Looks like Mitsuda's commissioned to direct the DS score makeover:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168602

Considering what he was able to do with Soma Bringer, this is spectacular news.

Personally somewhat disappointed to read this:

Then again SNES remakes on Nintendo handhelds tend to have inferior sound quality so if it is "close" to the original I suppose that's an improvement.

Entirely improbably but it sure would be nice to get a new arranged soundtrack or a proper orchestral medley or two.

This makes me happy as well. I'm glad the in-house team isn't doing it. The soundtrack to Final Fantasy IV's remake was HORRIBLE in the sound department.

Yep, it also mystified me that the US didn't get this brilliant game, does anyone even know why?

What I heard back then is that Enix, while having already stopped supporting the SNES in the US and Japan, still had an ongoing contract with Nintendo of Europe which allowed the latter to localise Terranigma.

1up and Siliconera have impressions from the E3 floor:

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3168737&p=39
http://www.siliconera.com/2008/07/15/te … s-support/

In short, the game appears to be up and running really well.  "This is easily the most solid 16-bit port Square has ever put together; even in what company reps claim is a fairly unstable build, the game looks and sounds great. No slowdown, no sluggishness, no twitchy unpleasantness. And the music and sound effects are spot-on, free of the compressed, muffled quality that tend to affect Square's DS games -- good enough to sound perfect through a pair of high-quality headphones."

In addition, we're getting the PSX cutscenes, and more letter entries per character name.  ("Chrono" at last!)  The script is looking to get a touch-up, the bottom screen will serve both as a map a la FFIV DS and to optionally control your characters, and there's two new bars next to your party members in battle sequences that will indicate HP and your ATB meter.  Siliconera lastly reports: "While it was not implemented at this point, a Square Enix representative said there are plans to include the original single-screen version for purists. This will allow players to have the same gameplay experience as the Super Nintendo title."

That the script has been reworked gives me pause.  The text constraint on SNES cartridges was a blessing, because it forced translators to exercise restraint with the dialogue and say more with fewer words.  If the excerpt of the new translation is representative of the whole, then the Squenix localization team's goal seems to be to increase the word count needlessly.

Text constraints could really help the Ace Attorney games...

Quiet, you. They don't need to change a thing. Hell, when I replay them I delete all saved data so there's no speeding-up of the text. Breaks the flow, you know?

But the script-updating bugs me, too. Having played the game to bits, every little rework they do is going to stick out like a sore thumb, and if FF6 Advance is any indication, they'll gut every possible charming quirk that Woolsey put into the thing in the first place. FF6 Advance feels like a completely different game, and not in a good way.

I remember when they said they updated the text/story in Wild Arms Alter code:F - that was mostly a joke. I still don't know who to blame for robbing the characters of any and all personality, my bet is on agetech who had eons to do the translation.

I love this kind of perceptiveness.  And you're right...the example they provided adds nothing to what was originally said.  Yet I have no doubt that a number of people will quickly claim it to be a better translation upon release.

It's unfortunate that for many (but certainly not all) RPG fans reared on PSX-era RPGs, increased word count only makes a story more fleshed-out and superior (forgetting the difference between theoretical and actual, I'm sure), even if most of that extra wordiness is spent on minutiae.  Maybe some people think there's no such thing as a needless increase in word count.

I can still remember a debate I once had with a FFVII fan who attempted to use FFVII's higher word count in itself (as in not trying to isolate specific passages or anything; just doing a numbers comparison) as proof that it has a superior story to FFVI.

*facepalm*  ...obviously someone missing the point...

The most I've ever heard people try to justify quality of story through length of script is with Dragon Quest VII.  What does that game have, like 500,000,000 pages of dialog?

Looks like Chrono Trigger has a confirmed North America release date: November 25th.  Just in time for the Thanksgiving weekend. :)

http://www.square-enix.com/na/company/press/2008/0818/

And it looks like Japanese gamers win again:

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=265

Chrono Trigger Orchestra Extra Soundtracks.  Ramza and I have been debating based on that list of tracks in the medley if it's a new recording or the PlayStation version.  What do you guys make of it?

Mitsuda's website has confirmed that it is performed by a live orchestra.

http://www.procyon-studio.com/info/info.html

Are they new arrangements then?

I'm really hoping it's new. There are some new pieces in that medley. I also pray to all that is holy that Mitsuda was the arranger and not some in-house Square arranger, as Sekito's from the Playstation version was absolutely hideous. Perhaps it was with the Czech Philharmonic in addition to their recording of World Destruction.

Oh come on, they weren't THAT bad.  They were pretty rote arrangements, certainly, but the sound quality was quite good to my ears.  And back in '99, it was an aural treat for the long-time, arranged-starved fan of Chrono Trigger.

The Ending medley is still one of my favorites, and that beat interlude for Schala's Theme gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't Chrono Trigger (Arrange Version 2) sound like the perfect BGM for the "next episode preview" segment of a non-existent Chrono Trigger anime series? I can see the title cards and everything. To a lesser extent, Version 3 would work as a "Previously, on Chrono Trigger...!" recap jingle.

No? Just me? Okay.

Maybe I'm still bitter over the fact that Sekito sucked all life out of Frog's Theme...

The Ending Medley was the best thing on that though. I'll give you that.

Agreed, bland synth, uninspired arrangement and the lack of the cool horn intro made it far inferior to the OST version.

High hopes for this new orchestral medley though, I will be very surprised if it's not Mitsuda himself doing the arranging.

Agreed. I wish for an artbook full of shots like the ones in the trailer and the OST booklet.

No..... because now, I'm totally envisioning it myself.

Speaking of a CT anime, do you folks remember that twenty-minute anime short featuring Spekkio and Nu?  There's few pleasures like watching Gato the robot tearing up the Millennial Fair in the way that he does:

http://www.fantasyanime.com/squaresoft/ctanime.htm

Yeah, that's great.  The day after I first saw that, I think I spent the whole workday humming the Gato song.

You too, huh? Gato (or Gonzalez as it were in the East) is great.

Looks like the U.S. version will also come with the orchestra CD:

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Product … t_id=72012

AUGH! Though even with that, I'm wondering if it's worth it.

what do you mean Augh? its chrono trigger and portable without load times.

Gaming Age has a new set of screenshots, plus a handful of videos.  The Frog cutscene video's compression looks pretty good for the DS.

IGN's got their review up: 8.8

http://ds.ign.com/articles/932/932438p1.html

The just-released Japanese version has full English language support, by the way.  I got to play a good chunk of the import at the office today, and I'll say this: it plays like a dream.  On the technical side, everything is perfect; the graphics and sound are exactly like the SNES original, and there's zero movement/menu lag or slowdown.  Seriously, it makes one cry that Final Fantasy VI Advance might've aspired to be like this had it also gone to DS.

I tried out both the DS and Classic modes of gameplay.  I'm still trying to decide if I like the aesthetics of DS mode or not.  On the one hand, it's fantastic having a full view of the battles by dropping all the menus to the bottom screen.  The downside is that you have to train your eyes to flick back and forth between top and bottom screens to play properly.  The touch screen aspect seems to play well enough, though - they've made the command boxes nice and big so that it's easy to cycle through attacks, techs, and combos.  The Classic mode is exactly what it is, but I wonder how many people are going to bitch about the slightly smaller font size that they've chosen to use?  In any case, the customizable options on display here are expansive, and will surely guarantee that everyone will be able to play the game their own way.

I'll have impressions on the localization changes after I dig into the U.S. release next week, but I have noticed that much of the weapon/item names have been changed, much like FFVI Advance.  It's hard associating Revive with Athenian Water now.

Caramelldansen gets to Chrono Trigger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqBoNA7ocOE

I really shouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did.

Gato totally needs his own spin-off game. ;-)

I picked up my pre-order today - haven't had a chance to play the game, yet - but I did pop in the CD and give it a spin. It's great but I have one complaint: it's too short. The entire medley (2 tracks) tops at 6 minutes, with Track 1 (2:00) and Track 2 (4:00). It feels like a sampler to me and makes me want more. As in, completely fleshed out tracks of everything in Track 2: Magus's Theme, To Far Away Times, Millenium Fair, etc.

That being said, the sound quality is excellent. Now, though, it's making me wish that Mitsuda would get his release of World Destruction OST out soon. I'm experiencing withdrawal.

Just listened to the CD.  It is short, but both tracks make up one hell of a great medley.  The arrangement of "Wind Scene" is indescribably lovely.