This is why I find CC so fucking offensive.
You go from CT, where every character had unique skills that could be paired with others, to maybe 10-11 techs in this game. That's a quarter of the roster. Already, Kato's subtracting features rather than adding them.
Because it would have been impossible to write unique dialog for over forty characters, they all recite the same text. It likewise would have been impossible to build over forty different kits, so they all use the same generic spells. You can't combine spells with Techs, like lighting Crono's katana on fire or electrifying it.
Roster bloat. Maybe 1/10th of the cast is directly tied to the main plot. Serge, Kid, Lynx, Harle. If we're being charitable, we can throw in Fargo (not a bad character tbh) since you need his ship, plus you can tell the writers were invested in that character. The others wind up as benchwarmers most of the time.
Some of them had potential to be strongly-compelling: a hippie doctor having a crisis of faith, a wannabe cavalier with a fake accent, a warrior maiden, a Nazi-with-a-heart (Norris). Characters like Sprigg and Viper are interesting, if only because you don't often see mature people represented in JRPGs. It's the same reason why Duster has a limp in
Mother 3.
If you want 'slice-of-life' scenarios with a bunch of oddball characters, go play
Legend of Mana. At least then you won't be subjected to
this.