A Bad Port of Chrono Trigger Just Launched on Steam

Fans of classic RPGs were bestowed an exciting surprise on Tuesday when Square Enix launched the beyond-admired Chrono Trigger on Steam. The release included two bonus dungeons exclusive to the Nintendo DS release of the game, as well as optimized graphics and sound, and an autosave feature. Labeled a “limited edition,” the Steam release also includes a medley of the game’s music and PC wallpapers for those who purchase the game by April 2.

Unfortunately, all that excitement was undercut when players got their hands on the title and realized that the version of the game available for PC was simply a port of the disparaged mobile version.

Oh. This doesn’t bode very well. pic.twitter.com/V1T8NBeqvU

— Fred Wood (@thatsmytrunks) February 27, 2018

Square Enix’s decision to not optimize the title for PC has caused its Steam user review score to cave as complaints about the poor user interface, titling issues and murky graphics spread across the internet. This isn’t the first time the company has done this, as its previous ports of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI were met with similar derision from players.

Speaking to Kotaku, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase’s comments last September about the fan response to those Final Fantasy ports shows that Square Enix hasn’t learned much from its players’ backlash. “I am actually curious to know — I believe the port version, the one you can get right now, does use the more brushed up artwork that’s a little bit more refined. Do fans want to see the older version that’s not as refined? Is that the sentiment,” asked Kitase.

The game is still playable, obviously, but fans that want an experience true to the SNES classic might want to pass on this one, at least until Square Enix gets the message.

See the launch trailer for the limited-edition Steam release of Chrono Trigger below.