It’s impossible to deny the fact that many of Square Enix’s mobile ports are less than stellar. For example, almost every mobile Final Fantasy game features poorly retouched graphics coupled with a relatively high price tag.
But when it comes to RPG classic Chrono Trigger, probably one of the best Japanese role-playing games (JRPG) ever released, the hefty price of admission is justified.
The port runs smoothly, features the same timeless graphics those who played the original game fondly remember, and most importantly, unlike a lot of JRPGs, has aged exceedingly well, so much so that I’d even go so far as to say it’s a better game than any title Square Enix has released in the last few years.
However it’s important to point out that in true Square Enix fashion, the mobile version of Chrono Trigger still suffers from a few glaring issues. Visuals haven’t been natively upscaled and instead the developer has opted to simply blow-up the game’s retro graphics, which leads to a minimal amount of unwarranted pixelation. On the plus side though, unlike most of Square Enix’s ports, the original game’s SNES controls have been morphed into touchscreen presses, although they’re still sometimes inaccurate and generally feel like they’ve been tacked on. In-game menus and text have also been enhanced considerably.
Remember the giant frog attack Frog Squash attack? It’s still pretty awesome. Image credit: Square Enix
The translation featured in the DS version of Chrono Trigger has also been transferred over to its mobile counterpart, which means much of the awkward language found in the original 1995 Super Nintendo (SNES) version of game is now gone (this also might also frustrate some purists).
Similar to most of Square Enix’s mobile ports, Chrono Trigger has a variety of issues, but these problems are overshadowed by how great the game has aged over the last 20 years. Chrono Trigger’s semi-realtime battle system has aged extremely well and the game truly is a special piece of gaming history. And while it’s price tag might be a little more than the average Android or iOS game, it’s still considerably cheaper than dropping up to $200 on the original SNES cartridge or up to $100 on the Nintendo DS version.
Chrono Trigger is priced $11.99 on the iOS App Store and $9.99 on the Android Google Play Store.
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