Suppose that Square-Enix were working on this game and realized very early in development that instead of injecting time travel into XIII, they could just take that concept and make it the Chrono sequel we're all waiting for. Obviously the battle system, some gameplay elements, and much of the story would be different, but the whole concept of time travel, artifacts, non-linearity, open areas, etc. could've been mostly kept.
How would you have felt about the game if this were case?
How do you think popular reception of the game would've been different?