It's been a tumultuous year for Chrono Trigger enthusiasts. Rumors of a potential remake have cropped up several times, only to be quickly debunked. I can't blame fans for their gullibility: it really is very weird that Square Enix hasn't done anything with the Chrono series for so long, though the publisher did indicate in March that it intends to honor the 30th anniversary of Chrono Trigger with projects that "go beyond the world of the game."

Corporate mysticism aside, JRPG legend Yuji Horii, who among other things had a hand in writing Chrono Trigger, and has worked on countless Dragon Quest games including the forthcoming Dragon Quest 12, has indicated in an interview with Gamereactor that he wants to work on Chrono Trigger.

Noting the 30th anniversary, Horii says "Yes, it has been a long time. Yes, I want to do something." Acknowledging the HD-2D remakes of the older Dragon Quest games, Horii adds that he's "getting a lot of requests for a Chrono Trigger remake as well, so I'm starting to look into it."

This follows a quickly debunked rumor earlier this month. At a Comicon in Italy a translator misinterpreted Horii as all but confirming a Chrono Trigger remake, but Gematsu later confirmed that Horii hadn't made any confirmation at all: it was a translator's gaffe, basically.

A HD-2D remake seems like an obvious choice, though a small part of me dreams of Chrono Trigger getting the Final Fantasy 7 Remake treatment. That seems fanciful, especially given the erratic market and Square Enix' famously high sales expectations. Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D did exceptionally well for Square Enix—to the extent that they were actually happy with its sales—so it seems inevitable that the company will double down on this remake format. I'm fine with that, as long as they don't touch the music.

Whatever form it takes, a Chrono Trigger revival of some kind seems basically inevitable at this point. While you wait, the original is discounted by 50% on Steam at the moment, and is perfectly playable nowadays despite being busted at launch. Its divisive sequel Chrono Cross is also going cheap.

Six years after the release of the most excellent sci-fi camping game Outer Wilds, developer Mobius Digital is working on something new, a fact it let slip in a recently-released update—which is also the final "major update" planned for the game.0.

It's unusual, you see, because typically when a studio begins work on a new game, and especially when it's following up on a big critical and commercial hit, there's noise about it: Game sites get a press release, an announcement goes out on social media, the dev team drops a teaser of some sort, all that sort of thing.

In this case, though, there was none of that. Instead, there was an off-the-cuff comment in the Outer Wilds' patch 16 changelog.

"This is a minor patch mainly for adding a couple folks to the credits and fixing two PC-only bugs: clicking out of the game disabling certain inputs (such as the key for the ship’s lock on), which affected streamers in particular, and diagonal movement being faster than normal with mouse and keyboard," the studio wrote, explaining that the patch would launch on Steam first and follow for other platforms later in May.

"Why stagger the releases like this? It’s to increase the chance that, if any bad bugs on Steam slipped through testing, they’ll get caught and fixed before the release of the other platforms. This is no shade to our QA testers, we’re just trying to be extra risk averse and conservative with the resources we put toward Outer Wilds since our new game is our priority!"

Lest there be any confusion, the studio repeated the statement at the end of the patch notes: "There are no more major updates planned for Outer Wilds or Echoes of the Eye because we are hard at work on our next game."

Now personally, I could not swear to you that this is the very first time a new game from Mobius Digital has ever been announced, but I believe it is. RPS says it is, for one thing (that's who tipped me off), and there also appears to be genuine surprise about the development on social media.

That's also where Mobius Digital warned that, even though the word is now out, people shouldn't expect to hear anything more about the new game anytime soon.

"It's gonna be a while, on the order of years, before we have any details to share about it," the studio wrote on X in response to one inquiry about the new project. "Good things take time."

The full patch notes for the latest Outer Wilds update, since that's what brought us here in the first place, are below.

Gameplay

• The Scout no longer clips through a planet and into space after being tossed into a certain black hole
  
• Leaving the Scout in certain volumes on an astral body no longer deorbits that astral body
  
• The player can no longer hold two items at once in a very specific situation in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Gabbro's technique can now be used to make the credits roll in more situations
  
• Fixed a peephole-related softlock in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Using Gabbro's technique just before your light source goes out no longer puts the player into an incorrect state in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Fix for raft lights remaining interactable after vanishing in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Certain stones can no longer be dropped on certain rocks (prevents them from floating after a sudden change in scenery)
  
• Fix for the Attlerock locator playing audio when only two of the three rings are aligned
  
• Certain items are now returned to their shelves when the player exits certain dark areas in Echoes of the Eye
  
• The Scout now correctly sticks to the ship's cockpit if the player flies into it while seated at the flight console
  
• Certain Nomai computers now deactivate when a charged platform is used
  
• Various fixes to collisions

Art & Visuals

• Slightly improved the resolution of the glow effect on a certain probe
  
• Removed a small blue square that could be seen floating in space in certain circumstances
  
• Dark Bramble fog lights are now visible while walking around the ship's cabin
  
• Fixed missing peephole eyelid animations in Echoes of the Eye
  
• Updated some images on a certain satellite
  
• Various fixes to missing or low resolution textures

UI

• Fix for the Scout HUD marker appearing when it shouldn't be visible in specific situations
  
• Fix for the UI of the Signalscope not appearing in some circumstances
  
• Fix for some button prompts covering up the pause menu
  
• Fix for the Lock-on UI not disappearing when a targeted meteor gets destroyed
  
• Various UI fixes

Text & Localization

• Fix to the Signalscope's "Unidentified Signal Nearby" prompt having a confusing meaning in Chinese
  
• The projection stone used at Brittle Hollow's north pole now displays correctly colored text
  
• A couple minor credits updates
  
• Various text and localization fixes

PC Only

• Diagonal movement is no longer faster when playing with mouse and keyboard
  
• Clicking out of the game (or otherwise changing window focus) no longer disables certain inputs, such as the ship's lock-on function

That’s the End of This Update

As mentioned before, there are no more major updates planned for Outer Wilds or Echoes of the Eye because we are hard at work on our next game. There may be smaller updates like this from time to time, but no guarantees. Nevertheless, always feel free to report issues or reach out for help on our support page.

I was enthralled by Sandfall's gorgeous Belle Époque-styled RPG from the moment it began, but I came this close to not playing it at all.

Almost as soon as I started Clair Obscur I knew I couldn't get enough of its beautiful world or the wonderfully naturalistic performances of its cast. I settled in, eager to dedicate the rest of the day and hopefully all of the next to this fascinating game. And then it all fell apart in the same moment.

As you may already know, Clair Obscur mixes traditional turn-based RPG combat, everyone lined up and politely waiting around until they get to have a go, with an exciting real-time dodge/parry system. I can dodge everything. Everything. Some boss comes at my team with a sword a mile long? Yep, I can dodge that. I can even get a bonus if I manage to dodge everything, like someone got a bit of Devil May Cry in my Dernière Fantaisie.

In theory, anyway. The truth is, even though I've been battling virtual mythical creatures my entire life on almost every game platform ever created, I just couldn't handle looking at Clair Obscur's combat.

The camera kept tripping me up. It's a busy little thing, dynamically zooming about and shifting around as swords swing and spells fly, always trying to show the most exciting angles as multiple pieces of information are hurled onto the screen from literally every direction at differing speeds.

I tried to ignore it, because of course I'm not going to let a few fancy swooshes, split-second pop-ups, a plethora of animated tells, and sudden, sharp cuts get in the way of a good story, but after forcing myself for a few minutes longer it became obvious I couldn't continue. I had to shut the game off and stew in my own disappointment, honestly wondering whether I should just put in for a Steam refund.

The unavoidable onslaught of ever-changing visual information was more than I could bear. The presentation is so much more than just "busy" or personally irritating, it's physically painful for me to process, like someone's shouting directly at my eyeballs. It hurts.

If that sounds like an extreme reaction to a few camera movements: you're probably not autistic.

I am, and for all the joy that brings into my life—like an unquenchable thirst for gaming knowledge and a fondness for the em dash—it also means some forms of stimulation are more than I can handle. Touch can be overwhelming at times, leaving me sitting in a quiet room with my hands upturned for however long it takes my body to calm down. Most kitchen appliances are too noisy, leaving me puréeing, whisking, and washing by hand.

It was only after I grumbled about my experience with Clair Obscur online, frustrated and upset, that several people kindly pointed out there was an option to disable much of the wild camera movement in the accessibility menu.

I didn't look. I honestly didn't even think to look. I've come to assume accessibility menus are for subtitles, color blind options, the odd arachnophobia toggle, and maybe some sort of "story" or "god mode" setting if we're really lucky, serving as a handy catch-all for anyone who finds a game too difficult or tiring to engage with.

I didn't think it'd contain anything for an autistic adult struggling with something as vague as "It's painful when you make the camera swing around like that."

And to be entirely fair, I'm not the kind of person the developers had in mind. The option to disable camera movement is labelled as being for people who suffer from motion sickness, and by their own description's admission this setting makes some attacks harder to read.

They're right. Some attacks really are harder to read, bosses disappearing skyward while the camera stays behind, forcing me to rely on half-seen special effects and audio cues to time my counters. But I love it anyway.

Because my options for playing Clair Obscur weren't between "easier to read" and "harder to read." They were between "I literally can't look at the screen" and "at times this isn't framing attacks quite right, but eh, I'll manage."

Imagine if the developers hadn't bothered. Imagine if they'd decided it was probably fine and nobody was going to mention it even if it wasn't. For me, that'd mean all that story, lost. Eight hours worth of beautiful music unplayed (and unbought). Dramatic battles left unchallenged. What a waste of Sandfall's time, funds, and talents that would have been for me and so many other players like me.

Thanks to this toggle I have a choice, and I get to decide what I'm prepared to put up with.

Which is what accessibility's all about, really: Allowing as many people as possible to join in the fun, to be provided a practical suite of tools and then left to create their own solutions and compromises. Thanks to one tiny toggle I'm about 17 hours and 2000 wallpaper-worthy screenshots into Clair Obscur, and resentful that I have to work instead of playing some more.

This could honestly be my GOTY. Sandfall has got more than my money—they've got a new fan. Whatever they make next, I'll be there day one.