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I have never played Chrono Trigger, but I am currently spending some time playing old classic games. However, some games don’t age well and are mostly appreciated due to nostalgia. How easy is Chrono Trigger to get into for someone without the nostalgia, and is the Steam release worth playing?

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frezik@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
IIRC, the steam release is based on a mobile port, and it’s bad. Maybe they fixed it since release, but I dunno.

PSX version added some anime cutscenes, which are nice. Problem is that loading times are horrible and happen as part of every battle.

I seem to remember the DS version being recommended. Otherwise, the SNES version is always good to find on the high seas.

It’s more approachable than most RPGs from the era. It has no random battles, and tends to avoid situations where you advance a character wrong and soft lock yourself. More hardcore RPG fans find it too easy, but it’s a classic for a reason.

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- chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The PC port is based on the mobile port, and at release it was trash. However, they have patched out all of the mobile garbage and it’s a lot better.
  
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- tal@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  IIRC, the steam release is based on a mobile port, and it’s bad. Maybe they fixed it since release, but I dunno.
  
  I think I remember seeing an article or post somewhere comparing all the versions of Chrono Trigger.
  
  kagis
  
  This might have been it:
  
  geektogeekmedia.com/…/best-version-of-chrono-trig…
  
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tomkatt@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I don’t have nostalgia for the game, tried it a few years ago but bounced off. Not sure why, just wasn’t in the mood for a HRPG at the time I guess.

I recently gave it another go, been playing it on my Steam Deck and it’s been great. I’m a few hours into it in the future currently and I think it’ll stick this time, it’s great.

Only thing is the game feels like it was really made with CRT behavior in mind. Like the game has some amazing shading and almost 3D depth to a lot of the art but without CRT shaders you don’t see it at all. If you play the Steam version, reshade goes a long way. I’m using a combination of CRT-frutbuhn, EasymodeCRT, and vibrance and it looks amazing.

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- testfactor@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I will say, the longer I look at that, the less confident I am that there is any difference at all, lol.
  
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  - tomkatt@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah, it looks a bit different on my Steam deck and TV, maybe because they’re OLED displays. It doesn’t come across as dramatic as it is in person on the screenshot. In person there’s more bloom and higher contrast, the characters look more… planted in the world, I guess is the best way to explain it.
    
    Like, is you look at the rounded parts of the big robot there’s a bit more depth and contrast that give it more rounding and image depth in shadows, but again, the screenshot isn’t doing the effect justice.
    
    Also, the still image doesn’t help because the shader also impacts how the game looks in motion.
    
    I took the screenshots on my Steam Deck, but hadn’t actually seen them until I uploaded here.
    
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    Ashtear@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    At this point it’s one of those things that comes down to taste rather than authenticity. Pixel-art games have continued on and had their own development arc between indie gaming and the remastering trend, and they’ve all had different approaches to it. Even people like me that grew up with CRT displays have had their tastes shaped by years of gaming on different tech.
    
    I haven’t gotten my hands on a CRT since I left my last one behind 15-ish years ago, but I do get a bit of a nostalgia buzz from the CRT-Royale package on a 4K display. When that’s not available I tend to use one of the scalers because I really don’t like aliasing, and high resolution displays really bring out the blockiness. That sort of thing is sacrilege to some people. Everyone’s a little different.
    
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  - tomkatt@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I grabbed some more comparisons, this time from my tablet using the CRT-Consumer shader. Notice stuff like the bloom from the window and shading around the curtains, the kitchen appliances and plants, general shading around dithered stuff like the tent, and the trees on the world map.
    
    Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image
    
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    emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Most of those look worse in the bottom pictures tbh. A couple of the top ones look a little too bright and washed out, but the bottom ones just look low contrast and dark.
    
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  - tomkatt@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I made a post about the shader I’m using on the Steam Deck with an album of screenshots hosted outside of Lemmy upload (on Lensdump) and seems to be better, I think Lemmy is doing something to the image with compression.
    
    lemmy.world/post/26996470
    
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- Kjell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thanks for the suggestions of the mods.
  
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kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I am about to “finish it” and I haven’t played it in one sitting for sure, I have done some pauses for months here and then and when I go back to it I always find myself lost in their objectives.

One thing I can say I don’t like, and it must be a very personal issue, is that the game work “kinda open” with not clear objectives of where you should head off then, which just increases my sense of loss.

I suppose many games of those days worked like that (like not having pointers in a map of where to go) but I just couldn’t… And if you add the secondary missions to it that involves time traveling it all just gets more confusing for me.

I am aware the game has quite good post game content, so I hope I do my best there…

In a nutshell I think this game does well for people that know it at 100% (as in, their favorite nostalgic game) but for newcomers you’ll get lost and need a guide at hand, especially if you want to enjoy it at “its fullest” doing all the secondary quests available, that is my personal experience though.

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- Ashtear@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It’s tough because I’m sure people that grew up playing games with map markers could certainly get lost in it, but at the same time Chrono Trigger is one of the most straight-forward games of its era/genre. There are JRPGs that came out two generations later that had a real rough time with the “find the NPC to advance the story” problem.
  
  Depending on the version you’re playing, the post game content isn’t quite as sharp as the original stuff (it was added years later by a different team). The New Game+ mode, on the other hand, was in the original and is good stuff.
  
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  - kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I am definitely not one of those who grew up playing game with markers though (I am 32 years old and that’s why I specified it must be a me problem 🤣).
    
    I am playing the DS version which seems to be the definitive version, even to this day.
    
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- dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Getting the full experience from Chrono Trigger specifically, unlike most other similar games, is getting all of the endings. The New Game+ mode will help there.
  
  Chrono Trigger has 18 endings, if I recall correctly, including various permutations. Plus one additional one in the rereleases from the DS version forward. Some of them are only very subtly different from each other depending on which combination of character side quests you fully completed, and they all vary depending at which point your manage to defeat the final boss in the main story sequence. Several of them are significantly different interpretations of the future (or the past) post the defeat of the final boss with various for-want-of-a-nail factors causing huge changes to the outcome.
  
  You have quite a few opportunities to fight the final boss up to and including immediately after discovering the first time gate all the way back at the beginning of the game. (Do that in New Game+ with an overpowered Crono, though, unless you want to get steamrolled instantly…)
  
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ladel@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I played it for the first time about 10 years ago on a SNES emulator (because it kept on popping up in “best game of all time” lists), and I wasn’t disappointed. Well, I don’t think it is the best game ever, but I really enjoyed it, so I don’t think it’s a game that’s propped up only by nostalgia.

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- tal@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’d kind of like to see someone review retro games on a “equal standing” with current games. That is, sure, they’re using old technology, sure, but see how they stand up to current games in terms of what you pay and the time investment in playing them.
  
  Honestly, while I remember having fun with Chrono Trigger, I don’t know if, in 2025, I’d recommend it or any older RPG. By the standards of its time, it wasn’t very grindy, but speaking broadly, older RPGs have a lot of repetitive combat.
  
  On the other hand, a lot of, say, older shmups are, I think, still competitive. I don’t feel like the genre has changed as much (though I’ll concede that I haven’t spent a lot of time on modern shmups). So I’d probably be more-inclined to recommend an older shmup, even though I’d say that Chrono Trigger was probably, in its time, a better Super Nintendo game than any Super Nintendo shmup.
  
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- Kjell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Sounds promising. I’ve seen other posts of people who played it “recently” and enjoyed it.
  
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ms_lane@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you’ve played and enjoyed any 2D JRPG, you’ll be fine here.

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NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
CT is one of the all time great JRPGs… if you put the effort in.

But it is very much a product of its time between missable party members and even mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.

Conceptually it is cool as hell that there is something like five or six main endings and then a bunch of variants and special/joke endings. But… this is a 20-30 hour JRPG and ain’t nobody got that much time. Although, different re-releases have helped speed those up.

All in all? The big set piece moments are some of the greatest in gaming. The moment to moment are… from the early 90s. I would probably recommend grabbing a totally legit dump of your SNES cartridge, playing until you get bored/annoyed, and then watching a lore video.

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- nore@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Missable party members? 5~ endings?
  
  Is this really in Chrono Trigger?
  
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  - scutiger@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
    
    Unlike all the other chests, the ones that “penalize you” have an event and prompt asking if you want to open them, and in a game about time travel, it’s not too hard to figure out what’s intended.
    
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- Kjell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  20-30 hour was less than I expected. On other comments it sounds like several endings can be seen in one playthrough which makes it easier to see many or all endings.
  
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  - NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah. I also assumed it was closer to 40 but figured I would check howlongtobeat.
    
    And yeah, if you know what you are doing you are going to be closer to the golden ending than not on any given run. But if someone is doing a genuinely blind run (rather than following gamefaqs) they have good odds of missing out on the truly optional character, missing a lot of good loot, possibly missing out on the semi-optional character, etc.
    
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- scutiger@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
  
  Unlike all the other chests, the ones that “penalize you” have an event and prompt asking if you want to open them, and in a game about time travel, it’s not too hard to figure out what’s intended.
  
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Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I have never played Chrono Trigger

So, are you one of those guys who denies themselves pleasure?

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CidVicious@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Part of what’s nice about the game is that it’s pretty breezy and no grinding required. As long as you don’t reel at the thought of turn-based combat it’s very low barrier to entry.

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altima_neo@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you do play it, the best version I believe is the DS version.

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