At Long Last, Chrono Trigger Will Come To IOS

The “at long last” in the title there is maybe a liiitle bit joking — after all, we’ve had several versions of Chrono Trigger available for some time now, from the original versions to the Wii virtual console and the Nintendo DS, through the many versions that are playable through emulation. I’ve played through the game a couple of times now, but haven’t touched it in a while, partly because I have been waiting for it to come to iOS.

It’s nice to see, then, that Square Enix has been re-releasing so many of its classic games on the iDevices to supplement its original iOS games like Chaos Rings. It sounds as though the iPhone version of Final Fantasy Tactics has a lot of stability and performance issues, though I’m holding out on making a judgement until I pick it up for iPad (assuming it’s still slated for release on the larger-screened device). And given the fact that Tactics went for the bananas price of $US16, I’m a little worried that the company is reaming consumers by sticking a huge price tag on what might turn out to be a shoddy port.

Those concerns notwithstanding, it’s good to hear that the iOS port of Chrono Trigger is coming in December. Assuming that Square Enix can get the performance up to scratch and doesn’t just lazily port the DS version, it should be great. (That may well be a big “if.”) I haven’t played any of their games via emulation, though I know that’s a good way to go as well — but it’ll be neat to see a custom version of the game, particularly if it can take advantage of the iPhone’s unique interface.

Too bad the version announced is only for the iPhone and iPod Touch — a cleaned up version running on the iPad’s big screen would be something special, indeed. I’ve got a note off to Square Enix asking if an iPad version still might be in the works. We’ll see.

Chrono Trigger iOS releases next month [Eurogamer]