initially was going to convey this in a meaner, snarkier way for the bit but with how this game tied into trigger closer to the end i decided not to. the game is not subtle about how it feels having to follow up a dream team project like trigger and a certain set of characters basically have to refrain themselves from explicitly saying serge ruined chrono trigger, and because of that i would honestly feel kind of bad bringing that kind of attitude with this review. regardless, while i played chrono cross, the main thought that went through my head was "how is it that people thought cross didn't live up to trigger rather than the other way around?" but as i finished the game and write this review i feel as though cross didn't need to live up to trigger and that hinging its value on whether or not it does is a very childish way of looking at things.
to me, chrono trigger is a game that is held back by how near perfect it is. there's so little wrong with it that at least to me nothing really stands out anymore. there's nothing to grab onto, no imperfections to make it feel "complete" to me and as such i feel as though its reverence, while not necessarily misplaced, is harder for me to grasp because to me a "perfect" game without imperfections, as contradictory as it sounds, will never be perfect to me. meanwhile, chrono cross i found to be an amazing, thought provoking, mesmerizing game that pushed the playstation to its limits aesthetically, a game with so much to say about what it means to live and exist, what it means to dream. chrono cross is messy and imperfect in such beautiful ways, it knows its following up chrono trigger and while it still intends to be a continuation of a work like trigger it doesn't care what kind of shadow its living in and intends to be its own experience, flaws and all.
whether or not it lives up to chrono trigger is irrelevant, the arguments surrounding such are just attempts at insecure and childish posturing because these games, while connected are so different that its hardly worth comparing in that sense. i understand that nothing exists in a vacuum, let alone a sequel, but maybe it would do some people a lot of good to both understand the context of something like chrono cross while also letting it be its own experience.
to me, chrono trigger is a game that is held back by how near perfect it is. there's so little wrong with it that at least to me nothing really stands out anymore. there's nothing to grab onto, no imperfections to make it feel "complete" to me and as such i feel as though its reverence, while not necessarily misplaced, is harder for me to grasp because to me a "perfect" game without imperfections, as contradictory as it sounds, will never be perfect to me. meanwhile, chrono cross i found to be an amazing, thought provoking, mesmerizing game that pushed the playstation to its limits aesthetically, a game with so much to say about what it means to live and exist, what it means to dream. chrono cross is messy and imperfect in such beautiful ways, it knows its following up chrono trigger and while it still intends to be a continuation of a work like trigger it doesn't care what kind of shadow its living in and intends to be its own experience, flaws and all.
whether or not it lives up to chrono trigger is irrelevant, the arguments surrounding such are just attempts at insecure and childish posturing because these games, while connected are so different that its hardly worth comparing in that sense. i understand that nothing exists in a vacuum, let alone a sequel, but maybe it would do some people a lot of good to both understand the context of something like chrono cross while also letting it be its own experience.
Another entry from my List of the Thirty-Five Best Games I Played in 2023, now available à la carte:
On Chrono Cross (Or — "How I Developed a Palate for Poison")
My grandmother doesn’t live in Vermont anymore. A couple years ago, she and I went back there together and rented a place to relive those days. Naturally, the rental had some similarities to her old place. We drove around, taking in familiar sights, waiting for the rest of the family to join us. I fired up Chrono Cross for the first time one evening, and promptly came down with a case of water poisoning.
If I believed in omens, I’d take that as a bad one. I touched a game about a character who finds himself in an eerie facsimile of home, itself the strange and twisted sequel of a beloved favorite, and it left me hurling into a toilet. The water supply we’d been drawing from was unfit for human consumption. I spent the recovery period with Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest V on DS, beneath the more familiar ceiling of a family friend’s house. I’d later start writing a non-review about how I didn’t have to play Chrono Cross, eschewing the pretense of being some aspiring member of the Backloggd “videogame intelligentsia.” I don’t need “cred,” right??
Well.
I played Chrono Trigger again in 2023 at least twice, depending on how you define a “playthrough”. The first was because I’d just finished Final Fantasy X and wanted to make some unfair comparisons. The second was because I was three-fourths of the way through Chrono Cross and…wanted to make some unfair comparisons. Even in the thick of it, I was avoiding the inevitable.
So…About the Game
Cross makes every effort possible to be anything but a clean, obedient sequel to its father. And you know what? Good. Trigger’s development was predicated on originality, and should likewise be followed up with another adventurous convention-breaker. The “Chrono Trigger 2” advocated by the likes of Johnny Millennium doesn’t appeal to me; lightning doesn’t strike twice. Still, Cross is Trigger’s opposite even in ways it really shouldn’t be.
With the exception of its original PSX audiovisual presentation, some of the most colorful and lush I’ve ever experienced, just about every one of its ideas is noncommittal and indecisive. Monsters appear on the overworld again, but you won’t find anything as deliberately paced as Trigger’s level design to elevate this from the status of "mild convenience." The conceit of its combat system is worth exploring – characters deal physical damage to build spell charges — but the deluge of party members and fully customizable spell slots amounts to a game that would’ve been impossible to balance. Level-ups are only granted during boss fights, and the gains acquired in normal battles aren’t worth the effort, so the whole thing snaps in half not 50% of the way through. It isn’t measured to account for the fact that you can take down just about everything with an onslaught of physical attacks by the midgame.
Then again, if the combat had been as challenging as the story is bizarre, I don’t know that I would’ve stuck around all the way to the end. Maybe I wouldn’t have been as gung-ho about swapping party members around and collecting them like Pokémon. Amid its spectacle and ambition, the wonder of sailing the seas and crossing dimensions, I left most events unsure of what to think, positive or negative. It wasn’t ambivalence, exactly.
SPOILERS AHEAD
It’s like this: Fairly early on, you’re given an infamous decision. One of the major protagonists, Kid, is dying of a magically-inflicted illness, and the only antidote is Hydra Humour. If you agree to go after it, you’ll find that it can only be extracted from the Guardian of the Marshes, and its death would mean the deterioration of the ecosystem which relies upon it. The dwarves and all other life in this biome would be put at risk. I weighed my options. I decided to reload a save and refuse the quest. Kid wouldn’t want her life to come at the cost of hundreds, if not thousands of others. So I start down the opposite path…
…Only to find that, in this route, a squad of human soldiers kills the hydra anyway, leaving the dwarves to flee their uninhabitable home to lead a genocidal attack on the fairies’ island to claim it for themselves. Jesus. The dwarves’ manic strangeness did little to downplay how chilling the result of my little coin flip was.
After an effort to defend the few remaining fairies and keep the dwarves at bay — leaving the survivors to process the turmoil of their new reality — after all that…it turns out that Kid is fine. She got over the illness by herself, offscreen.
For as many words as it goes on to spew, no moment of my Chrono Cross playthrough spoke louder than this one. Chrono Trigger’s party was faced with a choice — allow Lavos to erupt from the planet and drive everything to the brink of extinction, or risk everything to prevent the apocalypse. It’s a thousand years away, these three characters can live out the rest of their days comfortably and never have to concern themselves with it. They’re shown an End of Time, proof that the universe won’t last regardless of what they do, and still decide to fight on behalf of the world. It’s worth trying, if only to preserve a few more precious seconds of life for their descendants and their home.
Chrono Cross (eventually) reveals that their meddling allowed Lavos to become an even more devastating monster. We can defeat it, but who can say that won’t result in an even more cataclysmic fate? Because he lives and breathes, Serge’s timeline is worse off. It’s hard to tell whether that’s lore nonsense, self-flagellation on the game’s part, or genuine philosophizing. It wouldn’t be alone in that. As a chronic “downer,” I can’t help wondering if there’s no way to survive in the modern world without directly or indirectly participating in human suffering.
Maybe Writer/Director Masato Kato couldn’t either. He seems bent on reminding the player that they are but a speck in a cosmic puzzle, and there’s no defiant “so what?” answer to that problem. Even the thing we’ve been led to accomplish isn’t revealed until seconds before the finale of this forty hour game (and that's NOT a joke). You can’t see the credits without recognizing that it’s an unfortunate victim of mismanagement and a little too much Evangelion, but that doesn’t mean it fails to resonate. I don't think there’s another game that so thoroughly captures the existential confusion of being alive.
On Chrono Cross (Or — "How I Developed a Palate for Poison")
My grandmother doesn’t live in Vermont anymore. A couple years ago, she and I went back there together and rented a place to relive those days. Naturally, the rental had some similarities to her old place. We drove around, taking in familiar sights, waiting for the rest of the family to join us. I fired up Chrono Cross for the first time one evening, and promptly came down with a case of water poisoning.
If I believed in omens, I’d take that as a bad one. I touched a game about a character who finds himself in an eerie facsimile of home, itself the strange and twisted sequel of a beloved favorite, and it left me hurling into a toilet. The water supply we’d been drawing from was unfit for human consumption. I spent the recovery period with Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest V on DS, beneath the more familiar ceiling of a family friend’s house. I’d later start writing a non-review about how I didn’t have to play Chrono Cross, eschewing the pretense of being some aspiring member of the Backloggd “videogame intelligentsia.” I don’t need “cred,” right??
Well.
I played Chrono Trigger again in 2023 at least twice, depending on how you define a “playthrough”. The first was because I’d just finished Final Fantasy X and wanted to make some unfair comparisons. The second was because I was three-fourths of the way through Chrono Cross and…wanted to make some unfair comparisons. Even in the thick of it, I was avoiding the inevitable.
So…About the Game
Cross makes every effort possible to be anything but a clean, obedient sequel to its father. And you know what? Good. Trigger’s development was predicated on originality, and should likewise be followed up with another adventurous convention-breaker. The “Chrono Trigger 2” advocated by the likes of Johnny Millennium doesn’t appeal to me; lightning doesn’t strike twice. Still, Cross is Trigger’s opposite even in ways it really shouldn’t be.
With the exception of its original PSX audiovisual presentation, some of the most colorful and lush I’ve ever experienced, just about every one of its ideas is noncommittal and indecisive. Monsters appear on the overworld again, but you won’t find anything as deliberately paced as Trigger’s level design to elevate this from the status of "mild convenience." The conceit of its combat system is worth exploring – characters deal physical damage to build spell charges — but the deluge of party members and fully customizable spell slots amounts to a game that would’ve been impossible to balance. Level-ups are only granted during boss fights, and the gains acquired in normal battles aren’t worth the effort, so the whole thing snaps in half not 50% of the way through. It isn’t measured to account for the fact that you can take down just about everything with an onslaught of physical attacks by the midgame.
Then again, if the combat had been as challenging as the story is bizarre, I don’t know that I would’ve stuck around all the way to the end. Maybe I wouldn’t have been as gung-ho about swapping party members around and collecting them like Pokémon. Amid its spectacle and ambition, the wonder of sailing the seas and crossing dimensions, I left most events unsure of what to think, positive or negative. It wasn’t ambivalence, exactly.
SPOILERS AHEAD
It’s like this: Fairly early on, you’re given an infamous decision. One of the major protagonists, Kid, is dying of a magically-inflicted illness, and the only antidote is Hydra Humour. If you agree to go after it, you’ll find that it can only be extracted from the Guardian of the Marshes, and its death would mean the deterioration of the ecosystem which relies upon it. The dwarves and all other life in this biome would be put at risk. I weighed my options. I decided to reload a save and refuse the quest. Kid wouldn’t want her life to come at the cost of hundreds, if not thousands of others. So I start down the opposite path…
…Only to find that, in this route, a squad of human soldiers kills the hydra anyway, leaving the dwarves to flee their uninhabitable home to lead a genocidal attack on the fairies’ island to claim it for themselves. Jesus. The dwarves’ manic strangeness did little to downplay how chilling the result of my little coin flip was.
After an effort to defend the few remaining fairies and keep the dwarves at bay — leaving the survivors to process the turmoil of their new reality — after all that…it turns out that Kid is fine. She got over the illness by herself, offscreen.
For as many words as it goes on to spew, no moment of my Chrono Cross playthrough spoke louder than this one. Chrono Trigger’s party was faced with a choice — allow Lavos to erupt from the planet and drive everything to the brink of extinction, or risk everything to prevent the apocalypse. It’s a thousand years away, these three characters can live out the rest of their days comfortably and never have to concern themselves with it. They’re shown an End of Time, proof that the universe won’t last regardless of what they do, and still decide to fight on behalf of the world. It’s worth trying, if only to preserve a few more precious seconds of life for their descendants and their home.
Chrono Cross (eventually) reveals that their meddling allowed Lavos to become an even more devastating monster. We can defeat it, but who can say that won’t result in an even more cataclysmic fate? Because he lives and breathes, Serge’s timeline is worse off. It’s hard to tell whether that’s lore nonsense, self-flagellation on the game’s part, or genuine philosophizing. It wouldn’t be alone in that. As a chronic “downer,” I can’t help wondering if there’s no way to survive in the modern world without directly or indirectly participating in human suffering.
Maybe Writer/Director Masato Kato couldn’t either. He seems bent on reminding the player that they are but a speck in a cosmic puzzle, and there’s no defiant “so what?” answer to that problem. Even the thing we’ve been led to accomplish isn’t revealed until seconds before the finale of this forty hour game (and that's NOT a joke). You can’t see the credits without recognizing that it’s an unfortunate victim of mismanagement and a little too much Evangelion, but that doesn’t mean it fails to resonate. I don't think there’s another game that so thoroughly captures the existential confusion of being alive.
The idea of making a sequel to Chrono Trigger seems like a fool's errand, but surprisingly enough, the direction of Chrono Cross as a sequel is magnificent. They could have bitten off Trigger and made a budget-heavy, digestible sequel, but they didn’t. When sequels are made, creators can look back and improve upon their past mistakes. So looking at Trigger, what is there to change? There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, so how can it be improved in a sequel? This is why I respect the vision of Chrono Cross so much as a game and especially as a sequel. It doesn’t do the same thing better, but it rethinks the genre entirely.
Cross introduces so many quality-of-life gaming mechanics that have gone widely unused in the genre outside of its release period, and that is a shame. Gaming has instead leaned into battering you with where you need to be next with a marker indicating where to go, ensuring you’ll never be questioning what to do next. That’s the difference with Chrono Cross. Modern gaming is the equivalent of that one teacher in elementary school who was a little too nice and gave you the answers on your test when they shouldn’t have. Chrono Cross is instead like a well-trained tutor that gives you the tools you need to succeed but doesn’t flat-out give you the answers and makes you figure it out on your own.
One of the features added that signifies this game's new direction is the ability to run away from boss battles with a 100 percent success rate. If you’re not equipped with magic suited for the fight, used the wrong spell, were about to die, or just didn’t like the way the fight played out, you’re welcome to run away from any fight you want with no penalty. Most games will let you retry a fight after death with no repercussions now, but you’ve got to remember, this was 1999! It doesn’t want you to lose hours of progress from something you couldn’t see coming and instead gives you all the attempts you need to figure out how to beat bosses.
The gimmick of Chrono Cross's combat is equipable moves. They act as an item of sorts, and you can find them in dungeons or in shops. You need to balance out buffs, consumables, attack magic, and the like in the limited slots available. What makes this weird, though, is that once you use one of these moves, you’re not able to use it again for the duration of the battle, so what you have equipped always matters. That also means that all your magic will be recharged for the next battle. I love this, to put it bluntly. There’s no anxiety about saving all your MP for a boss battle; instead, you’re just expected to have fun and use what you have without repercussion.
It just makes Cross have this easy-going and well-balanced experience. You’re not required to constantly re-equip yourself in towns or stop at inns. You just kind of, well, play the game. I’m making the game sound like it's way too easy, but no. It has a great difficulty curve, which I’ve come to expect from Square. The way it maintains the difficulty throughout the game, though, is through its fixed leveling. After defeating bosses in the story, sometimes you’ll unlock growth levels. These basically allow you to level up your stats from completing battles up until a certain point and lock off stat gains until you get more growth levels. In other words, Chrono Cross found a plausible solution to creating a grind-free RPG, and it works great. FF8 tried to get rid of grinding too, but it was flawed in its fundamentals by implying that you draw a surplus of moves from enemies, which is a different facet of grinding. It also punished the player for grinding by having dynamic leveling that made enemies harder as you leveled up, which is quite evil for the blind player. It feels like they took into account the flaws of FF8 and reworked them to be less obtuse and more user-friendly.
One of my favorite parts of Cross is its Suikoden-esque gameplay. Cross is, I guess, in the niche sub-genre of character-collecting RPGs. There’s 45 playable characters to get in the game, and instead of heading back to the castle to swap out party members in Suikoden, you can just swap them out whenever you want on the overworld. It was surprising to find a QOL I wanted in Suikoden lying in Chrono Cross this entire time. Obviously, not all these characters are good; many get much more screen time than others. Many stick out, though, my favorite being Karsh, as I loved his character arc. My favorite part about them is all of their connecting backgrounds. Instead of our traditional band of 7 or so party members, Cross focuses on building the world on a broader scale with a large number of characters to choose from, with many being interconnected in some way or another.
Square’s golden era was during the PS1, and Chrono Cross is a finite example of that. It showcases Square’s innovation and their ability to be effectively experimental, but unfortunately, it didn’t have the impact it rightfully deserved. Much of Cross's game design went unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, as it has many features that I think could have become the norm for RPGs but just didn’t catch on as well as something like FF7. I’ll close by saying that Chrono Cross is one of the best sequels of all time and should serve as an example of what makes a great one. It takes place in a brand new setting and has completely reformed gameplay. Everything is different, almost unrecognizable at first, but the way it intertwines itself into the series is superb.
Cross introduces so many quality-of-life gaming mechanics that have gone widely unused in the genre outside of its release period, and that is a shame. Gaming has instead leaned into battering you with where you need to be next with a marker indicating where to go, ensuring you’ll never be questioning what to do next. That’s the difference with Chrono Cross. Modern gaming is the equivalent of that one teacher in elementary school who was a little too nice and gave you the answers on your test when they shouldn’t have. Chrono Cross is instead like a well-trained tutor that gives you the tools you need to succeed but doesn’t flat-out give you the answers and makes you figure it out on your own.
One of the features added that signifies this game's new direction is the ability to run away from boss battles with a 100 percent success rate. If you’re not equipped with magic suited for the fight, used the wrong spell, were about to die, or just didn’t like the way the fight played out, you’re welcome to run away from any fight you want with no penalty. Most games will let you retry a fight after death with no repercussions now, but you’ve got to remember, this was 1999! It doesn’t want you to lose hours of progress from something you couldn’t see coming and instead gives you all the attempts you need to figure out how to beat bosses.
The gimmick of Chrono Cross's combat is equipable moves. They act as an item of sorts, and you can find them in dungeons or in shops. You need to balance out buffs, consumables, attack magic, and the like in the limited slots available. What makes this weird, though, is that once you use one of these moves, you’re not able to use it again for the duration of the battle, so what you have equipped always matters. That also means that all your magic will be recharged for the next battle. I love this, to put it bluntly. There’s no anxiety about saving all your MP for a boss battle; instead, you’re just expected to have fun and use what you have without repercussion.
It just makes Cross have this easy-going and well-balanced experience. You’re not required to constantly re-equip yourself in towns or stop at inns. You just kind of, well, play the game. I’m making the game sound like it's way too easy, but no. It has a great difficulty curve, which I’ve come to expect from Square. The way it maintains the difficulty throughout the game, though, is through its fixed leveling. After defeating bosses in the story, sometimes you’ll unlock growth levels. These basically allow you to level up your stats from completing battles up until a certain point and lock off stat gains until you get more growth levels. In other words, Chrono Cross found a plausible solution to creating a grind-free RPG, and it works great. FF8 tried to get rid of grinding too, but it was flawed in its fundamentals by implying that you draw a surplus of moves from enemies, which is a different facet of grinding. It also punished the player for grinding by having dynamic leveling that made enemies harder as you leveled up, which is quite evil for the blind player. It feels like they took into account the flaws of FF8 and reworked them to be less obtuse and more user-friendly.
One of my favorite parts of Cross is its Suikoden-esque gameplay. Cross is, I guess, in the niche sub-genre of character-collecting RPGs. There’s 45 playable characters to get in the game, and instead of heading back to the castle to swap out party members in Suikoden, you can just swap them out whenever you want on the overworld. It was surprising to find a QOL I wanted in Suikoden lying in Chrono Cross this entire time. Obviously, not all these characters are good; many get much more screen time than others. Many stick out, though, my favorite being Karsh, as I loved his character arc. My favorite part about them is all of their connecting backgrounds. Instead of our traditional band of 7 or so party members, Cross focuses on building the world on a broader scale with a large number of characters to choose from, with many being interconnected in some way or another.
Square’s golden era was during the PS1, and Chrono Cross is a finite example of that. It showcases Square’s innovation and their ability to be effectively experimental, but unfortunately, it didn’t have the impact it rightfully deserved. Much of Cross's game design went unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, as it has many features that I think could have become the norm for RPGs but just didn’t catch on as well as something like FF7. I’ll close by saying that Chrono Cross is one of the best sequels of all time and should serve as an example of what makes a great one. It takes place in a brand new setting and has completely reformed gameplay. Everything is different, almost unrecognizable at first, but the way it intertwines itself into the series is superb.
Instead of dancing around the fact that this is a sequel to chrono trigger let’s embrace and define what made made it special to everyone because it's hard for me not to talk about it when comparing and contrasting. To someone who might not have played a lot of RPGs, pretty much everything about the game would stand out to them and realistically they wouldn't be able to realize what actually made it special because they haven't played the games that lead to it's creation, namely final fantasy and dragon quest. I'm not going to act like trigger had an incredible story or cast of characters, because it didn't. It was fine it had it's moments and it wasn't bad by any means but it was refined, a word I could use to define the entirety of the game. I'm also not going to act like a lot of what trigger did wasn't done before, because pretty much everything was done before and it's a common misconception and because of the lack of knowledge people have everyone acts like it's the best without actually realizing it, or at least that's the conclusion I came to.
It's important to look at chrono trigger as a meta-analysis for rpgs which sounds extremely fucking pretentious and trust me it is but it means combining the efforts and work of many others work and making it one big easily digestible whole for everyone to enjoy. I loathe yapping about trigger as much as i do like and respect it but i had to get it out of the way before i started talking about this gem
What confused me about chrono cross is that all i've ever heard about it is a bunch of 50/50 bullshit where people either love it or hate it. I'm sitting here playing this fucking game and all im experiencing is what made trigger special and then some. By that i mean the meta-analysis bullshit i mentioned except it expanded on it and made everything it did even better. I'm talking about the extremely minute shit like running from boss battles, something I wouldn't have even noticed until I accidentally pressed the button and feared that I wasted a turn, only to find out that it backed me out of the fight and pulled up the menu screen so I could reorganize my magic and heal. Normally I would say that this is making the game far too easy, but because the game doesn't have a conventional leveling system it forces you to learn the combat and utilize your tools. It doesn't want you to lose 2 hours of progress unless you're a dumb ass and forgot the option to run existed because you're burned from horribly designed 90s rpgs that work against you, it wants you to learn and have fun. That is true accessibility beyond yellow paint and map markers
I can understand why it's combat might not be for everyone, because it really is jarring at first and makes little to no sense but once you understand the system it fucking rocks. I ended up liking it just as much as triggers once more magic spots opened up on my characters. What I don't understand is why the fuck people hate this story. You guys actually fucking suck for telling me it was bad stop with the horrible follow up to chrono trigger brainwashing and take the updated media literacy test. The test is enjoying this game and the price of failing is your backloggd account which will get removed if you type the words "bad follow up to chrono trigger" in your review. I think if this game had the same art style as trigger there would have been no controversy or bad follow up bullshit to be heard and everyone would have loved this game just as much if not more
I'm separating this last part from my review because i think it's the most important part of the review but just so everyone knows Masato Kato, the story writer for trigger was handed the reins to the chrono series by it's original creators because he understood the intricacies of trigger, the fucking the composer Yasunori Mitsuda even considered him to be a director of trigger even though he wasn't. He didn't ruin the story he expanded on his own work. Not sure what the argument is there. That's not to say a follow up by original creators has to be all good and no error, but it truly is a great follow up for all of those reasons and more.
It's important to look at chrono trigger as a meta-analysis for rpgs which sounds extremely fucking pretentious and trust me it is but it means combining the efforts and work of many others work and making it one big easily digestible whole for everyone to enjoy. I loathe yapping about trigger as much as i do like and respect it but i had to get it out of the way before i started talking about this gem
What confused me about chrono cross is that all i've ever heard about it is a bunch of 50/50 bullshit where people either love it or hate it. I'm sitting here playing this fucking game and all im experiencing is what made trigger special and then some. By that i mean the meta-analysis bullshit i mentioned except it expanded on it and made everything it did even better. I'm talking about the extremely minute shit like running from boss battles, something I wouldn't have even noticed until I accidentally pressed the button and feared that I wasted a turn, only to find out that it backed me out of the fight and pulled up the menu screen so I could reorganize my magic and heal. Normally I would say that this is making the game far too easy, but because the game doesn't have a conventional leveling system it forces you to learn the combat and utilize your tools. It doesn't want you to lose 2 hours of progress unless you're a dumb ass and forgot the option to run existed because you're burned from horribly designed 90s rpgs that work against you, it wants you to learn and have fun. That is true accessibility beyond yellow paint and map markers
I can understand why it's combat might not be for everyone, because it really is jarring at first and makes little to no sense but once you understand the system it fucking rocks. I ended up liking it just as much as triggers once more magic spots opened up on my characters. What I don't understand is why the fuck people hate this story. You guys actually fucking suck for telling me it was bad stop with the horrible follow up to chrono trigger brainwashing and take the updated media literacy test. The test is enjoying this game and the price of failing is your backloggd account which will get removed if you type the words "bad follow up to chrono trigger" in your review. I think if this game had the same art style as trigger there would have been no controversy or bad follow up bullshit to be heard and everyone would have loved this game just as much if not more
I'm separating this last part from my review because i think it's the most important part of the review but just so everyone knows Masato Kato, the story writer for trigger was handed the reins to the chrono series by it's original creators because he understood the intricacies of trigger, the fucking the composer Yasunori Mitsuda even considered him to be a director of trigger even though he wasn't. He didn't ruin the story he expanded on his own work. Not sure what the argument is there. That's not to say a follow up by original creators has to be all good and no error, but it truly is a great follow up for all of those reasons and more.
there's 45 characters and they all have mostly the same speaking roles in cutscenes but they all have a different accent that they use via some accent generation machine
CWs for Chrono Cross: child abuse, sexual harassment, burning alive, mind control.
Maybe the boldest and most tender RPG produced at Square pre- and post-merger, Chrono Cross is a pastoral re-phrasing of Chrono Trigger's thesis on the will of the individual. Where Trigger gives you buckets of endings to fulfil the endless possibility of time travel and the player's will as represented by our avatar Crono, Chrono Cross says you must live in society. Every day may feel like you're working with systems beyond your individual control which you don't yet understand, but the people you surround yourself with, how you order the tasks set before you, and who you share collective memory with create a bold and irreplaceable picture of life. Simply designing a vibrant world and filling it with life in animation and visionary approaches to pre-rendered backgrounds grants Chrono Cross a precious vitality I've always wished could poke through in Trigger.
The combat system is a little dinky and it's unbelievable that this game still runs like dog shit on its modern ports, but most video games to this day wish they could land their fantasy allegory for modern society like this game does so effortlessly. There's not really that much nuance because it just doesn't need it! Living in society has boundaries and structures that can hurt and help us and it's in our power to band together and do something about the ones that harm, send tweet.
Maybe the boldest and most tender RPG produced at Square pre- and post-merger, Chrono Cross is a pastoral re-phrasing of Chrono Trigger's thesis on the will of the individual. Where Trigger gives you buckets of endings to fulfil the endless possibility of time travel and the player's will as represented by our avatar Crono, Chrono Cross says you must live in society. Every day may feel like you're working with systems beyond your individual control which you don't yet understand, but the people you surround yourself with, how you order the tasks set before you, and who you share collective memory with create a bold and irreplaceable picture of life. Simply designing a vibrant world and filling it with life in animation and visionary approaches to pre-rendered backgrounds grants Chrono Cross a precious vitality I've always wished could poke through in Trigger.
The combat system is a little dinky and it's unbelievable that this game still runs like dog shit on its modern ports, but most video games to this day wish they could land their fantasy allegory for modern society like this game does so effortlessly. There's not really that much nuance because it just doesn't need it! Living in society has boundaries and structures that can hurt and help us and it's in our power to band together and do something about the ones that harm, send tweet.
Expansive and complex story that's a joy to unravel, alongside my favorite battle system of any JRPG ever. Absolutely an underrated gem.
Best JRPG of all time in my books
Boneco de voodoo dançarino
I don't know how to say this without sounding completely bonkers, but: Chrono Cross is not as good and Chrono Trigger and I might love it even more. It is my favorite kind of sequel, bold enough to poke and prod at the original and dig in, unafraid of ruffling feathers. I hope that over the course of my life I can bring as much beauty into the world as was brought in by Chrono Cross.
Absolute masterpiece. Unfairly criticized. I could bet all my moneys... if it has been originaly released on a nintendo console, it would have been universally acclaimed
Super nostalgic for me. That music is sublime.
sequencia de traficante da porr
game for cunts
Not as great follow up to the masterpiece Chrono Trigger but still a good game
Ideally there is no sequel to Chrono Trigger. As is, this is about as good as any sequel to that once in a blue moon game had any right to be. As a stand alone game it's also one of the greatest of all time all by itself.
All that said, it had a profound effect on me as a teen/pre-teen whereas Chrono Trigger was the game I played a million times as a kid. They were basically exactly what I needed when I needed them, regardless of whether they were connected or not.
All that said, it had a profound effect on me as a teen/pre-teen whereas Chrono Trigger was the game I played a million times as a kid. They were basically exactly what I needed when I needed them, regardless of whether they were connected or not.
This review contains spoilers
How beautiful humanity is, in being given the opportunity to take and to give with no real repercussions. At least in the animal kingdom, where we can successfully wipe out and destroy homes of entire species. To be given the opportunity to have the world and all its possibilities given to you to use as you please. For good or for evil. But how can we appreciate what is good without ourselves committing evil, most painfully when we thought what we were doing was best.
Chrono Cross is a truly beautiful experience. It’s a game that really wants to push boundaries and ask uncomfortable questions. What is it like discovering evil in what only has brought you good? What lengths are you willing to go to help the ones you love? Can you blame those that choose to follow in your footsteps?
Serge and cast go through these difficult questions with the inability to look away from them. Serge sees the ugly in a world he had only seen beauty in before. He experiences hate and racism received from Lynx’s eyes in the hometown Serge had only known for providing him comfort and safety; he goes to help a friend escape death only to create total environmental warfare; even when saving a child from a literal burning building, Serge unfortunately has no other option but to abandon her afterwards, resulting in her having only two pathways: burning to death in the fire, or growing up forever traumatized and hurt.
It continues the cycle of what man has always wondered. Why does so much pain result from trying to create beauty? Why weren’t my good intentions recognized, or helped in the way I intended? Why does bad still happen when I try so hard to create only good?
The answer is simple! As Cerebral Fix famously said, “Life sucks… and then you die!” Life can hurt in unimaginable ways, both physically and emotionally. Happiness is fleeting. It flies in and out of our days like a bird, singing a beautiful song that we want to revel in all our life, for one moment while the sky is blue, not to be found on the days with dark clouds and gray skies. But fullness - that is deep in our soul. When we have that, it never leaves. Fullness encompasses everything. It’s what allows us to be fully human in all the raw, real ways. How can we know true joy if we never learn to know sorrow? It’s something fairly common in Eastern religions, with the taijitu (Yin & Yang symbol) being the visual representation we most often see in the West. What is yin without yang, and vice versa. We see it poetically compared with fire and water, light and dark, a Home World and Another World.
Chrono Cross involves many elements and themes that games like Undertale get (rightfully) praised for, yet instead gets a very large amount of hatred for its incredibly interesting message and way it goes around telling it. Undertale more directly points its finger at the player, and states to them its message and 4th-wall break. Chrono Cross isn’t as direct about it, but still makes it clear its intention. At the end of the day, I guess being connected to the very popular Chrono Trigger and changing the formula as much as it did would just never be a popular choice with the fanbase.
I genuinely can understand the immediate dismissal of the new fighting system, especially if you loved the format of Chrono Trigger, but I ended up really loving the color fight system. I liked playing around with which party members to use and making good armor and weapons for the ones I used the most. The story progression was similar to parts in Chrono Trigger I really liked, such as the eventual open world aspect to exploring and finding more optional lore to party members, as well as playing around with the environment to find/upgrade weapons to insane strengths. It worked well with the story too, with Serge getting the player used to white elements, and completely getting it switched once transferred to Lynx. I always am a sucker for good story and gameplay mixtures.
Chrono Cross is a very strong and emotional experience. The graphics are some of the best I’ve ever seen on the PSX, the music is unbeatable, and the main cast of Serge, Kid, and Lynx create an unbelievable story. Chrono Cross has the player sit and internalize both the beauty and suffering that human life entails, gives, and forces onto all others. Life can be a disgusting, miserable, little thing, but in the end, if given the opportunity, should we really throw it all away?
Chrono Cross is a truly beautiful experience. It’s a game that really wants to push boundaries and ask uncomfortable questions. What is it like discovering evil in what only has brought you good? What lengths are you willing to go to help the ones you love? Can you blame those that choose to follow in your footsteps?
Serge and cast go through these difficult questions with the inability to look away from them. Serge sees the ugly in a world he had only seen beauty in before. He experiences hate and racism received from Lynx’s eyes in the hometown Serge had only known for providing him comfort and safety; he goes to help a friend escape death only to create total environmental warfare; even when saving a child from a literal burning building, Serge unfortunately has no other option but to abandon her afterwards, resulting in her having only two pathways: burning to death in the fire, or growing up forever traumatized and hurt.
It continues the cycle of what man has always wondered. Why does so much pain result from trying to create beauty? Why weren’t my good intentions recognized, or helped in the way I intended? Why does bad still happen when I try so hard to create only good?
The answer is simple! As Cerebral Fix famously said, “Life sucks… and then you die!” Life can hurt in unimaginable ways, both physically and emotionally. Happiness is fleeting. It flies in and out of our days like a bird, singing a beautiful song that we want to revel in all our life, for one moment while the sky is blue, not to be found on the days with dark clouds and gray skies. But fullness - that is deep in our soul. When we have that, it never leaves. Fullness encompasses everything. It’s what allows us to be fully human in all the raw, real ways. How can we know true joy if we never learn to know sorrow? It’s something fairly common in Eastern religions, with the taijitu (Yin & Yang symbol) being the visual representation we most often see in the West. What is yin without yang, and vice versa. We see it poetically compared with fire and water, light and dark, a Home World and Another World.
Chrono Cross involves many elements and themes that games like Undertale get (rightfully) praised for, yet instead gets a very large amount of hatred for its incredibly interesting message and way it goes around telling it. Undertale more directly points its finger at the player, and states to them its message and 4th-wall break. Chrono Cross isn’t as direct about it, but still makes it clear its intention. At the end of the day, I guess being connected to the very popular Chrono Trigger and changing the formula as much as it did would just never be a popular choice with the fanbase.
I genuinely can understand the immediate dismissal of the new fighting system, especially if you loved the format of Chrono Trigger, but I ended up really loving the color fight system. I liked playing around with which party members to use and making good armor and weapons for the ones I used the most. The story progression was similar to parts in Chrono Trigger I really liked, such as the eventual open world aspect to exploring and finding more optional lore to party members, as well as playing around with the environment to find/upgrade weapons to insane strengths. It worked well with the story too, with Serge getting the player used to white elements, and completely getting it switched once transferred to Lynx. I always am a sucker for good story and gameplay mixtures.
Chrono Cross is a very strong and emotional experience. The graphics are some of the best I’ve ever seen on the PSX, the music is unbeatable, and the main cast of Serge, Kid, and Lynx create an unbelievable story. Chrono Cross has the player sit and internalize both the beauty and suffering that human life entails, gives, and forces onto all others. Life can be a disgusting, miserable, little thing, but in the end, if given the opportunity, should we really throw it all away?
Chrono Cross steps out of that "Dream Project" Final Fantasy x Dragon Quest concept, and forms its own identity, and hoo boy, what a fuckin' identity that Masato Kato and his team have managed to pull off. This is without a doubt the coolest RPG on the PlayStation, at least among Square's output for the console. Not sure if I'd rank it above too many of their other PS1 titles, but it absolutely fucks thanks to that late 90s Square AAA budget mixed with those lofty and unreachable narrative and technical aspirations that only a PSX RPG can truly deliver on.
Right from the start I was a big fan of the combat system; the phrase "Pokémon if it was art" kept popping up in my head throughout my playthrough. Don't ask me what that means. Though I feel like it's simultaneously way too much and not really enough to carry a 30+ hour game's worth of combat scenarios; by the very end I was just ready to get it over with and play "normal" video games again. But Chrono Cross has this magic to it, so even when I was ready to seriously question the longevity of its systems, it manages to lend the elements system a thematic and narrative parity that most RPGs only wish they could have with their game systems -- so that's more than enough to make up for the transgression of making me a little bit bored at times for the last 10 hours or so.
The whole 40+ playable characters thing is sick as hell. It's also just not a very well-thought-out idea, probably just exacerbating a lot of the game's biggest issues, but I also don't feel the game would be the same unforgettable experience without it. I do wish there were more characters directly anchored to the thrust of the narrative or that Serge spoke or something cuz there are portions of the game that are left relatively flavorless since they're composed of cookie cutter dialogue that has to be applied to every single character. It's really clearly rushed overall, but the devs were clearly invested in getting their message conveyed even if they had to resort to less than intuitive methods of delivering said story. It's a game clearly made with love and raw ambition, and I can absolutely see why those who adore the game are so passionate about it.
As for the music, Mitsuda did an incredible job -- in fact I'd say incredible is almost an understatement -- Chrono Cross' soundtrack is transcendental. The only place it really falters is, seemingly like most soundtracks he's worked on solo, the battle music. Like, it's definitely good and I enjoy it in a vacuum, but man the main battle theme gets pretty grating after the first 15 hours or so of battles. It was a genuine relief during the sections where they'd forgo the battle theme for whatever ambient music is currently playing. But it's only a small blight, if you could even call it that, on what's easily one of the most beautiful and meaningful game OSTs of all time.
But even when you kinda aggregate the highs and the lows, I really did enjoy my time with the game. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to fully playing through it, but I'm really, really glad I impulsively just popped this on last weekend and really made myself stick to it. I feel like it's taught me new ways to engage with and even love media more effectively. I'm not sure it's the best game it could possibly be given the circumstances, but I feel what it actually is is a vastly more valuable, exceptional experience than hypothetically achieving mechanical and structural perfection.
Right from the start I was a big fan of the combat system; the phrase "Pokémon if it was art" kept popping up in my head throughout my playthrough. Don't ask me what that means. Though I feel like it's simultaneously way too much and not really enough to carry a 30+ hour game's worth of combat scenarios; by the very end I was just ready to get it over with and play "normal" video games again. But Chrono Cross has this magic to it, so even when I was ready to seriously question the longevity of its systems, it manages to lend the elements system a thematic and narrative parity that most RPGs only wish they could have with their game systems -- so that's more than enough to make up for the transgression of making me a little bit bored at times for the last 10 hours or so.
The whole 40+ playable characters thing is sick as hell. It's also just not a very well-thought-out idea, probably just exacerbating a lot of the game's biggest issues, but I also don't feel the game would be the same unforgettable experience without it. I do wish there were more characters directly anchored to the thrust of the narrative or that Serge spoke or something cuz there are portions of the game that are left relatively flavorless since they're composed of cookie cutter dialogue that has to be applied to every single character. It's really clearly rushed overall, but the devs were clearly invested in getting their message conveyed even if they had to resort to less than intuitive methods of delivering said story. It's a game clearly made with love and raw ambition, and I can absolutely see why those who adore the game are so passionate about it.
As for the music, Mitsuda did an incredible job -- in fact I'd say incredible is almost an understatement -- Chrono Cross' soundtrack is transcendental. The only place it really falters is, seemingly like most soundtracks he's worked on solo, the battle music. Like, it's definitely good and I enjoy it in a vacuum, but man the main battle theme gets pretty grating after the first 15 hours or so of battles. It was a genuine relief during the sections where they'd forgo the battle theme for whatever ambient music is currently playing. But it's only a small blight, if you could even call it that, on what's easily one of the most beautiful and meaningful game OSTs of all time.
But even when you kinda aggregate the highs and the lows, I really did enjoy my time with the game. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to fully playing through it, but I'm really, really glad I impulsively just popped this on last weekend and really made myself stick to it. I feel like it's taught me new ways to engage with and even love media more effectively. I'm not sure it's the best game it could possibly be given the circumstances, but I feel what it actually is is a vastly more valuable, exceptional experience than hypothetically achieving mechanical and structural perfection.
Apesar de não desenvolver quase ninguém de forma natural ou realmente desenvolver mesmo, acho mais interessante que seu antecessor e possui um combate tão bom quanto.
A composição sonora é absurda, yasunori mitsuda cozinhou pkrl nesse camarada.
Nada a comentar tanto, faz anos que joguei e n pretendo retornar, mas é foi uma experiência agradável sim.
A composição sonora é absurda, yasunori mitsuda cozinhou pkrl nesse camarada.
Nada a comentar tanto, faz anos que joguei e n pretendo retornar, mas é foi uma experiência agradável sim.
I've been in a burnout these days, not feeling gratification in gaming and lacking a feeling of vitality I get whenever I play something that connects strongly. I've tried other games from my list only to drop them due to lack of interest, or something at the moment not clicking. On a whim I tried Chrono Cross again because of the score for whatever reason resonating deeply at this moment in my life. Looking back now after finishing, I can't believe I allowed myself to gloss over this game for so long. It hit every check-mark and once in-tune with the battle system, it felt like the most intuitive gameplay in an rpg I've ever played.
Its story is surprisingly somber and philosophically absurdist, taking the right approach by branching from Chrono Trigger thematically in taking a introspective method of reflection of impermanence, self-purpose and whether life has inherent value or meaning, reasserting our own purpose and domain than assigned purpose, and how time travel would change us as a species in diminishing value of life. This is all perfectly cohesive to the hand-drawn art direction for its backgrounds and post-impressionist influence the game designers ran with as the artists and movements, too, embraced imperfection and the natural world being subjective; living simultaneously amongst other realities along our own; the moments that pass and the rhythms that surround us daily, capturing the ephemeral. The score has been spoken ad nauseam at this point, but is a testament to music enhancing experience and thematically emphasizing tone and story.
One of its biggest complaints is its roster being mainly swappable characters lacking in personality other than some colloquially written dialogue bits with some obtuse story/game design when it comes to obtaining certain members. Personally I'm in the minority thinking it as integral to its overarching theme, albeit its delivery could be stronger. We have ripple effects in the every-day interactions with people, some we resonate with while others we may not, the best friend in another world living outside our experience. It emphasizes this chain reaction the player creates in its world, as though the player is working collectively with humanity as a whole - people I've touched in whatever way or another joining hands, and others as missed opportunities that require xyz interaction to lead into them being a part of my life; the real-life Schroedinger's Cat we experience daily, beautiful to pontificate yet a somber reality.
Over the past years, I've tried playing Chrono Cross for honestly don't know how many times, having dropped it and lost interest rather quickly - from its unconventional battle-system at first glance being overwhelming to hearing how it lacks the same quality to Chrono Trigger. Just 2 years ago I also got through Chrono Trigger and was surprised how much it lived up to its hype, never growing up or having sentimental value towards it. Now playing Chrono Cross and also having no attachment, it's been treated unfairly despite its imperfections in obvious regards. However, after finally playing both and appreciating them for different reasons, they're akin to Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Both well crafted experiences, one more straight forward than the other one and doing it well, and the other an experimentation on fate, animism, absurdism, and psychology. It's a poignant piece of art that will mark a lasting impression longer than CT personally, and is now one of my favorite pieces of media. It will always live in memory, as the story itself begs us as a species to not forget ourselves nor the ones we love: in an absurd world, that is all we can place faith and value on.
Its story is surprisingly somber and philosophically absurdist, taking the right approach by branching from Chrono Trigger thematically in taking a introspective method of reflection of impermanence, self-purpose and whether life has inherent value or meaning, reasserting our own purpose and domain than assigned purpose, and how time travel would change us as a species in diminishing value of life. This is all perfectly cohesive to the hand-drawn art direction for its backgrounds and post-impressionist influence the game designers ran with as the artists and movements, too, embraced imperfection and the natural world being subjective; living simultaneously amongst other realities along our own; the moments that pass and the rhythms that surround us daily, capturing the ephemeral. The score has been spoken ad nauseam at this point, but is a testament to music enhancing experience and thematically emphasizing tone and story.
One of its biggest complaints is its roster being mainly swappable characters lacking in personality other than some colloquially written dialogue bits with some obtuse story/game design when it comes to obtaining certain members. Personally I'm in the minority thinking it as integral to its overarching theme, albeit its delivery could be stronger. We have ripple effects in the every-day interactions with people, some we resonate with while others we may not, the best friend in another world living outside our experience. It emphasizes this chain reaction the player creates in its world, as though the player is working collectively with humanity as a whole - people I've touched in whatever way or another joining hands, and others as missed opportunities that require xyz interaction to lead into them being a part of my life; the real-life Schroedinger's Cat we experience daily, beautiful to pontificate yet a somber reality.
Over the past years, I've tried playing Chrono Cross for honestly don't know how many times, having dropped it and lost interest rather quickly - from its unconventional battle-system at first glance being overwhelming to hearing how it lacks the same quality to Chrono Trigger. Just 2 years ago I also got through Chrono Trigger and was surprised how much it lived up to its hype, never growing up or having sentimental value towards it. Now playing Chrono Cross and also having no attachment, it's been treated unfairly despite its imperfections in obvious regards. However, after finally playing both and appreciating them for different reasons, they're akin to Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Both well crafted experiences, one more straight forward than the other one and doing it well, and the other an experimentation on fate, animism, absurdism, and psychology. It's a poignant piece of art that will mark a lasting impression longer than CT personally, and is now one of my favorite pieces of media. It will always live in memory, as the story itself begs us as a species to not forget ourselves nor the ones we love: in an absurd world, that is all we can place faith and value on.
best rpg ever in my opinion.
Chrono Cross simply has one of the most convoluted plots of all time.
I distinctly recall playing this game as a child and not understanding what was going on beyond the weird dimensional travel and body swapping.
After playing it again as an adult, I can tell why I don't remember any of the story details.
I distinctly recall playing this game as a child and not understanding what was going on beyond the weird dimensional travel and body swapping.
After playing it again as an adult, I can tell why I don't remember any of the story details.
É uma bagunça completa. E em todos os sentidos, gameplay, a arte, os personagens, a história, é tudo bagunçado e convoluto nada como o primeiro jogo, do qual empresta apenas nomes.
Mas... por algum motivo, é cativante, nostálgico... tem um sentimento do qual eu não consigo explicar até hoje,e não sou só eu, já vi milhares de testemunhos como o meu.
É como encarar uma foto antiga de um ente querido que se foi, mas não reconhecer seu rosto, tem uma melancolia recorrente que persegue toda a jornada, mesmo nos momentos alegres e tranquilos. Uma estranheza pos-mortem. Um funeral em meio a festa, nada faz sentido logicamente, mas você sente que faz sentido (mesmo não fazendo). Bem, meu cérebro não gostou mas meu coração gostou eu acho? Não recomendo (recomendo sim).
Mas... por algum motivo, é cativante, nostálgico... tem um sentimento do qual eu não consigo explicar até hoje,e não sou só eu, já vi milhares de testemunhos como o meu.
É como encarar uma foto antiga de um ente querido que se foi, mas não reconhecer seu rosto, tem uma melancolia recorrente que persegue toda a jornada, mesmo nos momentos alegres e tranquilos. Uma estranheza pos-mortem. Um funeral em meio a festa, nada faz sentido logicamente, mas você sente que faz sentido (mesmo não fazendo). Bem, meu cérebro não gostou mas meu coração gostou eu acho? Não recomendo (recomendo sim).
This game is a mess, but it captivated me far more than Chrono Trigger, and I like it more. Combat, setting, scenario, and music are all phenomenal; however, it flubs the progression and story pretty hard, but that's not enough to make me dislike the game. Game is cool, so please play it.
If people don't like this, I can respect that. With the story content and the simple combat, it can by all purposes come off as bad. The world, the music, and even the character for the most part, came off well. Heck, I like the story. Not world changing but don't dismiss it because of the naysayers
I came to Chrono Cross ready to be in love, having seen its art direction and heard its wonderful music for years. Unfortunately, what I found was that every facet of Chrono Cross's story and gameplay feels like it was failed by an editor. The writers needed someone to trim the fat and point out that maybe multiple big reveals at the end of the game would be more impactful if any time was spent with the player to offer them emotional weight. The game designers needed someone to look at the concept of changing out elemental spells to fight specific bosses and suggest "will this not be extremely tedious when there are 30 spell slots and 60 characters you may be switching in and out of your party?" Instead, we were left with a mess of a game memorable only because of its art and character design & it's incredible soundtrack. In other words, I enjoyed Chrono Cross most before I'd played it.
They act like two legends can't exist
Earned my PhD figuring this one out
The first RPG i've Completed. Masterpiece, i know it's flaws, but still one of the greatests Ps1 and All time JRPGs. Chrono Trigger is a better game I admit.
Painful. While I will never subscribe to the notion that a sequel to something needs to be wholly like the original, the direction this game went in terms of narrative of gameplay is such an obvious and clear downgrade over the original that I find truly baffling. Instead of a tight cast of characters who get a lot of development and intrigue, you get maybe three characters with SOME development and about 30 who clog up the party doing nothing besides using bad accents. Instead of fluid engaging ATB-based gameplay it's now very slow turn based with the constant need to shuffle vague 'elements' depending on the situation. Instead of a plot that is thrilling to discover and learn more about, you get infodumped about 15 twists right before the game ends.
The game has excellent audio and visuals (Zoah eyes emoji) in service to a plot that is completely beneath it. Chrono Trigger never needed a 'bigger and better' sequel like this, it needed something much more concise, which ironically Radical Dreamers fills the role of much better. One of the all time most disappointing sequels.
The game has excellent audio and visuals (Zoah eyes emoji) in service to a plot that is completely beneath it. Chrono Trigger never needed a 'bigger and better' sequel like this, it needed something much more concise, which ironically Radical Dreamers fills the role of much better. One of the all time most disappointing sequels.