Overall, I believe this patch is worth your time, though I do have some minor criticisms. The gameplay changes and additions are largely welcome, and the new dungeons and locations, while a bit rough around the edges, are fun to explore. I’ll try to break down my thoughts on individual elements below.

The adjustments to Marle’s and Lucca’s hit growth are very nice. These two are finally able to hold their own with basic attacks, so you don’t have to spend MP every turn just to make them feel useful. Similarly, Protect and Magic Wall being party-wide buffs means it is much easier to get your squad set up for a hard fight (more on that later). The ReadMe also mentions Haste was made party-wide, but it still seemed to be single-target for me. I’m not sure if that was an oversight, or if the change was reverted and the ReadMe didn’t get updated.

The early/mid game is definitely a bit scarier. Enemies hit harder, and your heals are generally less effective, so you need to stay on your toes. I had some serious trouble fighting Magus and Black Tyrano; the former’s Dark Matter was almost a party-wipe (two characters got one-shot from full health, and the third only survived because of a Silver Earring), while the latter’s fire breath brought a fully-healed party down to double digits, even with protection from Ruby Vests. Nothing insurmountable, but it took a few tries and some adjustments to strategy.

I didn’t really notice the XP and TechPt changes. Like the vanilla game, I never really felt a need to grind, despite the tougher fights, so well done in that regard.

By far my favorite adjustment is the elimination of the Triple Tech accessories. These are instead learned permanently through events (sometimes from the same source), and the placement largely makes sense. For example, Magus learns his Triple Techs after witnessing the power employed by his former trio of minions, suggesting that perhaps working more closely with his allies is a good idea. It’s very well-implemented.

The ability to explore the world of 1999 was quite enjoyable, though the color palette in a few cases was… definitely a choice. None of the rewards felt tedious to obtain, but neither were they simply handed over. They struck an acceptable balance, I think. And of course, the ability to buy Tab items was a nice addition. If you’re worried about balance there, don’t be; they’re very expensive. I drained my account and still wasn’t able to max out everyone’s Speed.

The writing was… fine? It was fine. Not great, but serviceable. The universal application of “olde-timey speech” to everyone in 600 A.D. threw me off at first, but it wasn’t terrible. I did quite enjoy the movie theater scene and the comment from the lady whose man becomes a mushroom.

My only real “complaint”, if it could be called that, is with the change to the Enertrons in 2300 A.D. Rather than restoring both HP and MP, they simply restore MP, I guess because the hunger keeps you from healing. This is fine from the lore perspective, and I suspect that’s what the author was going for, but in practice, all it means is the player dips into the menu to spend their MP on healing abilities, then restores their MP to full. So ultimately, it just ends up wasting time. Sacrificing player experience for lore reasons feels like a bad idea to me, but as I said, it’s a minor inconvenience, so I’m willing to overlook it.

Nitpicks aside, I enjoyed this hack, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys vanilla CT but wants something a little… plus.