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Where the touch screen really shines is in battle. The top screen is incredibly minimalist, showing only the characters, the environment, and each character's HP (for your party members) and Active Time Battle (ATB) gauges. Everything else is handled by the touch screen: selecting actions, battle notifications, and other such things. The buttons aren't particularly pleasing to the eye, but presumably the visual style will change before the final release.

What is more important is that they work. Picking up the game for the first time, the battle controls felt much more functional and comfortable than having to scroll down a menu with the d-pad, and separating the battle view from the user interface makes things feel significantly less cluttered. One of my real frustrations with the original title was the tendency of the battle interface to block your view of the enemies; with the HUD now located on the touch screen, this is thankfully no longer an issue.

While the demo of Chrono Trigger I played was very rough and incomplete (if I had plowed through the demo, I estimate it would have taken about half an hour), it was enough to get me excited. This is the game the fans have been clamoring for – it stays remarkably true to the original game while adding only incremental changes to improve the experience. Chrono Trigger is due out for the Nintendo DS this holiday season.