I'd understand stopping a remake, but a free fan-made sequel? Come on! It's bloody fanfiction. Man, Squenix can be a jerk.

"I'd understand stopping a remake, but a free fan-made sequel? Come on! It's bloody fanfiction. Man, Squenix can be a jerk."

It's stuff like this that is making me feel increasingly distant from what used to be one of my favourite video game companies. This was in no way going to harm the original Chrono Trigger. I know not all companies are going to treat their userbases in the same way companies like Valve and Bethesda do, but seriously Square Enix, what the fuck?

It also seems pretty hypocritical of them, considering their attitude when it comes to publishing games on behalf of other developers. Take Infinite Undiscovery, for example. The box art for that game was plastered with the Square Enix logo, but the logo of Tri-Ace, the company that actually developed the damn game, was nowhere to be found on the box, the disc, or the manual. Can anybody say double standards?

I agree.

It looks like they were using ripped graphics from the original to me. if that's the case, then by distributing their game they would also distribute content that belongs to Square Enix, despite how they keep calling it an "original" sequel. Justified+1, imo.

It's too bad this Mana project died on its own without a cease and desist. It really was original.

If they were using some of Square's original code, it is understandable.

Fan projects are fan projects, Square. What harm can they cause to the company, it can only promote their games. It's like me writing a story about Chrono Trigger and posting it up online, except in playable form.

That mana project looks like it had potential, too.

This is not a new phenomenon on Square Enix's part.  A number of years ago, they also shut down a group working on a 3D remake of Chrono Trigger called Chrono Resurrection.  Frankly, I thought the move was justified because of a Youtube video of early footage, which included credits.  Credits for such concepts as character designs and music from the original game that were not credited to the original Square & Enix staffers, save for a very general "Very Special Thanks" section at the end that was code for "Please don't sue the shit out of us."

Why does Square even bother to shut this thing down? 99% (ok, more like 60%) of all fan-made projects fail anyways.

ROM hacks are nothing new.  I can't imagine this is much of a real problem for SE.  I do understand it's their property but from the outsider's perspective it just seem like a dick move.

Bad PR SE.

Yeah, I don't know why Square bothers. Almost all of them suck.