Okay. So I thought I'd pop in here and offer up some of my impressions, now that I've more or less absorbed all of CTDS' new features and such. Bear with me, as I haven't had time to read through all five pages of posts in this thread before posting my thoughts... so some of what I say may have already been said before.
As a longtime Chrono fan, I picked up this game despite my general aversion to the Squeenix tendency to remake classics rather than produce actual new games of quality. (but that's a rant that doesn't belong here!)
On the whole, I like CTDS. Its new features (the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum) are worthy additions to the Chrono universe, and the retention of the various meta features from the PS release make this very near to a perfect version of Chrono Trigger.
However, I can't stand the retranslation. It's the only thing that keeps me from giving this version an unqualified 10-score.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm big on the English language. A lot of Japanese RPGs from the 16-bit era clearly don't share that affinity with me. Awkward phraseology, the occasional grammatical hiccup and a number of other problems plague these games. I'm well aware that some of these traits are comical at best, embarrassing at worst.
But before I'm a language snob, I'm first and foremost very sentimental. I fell in love with the game with and despite its shoddy translation; the dialogue as it was became part of its charm, and something that was overlooked easy enough because of how amazing (and, after almost 15 years, enduring) Chrono Trigger's gameplay, graphics, score and story are.
That said, I could abide (and even understand the desire to) "clean up" some of the dialogue. I'll concede that Frog sounds a little less ridiculous with his misuse of modern Elizabethan English (the next person who says that Frog speaks "Old English" or "Shakespeare," or who claims that Frog's speech is an example of an "accent" [do you people even know what an "accent" is?] is going to get a book thrown at them), especially given that he seems to be the ONLY person in the Middle Ages who speaks this way. In fact, after a full playthrough, I find that I actually do like the new dialogue changes because they do seem to help the game to "mature" along with me 15 years later. I don't like it, but I can live with it.
The new content redeems CTDS, in the eyes of an old sentimental gamer like myself. Both the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum are excellent in terms of new content; they provide a small amount of extra story (without overburdening the game's original plot), an extra "something to do" at key points in the game's progression (semi-spoiler: running Lost Sanctum immediately after it becomes available is a GREAT way to build up your last few techs, get some neat loot upgrades and bridge the level-gap between Crono and the rest of your party [while the spikey-haired one is off being temporarily dead]) -- and did I mention the new loot already? (Marle's new Venus Bow is probably one of the single best improvements to the entire game)
My ultimate rating for CTDS is 8.5. For whatever that's worth.
