Quote Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover View Post
I think we just come from two different worlds. You thought Persona 2 had a good battle system, didn't you? I don't think I know anybody but you and Fynn who feels that way.
I honestly don't know too many people who dislike P2's battle system.
Chrono Cross' battle system is involved and more strategic than most turn-based battle systems, especially before melee rules supreme. Monitoring field effect so you gain the most out of your Elements/take the least damage from enemy Elements, measuring Stamina so you use certain attacks from characters at certain points, perhaps starting a Combo with Character A then heading to Character C to attack some more so Character A gets all their Stamina back, factoring in Innates instead of just typical "Character A has these stats and Character B has these stats" - all this and more is why I love CC's battle system.
I agree that the Field Elements add a lot of strategic value, but I often feel it works best defensively. I don't pay too much attention to innate element without looking at stats first. This is especially noticeable in my current playthrough as I can often get better results exploiting elemental weaknesses using a magic build character using the element than constantly shuffling around my team. There are also just some elements where I don't feel there are any exceptional members of it, specifically Red and Yellow. I mean honestly, if characters like Kid, Fargo, and Mel didn't have useful techs, I would never use them. Lenna has some very useful techs, but her stats are middling so I will likely drop her for another character. If I had played as I usually did and got Guile and Glenn, I would never let them leave my party except when the game forces me to because their better stats and combat focus trump any advantage the Innate element mechanics give. It's a large part of my dislike of the system because I find most of it superfluous. A smaller cast with more role based focus in their stats and skills would have made this game more fun for me.

The Stamina recovery element would be more practical if they were more extreme. As it stands, I can easily have all three party members do one of each physical attack and end with a magic attack/tech skill and easily cycle through the whole party. The stamina mechanic and element mechanic would have been more interesting if higher tier elements required Stamina use like melee does, forcing you to have to have to rely on one or the other mechanic. As it stands, I can largely get my cake and eat it too with my party averaging four attacks per character. It's only when I steal that things change and even then it just slows down regular battles. Like most JRPG's with convoluted but easily exploited systems, boss battles are about the only place where the mechanics shine but the random battles are a chore. This is where I can appreciate Xenogears simple brain dead regular battles cause at least they are over quickly and I can move on. Cross' battles require too much focus but are hardly interesting which makes the gameplay a chore for me. Not helping is how the leveling system itself largely discourages grinding outside of materials for smithing, it's almost like the game is telling me to run from battles and go out of my way to avoid combat as much as possible and it all just feels counter-intuitive to me in terms of what a game should be.

It's hardly the worst system but it's all so sloppy and I feel the sheer amount of mechanics are there to distract players on how simple and straightforward the gameplay really is.

Also if you need Shiny materials, there is also this strategy:
https://chaos2.org/ff/cc/shiny.shtml
Ooh, that will come in handy, thanks.

The Elemental Charms aren't as special as I thought and can all be easily stolen. Angel Charms and thus Shiny Salts are the hardest to come by since only an enemy in Terra Tower drops them. But you'll find one Angel Charm in Dragonia as I recall plus there's the Energizer Suit in one of the Hermit Hideaways which can also be Disassembled for a Shiny Salt.
I'm not too concerned with outfitting everyone. I usually only make three of each Mail type and only make the weapons of characters I plan to use, so that saves me some time and money.

So my playthrough of Trigger is coming along. I was found not guilty this time for all the good it did me. Also I just realized that it was Melchior I tried to sell Marle's Pendant too and it's because he asked for it. I never thought about the significance of this last time.
Oh yeah, you run into a lot of call forwards if you pay attention. If you go to the shop in Crono's village and one of the boating docks, you'll learn about the missing shop keeper's son you can rescue later when you're escaping the prison. I still feel the Millennial Fair/Crono Trial is one of the most clever parts of the game

The music in this game is pretty great, especially the World Map Music for...1000AD is
the Home Era of our hero I think?
Actually it's Schala's Another World era. Serge's timeline is the rogue timeline trying to overwrite the main one.

I'm really bad at the timeline. Like, I think Chrono Cross takes place only a few years after CT's "main" time?
Cross takes place in the year 1020AD. Twenty years after the events of CT. The timeline is divided in 1010AD when Kid would time travel back from 1020 AD and save him from drowning. Granted, CC is kind of fuzzy about how this dimensional split exists when it also basically says that any time a time travel changes history, it causes the old timeline to enter a garbage dump of other timelines. Though I guess the Time Crash and/or the presence of the Frozen Flame somehow allows for these alternate timelines to still exist parallel to the main one.