Chrono Resurrection Video

By: Derek Yu

On: February 21st, 2008

New video of the abandoned fan project Chrono Resurrection, made by one of its creators. CR received a cease-and-desist from Square-Enix a few years ago, much to the dismay of fans.

I actually can’t view the video right now because I’m posting from Matthew Wegner’s brand new laptop (no plugins installed). Let me know how it is!

(Source: Mike Fahey, via Kotaku)

Posted in Remakes, Videos

infinity

what a shame
http://www.oxeyegames.com jeb

The video is quite amazing. Wonderful 3D artwork. Fans should be bought, not threatened, btw :)
Lancer-X

Huh? Why is there a new video of it? (I can’t watch it myself). Did someone with a copy of the abandoned work create another video, or what?

Seems counterproductive considering the project has been dead for some time.
PoV

Not bad. Not bad at all.
Pliskin

September 6th, 2004

Huh.
Calanctus

I just don’t understand why Squeenix gives a crap. All evidence seems to indicate they no longer care about this series. The last time it had a new installment was Chrono Cross. They’ve never shown any interest in a remake of Chrono Trigger. They haven’t even done a port of the original game since that crappy PSX one. (Side note: I would love a DS port/remake of the original game with some extras, along the lines of the Final Fantasy rereleases.)
Chadwick359

*sigh* God DAMNED this was going to be good. I had almost forgotten about it, but you’ve broken my heart again by dangling this in front of me again.
Zulgaines

The cockmongers at Square-Enix ruined something amazing.
curezen

they might have been planning a sequel at the time. although i don’t see why that would make them stop it permentatly. i say make it any way. fuck the new guys stopping a great remake.
Akhel

CT is my favorite game, and this was going to be awesome. Fuck you, Square. :(
deadeye

I noticed the “this is intended for a private audience” disclaimer in the video. Is that a hint that they’re still working on it? It’d be nice to one day get a “leaked” version.
Kenzya

I’m not even a fan of the original Chrono Trigger but.. god damn.. this looks so good.
I Like Cake

I like the idea, but the terrible Frog dialogue is giving me flashbacks to the original Dragon Warrior.
wormguy

CR uses Nostalgia Attack!

It’s super effective!
Shih Tzu

The textbook example of why, if your project steps on trademark toes, you never ever announce it until it is fully formed and ready to live forever on the internet.
Melly

Squeenix put a halt into it because they are completely paranoid about ANYTHING that has the name of their brands in it, even if only mildly related. Yes, they’re assholes, the big type too. Doesn’t matter if the Chrono series is dead and buried, they’d still put a cease-and-desist on your doorstep if you made a Trigger remake today.

Honestly, if I were these guys, I’d have completed the whole game in secrecy and then released it as open-source. Correct me if I’m wrong, but open-source software basically doesn’t have proper owners, right? No owners, no one to sue.

I doubt they’d get any money out of this to begin with. Seems like a work of pure love. A shame, really, cause it was looking amazing.
Paul O.

Honestly, Chrono Trigger strikes me as the sort of game that doesn’t really need a remake. The original was very well made.

There was obviously a lot of talent at work in that project, I hope they’ve gone on to do other amazing things that aren’t quite so copywritten. I would much prefer to see an original story made with that sort of visual polish. Perhaps if they could just befriend a few writers…
MrBig

This game looks like it would’ve been hella good. Perhaps a name change, character changes, and some of the other fundamentals could be changed to create a new story without ruining the game. This just looks too good to be left unfinished IMO.
Dominic White

Chrono Ressurection wasn’t even going to be a ‘remake’. It was a gameplay tech demo – the video shows how they were doing it. It’s basically an interactive montage of classic scenes from Chrono Trigger.

They were in no way threatening Square. It was basically a playable fan-made love letter to the game, without actually being the game itself.

Sure, the legal absolutists will say that Square were in their legal right to do what they did, but there’s a lot of things I can do legally, but would make me a total asshole if I did them.
Eater of Shades

I’m just unnerved that the button prompts from the video seem to correspond to buttons from the 360 controller (or any game pad with green and red buttons)
Calanctus

Like… the Super Famicom controller?
Paul Eres

It’d be nice if in response they took all the talent that went into that prototype and created something original but still Chrono-esque.
Newt

Amazing!!!
Mischief Maker

I can understand why Square might be protective of Chrono Trigger. That was the one time they ever managed to make a JRPG that didn’t totally suck. If they give that away to the public, what do they have left?

(Not counting FF:Tactics, which wasn’t really a JRPG)
Aurabolt

I don’t see the problem here. For all intents and purposes, this game is a fan re-creation of something they found great. RPG Maker gurus have done the exact same thing, and there’s something wrong with that?

It’s inane.
Zeno

So, basically, this is completely meaningless because the project is dead?
Kairos

Yea. But this was new footage I haven’t seen from them before… still pretty cool.
namuol

Wow, i’ve never heard of this.. it’s amazingly high-quality work!

Utter, utter shame. Square Enix Sux.
curezen

yeah i kinda wonder what happens when square enix sees how badly this is hurting their popularity. i vote we boycott square until they stop being tight wad ass holes.
Synkarius

I wish such a boycott would work. Square hasn’t done anything right since PSX, but they’re still riding on that wave rather successfully.
GirlFlash

aww, and this looks like it was made with such love too, the cease and desist must have been a massive kick in the teeth.

If it were me of course, I’d have continued. the corps can take a flying leap as far as that behaviour is concerned.
TakaM

isn’t it illegal to send a cease and desist against a completely non-profit effort such as this?

I’d donate money to help them get a lawyer or something, because seriously, fuck off square.
PHeMoX

*”(Side note: I would love a DS port/remake of the original game with some extras, along the lines of the Final Fantasy rereleases.)”*

Newsflash! ;) Eventhough this happened in sept. 2004 Square-enix *is* interested in making such remakes like the last few Final Fantasy re-releases.

That, together with the great polish of this fan based project, is the reason that they send the cease and desist letter.

It’s a shame that people don’t see how putting so much energy in such a project is quite wasteful, at least very often it is. It’s admirable, but at the same time a bit stupid.

It reminds me of the Halogen RTS game project, the Starcraft RTS fan based project and so on… Very cool projects, but none really had a realistic chance of *not* getting a cease and desist letter…
dasdas

I highly doubt Square will ever come close to this with its remakes.
Mike Hawk

just amazing.

More jrpg schlock than you could shake your replica Cloud sword at.
OrR

@Melly: You’re wrong.
nowak

Imagine how far along this game would be if they didn’t decide to rip off someone else’s work!
Jonathan

I just don’t understand why people try these IP-infringing games to begin with – they pretty much always get shut down. Might as well put those same game-making skills to use on an original game.
Del_Duio

I followed this for awhile a long time ago. Square must have felt threatened by it. I guess??
Darth Magus

What a shame indeed. With a couple extra techs and dungeons this may have even been better than its 2D predecessor (If i may be so bold). Even though there is nothing like the classics and sprite sets of old, Square-Enix should have at least hired the guys making it, and have them continue their project whilst taking a cut of the profits… Some major corporations sometimes can’t even see a profit making project if its slapping them in the face. Too bad for Squeenix i guess, we still got the classics at least.
Taggrip

I think that one of the problems that squareenix might have had is the graphical similarities between this and dragon quest 8.

Given both games had a cell shaded look and the characters are all designed by the same guy, they come off looking too similar to not attract attention.

That is aside from the other issues with copyright infringment and the like.
Darkmoon

It was never intended to be a full remake though, from what I remember, it was meant to be a display of what they could do while being fanservice and reproducing ten of the most memorable scenes from Chrono Trigger.

‘Tis a shame it got shut down.
M.E.

I would pay good money for this.