Square Enix is still cleaning up the PC port of Chrono Trigger

Today’s update has a new UI

Square Enix put the classic Super Nintendo RPG Chrono Trigger on Steam back in February, and it was such a pleasant surprise — until we got a closer look at the port. In short, it just seemed off.

The PC version used a mishmash of graphical filters that made the character sprites and background art look like a blurry mess, and the user interface wasn’t well-suited to the platform. Needless to say, this wasn’t the “definitive edition” the company originally suggested it would be.

In the time since, Chrono Trigger got a patch that added an “Original” graphics setting and cleaned up the font and dialog boxes. Today, Square Enix has issued a second update with more refinements:

• A new battle user interface (UI) has been added based on the look and feel of the original Chrono Trigger.
• An option has been added to select between the UI optimised for controller/keyboard mentioned above, and the current UI optimised for mouse & touch panels. This option appears in “settings” in the main menu.
• The game can now be paused during battle by using the pause button on controller, or the Space bar on the keyboard.
• Adjusted the look of playable characters on the world map to be more in-line with the original version of Chrono Trigger.
• The resolution of animated cut-scenes has been improved.
• The display area of animated cut-scenes has been increased.
• Fixed instances where the game slowed down during certain scenes.
• The Korean font has been updated.
• Other small bugs are fixed.

The PC port of Chrono Trigger looks better every time I see it, but given its less-than-ideal starting point, there’s still plenty of work left to be done when it comes to touching up the visuals. Square Enix plans to roll out another update in early June that will “continue to tweak the UI outside of battle.”

Lesson learned for future ports of old games, I hope.

Chrono Trigger – Patch #2 Update [Steam]