by Matt Bird

Created on: June 03, 2009

I can't imagine there are many people out there, RPG fans or not, who've played video games and not tried Chrono Trigger in one form or another. It's one of those compulsory classics that'll worm its way into your hands eventually, and chances are pretty good you'll enjoy it, too.

The latest version of Chrono Trigger, for the Nintendo DS, doesn't fail in this area. It's just as fun as its previous counterparts, and tosses in plenty of new stuff to boot. For the purposes of this review I'll focus primarily on that new stuff... so don't blame me if this review comes off as a bit negative.

The majority of Chrono Trigger's new stuff comes near the end of the game. The beginning is all the same material you've grown used to over the years, though there is one addition that you can access pretty close to the beginning: monster battles. Working somewhat similarly to Pokemon battling, the arena mode allows you to adopt a monster, power it up by sending it out to train in a variety of different time zones and evolving it into new forms. You then send them up against other monsters and watch them battle it out. This would probably be more fun if you could then control your monsters, but the best you can do is supply them with items and hope they do as you want them to. Seeing as how you can get some decent items by doing this, however, there are no real downsides to giving the arena a shot.

The other two significant extras aren't quite as good. The first is an enormous extra area known as the Lost Sanctum. Appearing in two different ages, the Lost Sanctum is essentially an enormous puzzle area centered around a village of Reptites. These Reptites will often come to you with requests, and to complete the Sanctum you need to fulfill these requests by going out into the wilderness surrounding the Reptite village. This sounds a lot more fun than it is. The areas are boring and the item collecting incredibly tedious: there's nothing original or innovative about it all, as all the monsters are recolored versions of old ones and the environments you're entering aren't terribly attractive to look at. The only upside is access to some pretty nice items by the end of the Sanctum, though you'll question their worth by the time you finish.

The second extra, the Dimensional Vortex, is a little more fun. There's no item fetching, for starters, and though some of the areas in it are still pretty ugly they look a bit better than the Lost Sanctum. You'll also get to fight some relatively neat bosses, including a new final boss that helps connect Chrono Trigger to Chrono Cross. The new ending it provides to the game is the big reason most Chrono fans will want to get this game.

Beyond the new additions, Chrono Trigger DS is basically the same as the old game. The only other big change is the ability to use the bottom screen as a touch menu during battles. The touch navigation is nice enough, I suppose, though to be honest I flipped back to the traditional layout most of the time out of pure habit. There's also a new map screen, though Chrono Trigger's dungeons are so easy to run through that you're not likely to need it.

Chrono Trigger DS is worth buying if you lack the SNES or PSX versions. The extras may be boring, but they don't take away from the otherwise excellent core game and even provide some awesome new weapons. If you do have the older versions, though? You may want to question buying this port, especially if you're strapped for cash. It's good, but not THAT good.

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