Chrono Trigger | Cheerful Ghost

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 21: Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is a classic RPG originally released in 1995 by Square-Enix back when they were still Squaresoft. It is considered by many as one of the greatest video games of the 16 bit era. Visitors to Cheerful Ghost have probably read Jon’s post about having recently played the game for the first time. This is one of Tim’s favorite games of all time, so the two of them sat down to discuss how they see the game coming at it at very different times in their lives.

Square Is Brining Chrono Trigger On Steam Back To It's Original SNES Graphical Roots

When Chrono Trigger hit Steam it was widely panned by fans for two problems. Firstly the menus were mostly ported from the mobile version and PC players didn't seem to like that and the original pixel graphics were smoothed down and don't look great on high resolution displays. Square posted today that they've heard this feedback and will release an update to add a mode for fans to play Chrono Trigger with the original pixel art graphical style of the original SNES version.

"We’re aiming to release the first of these patches in the first half of April, and the biggest change is that it will include an option to switch between the current high-resolution graphics, and... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/04/2018 at 03:47am

Awesome!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/04/2018 at 03:50am

I'm glad Square is doing this. Steam games, because of sales and bundles, can have a long lifespan and if a game is supported and is what fans want it's reputation will mean more sales over it's life than just a flash in the pan fizzle which this game seemed to get because of it's poor reviews. Well, I can't speak to it's sales but the reviews were not very good for the fact that this game is a classic and considered by some to be the best game of all time.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/04/2018 at 05:30pm

I'm glad they're doing it, even though I haven't bought it yet. I added it to my wishlist before this announcement, thinking I'd see it for myself. It's nice to know that a company is actually doing something with fan feedback.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/11/2018 at 02:32am

Looks like the new patch addresses many concerns and the latest Steam reviews seem to suggest people like them. Nice to see Chrono Tigger on PC getting some love.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/04/10/chrono-triggers-first-patch-is-a-step-in-the-right-direction/

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/11/2018 at 07:09am

Cool! Thanks for the link!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/03/2018 at 08:17pm

Chrono Trigger just received it's final major update. As you know, it was released and received some negative feedback, so the developers decided to give it a few updates. Now that all those major updates have been released, I think I'll continue playing. I'm only disappointed that they didn't add the ability to change the color of the text box, I don't like the gray, I want blue!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/03/2018 at 09:17pm

I think that was a fairly popular staple of Square RPG's to change the window style and color. Too bad it isn't included in the PC version.

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Chrono Trigger Is Out On Steam And Getting Unfortunate Reviews

Chrono Trigger unceremoniously launched on Steam today and it seems the initial reviews of it... aren't great. Clipping out a few for your reading pleasure

"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."

"This is a port from mobile,
It only disappoints.
But Steam will refund
All my 15 silver points."

It's mostly all bad reviews but a few are positive.

"Chrono Trigger is one of the best RPG's ever made. I had it on SNES, then lost it. I am very glad it is finally on Steam. "

Chrono Trigger is one of the most beloved games of the 16 bit era and it seems like Square is releasing it's... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/28/2018 at 04:36am

Cool, thanks for the info. I was distracted by other news today, the release of the demo for Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition.

I think it'd be great to have this on PC. I'll have to look at it more to decide whether or not to grab it.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/01/2018 at 04:46am

I watched a gameplay video and there are some bizarre choices. Since it's a direct mobile port, there's a constant "menu" button on the screen even though you're playing (probably) with a gamepad and can't click it. Even if you weren't, the Esc key is always there.

And the weird filter they have over it is honestly a little uncomfortable to look at. The original sprites without any scanline emulation would be far preferable.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/01/2018 at 05:16am

I agree that the pixel art being chunky would be better than that OR just allow an option for original pixels or the smoothed out thing they are doing. It does that on the DS version but the screen is so low res it's not that noticeable. But you really do notice it when your at 1080p or higher!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/31/2018 at 06:03am

I just got it, so I'm jumping in after they've updated it at least once (there's another update planned). It looks fine to me with the "high resolution" graphics settings. The "original" graphics settings looks more pixelated, like the original lol. That menu button Travis mentioned does appear, but it's in the bottom of the screen to the right. It's not really too noticeable, I think it disappears sometimes, but it's also definitely unnecessary. I'm playing w/ a controller and I just hit that top button (Y on XBox 360 controller) to get into the menu. I really liked the opening cinematic, but I think maybe that was included on the PS version. Otherwise, my only complaint really is that it seems I'm stuck with gray boxes (for text and menu) when I'd rather customize it (to blue). I don't recall being able to do that in this game, but I remember I was able to do so on FFVII.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/01/2018 at 01:08am

Glad you got it. Love to hear your review of the game!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2018 at 02:42am

So far I'm not disappointed, just wish I could change the color of the menu/text box. I didn't play the game until 2000 or so, after I was Travis's roommate and before 9/11.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/01/2018 at 02:48am

I am honored to be part of how you remember when things happened! :D

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2018 at 03:03am

Well I was Jake's roommate at the time, so yeah you fit in there. Plus, I've been listening to Cowboy Mouth a bit recently. Hell, I still dream I'm at RU for some reason. LOL

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I Finally Know Why The Game Is Called Chrono Trigger!

As I continue on with my playthrough of Chrono Trigger the game keeps getting a bit better each time. Since the game has been out for over twenty years i'm going to talk about some plot spoilers so if you are planning on playing this fresh, you might want to avoid reading more.

Firstly as someone that didn't play much of Chrono Trigger when it was originally launched on the Super Nintendo I don't have any particular nostalgia for this title. That said, the game does borrow some graphical and sound elements from past Square games, such as the wind sound effect from Final Fantasy VI. That said, I do have some pretty minor nits about the game and the biggest one is that... Read All As I continue on with my playthrough of Chrono Trigger the game keeps getting a bit better each time. Since the game has been out for over twenty years i'm going to talk about some plot spoilers so if you are planning on playing this fresh, you might want to avoid reading more.

Firstly as someone that didn't play much of Chrono Trigger when it was originally launched on the Super Nintendo I don't have any particular nostalgia for this title. That said, the game does borrow some graphical and sound elements from past Square games, such as the wind sound effect from Final Fantasy VI. That said, I do have some pretty minor nits about the game and the biggest one is that it throws a lot of new plot level characters at you pretty quickly to the point that I was confused a few times. That said the game does stop adding new plot characters at one point which allowed me to catch up. I imagine if you've played this game a lot it's easy to make sense of all of it but Chrono Trigger is so quickly paced that it's hard to keep your finger on what's going on.

SPOILERS AHEAD. FOR REAL PEOPLE YOU CAN'T UNREAD THIS ONE BELOW

So I just got to the part in the game where Crono sacrifices himself to save the group when they are fighting Lavos. It's a surprising turn, which I didn't see coming and I am now working on bringing him back. It's an interesting choice to kill of the main character and for a bit I wondering if he would just be out of the game entirely? That said, since it's sci-fi the group already has a plan on how to bring him back of sorts which involves a Chrono Trigger, time egg and a replica doll of Crono himself. It's cool that the game is totally going all Search for Spock to bring him back and these kinds of moments are why Chrono Trigger is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time.

I'm not sure how much more I have of the game yet to play before "the end" but it feels like i'm at least half way or more through it. Playing the DS version has been great because I can play it anywhere and if you have the chance to play that version I highly recommend it. In the future if I want to play Chrono Trigger again I'll play the original Super Nintendo version but you can't beat playing it on the go so if you want to give Chrono Trigger a shot you can pick it up on your smartphone or DS.

If you want to read more about this playthrough of Chrono Trigger check out my other post below:

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3594/chrono-trigger-it-s-about-time

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2018 at 08:06pm

Awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying it. There is actually another Chrono game, called Chrono Cross. I have it for the PS1 and I'm sure Travis remembers me playing it while we were roommates. I wish that game would get an HD makeover and come to Steam. Oh and speaking of which, Secret of Mana is available on Steam now, I think.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/18/2018 at 11:11pm

Yeah, the HD remake of Mana is on steam and it seems to be getting mixed reviews. I disliked the Mana version they brought to iOS and I do plan on playing the new HD PC version at some point even though it’s getting savaged with reviews.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2018 at 11:30pm

It's on my wish list. There was a classic Final Fantasy I didn't buy on Steam. It was the DS version or something, I wasn't too fond of the portable remake, so I understand what you mean.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:20am

I not only remember you playing it, Greg. If you remember, I played it too! It’s a really good game. Very different from Trigger (though I admittedly haven’t played much of Trigger). I don’t think either of us enjoyed it as much as Ed though, that dude loved it.

It took me a long time to convince him that JRPGs weren’t demonic but once he was there, man, he was all in.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:24am

And it looks like the Secret of Mana mixed reviews are due to bugs so hopefully those get hammered out.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:38am

Ah, great memories, Travis. Thanks for the reminders. I tried to play it again years ago, but I couldn't get over how bad it looks now.

And of course I remember you got me into JRPGs, too!

Travis Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 04:07am

There are certain games from that generation (especially on PSX, but also things like Goldeneye on N64) that looked incredible at the time but definitely haven't aged well. It was kind of a transitional generation. Most everything before that holds up graphically, most everything after does as well. I guess it makes sense-- it was when they were first trying for more realism.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/20/2018 at 03:04am

Yeah, I don't find most of the early gen Playstation to hold up well at all compared to 8 or 16 bit. PERSONALLY I think the 64 games hold up better but it's because of the limitations of the system and they had less textures to work with making the plain color polygons hold up better when blown up. At least to me eye they look a bit better.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/20/2018 at 03:20am

Especially Nintendo-made games on the N64. They've always made games that use the generation's capabilities while never striving for that kind of realism, so they stand the test of time.

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Chrono Trigger. It's About Time.

jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

When the Super Nintendo Classic released last year one game people thought was missing was Square's classic RPG Chrono Trigger. I agree with that thought but the SNES Classic's inclusion of Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, Earthbound and Super Mario RPG really give the SNES Classic the best of breed RPG's of that generation. All that said, Chrono Trigger is one of those games I missed playing as it came out later in the Super Nintendo's lifecycle. I put it on my list of games to play in 2018 and recently started it and I'm going to write about how that's going from time to time until I beat it.

"A chance encounter amid the festivities of Guardia's Millennial Fair in... Read All When the Super Nintendo Classic released last year one game people thought was missing was Square's classic RPG Chrono Trigger. I agree with that thought but the SNES Classic's inclusion of Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, Earthbound and Super Mario RPG really give the SNES Classic the best of breed RPG's of that generation. All that said, Chrono Trigger is one of those games I missed playing as it came out later in the Super Nintendo's lifecycle. I put it on my list of games to play in 2018 and recently started it and I'm going to write about how that's going from time to time until I beat it.

"A chance encounter amid the festivities of Guardia's Millennial Fair in Leene Square introduces our young hero, Crono, to a girl by the name of Marle.

Deciding to explore the fair together, the two soon find themselves at an exhibition of the Telepod, the latest invention by Crono's longtime friend Lucca."

After only a couple hours playing Chrono Trigger I understand why this game is one of the most beloved RPG games of the Super Nintendo Era. Released after Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger is a game made at the height of "Square in peak RPG creation mode." The game feels like it's a mashup of the best parts of Secret of Mana and the Final Fantasy series that goes an entirely new direction with a fresh world and characters. Chrono Trigger keeps the top down overworld of Final Fantasy VI but goes a bit of a different direction graphically as it's not in the Super Nintendo's mode 7. Chrono Trigger borrows some fighting elements from Secret of Mana but pulls it together in the same turn based battle system from Final Fantasy.

The music from Chrono Trigger was co-written by Nobuo Uematsu who worked on the music for Final Fantasy VI. Just like most other aspects of Chrono Trigger the music feels like a best of breed 16-bit square game but also goes it's own direction as to not be mimicry. In fact i'd say the music really tips the game into something very special and I can see why fans find it so compelling.

So far i've been taking my time moving through the game and talking to people in the world while exploring as much of it I can before moving on. I'm also spending a bit more time level and gold grinding for fun and to be prepared for boss and dungeon encounters. So far it feels like i'm in the intro to the game so nothing is terribly difficult but i'm feeling out the game systems, learning what tech combos to use and the general flow of the battle system.

One cool part about playing Chrono Trigger for the first time in 2018 is that i've never played it before so I am playing it entirely fresh, something I wish I could do with other games like Secret of Mana or Link to the Past. The game holds up very well and at no point during my playthrough so far did the game feel antiquated or boring. In fact, I really understand why people rank this game so high and i'm glad I decided to pick this up when I did. Since Super Nintendo carts of Chrono Trigger sell upwards of $150 I decided to pickup the DS version and i'm playing that on my 3DS. It's a good version that pulls in a newer translation than the SNES version with some extra content but keeps the graphics and music of the original SNES version.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/09/2018 at 06:34am

I got into Chrono Trigger around 2001 or so. I still have the Playstation copy. It's a good game, I enjoyed it. There are a variety of things to do and different endings, I believe.

Travis Admin wrote on 01/09/2018 at 04:22pm

I have that PS version as well. I barely played it at the time, I need to get back to it at some point. I find that I have problems keeping interest older JRPGs that I don’t have a nostalgic connection with, but there are some classics like this that I feel like I’m missing out on because of that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/09/2018 at 09:24pm

LOL @Travis Chrono Trigger reminds me of our time at RU. I remember playing the game while I was Jake's roommate in Tyler Hall.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/10/2018 at 04:02am

So far the game has been more fun than i'd have thought and the set pieces are really well done. I don't want to spoil anything but there isn't much downtime between really cool stuff that happens, interesting boss fights or story beats that keep you interested in the game. I've been playing it more since I wrote the article and it just keeps going and keeping the game interesting. It feels like a 90's era RPG but doesn't suffer from it at all.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 01/10/2018 at 10:44pm

I played Chrono Trigger back on the SNES when it was pretty brand new, as well as the PS1 re-release and the DS version. If the DS is your first experience with the game then that's actually a really great way to experience it for the first time. It's a great re-release and the added content is all optional/mostly end game stuff that does not affect the original experience. The only changes I can remember outside of the new content was an updated UI to accommodate the two screens on the DS and they added the animated cut scenes from the PS1 version.

Uematsu worked on a few tracks, but most of the music is by Yasunori Mitsuda, who is another phenomenal composer. He most recently contributed a song to Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis (one of the DLC).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/11/2018 at 03:20am

> they added the animated cut scenes from the PS1 version.

Which aren't awesome and sort of break you out of the game in a bad way. So far that's my only complaint and it's something they added to the game when they really didn't need to.

THEY RUINED MY IMMERSION! http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/e8/e85ca29d88d3c26841f5752330123d3a4278828505527d747d80613c957bbb1f.jpg

I also read that they changed Frog's dialect to NOT be as thick which is a bummer because I do remember him having his dialog be a bit more silly than that. I played a handful of hours on the SNES version but I had to give it back to my friend and never spent more than a bit actually playing it.

Bina wrote on 03/12/2018 at 06:39pm

This game is ranked my number 1 favorite of all time. I'm glad you are enjoying it as well. It's got a lot of little bits at the end to keep you hunting.
What's your progress? At this stage in the game, who are you playing with?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2018 at 03:46am

Chrono, Robo and Frog. I really like that combination a lot.

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