Replaying Chrono Cross

[Wolf Kanno]

Finally got to Disc 2.

I took on the optional boss Criosphinx, and once again, he provided another example of where taking to more awful choice is more beneficial. What's unique about this boss is that he can be defeated in two different ways. When the battle starts, he challenges you to answer some riddles he gives by casting the corresponding element on him that answers the riddle, or you can just smack him in the face and begin one of the tougher boss battles in the game.

Why violence is the better answer is due to the "prizes" for defeating him. If you go the pacifist route and answer his six riddles, you don't technically gain anything except the answers to his riddles actually gives you a hint to the puzzle needed to stop the Dream Devourer and get the good ending. This is pretty easy but feels pretty anti-climatic. Beating him through violence is much more difficult cause he hits hard and casts Earthquake and ThundaStorm consecutively. If you don't have a Yellow Plate, he'll TPK you within the first round. So using the Mastermune, Yellow Plate, and a few choice accessories and elements to make this manageable, I was able to get Serge to beat him. Defeating him through violence awards you with the Sunglasses Accessory which is similar to the Prism Specs in CT and allows you to do some serious damage when equipped.

I also collected the last of the Summons, recruited Funguy, and picked up a few more character's Lv. 7 Techs. Despite both of them looking super goofy and kind of being awful in battle, I feel like NeoFio and Turnip have some interesting elements going for them narratively speaking. NeoFio sometimes makes comments about how self-aware she is to how unnatural her existence is and seems to envy other lifeforms, which ties in nicely to the games themes. Turnip gave me a bit of a head trip cause it turns out he's the manifestation of a dream from the sleeping Dragoon in the Barracks back in Another World. He explains when Turnip dreams, he is that soldier and if the soldier wakes up, he might disappear. Pretty trippy stuff that I almost missed if I wasn't reading TV Tropes and checked myself in-game. It's a shame they're both awful in battle.

The one character I ended up testing and really liking was Orlha, a character whom I felt deserved a bigger role in the story considering how dramatic the conclusion to her subplot about her missing twin sister was. Helping things here is that she's a pretty damn strong fighter. She's like a Blue Innate version of Greco, being all strength and terrible magic but considering how useless magic gets in later playthroughs, this is not a bad weakness.What really surprised me is that her first basic tech skill may actually be a Xenogears reference. I'm pretty sure it's a Deathblow used by Fei and Citan.

I've just now reached Chronopolis and will be savoring this a bit. Once Terra Tower opens up, I'll try to farm the White and Black Shiny Ingredients to start making some Prism Equipment. Though money might be an issue and I've seem to have missed the accessory that boosts money earned.

[Wolf Kanno]

Been busy with RL stuff but I finished Chronopolis and reached Terra Tower.

I still consider Chronopolis and The Dead Sea to both be the high points of the game's plot, cool stuff and interesting revelations, less filler boss battles, and some great music. I did laugh a few times in Chronopolis cause I swear they borrowed some sets from Xenogears. The room with the map of El Nido broadcast on the floor looks suspiciously like the one at Bart's HQ.

Something I never caught until TV tropes kind of brought it to my attention was the fact that Fate basically screwed herself over by being stupid. I mean she finally gets Serge's body and dumps him in the doomed dimension and hat does Dark Serge do? Terrorize El Nido and wait for Serge to come back and even get his body back instead of you know... reclaiming the Frozen Flame and becoming a god. Fate seems to have contracted stupid from Sephiroth and Seymour it seems in the whole "you could have accomplished your main goal if you didn't keep trying to make the heroes your cosmic chew toys".

Also, I'm calling BS on Starky saying his ship couldn't carry the cast to Terra Tower, that thing is easily twice the size of Korcha's boat. By the way, I still consider the whole ordeal of reaching Terra Tower to be silly and contrived. I honestly still giggle watching the boat fly. You mean to tell me that Chronopolis doesn't have flying vehicle stored somewhere on the premise? Also, why can't my flying boat get me to Gaea's Navel?

I have enough materials to make some of the Prism gear, but I may leave it for a second playthrough as my party feels pretty OP by this point and I don't feel they need any more of an improvement. Not to mention I just don't want to go to the trouble of grinding all those Shiny materials cause that's busy work.

I'll tackle Terra Tower soonish.

[Freya]

I really need to give this game another try, I have never beaten it. You guys are making me feel like I need to though.

[Fynn]

Because you do. But do Trigger first.

[Wolf Kanno]

Been awhile since I updated. Anyway, I'm at the end of Terra Tower. Just finished off the last of the elemental bosses. It took me awhile cause I caved and actually grinded some of the Shiny materials to make three Prism Armors and weapons for Serge, Kid, Karsh, and Fargo. The hardest part was learning quickly to switch to weaker weapons so my party would stop murdering all the enemies before using the summons.

I forgot how weird Terra Tower was. Like the random "prisoner" in stone who doesn't tell you who he is but stops you long enough to explain what Terra Tower is, and then when you run into Balthasar again after he hacks into the place, just so he can info dump on you. I really feel like this all points towards the devs having to rush the ending sections.

I do forget how much this place reminds me of the Black Omen from CT though since it's the closest thing to a "final dungeon" the game gets but the actual final boss is disconnected from it like the BO was in CT. Anyway, I'll take on the Dragon God next and finally put an end to the Time Devourer. Then I'll give some final thoughts on CC which will likely make into my entry for it on my list, and detail my thoughts on a Chrono 3.

[Wolf Kanno]

And...finished! Forgot how much of a complete pain in the ass trying to beat the final boss with the Chrono Cross is. Overall, Chrono Cross is still pretty fun and very quirky title. I do still feel it's on the lower end of my Top 100 though. I am simply not a fan of the battle system, and realizing how screwed over you can get by certain choices you make doesn't help it either. In hindsight, Nikki is the worst starting choice and despite the extra scenes you get with him, none of it is worth it really. The best characters that are not Glenn and Guile are all reserved for Lynx's side of the plot which is largely the high point of the game in both better recruits and just more interesting stuff happening in the plot in general. The game also has Square's typical issues at the time of feeling a bit rushed towards the end. Everything after Chronopolis is pretty surreal overall and feels less like an artistic choice and more likely the devs were just trying to cram as much as they could in the end exposition wise while trying to avoid Xenogears' "Second Disc Cutscene" issues.

One question I kept asking myself is whether I would be cool with seeing a Chrono 3. My answer is honestly yes, as long as Kato and Mitsuda were both part of the projects and had creative control. My other stipulations are as followed:

New Cast - While I'm cool with older characters from the previous games appearing in the game, I would feel better about the game if it starred a new cast of characters and new scenario that like CC, doesn't quite feel like a direct sequel until much later in the story.

Cameos and temporary party members are cool - With that said, I wouldn't mind the new cast throwing down with Glenn (either of them), Fargo, or Magus.

Dual and Triple Techs are a must - I feel these mechanics were the heart and soul of CT, and while CC badly under performs with them, I can't help but feel that many of them are still pretty cool when you actually pull them off. I would love for Chrono 3 to utilize these features into the combat, though not necessarily as a focal point like CT. It can and should have a new combat system, but I would like some better integration of cool combat elements from the previous entries like CC's elemental field mechanic.

Villains - Shoulds largely be new, I'm not saying that I wouldn't mind another throw-down with Dalton or for Lavos to weasel his way back into the plot somehow, but I feel CC showed that the franchise has room for engaging and cool villains. My own idea would be that the new set of villains is another group of time/dimensional travelers, as both games largely dealt with stationary villains who simply can exist for epochs of time, so it would be interesting to see the heroes trying to fight another group with similar capabilities as them.

The game should still have plenty of references to the older titles - While I feel there is enough blank spaces to fill concerning CT's world, I also fear that the nature of El Nido in CC would make it easy for a new title to ignore it. I would like to avoid a Dark Souls 3, where the devs play heavy lip service to the first game while largely ignoring the second one.

New art designs by an anime/manga author - I feel this is a given. The first game was done by Dragon Ball's creator and the second game was done by Escaflowne's, so I feel it would be cool to continue the trend and use someone from the anime/manga industry. My first choice, though highly controversial would be Eiichiro Oda of One Piece fame as I feel his art style is very distinct and would help the game move away from the more generic anime designs you see in most games. Of course I know a lot of people who can't stand his art style so my second choice would be Masaki Kajishima of Tenchi Muyo! fame since I feel his art style would be more visually appealing for casual players but still distinct enough to stand out from other anime based games.

With Chrono done for the moment, I'm thinking of starting up the SaGa franchise.

[Fynn]

You know that a “new anime artist” would probably give us something more like Xenoblade 2 here

[Wolf Kanno]

You know that a “new anime artist” would probably give us something more like Xenoblade 2 here

Notice how the choices I want are not conventional anime artists.

[Fynn]

I know, but none of them are exactly representative of modern anime trends. They’re both still 90s/oughts whole a new game using an anime style would definitely go for a more recent trend for marketability reasons. Not that there aren’t great unique artists in anime nowadays, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if they went the heavy fanservice route in this scenario as well (considering some of Nobuteru Yuuki’s art is straddling that line a bit as well).

[Wolf Kanno]

I know, but none of them are exactly representative of modern anime trends. They’re both still 90s/oughts whole a new game using an anime style would definitely go for a more recent trend for marketability reasons. Not that there aren’t great unique artists in anime nowadays, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if they went the heavy fanservice route in this scenario as well (considering some of Nobuteru Yuuki’s art is straddling that line a bit as well).

I wouldn't call Oda "old " though, especially when you consider how One Piece is a bigger franchise over there. Not like Toriyama wasn't at the tail end of DBZ when he did Chrono Trigger. Considering how much of a surge older works are getting in Japan lately, I feel several older artists would be pretty marketable even today.