Chrono Cross > Trigger?

[reinward]

idk... i played both for the first time within the last year and i liked cross a lot more. i thought it was superior in atmosphere, music (especially music), and story

id rank it as my 3rd favorite square game behind FFIX and FFX

what do you guys think? i didnt like trigger's art direction.

[Flying Arrow]

I consider them on completely different terms, generally. They both attempt to accomplish completely different things. Trigger is just a great JRPG - it does almost everything perfectly and is still probably the ideal game as far as the genre goes. It's flat out fun.

Cross is a completely different beast, though. It kind of plays out more like an adventure game. From what I can remember, the game world seems to be a lot more of a puzzle-box than Trigger's. I really like how the player can explore El Nido at his leisure, too. There's a lot to do and see and plenty to take in (the use of NPCs in this game is probably the best of any RPG past or present). A lot of people hate CC for various reasons, though. The battle system is probably the thing that turns most people off. The actual story-telling is also pretty awkwardly paced, too. None of these things put me off too much. I think it's one of the company's best games, actually - it's definitely their most ambitious in a lot of ways, which is what I always liked about Square's stuff from back then.

[VeloZer0]

I thought CC was exceedingly good with the exception of a rather weak ending.

(SPOILER)The whole time devourer/schala (who has blond hair and is short now for some reason) thing just seemed so contrived. Also, having to use the Chrono Cross to get a decent ending was dumb, they could have implemented it so much better. a) make the non CC ending worthwhile and b) don't make the use of the Chrono Cross so hopelessly obscure.

But, as Flying Arrow says, they don't really compare to each other apples to apples.

[Flying Arrow]

(SPOILER)b) don't make the use of the Chrono Cross so hopelessly obscure.

Talk about obscure. Was it even directly hinted at throughout the game? I know there are some very subtle clues, but I remember it being so subdued as to almost be unfair. I confess that my first time through the game when it was released I had to use a FAQ to understand what the hell I was supposed to be doing.

[VeloZer0]

I don't see how you were possibly expected to figure it out from the game, I was just guarding my words in case someone comes in and produces a decent hint I have somehow never found.

It wouldn't be so bad if you just got a slightly tweaked 'better' ending, but as it is now I regard the normal one as the bad ending and the CC one as the only one of any substance.

[Wolf Kanno]

I prefer CT, I just started playing through both games again and while CT has always surprised me for how well it's aged and how mature its story actually is hidden behind it's sillier elements. CC on the other hand, just feels flat out preachy at times about man and nature, and other times it goes off into weird psuedo-intellectual nonsense to make it seem more smart than it really is. You get some doozey of a speech from Harle after the Ft. Dragon incident.

I just find CT superior in every way. CC is not bad but its plot at times is kind of pretentious at times and other times can't carry its own weight cause CC has an incredibly weak cast of characters. I still feel like it's apples vs. oranges and I do appreciate Kato and Tanaka choosing to go in a different direction rather than re-hash CT. Yet, I kind of feel that Kato sometimes undermined his story and message by not being subtle at times, and because he never spent enough time really building a cast that could carry the story he tried to present. Fargo, Glenn, Karch, Korcha, and Kid are not nearly as well rounded and likable as Frog, Robo, Lucca, and Ayla.

CT also just had better gameplay, the CC tries too hard to incorporate Xenogears, FFVII, and CT's systems all together and just utterly fails to create a terribly engaging combat system. You'll stick to your two other fave characters, make sure everyone carries at least one of each element and you're good to go. Don't even get me started on how awkward and unintuitive the Summoning system was.

[blackmage_nuke]

There were far too many things about chrono cross which annoyed me.
The party wasnt big enough for a game with so many characters, the levelling system made it possible to reach lvl 99 and still be underleveled and didnt allow for grinding. The story while good didnt capture me as strongly as Chrono trigger. Possibly because there were so many characters it was hard to see how they individually relate to events in the main storyline. And not being able to collect every character on the first playthrough didnt help and it wouldve been nice if the double/triple tech system was implemented more often.

However I cant think of many complaints i can make about Chrono Trigger. I loved the story, loved the characters, loved the battle system and leveling system.

Oh and the main battle theme in cross was one of the weakest and most annoying Square battle themes.

[theundeadhero]

CT is far better for me.

A lot of things about CC annoyed me. I found the colorful happy backgrounds very annoying. The 3D characters of the PS1 era were nothing to be impressed with verses CT characters which look better in every way. The multiple choice choose your own party members was very poorly implemented and the story itself was mostly lame, with only a few peak points of interest. The music was also far too happy and cheerful most of the time, and while CT sporadically had that problem, it also made up for it with some really awesome midis.

[Roogle]

I would have liked Chrono Cross a lot more if it had only ten to twenty playable characters who have direct relevance to the storyline. This would have allowed the characters to be more diverse from a gameplay standpoint. I would have liked it even more if the story chose the party for the majority of the game.

[McLovin']

CT was better overall than CC but CC had a great atmosphere and just a fun world to explore. The story was definitely a headache but it was still cool and interesting. Chronopolis is one of my all time favorite dungeons.

[GhandiOwnsYou]

I would have liked Chrono Cross a lot more if it had only ten to twenty playable characters who have direct relevance to the storyline. This would have allowed the characters to be more diverse from a gameplay standpoint. I would have liked it even more if the story chose the party for the majority of the game.

Agreed, 200%. My biggest gripe with this game was that you collected so many of these potentially awesome characters, that essentially get left in the dust 2 minutes after you complete the quest. If they had grabbed 10 of them, and given you sufficient party space to rotate them through, it would have made me a lot happier. Honestly, even in most FF games I take 6 of the 8 and play with them, chalking up everyone else to an extra icon on my menu screen.

[Skyblade]

Chrono Trigger is the big weakness of Chrono Cross. Had Chrono Cross been designed as its own game, it would have stood up a lot better. As it was, it was designed in the shadow of Trigger, and it shows. Attempting to tie in a sequel while simultaneously moving as far away from the original as possible was just not a good design decision.

Had they set this in an entirely new world, built up completely different new mechanics and built up fully fleshed out and worthwhile characters, the game would have been better.


It probably would still have been nowhere near as good as Chrono Trigger, though, which remains probably the best game of all time.

[cloud_doll]

Definitely Trigger over Cross. The only thing I liked about Cross was seeing the characters from Trigger. Trigger was just awesome and fun and the musical score was incredible. I still play that game today.

[qwertysaur]

Chrono cross has some great lines. Like when Poshul thinks that Leena "Thpontaneouthry combuthts"

Summoning with Red, Blue, Yellow and Green was really easy to use, just use the matching [color]field element with another character. Unfortunately there is no Whitefield or blackfield element though.

I like both games.

[Mercen-X]

I felt they each had something different to offer me. I'm biased toward games with pretty cutscenes though. I loved the opening sequence to Trigger.