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I think other reviewers have already noted the issues with MSU-1 implementation: chiptune music will often clash with CD tunes, and the compression and normalization of tracks means they will sound far worse than intended. But that's not what my reviewer is about. Instead, I'm going to review the soundtrack this hack supports, which is Blake Robinson's Chrono Symphony.

You have to understand something about Blake and projects like ZREO, and that is that the point of these albums is to ask the question "What would the soundtrack sound like if it were performed in concert by a live studio orchestra?" It was not intended to replace, remaster, or recreate the original work with modern instruments. It was not intended to be something used in any version of the game. It's an album meant to be listened to on its own, on its own merits, completely separate from the original work. And the reason for that is it's all one genre: a sweeping, orchestral sound.

If you have ever played Chrono Trigger, you will know that while the game does use a lot of orchestral-style music, it's not afraid to use other genres like D&B (Battle 1), rock (Bike Chase, Tyrano Lair), techno (Undersea Palace, Last Battle), contemporary pop (Robo's Theme), jazz (Johnny's Theme), or even alternative classical styles like pizzicato (Wind Scene) to serve the game's atmosphere. All of those tracks I mentioned, if you use this hack, are going to be changed into an orchestral style, and it doesn't work. Every track starts to blend together, and have the same bland, "cinematic" sound to it. The Undersea Palace theme and Tyrano Lair themes, in particular, are ruined and don't carry any of the weight or tension they once had. The notion that this is what the game would sound like if it was remade today is absurd.

But even the actual orchestral themes are done differently than what the original composers intended, and end up sounding weak most of the time. Lavos's Theme has an organ that's reverberated to where it's ear-grating. Wind Scene no longer plucks a violin, giving it the iconic sound it's always had: now it's done on piano, sounding way too much like Memories of Green and sounding really sad for some reason, like it was meant to be played in a scene where someone dies. It just doesn't fit. But the worst offender might be Corridors of Time, with its intro missing the original stereo rhythm, missing choir, and overly-reverberated sitar. Not only does it pale in comparison to the original, but the unique Indian feel of the original is almost completely gone.

Also, as I said before, these tracks were not meant for gameplay. They now have a beginning, middle, and end for independent listening, rather than a rhythm that kicks in and loops for eternity and is timed to the pacing of the gameplay. What this means is tracks are either too slow or take too long to get past an intro to get the melody going. And since they were not designed to loop, they loop very awkwardly, or not at all, going to the end of the cut and then restarting again. It's very jarring.

So, don't bother with this hack, and don't be fooled into thinking this is an amazing replacement of the original soundtrack that respects the original, because it isn't. It's a remix album. Nothing more.

This hack is really well-made, the remastered music is none short of amazing, but there is one thing completely shutting this off: The price for the complete album is 24 dollar! This means the remastered music is more expensive than the game itself was for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System! I was prepared to pay about 10 dollar for this, but 20?! That's way too much!

Of course you could search for some illegal, free version. But that would be disrespectful to the creators of this wonderful album.

But given the price, I wonder how many players of this hack actually have obtained the album in a legal manner...

Chrono Trigger is hands down my favorite game of all time and in my humble opinion I believe it is one of the best Japanese-developed RPGs of all time. There's a reason that this game is included in the 'Holy Trinity' of SNES RPGs that defined the 16-bit generation.

All that said, I was eagerly looking forward to playing this on my official console with an SD2SNES flashcart.

What my ears discovered with a disruptive dissoance of constantly-resetting audio tunes consistantly interrupted by (non-symphonic) standard battle music due to limitations in the current implementation of MSU-1.

You'd have a far better time just listening to the soundtrack seperately while playing the game.

The nail in the coffin for this in my eyes tends to be the limitation that it ONLY works with a specific person's licensed cover rather than other fan-works or artists that have created music for Chrono Trigger.

More specifically, the Overclocked Remix Chrono Symphonic album is fantastic and free to boot. I'd like to be able to use that (or mix and match) but it is a no-go apparently with the current limitations of this hack and how MSU-1 works.

So if you want constantly-switching music interrupted by standard chiptune battle music or anytime you switch areas, then feel free. One issue I've always had with 'symphonic' albums has been that they tend to start out INCREDIBLY quiet and then ramp up so loud that they hurt your ears. There's little to no 'audio normalization' when it comes to stuff like that due to the nature of the 'symphonic' genre.

More flexibility in choosing which covers we want to use would let us support the specific artists/songs that we enjoy per track rather than trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

You can shave off the corners as much as you like, even sand it down, but it won't ever be as perfect of a fit to the original game as other covers (or the original music).

And if you're gonna just SIT there just to listen to it then that kinda defeats the purpose of the music.

One notable standout would be the Ocean Palace & Black Omen which don't use the standard battle music.

If this hack included a way for the battle music to be superseded by the already-playing music of the area (as in no battle music) like how Ocean Palace & Black Omen work, THEN this would be far more useful.

A minor nitpick but the hack is not compatible with any other hacks or retranslation hacks due to the nature of what was changed to accomodate the MSU-1.

I dont' know what to say more than this is an enjoyable way to relive those Memories when playing the game when we all got to see it the first time :D

The only issue I've encountered so far is the Missing battle Music and it's Missing with Good Reason. (Lack of full MSU-1 Resume would cause end of battle to restart where you are in a dungeon!)

while the Music this Adds in can be a little more than most expected for certain tracks its a great way to also show support.

Recently hacks for MSU-1 on everyone's favorite SNES games have been cropping up. The problem with most of them? The music isn't always the best translation ever of the original chiptune, making the upgrade debatable.

By using the Chrono Trigger Symphony (and yes you have to buy it which may feel odd for a romhack), this sounds much more fitting. It's maybe a little bit too bombastic for it's own good at times however, which is to be expected after all; even if extremely faithful the symphony wasn't made explicitly to be a soundtrack replacement.

MSU-1 won't ever replace the regard we hold for the originals, but this provides a darn good way to play the game.

I am using this on a SD2SNES and it is Extremely well done. The music sits well and feels almost official. The lack of symphony combat music does subtract from the experience but is still easily overlooked.