAZXTZJ0&ab_channel=CyberGothika


If you like this review, follow my curator page

Cards for Steam deck are really a cute addition. There is a card combo attack used to be Snes cover with the classic mistake; Marle using fire instead of ice. There are no emojis nor background though but I heard it used to have in 2018. Whoever has it is a lucky bastard.