initially was going to convey this in a meaner, snarkier way for the bit but with how this game tied into trigger closer to the end i decided not to. the game is not subtle about how it feels having to follow up a dream team project like trigger and a certain set of characters basically have to refrain themselves from explicitly saying serge ruined chrono trigger, and because of that i would honestly feel kind of bad bringing that kind of attitude with this review. regardless, while i played chrono cross, the main thought that went through my head was "how is it that people thought cross didn't live up to trigger rather than the other way around?" but as i finished the game and write this review i feel as though cross didn't need to live up to trigger and that hinging its value on whether or not it does is a very childish way of looking at things.

to me, chrono trigger is a game that is held back by how near perfect it is. there's so little wrong with it that at least to me nothing really stands out anymore. there's nothing to grab onto, no imperfections to make it feel "complete" to me and as such i feel as though its reverence, while not necessarily misplaced, is harder for me to grasp because to me a "perfect" game without imperfections, as contradictory as it sounds, will never be perfect to me. meanwhile, chrono cross i found to be an amazing, thought provoking, mesmerizing game that pushed the playstation to its limits aesthetically, a game with so much to say about what it means to live and exist, what it means to dream. chrono cross is messy and imperfect in such beautiful ways, it knows its following up chrono trigger and while it still intends to be a continuation of a work like trigger it doesn't care what kind of shadow its living in and intends to be its own experience, flaws and all.
whether or not it lives up to chrono trigger is irrelevant, the arguments surrounding such are just attempts at insecure and childish posturing because these games, while connected are so different that its hardly worth comparing in that sense. i understand that nothing exists in a vacuum, let alone a sequel, but maybe it would do some people a lot of good to both understand the context of something like chrono cross while also letting it be its own experience.

I came to Chrono Cross ready to be in love, having seen its art direction and heard its wonderful music for years. Unfortunately, what I found was that every facet of Chrono Cross's story and gameplay feels like it was failed by an editor. The writers needed someone to trim the fat and point out that maybe multiple big reveals at the end of the game would be more impactful if any time was spent with the player to offer them emotional weight. The game designers needed someone to look at the concept of changing out elemental spells to fight specific bosses and suggest "will this not be extremely tedious when there are 30 spell slots and 60 characters you may be switching in and out of your party?" Instead, we were left with a mess of a game memorable only because of its art and character design & it's incredible soundtrack. In other words, I enjoyed Chrono Cross most before I'd played it.

É uma bagunça completa. E em todos os sentidos, gameplay, a arte, os personagens, a história, é tudo bagunçado e convoluto nada como o primeiro jogo, do qual empresta apenas nomes.

Mas... por algum motivo, é cativante, nostálgico... tem um sentimento do qual eu não consigo explicar até hoje,e não sou só eu, já vi milhares de testemunhos como o meu.

É como encarar uma foto antiga de um ente querido que se foi, mas não reconhecer seu rosto, tem uma melancolia recorrente que persegue toda a jornada, mesmo nos momentos alegres e tranquilos. Uma estranheza pos-mortem. Um funeral em meio a festa, nada faz sentido logicamente, mas você sente que faz sentido (mesmo não fazendo). Bem, meu cérebro não gostou mas meu coração gostou eu acho? Não recomendo (recomendo sim).

Chrono Cross is on paper a sequel to Chrono Trigger. With an entirely different cast of protagonists, set in a seemingly different world at first, and with a story only ambiguously connected to the original, one can understand the contempt some fans of Trigger have expressed throughout the years.

Divorcing Chrono Cross from Trigger and judging the game on its own merits is the best way to experience the title. Luckily it provides some truly unique, yet at times, overly ambitious features to the turn based format, with a story conceptually just as ambitious.

Like many Squaresoft entries at this period of time, the pre-rendered backgrounds are downright gorgeous. Nobuteru Yuuki's lush and vivid color pallette are striking in virtually every camera fixed screen. The game from a visual standpoint is uniquely recognizable and is a huge strength, standing out from many of its drab and dreary looking contemporaries, boasting just as lively a score as well. Another feature unique to Chrono Cross is its party recruitment system. While it's certainly neat to have roughly 40 playable characters to choose from within your party, (some available/un-available depending on your choices), this forces a vast amount of party members to be skin deep in their development, albeit there's a hearty chunk of backstory and progression for more prominent characters nestled within the sidequests.

The story to Chrono Cross is a convoluted, yet ultimately, existential triumph. Sadly its poorly delivered for the most part. A large amount of its overarching themes and plot is dumped on you near endgame and the dialougue for the most part is poor. I'm assuming this is specifically due to crude localization, a problem many JRPGs suffered from in this era.

Overall Chrono Cross doesn't share the same emotional impact its predecessor conjures. Having said that, dismissing its beautiful locales, wholly diverse set of characters, one of a kind battle mechanics, and grandiose storytelling would be a shame for any Turn- Based fantatic.

Painful. While I will never subscribe to the notion that a sequel to something needs to be wholly like the original, the direction this game went in terms of narrative of gameplay is such an obvious and clear downgrade over the original that I find truly baffling. Instead of a tight cast of characters who get a lot of development and intrigue, you get maybe three characters with SOME development and about 30 who clog up the party doing nothing besides using bad accents. Instead of fluid engaging ATB-based gameplay it's now very slow turn based with the constant need to shuffle vague 'elements' depending on the situation. Instead of a plot that is thrilling to discover and learn more about, you get infodumped about 15 twists right before the game ends.

The game has excellent audio and visuals (Zoah eyes emoji) in service to a plot that is completely beneath it. Chrono Trigger never needed a 'bigger and better' sequel like this, it needed something much more concise, which ironically Radical Dreamers fills the role of much better. One of the all time most disappointing sequels.

I simply adore this game. I am so glad they didn't just make a boring "Chrono Trigger 2" where Crono and Marle trek through time yet again. It feels like the disjointed ramblings of a high school philosophy student at times, which can make for some absolutely fascinating reading. I know people feel annoyed that the game 'undoes' Chrono Trigger, but I think it does so in a fascinating way.

The only thing I would change about it is that it sucks how there are 40 characters but only a few of them receive any actual characterization. I get that it's hard to write for that many characters, but if this game were to be revisited (well, again), I think one way they could expand on it would be to give some of those side characters some significance. I want to know more about Mojo, dangit!

Oh, and this game also has the best OST ever. A must play.

I still need to finish this game. An insane sequel to Chrono Trigger. It feels completely disconnected from Trigger until, 2/3rds of the way through the game, it becomes explicitly connected to the events and characters of that game in a way that feels like the developers deliberately wanted to upset people. You know that character from Chrono Trigger you love? Something really bad probably happened to them.

On the other hand, the game is gorgeous, has one of the best game soundtracks ever made, and has a pretty fun combat system. It's also got something like 40 recruitable party members, which is simultaneously impressive and insane. It leads to the vast majority of your party members having no impact on the plot, but the variety is kind of fun at least.

Chrono Cross steps out of that "Dream Project" Final Fantasy x Dragon Quest concept, and forms its own identity, and hoo boy, what a fuckin' identity that Masato Kato and his team have managed to pull off. This is without a doubt the coolest RPG on the PlayStation, at least among Square's output for the console. Not sure if I'd rank it above too many of their other PS1 titles, but it absolutely fucks thanks to that late 90s Square AAA budget mixed with those lofty and unreachable narrative and technical aspirations that only a PSX RPG can truly deliver on.

Right from the start I was a big fan of the combat system; the phrase "Pokémon if it was art" kept popping up in my head throughout my playthrough. Don't ask me what that means. Though I feel like it's simultaneously way too much and not really enough to carry a 30+ hour game's worth of combat scenarios; by the very end I was just ready to get it over with and play "normal" video games again. But Chrono Cross has this magic to it, so even when I was ready to seriously question the longevity of its systems, it manages to lend the elements system a thematic and narrative parity that most RPGs only wish they could have with their game systems -- so that's more than enough to make up for the transgression of making me a little bit bored at times for the last 10 hours or so.

The whole 40+ playable characters thing is sick as hell. It's also just not a very well-thought-out idea, probably just exacerbating a lot of the game's biggest issues, but I also don't feel the game would be the same unforgettable experience without it. I do wish there were more characters directly anchored to the thrust of the narrative or that Serge spoke or something cuz there are portions of the game that are left relatively flavorless since they're composed of cookie cutter dialogue that has to be applied to every single character. It's really clearly rushed overall, but the devs were clearly invested in getting their message conveyed even if they had to resort to less than intuitive methods of delivering said story. It's a game clearly made with love and raw ambition, and I can absolutely see why those who adore the game are so passionate about it.

As for the music, Mitsuda did an incredible job -- in fact I'd say incredible is almost an understatement -- Chrono Cross' soundtrack is transcendental. The only place it really falters is, seemingly like most soundtracks he's worked on solo, the battle music. Like, it's definitely good and I enjoy it in a vacuum, but man the main battle theme gets pretty grating after the first 15 hours or so of battles. It was a genuine relief during the sections where they'd forgo the battle theme for whatever ambient music is currently playing. But it's only a small blight, if you could even call it that, on what's easily one of the most beautiful and meaningful game OSTs of all time.

But even when you kinda aggregate the highs and the lows, I really did enjoy my time with the game. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to fully playing through it, but I'm really, really glad I impulsively just popped this on last weekend and really made myself stick to it. I feel like it's taught me new ways to engage with and even love media more effectively. I'm not sure it's the best game it could possibly be given the circumstances, but I feel what it actually is is a vastly more valuable, exceptional experience than hypothetically achieving mechanical and structural perfection.