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First of all - I will never understand the accusations that the translation is too literal. People don't even know what "literal translation" means.

No - this translation is not a word-for-word translation. It simply sticks to the original Japanese text without unnecessary localization. It retains aspects of the source culture, and because of this, some people may feel uncomfortable with it for some reason. In my case, the situation is the opposite. I much prefer the preserved part of the aspects of the source culture and quirks, which strongly lose their meaning if translated. And this applies to any foreign work, not just Japanese.

I don't understand this, especially since all those who are so fond of altering the original text, censorship or nonsense name substitutions have an official translation after all. Why does anyone like this even seek a re-translation? What would be the purpose of doing a re-translation based similarly on the assumptions of changes and culturalization?

I am very pleased to preserve the original honorifics. This is one of those untranslatable aspects that strongly helps to understand more closely the relationship between the characters. The Japanese honorific system is enormously extensive. You can address an older brother or sister in more than 10 ways. Each has different overtones and shows the attitude of a character to another character. And this is just a question of the relationship between siblings, but what about everything else?

I am very pleased that someone has taken the trouble to present the original vision of the creators in a much better way. Many games deserve such treatment, which I wish for myself and other people who are open to the world and other cultures.

I wholeheartedly thank the people involved in this project. Thanks to you, I played this title a lot better and had the opportunity to experience the whole thing the way the creators wanted me to, instead of reading a "creative" rewritten script because someone, somewhere decided I was too stupid to understand the original references or dialogue.

Hoo boy, I don't even know where to start with this one. I had to stop when I was nearly through the game because my brain was melting by that point.

First and foremost, as many glaring issues as this retranslation has, I'll give credit where credit is due and say that I respect what they were attempting. Trying to make a translation that transfers what the official English translation may have been missing is a monumental task, and there are at the very least brief moments where they accomplished that to a degree that is enjoyable. But there are just too many issues for this to be enjoyable.

For one, the retranslation is far too literal, and sure, they were trying to keep it as close to the source material as possible, but when translating to a different language, especially two that are so different, there are limits. An example is how the wording of some sentences feel odd, and not very natural.

There's also the issue of honorifics, which are used literally everywhere. Japanese honorifics feel very out of place in the English language, and the scale of them being used, along with other things such as Magus calling his sister "ane-ue", while would feel fine in Japanese, seem odd being used in English.

Another thing that feels out of place, and this is more of a personal gripe, are some of the name changes. Things like Schala turning into Sara, while being more true to the source material, shows a name that is simultaneously more and less interesting. The name Sara has it's sources in Hebrew, and fits her well, meaning "royalty". However, Zeal is a very exotic place, and Schala, an exotic name. There's also the fact of the Reptites being called "Dinomen". Dinomen sounds far worse than Reptites, and was another personal gripe of mine.

Another interesting situation, this one of inconsistency is, even with Magus' Japanese name being "Maou", he is still called Magus in the game. From what I remember reading, this was due to limitations, but there's also the matter that Janus is called by his Japanese name, "Jyaki".

Finally, as much of a negative review as this is, I would like to speak about what I did like about this translation, as few things as they are. As another reviewer has said, this brings back in many lines that were lost in translation for various reasons. One of which explains that Frog has straight up drank alcohol due to depression (this one was an eye-opener for me, and one of the few things that has me thankful I did get nearly through this translation!). Another, which I knew about, was Frog straight up calling Magus a "pale-faced bastard". Another thing that I enjoy are things such as fixes and re-implementations of features lost from the Japanese version, such as the fix to Ayla's nickname for Chrono. The Magus exchanges at his castle are done quite well also, from what I remember.

All in all, even with the few things this retranslation did really well, I truly cannot recommend this at all. There are two very great translations in the form of Woolsey's SNES translation, and the DS translation. While they may be missing some that this retranslation restores, they are excellent translations that keep in the scope of the English language, and don't feel awkward.

Incredible work by the CCT team, this retranslation is well worth a replay of one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit era!

Many crucial lines that were left out of the 'official' NA translation are present here. Lines regarding who built the Keeper's Dome, some philosophical musing in the 'Dream City' of Kajar in Zeal, and especially some noteworthy lines from Magus that made my skin crawl, just cause he's that much more badass then he was before.

The script itself was extensively processed and gone through with a fine-toothed comb. I very rarely noticed minor formatting/punctuation errors in the script. However, given the sheer scale and scope of the entirety of Chrono Trigger and that this was an all-volunteer team creating it, this very minor quibble can be easily forgiven for the benefit of a far-superior and much more understandable storyline.

Final word? PLAY IT NOW! :)