Quote Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover View Post

I'd probably point out that half those characters are from different time periods that the party willfully or sometimes not so willfully ripped from their worlds to join them on their adventure. The point is that most of them only stand out in other time periods but their own, whereas Cross is crawling with things from the whole fantasy/sci-fi spectrum within a small country.
Well a lot of people are from this "Zenan Mainland" which I assumed was outside of El Nido. I am unsure of how this works with later revelations about El Nido but oh well. Norris is from Porre and so-on.[/quote]

It still doesn't add up when you remember that Zenan Mainland, which is basically Guardia and Porre, were not filled with Lucha Wrestlers, Fungus people, talking dogs, or the fair folk. It was pretty homogeneous, and half the unique creatures in Cross have no counterpart in Trigger like Dragons and Dwarves. Cross is surprisingly more fantasy and whimsical with it's ethnic groups than Trigger was.


And speaking of Norris, he didn't have a portrait! He was just "Dishwasher" who got stuck in Luccia's trap and then protested he wasn't snooping. I never saw that my first playthrough so witht he benefit of hindsight it's extra amusing.

Also Lisa, the shop owner in Termina has a portrait, and even ends up with Serge in an ending. Yet not playable.

But, yeah, you're right for the most part. I never thought about it in terms of them not wanting to listen to a kid, though. That's interesting. There is a much better story here than the game presents and I think CC is one of those works that benefits a lot from fanfic writers expanding what we were given and helping CC to live up to its potential. A lot of these character and events are very interesting and just needed a bit more fleshing out.
There is a lot more thought put into the plot and logic of the Dimension hopping than Trigger had, but again, Trigger was an adventure story where logic is only as good as what makes the events exciting. Cross is said to be a "fix-it-fic" as Kato was trying to resolve a bunch of the time paradox issues Trigger accidentally created due to the writers failing to iron out all the time travel rules from the beginning. The fact he merged this with a tale about the very ethics of time travel is actually a testament to his skills.

I think the one aspect about the massive cast that works in it's favor is actually how well they are used to reinforce the ideas of how much events can change by a few simple choices. Even getting several of the characters Level 7 Techs actually require you make certain choices at the beginning of the game.

Lucca died in both CC and Xenogears so maybe they're onto something....

But that's all pretty interesting.I had no idea about those original ideas.
I still stand by my head canon that Lucca either accidentally died in Gears or has more likely been removed from the Cross timeline but still exists in an alternate timeline with the rest of the Trigger cast. Simply because nothing short of Time Devourer is really on par with some of the enemies the Trigger cast dealt with in their own game, so I still feel it's very unlikely the cast is "dead" but simply been removed out of the way so as not to interfere. Again, this is largely why I wouldn't mind Kato coming back to pen a new Trigger game. The fact the new DS ending implies that both the cast is well aware of Schala's fate and that they cannot do anything to stop it, as well as Magus' ending heavily implying the Guile=Magus fan theory is still possibly canon tells me Kato has some interesting ideas left for the franchise.

Sweet, thanks.

And it's good to know Norris is Yellow. I used him a lot for a while in my first run but Cross is such an easy game you don't really need to monitor Innates. It helps but it was hardly essential.

It's VERY important in this version. Exploiting weaknesses is pretty much essential and having your own weaknesses exploited is why Razzly died against the Hiho Tank and I'm never using her again. That fight took me hours, I ain't doing it ever again.

Also, I guess the scene with Kid and Serge camping where Kid talks about herself only happens in the timeline where you leave her to die. Otherwise, Razzly's subplot takes over when you leave Fairy Village. That is really weird. It's a pretty important scene too and the first time you hear her theme song.
It's pretty surprising what content you'll miss based on the path you take. I think Cross is still one of the best games in terms of "choice" in RPGs that I've played.