A great game on DS, and a great game in general.
Anyway, on with the review!
Graphics:
The graphics are, from what I've heard, the same as when this game first released. I have a hard time beleiving this, because this game is better to look at than many 2-D games today. I have noticed, however, that the developers have had to use certain tricks with the graphics. It's tough to explain, but when you play it, you'll know what I mean. Anyway, the environments all look as they should and all seem to fit the time period that you're in well. The characters look bright and colorful, as do the enemies, even if, like many RPGs from this era in gaming, there are several enemies that are really just pallete swaps of earlier enemies, but that's okay. As I said earlier, the beautiful graphics look better than many of today's games, which really shows the amount of effort that went into the game. I will say that the new final boss is a pallete swap of the normal final boss, which is pretty dissapointing. Even then the game looks great. The animated cutscenes are pretty well done, even if certain characters look nothing like they do in the real game. 9/10
Story:
I enjoyed the story alot, as it was filled with time traveling drama, even if I think that a few of the characters are sorley undeveloped. Ironically enough the most underdeveloped character was Crono. He never speaks, except in one of the endings and you never really learn of his past or why he doesn't have a father. The game starts off with Crono asleep in bed when his mother calls him and tells him to wake up or he'll be late for the carnival. He gets up and goes to the Millenial Fair, where he bumps into a pretty young blond named Marle. After she drops her necklace and you return it to her, she asks to have you lead her around the carnival for a while. After a few activities and picking a peice of candy, you go to the back of the fair where Crono's friend, Lucca, is waiting for a volunteer to test out her teleportation machine. Crono volunteers and it's a success. Marle wants to try it, so she gets on, when, after several strange occurences, she dissappears. This sets off the chain of events that is the epic story. Something I don't like is that a few of the alternate endings shouldn't be considered endings. 9/10
Sound:
There isn't really much in the way of sound in the game, so I'll talk about the music. It's really well done and it's fully orchestrated. The themes are what they need to be during the times that it should be. My favorite theme is the theme when you are in the present and out in the field. It is really pleasing to listen to and just makes you want to sit there. The battle music is well done, particularly the boss themes. 9/10
Controls:
It all controls smoothly, whether you have the battle controls set to classic or DS. 9/10
Gameplay:
This game is focused around time travel and having the past affect the present. This is how the game works: you travel around an open world map and go to towns and dungeons once you figure out what you must do. The thing about the open world is that, unlike many other RPGs, there are no random encounters (even though certain battles in dungeons beg to differ). You can see the enemies, so you decide whether or no to fight. The thing is, there are many times in the game when you don't see an enemy right away and it jumps out of the bushes or whatever and an unavoidable fight occurs. Any way, the battles are realt time where each character has an action bar that depending on your speed fills up at a certain rate. When it fills, you can attack, use a tech (magic) or use an item. This works well and, later in the game, the battles are really fast paced with hardly a moment that something doesn't happen. The game is pretty easy, though, except for one reall annoying boss battle. If you want a challenging RPG, get Final Fantasy 4 and read my review for that as well. 9/10
After hearing so much praise for Crono Trigger, I finally got a chance to see what the fuss was about and it was worth every penny. If you're looking for a fun RPG with a fun story, buy this game. It's a bargain at it's normal $40.00 price tag and if you can find it cheaper, it should be considered stealing. That's how good this game is.
Thanks for reading