[First Impression] CHRONO TRIGGER (Steam Ver.)

This post is part of my "First Impression" series. Unlike the other posts, today I'll talk about a new version of a game I'm already familiar with.

Chrono Trigger

With engaging story & gameplay, great soundtrack and Toriyama's art-style Chrono Trigger amazed the young me back in the day. I played it on PS1 and it never felt like a port of a game of the previous generation.

Now, the PC version comes.
Is it as good as the original SNES version?

This is my first impression!

For those new to the game, the story follows a group of time travelers as they look for a way to save the future of their world.

The gameplay is similar to traditional RPGs like the older Final Fantasy games, one difference is that the battle happens in the same screen of the exploration parts.

"Cyclone attack!"

Patching Up The Mistake

The PC version of Chrono Trigger was released without an announcement. It was a port of the inferior mobile version and it was full of bugs. Luckily, after being hit by thousands of negative reviews. Square Enix promised a series of patches to correct it. I waited until the last patch to try the game.

Before the patches, the game had a bulky interface, optimized for touch screen, had Arial as the font of the dialogue boxes and had game breaking bugs.

After the patches, the game is playable and they changed the font to one more suitable to the game's art/theme. Still, the PC version leaves some things to want.

The Good Additions

There's section for extras like the NDS version of the game, it includes movies, illustrations, music, and endings (the game has more than 10 endings.) But the steam version doesn't include everything in the NDS version making it a bit inferior.

Chrono Trigger PC also had "bookmark" feature that lets you suspend the game at any point and retry later from where you left off.

One addition I would call bad is how they put HP, AP bars below each character... I think there are many places they could put them in, especially that the HP is shown in the box below.

Final Thoughts

As I played I remembered why I loved this game. Foreshadowing is everywhere, something expected from a game about time. Talking to people in the fair and 600 A.D. guides you on where to go next and I liked the way they foreshadow that Marle is the princess.

"I was there 400 years ago..."

I agree with the reviews that say the Nintendo DS version is still the best one. It has additional quests and game modes not in any other version. Still, the current PC version is a close second.

Of course, if you're a purist it's okay to go with the original SNES or PS1 versions of the game they're equally good.

Surely, I'll try to complete Chrono Trigger again!

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Cover image is made using the header and a screenshot of the game. All screenshots are taken by me.