I called it a perfect example of how not to re-release a classic game. More than anything, it felt like the port lacked respect for its highly respected and beloved source. Well, credit is owed to the behemoth Japanese publisher: I've been playing the game a little since its final patch last week, and most complaints have been fully sorted out. Square Enix took the criticism to heart and over the course of a string of hefty patches have slowly turned this into something that actually could be argued as the best version of Chrono Trigger. I lit up Square Enix for the poor initial release, and now it only feels right to set the record straight: post patch, this is now a worthwhile version. This is honestly a really shocking development, not least because Square Enix has left the also hideous mobile versions of Final Fantasy 5 and 6 on Steam untouched for years. At best I'd expected a polishing of the proverbial turd, but this is a do-over the likes of which is rarely seen. This is now a good version of this great game. It took Square too long to get here, but at least the publisher did in the end. Whatever area of the game you look at most of the issues raised with the initial release have been vigorously attacked and fixed.
The nasty filtered sprites and mismatched background tiles were dealt with early on, as pictured above. The font, which had been changed to a fairly generic one, has been restored to something more evocative of the Super NES original. The best changes are to the UI and menus, all of which have been ripped inside out with the developers clearly working hard to find a way to restore menus that are more reminiscent of those from the controller-based SNES original while perhaps keeping one or two quality-of-life changes more suited to a modern release of the game.
There's even new content including an extras menu that features a bunch of frequent fan-requested additions.
Via this section players can now repeat view the animated story scenes that were added to the PS1 release of the game and feature in this version - and one patch also improved the resolution of these movie files. You can also listen to the soundtrack, view artwork of from the game's development and marketing and re-watch any of Chrono Trigger's endings that you've unlocked through regular play. Some features are sadly still missing: a few FMVs remain left on the cutting room floor and the beastiary and dojo found in the Nintendo DS release are also still absent. Others would still like a carbon copy of the SNES interface to at least be an option, too. It's a shame these are missing, and twice as much so given that Square say the game has now seen its final patch of this type - but it is nevertheless difficult to understate how impressive a job this is of fixing this port and making it a worthy version of a classic.
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