Chrono Cross

It's been a loooong while since my last post, sorry about that, life gets in the way sometimes. Anyway, I figured Chrono Cross would be a great subject for me to write about. As always, spoilers and this is more of a ramble than a review or anything. Just random thoughts, meh, it's what I do!

Chrono Cross had the unenviable task of following Chrono Trigger. One of history's most beloved games, there's no way a sequel could please everybody. Now, Radical Dreamers, a text game exclusive to Japan was the first sequel to Chrono Trigger. Masato Kato wasn't satisfied with Radical Dreamers and began work on Chrono Cross, a true and proper sequel to Trigger.

There are a couple of valid complaints about Chrono Cross, it's plot is very convoluted and there are too many recruitable characters. Again, valid points. However, Cross managed to do something that pissed off a vocal minority, but ultimately made the game that much better for me. It showed a grim outcome for the majority of the Trigger roster. Crono and Marle are implied to be dead, Lucca was murdered, Robo essentially gets deleted, Frog and Ayla obviously die of old age at best, and it's insinuated that Magus could somehow be a magician named Guile, looking for something.

I'm not going to even try to explain all of Cross' story in a paragraph, it's freaking insane. Barest of essential knowledge, a young boy died, his screams were somehow heard across the time and space by Schala, Magus's sister, who is fused with Lavos (long story), a series of events happen that cause Serge (the main character) to split the timeline in two, one where he lives, one where he dies. This causes a lot of headaches, so let's keep it simple and just say that the game is about restoring everything back to a singular timeline. I'm sure I make the story sound bad, it's not, it's just complex. This is not a game you play once and understand it completely. It's worth the multiple play throughs.

The gameplay is great, the stamina system for combat works wonderfully, the element allocation system is fun, weapon and item forging is nifty. The level up system is great, you get a star for every boss you defeat, making grinding a thing of the past (thank any and all deities you may or may not believe in), the gameplay is just plain great. The sound effects are awesome and the music is flawless. Once again, Yasunori Mitsuda. Your argument is invalid and not accepted, good day.

In the end, this game doesn't deserve what little hate it gets. In fact, if you are one of those people that hate this game, shame on you! Bad gamer! Bad! The game sold very well, was reviewed exceptionally well and is likely never getting a follow up. That used to upset me (as recently as earlier this year), but now, I'm happy that Trigger and Cross aren't likely to get a sequel. I know that these games will stand the test of time, and will likely not be tarnished by inferior remakes and lesser sequels. Heck, even Radical Dreamers is a ton of fun to experience. Trigger, Dreamers and Cross, the perfect little trilogy. May it never be tarnished.

9000 evil cat men out 9000.