do you feel the same about FF4 or FF6? I don't see much of a difference there.
I think it may be unclear what CT lacks that an RPG enthusiast should want. I'll explain:
1. Meaningful gear and party composition choices. The most straightforward example of this you can see in the weapons. You get a weapon and only one member of your party can use it, and it's just take it as it appears. There are some random curveballs-- like you might wanna use the Swallow with Crono for longer than its attack value would indicate cause of the +3 speed but it's generally a treadmill of "get the universal strongest gear" Only one accessory slot, and armor despite having some illusion of choice early tends to homogenize later. FFVI beats FFIV here strong with more diverse gear sets, party choices, and esper system, but they're both pretty clearly ahead of CT I think.
2. Depth to battle system. Everyone has their set of 8 skills and that's what you've got. Most dual and triple techs are just more damage or more healing. You've got some that can heal, with elemental strengths/weaknesses basically being pokemonesque in that you've either got em or you don't. Not a huge difference between say Frog and Marle aside from preference. Status ailments are not really a factor in general. It's basically buff, bash, and heal. Most fights do not require any specific strategy beyond occasional gimmicks clearly explained in the fight, which is the case in Mario RPG too. FF games have these token gimmick fights-- like the first boss fight in both are "don't attack now or eat this terrible counter", but they have more than that too.
3. Plot and character complexity. CT's plot is very basic, and there isn't much in the way of character development or anything. There are probably two major twists in the story and that's it. FFIV and FFVI kill it in this regard I think.
It's mostly the first two where I feel CT is pretty stripped down speaking objectively. The third I realize is more subjective and I could humor an argument that CT isn't really all that far below FFVI and FFIV but yeah, I'd put the plot closer to Mario RPG than one of the FF games.
It's basically Star Wars A New Hope to a lot of people, although I agree some of the cast isnt as good (though some are). I do disagree about the story being too simplistic. Not that twists are everything, but I can think of three just of the top of my head. ---