One of the responsibles of getting me so much into jrpgs as a kid even though I never even got close to finishing it back then lol
After having a good time playing it again after a couple decades, the flaws that did not age well are very clear but you cannot make me go hard on my baby ): And don't even get me started on the "remaster" factor... Honestly just a good trip on memory lane and a personal full circle finally finishing it for the first time. And second, third, fourth, damn that's a lot of endings

Chrono Cross had the impossible task of following up Trigger and while not everything about the game is amazing, it's worth seeing through till the end. The game does a lot right, good battle system, fun characters, nice world and an instant favourite OST. It's just got a really weird narrative, it flip flops between wanting to be its own game and also tying into Trigger heavily. Compared to Trigger narratively, this is much more focused around a main story and not character based like Trigger. The game still has good characters but the fact it has 45 playable characters feels wasted, I recruited almost everybody as you could in the initial character and there's only really maybe 5-8 that I could tell you about which is unfortunate because I feel if you just had a centered main cast the game would be a lot more consistent narratively striking a good balance between cast and main story.

Cross is a weird game in all though, it get fairly convoluted towards the end and some game design choices towards the end of the game some people won't probably be a fan of, the ending overall is pretty good in my opinion. The soundtrack is easily my favourite part of the game though, Yasunori Mitsuda became a top 3 VGM composer for me and even if you don't plan on playing the game you should definitely listen to the songs he did on this game.

One of the most deranged and thrilling RPG experiences I've ever had.

The first 2/3rds are almost beat-for-beat what I would want from a Chrono Trigger sequel - a compelling conceptual hook, a gorgeous and cozy world to explore, a wild and unpredictable story with plenty of interesting characters. Up to entering the Dead Sea, I was so on-board with the game that I was almost confused by its infamously mixed reputation.

Then I hit the final 1/3rd and all things were made clear. As an indirect sequel to Chrono Trigger, Cross is an excellently inspired pivot that feels thematically linked to its predecessor without too much in the way of narrative baggage. The last act of the game, then, serves to throw out all the goodwill of what you've played thus far and exchanges it for some of the most batshit and frustrating creative backtracking you're likely to see. Nearly every element of the game is retroactively shoe-horned into being related to the story of Chrono Trigger, and at a certain point it reeks of a kind of cowardice that the developers didn't have enough faith in this story to let it stand its own merits, instead content to link its identity inexorably to a game that was already beloved for its own singularity.

All that said, I still loved my time in Chrono Cross and wouldn't trade a minute of it - I even played the "Radical Dreamers" visual novel and had a good time with it. I just wish that the game's final impression wasn't one so compromised and malformed, that it had been confident enough to stand on its own strengths and craft a story worthy of the spectacular work that surrounds it. Instead, we get a great but flawed game, idiosyncratic in all the best and worst ways. I love it to death and simultaneously wish that I could change whole swaths of it. In that way, the game perfectly encapsulates its own metaphor - there could be another life, another reality where Chrono Cross could be the game I want it to be, but would it be the same life where I love it as much I do now?

(Chrono TRIGGER spoilers in this review)

Life is built upon an uncomfortable yet foundational truth. For one to exist, one must consume. To exist is to impose a tax upon the world, one that is ultimately paid for by other life-forms. Our wants, our needs come at the expense of the world in one way or another. The land we inhabit is denied to others, the food we eat torn of their flesh. But what other recourse do we even have? The alternative is simply that of nonexistence. Instead, we choose to persevere, to exist and to love ourselves. So too we learn to embody hate, to possess a necessary contempt for the lives of those that are sacrificed in order to allow us to live.

Once comfortable with this concept, that to survive we must destroy, it becomes increasingly easy to extend this thought. The life-forms that we extinguish out of necessity so quickly become those eradicated out of convenience. The strong survive and the weak diminish. Survival of the fittest is the core tenet of evolution. Is this not the natural extension of that foundational truth? Is this not the ultimate journey of life itself? That we exist no more as iterations in this infinite cycle of love and hate?

Chrono Cross is a contentious game. It is a game that follows from a prodigious pedigree in which its themes clash and contrast against. It is impossible to discuss this game without also its predecessor. Chrono Trigger is a game about the indomitable will of humanity. A celebration of us as a species. The love that we embody for one another. How this love enables us to overcome any trial, any hardship. How our mutual love can unify strangers across time. That through love nothing is impossible, our destinies no longer inevitable.

It is also less evidently a showcase of humanity’s capacity to hate. To compartmentalize this hate in such a way that we are blind to it. The ultimate ambition of Chrono Trigger’s journey is to ensure the long-term survival of humanity. However, the Reptites and the Mystics, two competing life-form species are suppressed during the journey. The love we embody is selective. For humanity to thrive its enemies must be eradicated. This hate is not construed to be of malice though, merely prescribing to that foundational truth once more.

The game culminates in a final showdown against Lavos, a world eating parasite that seeks to consume the planet itself. The cast of Chrono Trigger are inspired to stand against Lavos out of love, but to destroy Lavos we can only do so by embodying hate. The strong survive and the weak diminish. Lavos does not represent any ideal or conviction. Lavos is simply just another life-form that we are competing against. Another among many we ultimately triumph over.

Love and hate, this dichotomy of contradictions that represent the struggle of existence. Can they be reconciled?

Chrono Cross is the evolution of Chrono Trigger. For a thing to exist, we have come to understand it requisites a toll to be paid. A life given to ensure its conception. Chrono Trigger, its progenitor, is consumed in its entirety to enable Cross to exist. This cost is intended to hurt. To make you grieve a personal loss. To recontextualize what the struggle of the journey meant. To make you resent the rigidity of that foundational truth. To follow that train of thought to where that truth leads. To ponder what is the point of an existence built upon a foundation so cruel? Perhaps you may even find an answer.

(I recommend this game to anyone who can stomach it. Its statement on the world resonated with me and I would encourage everyone to experience it. But it is contentious for a reason. You need to be willing to engage with it. If you are coming into this game desiring a second Chrono Trigger you will be disappointed. But do play Chrono Trigger first as understanding its events is integral to the experience of Cross. The game has a bit of a slow start to facilitate a necessary buildup that may be off-putting for some. It is a game more focused on what it is trying to say than challenging its players with its gameplay systems. Its combat system is in fact designed to minimize the effort needed to succeed. If you are playing this game, it is to experience its story)