Chrono Trigger gets a Steam release.

[Spooniest]

Hmmm, noticing a trend here as people on YouTube also hate the recent Secret of Mana remake on Steam.

I guess you can call all these "remakes"...

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...a hot steaming pile.

Their classic fans are certainly ... steamed up.

Fun fact: My girlfriend is Italian, and watched UFO Robot Grandizer as a bambina, but she can't stand any of these games with chibi characters at all. She calls them the 'ridiculous tiny people.'

[Chronosplit]

There are a lot of reasons for that.  One is that Square-Enix's multi-platform machine varies greatly in quality with much to be desired (to say the least), then some just would rather Square-Enix stop milking old games in favor for making new titles.  Of course there's always the nostalgia or fickle point when it comes to the company, but it's mostly the first two which I totally get.

At lest they appear to be listening with this port, acknowledging it.  I doubt much will come out of it though.

EDIT: Looks like it was pretty quick to find out what happened: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20180301/315059/Doing_an_HD_Remake_the_Right_Way_Chrono_Trigger_Edition.php

Apparently the game uses two filters, but for some reason different filters are used on singular objects.  Whut?

[redmax]

Hmmm, noticing a trend here as people on YouTube also hate the recent Secret of Mana remake on Steam.

I guess you can call all these "remakes"...

least secret of mana was a remaster, chrono trigger still looks like....older graphics and....you know what, its crap and squareenix should be ashamed. Least they could attempted to remake/revamp/remaster it instead of making a sad miserable HIGH PERFORMANCE(oh the system requirements) release that is this. you think they would of learned from the ps4 port of ff7.

[realworksuks]

I find it funny that we didn't get a big franchise out of Chrono Trigger.  I mean, Square-Enix made a bunch of Star Ocean games, but isn't Chrono Trigger far more famous?  Maybe they just want to leave well enough alone.

[Chronosplit]

I find it funny that we didn't get a big franchise out of Chrono Trigger.  I mean, Square-Enix made a bunch of Star Ocean games, but isn't Chrono Trigger far more famous?  Maybe they just want to leave well enough alone.

I kinda think Square figured at the time that this would be a one-time deal due to the teamwork involved, so they never planned for anything after it.  That and time travel is a veeeeery tricky subject to keep going for too long, which is why there aren't many games in general that use it as a main point.  One big deal about CT and how it's built is that time travel is a very brave decision to base as the main focus; one reason why the game kept as focused on the storyline was because if you went one minute astray you could completely screw up the whole story by being your own grandpa.  The fact that the game is very light on paradoxes in the end is really quite the achievement, so if you went too many games in people would see more holes in the universe over struggling to keep everything in check.

This all is probably one reason why Cross focused on parallel dimensions instead, come to think of it.

[Jorpho]

That and time travel is a veeeeery tricky subject to keep going for too long, which is why there aren't many games in general that use it as a main point.

I wouldn't say that at all.  Off the top of my head, Tales of Phantasia, Final Fantasy Legend / Saga III, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time spring to mind, and I have no doubt I'm forgetting a bunch of much more obvious examples.  Heck, didn't the orginal Final Fantasy involve time travel in some capacity?

Of course, the latter is particularly sloppy in that there's nothing you can do in the past that actually affects the present, except for one unskippable cutscene.

[Spooniest]

Time Travel as a plot device creates a very simple problem, and similar to portraying the Afterlife; no reports on the nature of such things exist at all.

A legendary sword which has holy power to defeat zombies and vampires, I can conceptualize from known imagery (dead people, bats, swords, etc). Time Travel and what lies after death are kind of...up to the individual's interpretation in life. Unless you wanna tell me you've traveled in time or come back from the dead.

For this reason, these types of plot devices do not generate very deep or consistent storylines for long.

But what will, is the question?

[NERV Agent]

I'm sorry, I can resist posting this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU

[mziab]

Time Travel as a plot device creates a very simple problem, and similar to portraying the Afterlife; no reports on the nature of such things exist at all.

[...]

For this reason, these types of plot devices do not generate very deep or consistent storylines for long.

But what will, is the question?

I'd say that by definition sci-fi can't be based on actual reports. It's fiction after all, some of it just more plausible than the rest. It can piggyback off existing images and concepts to make it easier to understand, which seems to be what you're saying. That being said, the concept is time travel isn't exactly new, dating back at least to H. G. Wells' The Time Machine.

To me the problem with writing a solid, internally consistent time-travel story is how easy it is to write oneself into a corner and run into unresolvable paradoxes, which often make writers resort to the use of deus ex machina or other such plot devices. It's very easy to pick apart many time travel stories for this reason. And some of those which try their hardest to be consistent end up being confusing for the average consumer, like Primer. The bottom line is, you need a really competent writer to do this kind of story justice.

[KaioShin]

And on the other hand we have a show like Doctor Who that is immensely popular with the masses and uses time travel plots on a very frequent basis. And they just explain it all with "timey-whimey". I agree that it's very easy to pick apart most time travel stories, but most people won't care. It's IMO not required for a time travel story to be airtight to be interesting.

[Darío]

Well, in the Chrono universe there exists a separate dimension that's like a dump for "discarded" timelines (at least that's the explanation they gave after Cross)
Actually, part of Cross's plot revolves around facing the consequences of the Trigger team playing around with time too much.

[mziab]

And on the other hand we have a show like Doctor Who that is immensely popular with the masses and uses time travel plots on a very frequent basis. And they just explain it all with "timey-whimey". I agree that it's very easy to pick apart most time travel stories, but most people won't care. It's IMO not required for a time travel story to be airtight to be interesting.

True, it's not required, but when you encounter one that is, it's a real sight to behold. Case in point, I think Steins;Gate is one of the best (if not the best) time travel stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing. It was consistent without beating you over the head with boring science. Although in the early part of the game, there is a segment dedicated to various time travel theories.

[magictrufflez]

I think part of the problem when pulling off time travel in any media is the scope of said media.

Chrono Trigger has a relatively small world by RPG standards (the different time periods make it seem bigger than it actually is physical map-wise), which allowed the game makers to allow players to travel through time at will. The restrictions on time periods one could visit helped keep things manageable here obviously.

A lot of the other games that have time travel tend to only allow players to time travel in a very restricted way (ie Tales of Phantasia does not allow the player to move at will between time periods), which mostly prevents plot/logic holes for the most part.

I think part of the reason Dr. Who time travel works is that vagueness everyone mentions. There is established lore (just check the wiki pages), but it tends to leave a lot to the imagination--especially the newer iterations have generally glossed over a lot of the details in past series (see: a metric ton about Time Lords and Gallifrey, including the regeneration limit, which were literally Deus ex Machina'ed away to simplify things). Sure, this stuff gets referenced sometimes, but the newer series mostly started over and focuses more on adventure elements rather than a lot of the detailed world-building that went on in the original (IMO not a bad thing, just different).

So, I guess my two rules for good time travel in media are as follows:

1. If you plan on doing complex world/lore building and incorporate time travel, you should either A. restrict the scope of the world you build or B. restrict the role time travel plays.

2. If you want to time travel to be a central part of your narrative, you should reduce your world/lore-building to reduce the chances of detail problems arising.

[vico]

Chrono Trigger has a relatively small world by RPG standards

If you just consider, superficially, the CT only. But if you consider the whole series you realize they pulled a whole archipelago from some pixels in CT ocean.

[magictrufflez]

I CC kind of illustrates my point though--instead of doing time travel at all (even to the extent it was done in CT), that physically larger game world basically went with 1 alternate dimension instead of multiple time periods that interacted with each other to a certain extent.

And even with that scope limitation, CC's story is STILL a bit of a hot mess (I still don't quite understand much of the overarching plot, and I've finished it multiple times).

[Jorpho]

And even with that scope limitation, CC's story is STILL a bit of a hot mess (I still don't quite understand much of the overarching plot, and I've finished it multiple times).

It makes enough sense to me.  Well, I suppose the whole business with Queen Brahne and the Black Omen is a little weird.

[SleepyFist]

This wandered into my suggestions feed this morning and I found it amusing.

Chrono Trigger On PC Needs Help:
https://youtu.be/WSQUbJ1yXYY

[Darío]

They're already on it
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ChronoTriggerModding/

[Jorpho]

It seems to me that although modding tools exist for FFVI PC, people seem to have abandoned the task of fixing every sprite in the game.  Quite understandable, considering how arduous that would be.  I would not expect Chrono Trigger to have a better fate.

Also, Tim Rogers is still doing stuff? Huh. "Professional Video Game Expert", indeed.

[John Enigma]

Sorry to bump this, but uh...

https://kotaku.com/chrono-trigger-pc-will-get-patched-to-add-the-original-1824279706