The problem with retelling an existing story is that the better you like the original, the more likely you are to be disappointed with the retelling. I didn’t vote in the poll, but my would-be choice is that I would probably not buy a Chrono Trigger novel. Now, don’t get me wrong. If a retelling interprets the original with ideas similar to your own, then you may well like it just as much or even more so than the original. But most people won’t feel that way. Any novelization of Chrono Trigger that takes noticeable artistic license will put off more people than it attracts. A completely literal retelling would be less controversial, but most writers—and especially amateurs—simply do not have the skill to treat anything objectively, let alone a story they liked so much as to novelize. And this is to say nothing of the skill required to write any sort of retelling at all, which I suspect would also be beyond most people.
To be fair, I looked at the website and read the excerpts. Unfortunately they are too short for a definite assessment, but after a close reading I can say that I believe this author is beneath the skill level required for a proper retelling of Chrono Trigger. That’s the cold truth of it. A story as excellent as this cannot be entrusted to simply anyone. In the distant past I read an online novelization of Chrono Trigger that was exhaustively complete, and went above and beyond the viewpoints of the seven main heroes. It proved an enjoyable (and long) read, but I couldn’t find it either in my own Internet records or through Google, and, in any case, it was not so good that I would have paid to read it.
Finally, I should add that the odds of this fellow being sanctioned to publish a Chrono Trigger novel are extremely slim. Most novices seem to think that getting a book published is easy. It is not; commercial publication is like an exclusive sports club, and self-publication is expensive and narrow in reach. Even worse, is to try to get permission to novelize an existing, copyrighted story, especially when the copyright is held by an enormous video game company. His efforts, I believe, are next of kin to impossibility.
Having said all of that, I must add that I do condone fan fiction, and I read it from time to time. Most of it, as has been said, is poor quality fare. Some of it is nice. But professional attempts are in another arena altogether. For a writer of this man’s talent level to try and establish a definitive Chrono Trigger novel is Icarian folly. Once such a novel is established, it is, as I said, the Chrono Trigger novel. If such a thing ever happens, it must be executed with the utmost excellence...and this is not that.
~ Josh
Poll