Rumour: Could Square Enix's Latest ROM Takedowns Mean The Return Of Chrono Trigger?

They have been fighting Chrono Trigger fan remakes for ages. I remember Chrono Resurrection being an ambitious fan project that was taken down after years of work. All they did was to port it to different platforms. That game deserves a big budget remake.

As long as it’s the DS version and not the horrible ps1 port or the content lacking SNES original I’m super happy with a CT port.

It's funny, I have all 3 treasured games and the sequels on my Vita. It never ceases being valuable.

Now with new and enhanced microtransactions!

We can but hope. I would replay Chrono Trigger tomorrow if I could

I am not sure but we will wait and see

I mean, the PC version has been fixed up considerably and is in many regards the very best version of the game available. Porting it to consoles would be a piece of cake, so I don't understand the hold-up at all... Guess Squre Enix don't like money...

“It could come to the Nintendo Switch Online service!”

😝 😝 😝 Surely, thou doth jest?

They might be. It could also be that they are taking down things related to the Chrono Cross/Another Eden crossover? Or just going through a wave of protecting their IP? Those other games they didn't take down are obscure.

The Another Eden crossover could be the beginning of a more expanded CT/CC universe. I don't think we need a CT remake or a CT sequel but expanding the universe like that would be cool.

@darkswabber

The DS additional content is so bad though.

Chrono Trigger is such a tightly-designed game with no wasted space. Each element lasts exactly as long as it needs to with no bloat.

The DS content is so antithetical to this design philosophy. You have to go up and down the same mountain over and over and over, and you do repeats of things that were done in the main story, such as leaving a key item in the sunlight, and things like that. It's such a waste of time.

I think the SNES version is the best version, purely because it doesn't contain the DS content.

Square Enix can’t find it’s own ass with two hands.

Law of probability says Square will release it eventually. They’re gradually strip mining their entire back catalogue in one form or another, so you would guess Chrono will be used sooner or later.

My guess is a Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger HD Remasters will be announced in the next 3 months. There has been enough noise over the subject. I would not be surprised if CT gets a pixel remake after the FF Pixel Remasters are finished rolling out. CC will see a poly boost and texture cleanup. Hopefully CC will not be an eye sore like FF7-FF9 and real care is put into consistency. FF8 was such a missed opportunity.

Only thing I fear is that one or both will be mobile first.

Their last attempt to re-release Chrono Trigger on mobile/Steam was a complete disaster.

Interesting that Square shuts down a ROM site and the article commenters politely discuss the possibility of a Chrono Trigger re-release. Nintendo shuts down a ROM site and the comments read as though babies were slaughtered.

Console shortages will be with us for some time. That's going to put a dent on many a road map. I would have thought releasing remasters would be a decent stop gap whilst they wait for next gen to kick off (and lord knows how long that is going to take!)

The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters sold and performed way better than the previous HD renovations. P'raps Chrono Trigger is about to get the same treatment.

A Parasite Eve Switch or PC port would be sweet.

Calling it now, Chrono Trigger is gonna be a $60 port with no enhancements and based on the mobile/steam version.

Square doesn't give the fans what they want, or rather they follow market trends to varying degrees of success. They hear that people want Chrono Trigger/Cross, they find a way to shoehorn the properties into mobile games...

I assume this is because of the Chrono Cross remake on other consoles. Then they'll probably re-re-release CT remastered on iOS.

@Axecon The PS XB versions will release with HD2D visuals in the Octopath engine and no audio for $60. Then they'll later get a $50 port of the Switch version that has original 8-bit visuals and remastered audio.

Companies express their legal 'rights' all the time with their ips. Why is this any different?
This is the equivalent of expecting something to come after Nintendo or anyone else renews one of their ips.

definitely hoping its not NSO due to inability to keep the games but a dream situation would be some kind of chrono trigger+cross collection hopefully with M2 handling it.

though square has been a bit all over the place when it comes to legacy content, some of it is released on all systems wheres a lot of older FF content misses consoles (as mentioned prior i think the last time anything before FFVII made it to console was around 10 or so years ago) , was happy with the mana and SaGa collections though and the various SaGa games on the platform.

@Axecon and they will be downloadable only. Physical versions will be "download codes in boxes"

Judging by the possible responses to the poll, I would say Kate knows us very well.

If it actually does come to Switch I will be extraordinarily happy. Might as well throw in Mario RPG while they're at it.

Would love to see a Chrono Trigger port on Switch featuring all 3 main versions - SNES, PSX, and DS. And a Chrono Cross reissue that's like FFIX - a little cleaned up, but mostly the same. That's probably the best route if they don't want to go all hog-wild ala the FFVII remake.

@Astral-Grain But… there isn’t a ‘slow news day’ option in the poll?

I won't hold my breath. We have to remember that Japan's copyright laws are incredibly strict compared to the West. ROMs, remakes, mods, etc. are all illegal in Japan if it's not the original copyright holder doing it.

There is no such thing as Fair Use in Japanese copyright laws. Only a small handful of countries, in fact, recognize the concept of Fair Use: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, India, Israel, and South Korea.

It could just be that Square Enix is just taking down the ROMs for the sake of taking down the ROMs, and nothing more. I mean, look at Nintendo. They take down ROMs all the time, with no intention of rereleasing them themselves.

I mean half of "new" games coming out are just 20 year old games...so it seems feasible.

It'd just be a coincidence if either game gets a rerelease or something in the near future. They've always been chasing Chrono roms and fan projects. Rumors currently suggest something with Chrono Cross but there were also rumors of that when Mitsuda did the anniversary concert a couple years ago and nothing came of it.

Wasn't Chrono Cross Remake leaked earlier this year in the graphics driver leak? That was confirmed true? Doesn't seem news.

SE is just following Rocketar's footsteps in terms of "remastering".

@rushiosan The Steam launch was awful, but Square pushed out updates that fixed its issues and made it a very solid release of the game. It'd be perfectly fine if that version got ported to consoles, though I'm in the camp that would prefer just the original SNES version.

@link3710 Not a remake, but a remaster was leaked by Nvidia. But yeah, I could see both coming to consoles in a bundle since Trigger somehow hasn't seen a console release since the Wii.

The Chrono Cross remaster rumor hasn’t even materialized and now Chrono Trigger?

It's obviously going to be a cloud version anyways. Ever since Square Enix found heaven in the clouds, they stop releasing their games natively in the real world. Any excitement from them is like getting excited your wish may someday came true when it likely won't ever.

@darkswabber
Considering how the FF 1-6 Pixel Remasters lack extra content from latter versions, I wouldn't hold my breath.

@EarthboundBenjy
Additional content is NEVER bad!
You always have the option of ignoring it.

Chrono Trigger and FF6 with Octopath graphics would be awesome!
A guy can dream...

@Specter_of-the_OLED
I'm still sore over KH
They better reconsider and release 1 & 2 at least digitally.
Maybe for a backward compatible Switch 2?
Finger crossed

Funny how when another company did, they all agree. But if Nintendo does it, "how dare they?!"

Typical fanboys with Nintendo: bad if Nintendo does it but Ok with the others

@OldManHermit
Uhhh, I like the way you think

As if companies aren't making obvious moves like this lately for no reason. Wasn't Chrono Cross in that big ESRB leak anyway? This shouldn't be something you should write off at all.

::cue Chrono Trigger music::
::cue Crono, Marle, and Lucca drawing weapons::

@Burning_Spear This guy is an actual fan of games who actually wrote content about games. The ROMs he posted were for games that he liked to play.
"A ROM site" is someone who just throws up the entire GoodTools ROM sets with thousands of ROM hacks and bad dumps nobody needs, along with links to crappy advertising circles.

@iLikeUrAttitude When I last checked the site, it looked like it hadn't updated greatly since the early 2000s.
BUT IS SURE looked like the passionate website of an RPG games fan of the early 2000s.
The ROMs were just a part of the content he uploaded, not as a primary focus of the site. And not something he'd expect Square (Enix) to wait 20 years to pounce on him for.

This would be nice, but after this much time I won't hold my breath.

@EarthboundBenjy
I feel the exact same way. Literally couldn't have expressed my thoughts regarding the added DS content any better.

@EarthboundBenjy

I agree with that from a gameplay perspective.

The DS version has a better translation though.

One of my top 5 games of all time. They should remake/ remaster it using the octopath traveler engine.

@EarthboundBenjy @darkswabber The SNES version is the original and best version. The others did well but nothing beats the original. If they remastered it in 1080p it would beat all
Other versions out of the water considering the only thing keeping it back is the graphics. Considering it sold more than the PS1 and DS versions as well in a gaming world that was ten times bigger also would leave me to think a remaster of the SNES would be the only way to go

I would prefer if they just made it legally available to more platforms, even a straight SNES or PSX port. And not the mobile version. I don't trust remakes and remasters anymore.

@jamesthemagi Additional content for a classic, legendary game usually looks like hubris. And when it's bad it sours the experience.
Although that's not as bad as removing original content because it's "problematic" or other such nonsense. The only improvements should be to graphics, sound and UI (Monkey Island remakes are pretty good examples of how one should go about remaking classics).

@Clamango I rather they remake it with the Dragon Quest XI engine, way better than the Octopath Traveler engine. It's time Chrono Trigger made the 3D leap it deserve.

Well, did anyone expext Legend of Mana to be re-released? How about a remaster of Crystal Chronicles? Even the previously Japan-only SaGa games have had releases.

No, it wouldn't surprise me in the least that Chrono Trigger is on the table. It wouldn't even surprise me if it's a complete remake like Final Fantasy 7.

I'd probably prefer a simple port, but I would be fine either way.

And now I have the festival theme in my head.

@AstroTheGamosian I think adopting Fair Use policies is being debated in Japan now so my guess is it will be instituted in the next couple of years.

@roboshort I mean, it would be nice if they did adopt it. I know of several fan games based on Nintendo franchises that are completely original (so not like AM2R), but Nintendo could easily shut down if they got wind of them.

Adopting Fair Use would ensure that these fan games are allowed to continue to exist, as long as Nintendo is given proper credit as the sole owner of the franchise and characters.

I mean, Microsoft is even helping to develop a fan-made Halo game called Installation 01, and is allowing the developers to make it, as long as it is released for free and gives proper credit to Microsoft as the sole owner of Halo.

I always wished Nintendo would do the same--considering some of these fan projects are just as good, if not better than, anything Nintendo themselves puts out--and Japan adopting Fair Use would essentially force Nintendo to do so, which would be a huge win for the fans and fan developers.

could this mean a Chrono Trigger remake is coming?

FantasyAnime just probably got popular enough to get noticed. As said in the article, the game is already for sale and whether we personally agree with it or not ROM distribution is illegal (especially by Japanese law). I get that general public opinion disagrees, but that doesn’t change those facts.

Makes me a little sad because since they are in the news, it probably won’t be long before others go after them. They have some Nintendo stuff up there and that probably will not end well for them.

@Specter_of-the_OLED
That's fine and dandy but it would take "forever" and it would require Square to put in some work. And with the decisions they have taken lately, they don't look like they want to work much.

'This is not a very substantiated rumour is it'.

Story of Nintendolife.