Chrono Trigger — Nintendo Switch port

This is a wrapper/port of the Android version of Chrono Trigger (com.square_enix.android_googleplay.chrono, v2.1.5). It loads the original game binaries, patches them and runs them: we natively run the original Android .so files inside a minimal emulated Android environment.

Features

Extensive config.ini — screen resolution (independent per handheld/docked, up to 4K supersampling), language, custom font loading, text shadows, performance tuning, and controller remapping, all editable without rebuilding.
Mod support — drop .ctp patch files or loose-file "folder mods" into a mods/ folder and they're applied automatically at startup, without ever touching your original game files.
Custom font loading — swap the system-font text for a TTF of your choice (a matching pixel font, ChronoType, ships with the project), with auto-fit sizing and an optional SNES-style drop shadow.
Smoother, sharper visuals — fixes for the shimmering/stuttering look the game has while scrolling or moving, crisp pixel-accurate rendering, straightened Equipment menu text, a clearer cursor highlight, and smoother diagonal movement.
Switch-native controller support — real button prompts instead of touch/keyboard icons, optional right-stick movement, and remapping for the otherwise-unused (ZL | ZR | + | −) buttons.
Touch UI removed — the mobile-only on-screen button overlays are hidden automatically.
Tidier install layout — saves, mods, and settings each live in their own subfolder; upgrading from an older install migrates everything automatically.

How to install

You're going to need the .apk for version 2.1.5. From it you need:

lib/arm64-v8a/libchrono.so — the engine
lib/arm64-v8a/libc++_shared.so — the C++ runtime it depends on
the entire assets/ folder — the game data (resources.bin, 001.dat… 008.dat, 007-en.dat, Shaders/, build_date.txt)

To install:

Download ct_nx.zip and extract it to the root of your Switch SD card.
From your .apk, extract lib/arm64-v8a/libchrono.so to /switch/ct/.
From your .apk, extract lib/arm64-v8a/libc++_shared.so to /switch/ct/.
From your .apk, copy the whole assets/ directory to /switch/ct/assets/.
(Optional) Create /switch/ct/mods/ and drop in any .ctp mods or folder mods you want loaded — see Mods below.

If you're upgrading an existing install, just overwrite ct_nx.nro (and libchrono.so/libc++_shared.so/assets/ if they changed) — your settings and save data are migrated automatically on first launch, see Notes below.

Notes

This will not work in applet/album mode. Use a game override (hold R on a title) or a forwarder, so the homebrew gets the full memory and required syscalls.

Everything the port reads or writes lives under /switch/ct/:

config.ini — all settings (see Configuration)
saves/ — save data (common.bin, meta.bin, Chrono_sp_*.dat) and the cocos2d-x Cocos2dxPrefsFile.txt settings store
mods/ — optional .ctp / folder mods (see Mods)
font/ — optional TTFs for the custom font feature
debug.log — diagnostic log

Upgrading from an older version: your settings and saves are migrated automatically the first time you launch — an old config.txt becomes config.ini, and any saves still sitting loose in /switch/ct/ move into /switch/ct/saves/. Nothing else in the folder is touched.

Configuration

config.ini is created (or migrated from an older config.txt) on first run. It's grouped into sections; here's what each key does and its default.

Screen

screen_width_handheld / screen_height_handheld, screen_width_docked / screen_height_docked (default 1280x720 / 1920x1080) — render resolution per mode. -1 (or anything out of range) auto-picks 1280x720 handheld / 1920x1080 docked.
- An explicit value is honoured up to 4K, so you can also render above native for supersampling (e.g. 2560x1440 docked) — keep a 16:9 ratio to avoid stretching. Applied live: changing dock state mid-session resizes the render target with no restart needed.

Language

language (default default) — selects the in-game text/assets. One of en fr de it es ja ko zh zh-Hant (zh/zh-Hans = Simplified Chinese, zh-Hant = Traditional Chinese). The default value default selects language based upon the current system language with fall back to en if not supported.

Font

game_font (default 1) — render the engine's system-font labels with a TTF instead of the Switch's shared font, so they match the in-game look. The game's own TTF-rendered labels are unaffected either way. Glyphs the game font lacks fall back to the shared font.
game_font_path (default /switch/ct/font/ChronoType/ChronoType.ttf) — path to the TTF to use. If empty, a few common asset locations are probed; if none load, falls back to the shared font.
game_font_scale (default 0.90) — fine-tune multiplier on the game font's auto-fitted size. 1.0 = auto (cap height matched to the shared font); lower if it still looks too big, higher if too small.
game_font_xscale (default 1.0) — horizontal-only squeeze, for condensing a wide/monospaced font so the game's pre-broken lines stay inside their window. A proportional font like ChronoType usually needs no squeeze.

Text shadow

text_shadow (default 1) — draw a crisp, hard-edged drop shadow behind the system-font labels, classic CT/SNES style.
text_shadow_scale (default 1.0) — multiplier on the shadow's auto offset.
text_shadow_alpha (default 200, 0-255) — shadow opacity; also scales with each label's own alpha, so fades stay consistent.

Performance

gl_threaded (default 0) — (experimental) run mesa's GL command submission on a second CPU core (glthread), offloading work the single-threaded engine spends inside the GPU driver. No-op if mesa lacks it; disable if it causes trouble.
gl_no_error (default 1) — skip mesa's internal validation of GL calls, removing CPU overhead on a path that fires constantly. The engine's calls are already well-formed, so this is safe to leave on.

Visual & movement fixes — these smooth out a handful of quirks left over from the original phone version: filtering, alignment, camera zoom, and a shimmering/stuttering look during movement. Each flag below is independent and safe to turn off if it ever causes trouble; most take effect on your next launch rather than instantly.

remove_mobile_ui (default 1) — hides the on-screen touch buttons, since you're playing with a controller.
cursor_fix (default 1) — keeps selected menu text white with a dark highlight behind it, instead of the original's color-inverted look.
remove_bilinear_filter (default 1) — sharp, nearest-neighbour texture rendering instead of the default's soft/blurred look.
fixed_timestep (default 1) — smooths out movement and keeps the intro movie's audio in sync, by giving the game a steady frame timing instead of a jittery one.
ui_scale_fix (default 1) — fixes a display-scaling mismatch left over from the game's original phone resolution, which is what causes stretching and shimmer across the whole screen. As a side effect you'll see a little more of the world at the screen edges.
force_nearest (default 0) — a stronger version of remove_bilinear_filter that also catches a few textures the basic patch can't reach.
game_area_width_fix (default 1) — fixes a small UI stretch caused by the same phone-resolution mismatch as ui_scale_fix.
menu_alignment_fix (default 1) — straightens out text that sits slightly too high on the Equipment menu.
field_zoom_fix (default 1) / field_zoom (default 2.0) — fixes an uneven zoom on the field camera that's the real cause of the shimmer you see while scrolling around. field_zoom sets how zoomed in the camera is — lower shows more map, higher shows less. Recommend values are currently 2.0 and 1.75.
map_zoom_fix (default 1) / map_zoom (default 2.0) — the same fix and zoom control, for the overworld map screen. Recommend values are currently 2.0 and 1.75.

Input / controller

native_controller (default 1) — drive the engine purely through its native controller path, so on-screen prompts and dialogue button tags show Switch buttons. Turn off only for legacy keyboard-style compatibility.
controller_glyphs (default 1) — force in-message button tags to the controller glyph set (honours any A/B swap) regardless of the engine's own last-input-device detection.
fix_diagonal_movement (default 1) — smooths diagonal field movement to match the speed of cardinal movement (purely visual; no save-data impact).
right_stick_mirror (default 1) — lets the right stick also drive movement, as if it were the left stick. Right-stick tilt takes priority when both sticks are active.
key_zl / key_zr / key_plus / key_minus (default: unremapped) — remap these otherwise-unused buttons to any of key_a key_b key_x key_y key_l key_r. The physical button then behaves exactly as if the named button were pressed, glyph included.

Mods

Drop ChronoMod-compatible .ctp patch files into your mods folder — mods/ by default, or set your own via mods_dir in config.ini — and they're applied automatically at startup. Your original resources.bin is never modified; ct_nx builds a patched copy in memory instead.

You can also use "folder mods": a subfolder containing loose files at their normal resources.bin path (e.g. mods/MyMod/Game/common/foo.dat). If a .ctp and a folder mod both touch the same file, the folder mod wins.

The first time your mods load they're cached to disk, so later launches are instant — you'll only see the brief "Caching mods…" splash after adding, removing, or changing something in your mods folder.

Included tool — tools/generate_text_ctp.py: the game's field messages were written for a touchscreen (e.g. "Touch blue, yellow, then red…"). This script rewrites those lines to reference real Switch buttons instead, using your own resources.bin, and packages the result as a .ctp ready for your mods folder:

python3 generate_text_ctp.py /path/to/resources.bin
python3 generate_text_ctp.py /path/to/resources.bin --lang en,ja

Since it works from your own copy of the game, none of Square Enix's original text ever leaves your machine — only the substitution script is ours.

Advanced: offline binary patch tools

tools/ also includes the standalone Python patchers the boot-time config.ini patches above are based on (remove_bilinear.py, remove_cursor_invert.py, remove_mobile_ui.py, remove_menu_buttons.py). They edit a libchrono.so on disk directly and are kept mainly for reference and for anyone who wants a pre-patched .so outside of ct_nx's own runtime patching — for normal use, the equivalent config.ini flags are simpler, reversible, and require no re-patching. Each script is self-contained (Python 3 standard library only) and supports --dry-run/--in-place/-o; run one with -h for details.

How to build

You're going to need devkitA64 and the following devkitPro packages:

switch-mesa
switch-libdrm_nouveau
switch-sdl2
switch-freetype
switch-libpng
switch-harfbuzz
switch-ffmpeg (+ its codec deps switch-dav1d, switch-libopus, switch-libvorbisidec, switch-libwebp, switch-libogg)

Credits

fgsfds for max_nx, which this loader is based on
TheOfficialFloW for the original Vita ports that pioneered this technique
ppkantorski for the configurations revision, mod support, font loading, all of the graphical and UI fixes, controller mapping / remapping, save/mods/config directory reorganization, code optimizations, and patching tools.

Support

If you enjoy my work and want to support me :

Legal

No assets or program code from the original game or its Android port are included in this project. We do not condone piracy in any way, shape or form and encourage users to legally own the original game.

Unless specified otherwise, the source code provided in this repository is licensed under the MIT License.

The included font is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and is not covered by this project's license.