The new equipment, enemies and locations are cool, and the restored lines add a little more context to certain situations. Also, the idea of choosing alternate paths is great, at least on theory. And here’s why: you become easily overpowered if you choose Ayla’s scenario first. Let alone the big chunks of XP - which may be also gained in the vanilla, you get access to some really good equipment. On top of that, you can steal even better equipment like the Aeon blade, Magma hand, Dream bow and dream gun. And due to the new learning rates for the skills, it’s pretty easy to get twin charm. You can even steal the items from Ozzie, Flea and Slash when you enters Magus castle.

The idea of spreading the level bonuses is good, and some rebalancing on characters was a nice touch, but become almost useless due to the gear you get and because you learn skills so fast, than all the difficulty it was supposed to bring, ends disappearing. Even if you don’t grind, you still get some pretty powerful techs much earlier than in the vanilla. Magus fight was a joke cause I already had arc impulse. And I didn’t even equip the powerful gear I’ve stolen.

Overall is one of the best hacks of CT, and I truly appreciate the effort put on it, but requires a little more balancing when it comes to gear and skill learning. Regardless, play it, cause it’s a must play for CT fans, and you will be amazed to explore 1999.