Without any prior announcement whatsoever, Chrono Trigger, the popular JRPG from Square Enix, is now available on Steam for $14.99. There will be a limited-edition version available for only a certain amount of time. This limited edition will include a few sound tracks, some PC wallpapers to download, and “digital liner notes” from composer Yasunori Mitsuda free of charge until April 2.
The PC release of Chrono Trigger also boasts updated features that were only found on its Nintendo DS, IOS, and Android releases. These features include updated graphics and sounds, along with keyboard and mouse support, and both the Nintendo DS version’s bonus dungeons; the Dimensional Vortex and Lost Sanctum. Features specific to Steam will also be supported within the game such as achievements, trading cards, and Steam Cloud saving. Developer Square Enix also stated that the game will now support Apple TV and cloud saves as well.
Chrono Trigger is also now available on the Amazon App Store. Along with this release the IOS and Android versions of the game will also receive these new features and updates. Although Chrono Trigger has been quite popular since it’s release on the SNES in 1995, and fans were intitially quite happy to see it playable on Steam, this port hasn’t exactly been well-received by longtime fans.
The PC version is a direct port of the mobile versions and there have reportedly been issues with all sorts of features including the controls which are generally “wonky” and still contain remnants of the touch-screen interface. One of the many disappointed reviews for the game on Steam stated “A very lazy port of the mobile version of the game. The tap overlay is still there as if you should be clicking it with a mouse even when you play with a gamepad. Just overall bad UI and the aliasing of the sprites is excessive. I’ll be sticking to the DS or SNES version instead.” There is also no feature that allows players to remap said controls.
The overall visual aspects of the game have drawn complaints as well, due to a pixel smoothing filter that players are unable to turn off. The reviews for the game on Steam are mostly negative at this point. “All you need to know is that this is a straight port of the mobile version, and includes a horrible font and disgusting sprite filtering, There are no graphics options apart from resolution,” one review of the PC version reads. The developer stated that the game will support a wide range of resolutions while truthfully the game will be locked to the resolution of your display. One game developer even had a few choice words to say about the port on Twitter:
The port is said to even be under par for those experiencing Chrono Trigger for the first time without having the original game to compare too. Hopefully Square Enix will continue to update the game to bring it up to the standards that made fans of the original fall in love with it.