Quote Originally Posted by NeoCracker View Post
Firstly, this 'CPU' you are talking about was made using Robo, so their villain is some one who, at the very least, should be considered on par with any one member of the party. Of course, the moment you make this concession it's no longer anywhere near the lopsided fight you seem to be implying. So this CPU could realistically have the knowledge of how to take advantage of Crono and Marle.
Well no, Robo is only the Prometheus Circuit which FATE wasn't even aware existed until the Arbiter Lock was activated. The game instead suggests that FATE is actually the Good Futures version of Mother Brain from Robo's original 2300 A.D. This would largely mean that FATE would not have any real insider info on the party. So that theory can be proven wrong.

I think a safe assumption as well is Daltons entire contribution to this ploy, mind you, was supplying the arsenal. I mighty arsenal it may have been, but it is still Dalton. For the most part I think we can assume it's Crono and Marle Vs. Fate/Lynx.
Except even if Dalton's power and knowledge of tech may be impressive in Crono's time period, but I seriously doubt Dalton could recreate actual Zeal level technology and Arcane ability. I would be enough to topple Guardia but not enough to topple Crono and Marle who fought toe to toe with Zeal's best as well as the advanced science of Robo's original time period so I find it hard to swallow that somehow an incompetent military officer could recreate Guru-grade inventions, but it is plausible he could create enough to give Porre and edge, just not one I believe would beat Crono and Marle.

As for FATE, it wasn't interested in Crono and Marle, it only wanted Lucca because she was partially responsible for the Prometheus Circuit in the first place, so it had Lynx try to abduct her to get her to remove the lock, Since Lynx is still after Serge five years later, its safe to assume it didn't work out. So FATE really had no reason to even bother with Crono and Marle so that means it was just Dalton and Porre dealing with them.

And it's also silly to say Lynx lost to some boy from a fisher village. Not only because Crono too was just some guy, yet he managed to overcome incredible odds. And also, mind you, he got his ass smoked by Lavos in solo combat.
It's true Crono came from common roots but its also stated Crono practices swordplay for fun and considering what he goes through in CT, I feel its safe to assume he is the more experienced fighter between him and Serge. Serge tended to think his way out of problems as opposed to direct ass kicking. As for Lavos beating his ass, we know Lavos didn't really kill him, instead the party in the body snatched him instead, the real Crono beat Lavos with two other allies, not to mention the other uber powerful beings he helped topple.

The other thing I would point out is that FATE is trapped in Chronopolis, Lynx is simply a gentically altered and brain washed human working as Fate's avatar outside its base of operations. Lynx himself gets his ass kicked by Serge and company a few times before Dark Serge merges with the real FATE for the final battle with Serge meaning that Lynx is not all powerful and is in fact rather vulnerable compared to the real deal. To me that means Lucca or even Crono and Marle could have bested Lynx if they had to fight.

Next, fighting a single enemy, no matter how powerful, is an entirely different matter then fighting an army. Mind you an army armed with trout none of your troops could possibly be prepared for, and backed up by Fate itself. Take into account Crono and Marle, much in contrast to the previous fights you mentioned, didn't have to worry about other people getting killed in their battles.
Well first off, FATE didn't help Porre, nor did Lynx. It was all Dalton because Lynx and Harle's only target was Lucca and that was just so they could both get to the Frozen Flame, they also attacked the orphanage ten years after Guardia falls, meaning Lucca would have been there to fight Dalton and the Porre army. So now its just Crono, Marle, and Lucca versus Dalton and his army. Crono who fought off the Guardia army of the present time, Magus' Mystic army and even helped best Magus himself, fought off the Reptites and their honest to god pet dinosaurs, fought off an army of killer robots and mutants in the future and busted their way into the most heavily fortified fortress in Zeal. Not only are they all experienced with fighting armies, I would like to point out that CT even gives an in-game reason for why you could only travel in groups of three, meaning that Crono and Co are just that strong. Crono and company even fought with the Guardia army of 600 A.D. so while the issue of lives being at stake is relevant, I don't necessarily feel its absolute proof of a weakness because both of them are experienced with witnessing mass death and comrades dying. Certainly it being their home would be a factor but it could also go the other way and may have been used as a driving force for all of them to go all out to minimize casualties.

The other issue here is that we are also talking about a group of people whose bag of tricks for solving problems is Time Travel, so it is very possible that if the war goes bad, they would simply escape and try to alter time. So depending on which ending is canon, they could jump into the Epoch and alter the issue. Lucca herself is working on Time Eggs according to CC and could probably had figured out time travel in case the Epoch was gone, hell CC even hints that Lucca helped build Chronopolis with Balthasar, so its not like the party wasn't still time traveling. The orphanage children drew pictures of Frog, Alya, and Robo so its most likely that the party had access to a means of time travel either Epoch or some device Lucca made. There are just too many variables for the Guardia campaign to fail for Porre with Crono and Co being in the picture. Of anything, I would consider Balthasar and his Project Kid is a bigger contributing factor to what may have happened to Crono and Co.

Also take into account Fates control over the world, which while not absolute is something Crono not only has no way to prepare for, but is a massive advantage for team evil here.
Except FATE only had control over El Nido, not the world, and all FATE did was follow the orders of Project Kid which was to populate the islands and let Serge be born so he could access the string of events to become the Arbiter and then have Kid save his life later to cause the split timeline, which would eventually lead to the destruction of the Time Devourer and Schala's freedom. As stated before, Guardia fell before Lynx ever came to the mainland and that just to capture Lucca.

Don't get me wrong, It would be nice to have a lot of these details fleshed out and explained, but at the same time all that game would be doing is filling out minor plot points, and not really adding anything to the overall plot and questions of Chrono Cross and triggers continuity.

Maybe a short, not full price game would serve best.
I disagree because I feel that Crono, Marle and Lucca are still alive, and I feel that all we have are footnotes that need proper expansions about what happened between both games. It wouldn't have to just be avout the Crono's group, it could expand to touch on the rest of the CT gang as well s properly tell the stories of Dario, Radius, Fargo, and the Acacia Dragoons if need be. Hell make an interequal that sets up a proper sequel to CC. There are enough side characters at this point to tell an intertwining story, and that's always been one of Kato's strong points as a writer. Hell Magus' new ending in the DS version only makes more questions appear, so I wouldn't be surprised if he could be casted as the new lead. He is a fan favorite.

I do agree that a lot of this was pulled out of their ass, but in the end I don't think it creates as many problems as you seem to think it does. We are given plenty of reason to see just why Lynx and Fate are such formidable foes.
I've shown that FATE was largely a no-show and is not a factor in most of the CT's party's fate, and in truth I'm pretty sure Kato's honest answer to the issues that happened between the two games and the CT cast's fate is that he simply half-assed wrote them out of the story so they would be a non-factor in CC, cause it would have diminished the new cast. He said as much when he decided to write Magus out of the CC script because he felt he would overshadow most of the CC cast and he wanted players to like the new characters and use them. I still feel that Kato wrote himself into a corner and I would love to see him try to write himself out of it without getting lynched.