So, my girlfriend got me(?) the new DS port of Chrono Trigger, making the third time altogether I’ve gotten the game overall, and if not the best edition, the close runner up. Not for its ‘enhancements’- the cutscenes nicked from the PS1 port are nice, but irk me a little because they tend to overlap with things already acted out by the sprites on screen. These are optional, though, which is nice for those aiming for as close to full retro as possible. I really couldn’t care less about touchscreen compatibility, bestiaries and in-game jukeboxes for the most part (not that CT’s music isn’t fricking awesome), but the one thing the bottom screen makes nicer is you can take in the full battlefield when the status panel is moved to the bottom screen rather than the top. Both options are there for you, and suckily selecting the ‘classic’ display just gives you the DS display with the equivalent of the menu leaping up and putting its tiny fingers over the bottom part of your eyes. It can’t quite blind you, but it’s annoying. And the game basically seems to nudge you into using the touchscreen for the menus by dicking around with what direction the cursor goes in when you touch the d-pad. In particular when I wanna use an item on someone to the left of my center man, and tap left, I want the cursor to go to them, not stay on the first guy and making the same ‘squeak’ as if the cursor actually budged.

Of course, all that’s just annoyances, and it’s still Chrono underneath, so it’s pretty hard to make it suck. (LOL CHRONO CROSS JOKE HERE) Plus it’s portable, so you can use it to… kill… or save, I guess time on the go.

Back to work on the big thing.