85.
You know, despite the initial blowout from Chrono Trigger fans concerning this game, I honestly not only really liked Chrono Cross, but I feel this is how you should make a sequel to a super popular game/film/series. You set it in a different time and place, starring a new cast, and you let people think it has nothing to do with the original until it all comes together, and only then, do you discover you've been tricked into enjoying a sequel. Cross is written in such a way that if feels like its own thing, and there are some Cross fans who are adamant about that fact and try to distance this game from being a real sequel to the SNES darling.
It's not hard to see how this is possible, Trigger involved a rag tag bunch of kids jumping across their planet's timeline to prevent a bad future in a high adventure setting. Cross deals with a young boy named Serge who almost died when he was a child, but has otherwise had a very uneventful life in his small fishing village of Arni. He then "crosses" (more like stumbles) dimensions and finds himself in an alternate timeline where the biggest change for Serge is that he's not alive in it, he actually died as a child. Trapped in this alternate world where no one knows him, Serge seeks a means to return home, and in the course of his journey, meets up with Kid, a thief who is out to get revenge on Lynx. At this point, the plot gets more and more complicated as major, and not so major, characters flood the story as Serge explores this alternate world. The game then has a really great twist that is as worthy as Crono's death from CT as a nice change up to the story. At which point, you're finally allowed to return home and discover just how radically different events unfolded in Serge's home world. Enemies in one world are friendly in this one and vice versa. this makes it super fun to talk to everyone to notice the subtle and not so subtle changes between worlds.
The game does an excellent job of conveying the concept of two alternate timelines that are similar, but still radically different. It is here the major messages of the game come to play, and it becomes obvious that Kato's time working on FFVII and more importantly, Xenogears, had a dramatic impact on his writing. Despite the games fanciful characters and colorful world, CC's story is rather heavy and somber, with a few anvilicious moments of getting a moral across, and characters stopping to wax philosophy on the subject of the ethics of time travel and the impact it has on the histories changed. Not only is this in direct opposition to the more kid-friendly and whimsical Trigger, but some fans argue its a direct criticism to its predecessor. I can't say one way or the other what Kato was thinking when he wrote the story, he was one of the writer's for CT as well, but he did seem a bit annoyed with how certain aspects came about with that title. In many ways, CC feels like a game that not only tries to address an obvious time paradox left in the original, but really sit down and discuss the ramifications of Trigger's plot. Whether you feel this is a slap to the face of a light-hearted adventure tale or a bold direction for the story targeted to fans who were young enough to enjoy the original, but old enough now to need a more mature story, really comes down to one's own opinion. I personally appreciated it, and I don't even mind the fact the game kind of opens up a major can of worms of loose story threads as it has kept me invested in the idea of an actual sequel to this series.
Though I am fine with the more controversial elements in the story and major tonal shift the game made from its predecessor, I do have my fair share of grievances and praises for the game. As a story, I mostly enjoy it, but I have always been a bit sad by how lacking the cast is. The game has over forty characters to collect, and maybe eight of them in total are relevant to the plot. Several characters could have remained as simple NPCs for how much they bring to the story after they join. The cast also kind of clashes with the game's tone. It sometimes weakened a really powerful moment like going to the Dead Sea, or finding the Masemune and learning its bloody history on the island, when some of your party members can be: a Luchador masked wrestler, a talking pink dog, a literal mushroom man, a turnip knight, a 50s retro space alien, or a talking skeleton that wanted to be a clown. The wacky fantasy/sci-fi kitchen sink approach to making characters often clash with not only the setting, but also the more somber and serious tone of the game. I get that many of them are here to add levity to a story that can sometimes get too serious for its own good, and I appreciate the fact the game has easily the most diverse cast of any Square title; but I really feel the cast could have been edited down and more could have gone towards building up the actual important cast members.
The battle system is also something I've never cared for. It looks complicated on paper, but really isn't in practice. Like many of Square's RPGs at this time, magic seems to be here for obligation, but ultimately falls second fiddle to good old melee. The customization mechanics are like a weird streamlined materia system, and the battle mechanics feel like an overbalanced version of Xenogears combat system, except it still greatly favors melee abilities over magic. Due to the large cast, the playable characters are largely standardized like Suikoden's cast are, with characters being divided into three to five types (Heavy, Medium, Light, Mage, Unique), and mostly being interchangeable among their types outside of element affinity and the rare useful tech ability. This kind of hurts the colorful cast a bit more because it reduces party builds to novelty factors, and its really easy to build a party to your liking and never touch anyone else. There is the element system which does help differentiate party members, but it's only really useful in an initial playthrough and a few select battles towards the end that are surprisingly tough.
The game has dual and triple techs but, it almost feels like they are in here as obligation rather than being a central mechanic like they were in CT. This is an absolute shame, because having this as more of a central mechanic would have made the large cast more alluring from a gameplay standpoint, but as it stands, most people don't bother outside of Serge and Glenn's X-Slash dual tech. The element field gauge is an intriguing idea and about the only thing that keeps magic relevant, but since you're usually outnumbered, it makes it difficult for your own party to use it for your own benefit, and often times, you only deal with it to make sure the enemy doesn't gain any additional advantages. Especially grueling as some bosses in this game can be brutal, and don't need the extra bonuses. There are summons in the game as well, but most of them are a pain in the ass to obtain, and require the element field to be their full color before they can be used. So even the extra damage they offer, they don't quite balance out with the amount of effort needed to make it happen.
So the battle system is kind of a mess for my taste, being overly complicated in description, but largely easy to ignore; but where Cross shines as a game is the amount of choices you can make that have an impact on the story. In the beginning of the game, you have to sneak into Viper Manor and need to enlist the aid of someone to help get this done. You have three choices: Guile, a powerful magician/thief who wants to sneak in to fulfill a bet; Pierre, a goofy disgraced noble who swears he's good friends with Lord Viper when it's obvious he's not; and Nikki, a glam rock musician who wants to learn about the connection between his father and the lord. What makes this a bit different from a lot of other games of its time is that not only do you alter the plot a bit depending on who you go with, but all three of them make you take a different route into the manor instead of just having everyone use the same method. So I appreciate the fact the developers took the extra time to make this sequence very unique. Another factor that proves my point, is that despite Kid being a central figure in the plot, it's actually possible to never have her in your party for the first half of the game. You can keep rejecting her offers to join forces, and this will actually affect who will join you in the game. In fact one choice leads you down two radically different story paths that only later converge back together into the main story. This impact of choice was something I really appreciated in Trigger and CC certainly took it to the next level. You have to play the game no less than three times in order to see every scenario.
Its also safe to say that Cross is one of the most gorgeous games Square has ever made. I really mean that. Hunting down all the images for this game, I was bit taken back by how well they have held up over the years, and how striking they still are compared to Square-Enix's more recent titles. The vibrant colors and wonderful art direction make this game stand out and to have it topped off with Mitsuda's best musical score just adds to the gorgeous atmosphere the game creates for the player. While it's not my favorite OST by him, and I do feel the work is a bit too ambient for my taste, I can't deny it is some gorgeous work. I'm actually listening to it right now as I type this.
Overall Chrono Cross is an odd duck for me. From a story standpoint, I really enjoy it, and I feel it was a bold direction for a game that had some pretty unreasonable expectations to fulfill. The greater emphasis on player agency in the story, which helps tie back into the games central plot element of different timelines and how choices make them, was neatly done. Yet, the ho-hum battle system, poorly executed ideas, and the large, gimmicky cast knock it down for me. I will say that, as I began writing this piece, one of my biggest fears about this list has kind of come true, and that's the fact that really delving back into some of these games would change where I feel I should have placed them. On further retrospection, I really feel I would rank this game a bit higher, but perhaps that will change when I move onto the next piece.
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Originally Posted by fat_moogle
