Square Enix recently released Chrono Trigger onto Steam with almost no fanfare. This is one of the best games that Square Enix ever developed and it was being released onto the biggest gaming platform in the world... and they didn't say advertise its release until the day it came out.

Fans quickly realized why Square Enix was so shy about the Steam release of Chrono Trigger - it was total garbage. The version of Chrono Trigger that was released on Steam was an updated version of the one that was released for mobile phones, which had already been panned due to the changes made in order to accommodate touchscreen controls.

The Steam version of Chrono Trigger uses an incredibly ugly font, which is a byproduct of removing all of the original menus from the game. It also has an ugly filter placed over the visuals, which seem to be intended to smooth out the sprites, but actually, make the game look like it has an ugly Photoshop filter placed over it.

The fact that Chrono Trigger had such a terrible Steam port is in stark contrast to some of their other re-releases, such as the ground-up remake of Romancing Saga 2 which was released on the platform. The mobile/Steam ports of Final Fantasy V & VI also looked terrible, but at least they had artwork that was made specifically for those versions of the game. The Chrono Trigger port was born out of sheer laziness and it shows.

The vast majority of people would have said "Screw it, I'll play Chrono Trigger on an emulator like everyone has been doing since 1998" by now. There are some people who think that the Steam version of Chrono Trigger is salvageable, which means that mods are available that can make the game better.

A modder named Jed Lang has released a set of tools for the Steam version of Chrono Trigger that can be used to remove the ugly filters and bring back the original sprites from the Super Nintendo version of the game.

There is also the Chrono Trigger Restoration Project that is seeking to restore the visual fidelity of the Super Nintendo version of the game through the usage of various mods. They are currently active on the Steam Community Forums.

There are numerous different ports of Chrono Trigger available and almost all of them are superior to the Steam version of the game. It just goes to show how dedicated the Chrono Trigger fans are that they haven't written this version of the game off yet and want to make it as good as possible so that more people can enjoy this masterpiece of an RPG.