Chrono Cross
by RageOnALeash

Let me start of by saying that RPG players who consider themselves "hardcore" and who have not played Chrono Trigger are not PRGers at all. That game (in my opinion) is the second best RPG on SNES (FFII being my favorite). Play that game. OK, that said, Chrono Cross may very well be the second (or maybe third) best RPG on the psx. And rememer, the playstation has over 60 RPGs, so being third is saying alot a PSX RPG.

While this game isn't the mainstream, super-sequel final fantasy, it does put up a very good fight. I can honeslty say that any RPG fan should have this game without a doubt. I could even go so far as to say that no playstation system should not have Chrono Cross accompanying it (translated= buy Chrono Cross!).

Ok, now that I've forced the command of buying this game into your head, maybe I should explain why. Well, I'm not gonna. Get the game. End of review.

. . . Sorry. First of all, Chono Cross is a complex game. Not complex in the sense that it takes a lot to learn the controls or the battle system, but complex in it's storyline. It is a very extravagant plot, full with details and interesting twists and turns. One of the major points in the storyline is inter-dimensional travel, very similar (if not the same as) the time-travel system in Chrono Trigger. It sticks to the basis of time travel, such as something that occurs in the past will change something (usually drastically) in the future. Think of the different times as cities, and in order to move on to the next "city," one must complete something from a previous city. That may seem confusing; here's an example: Let's say you just got out of Time A, and you are now in Time B. You think you've done everything there is to do in Time B, so you want to move on to Time C. But you can't, and you don't exactly know why. This game may require you to go back to Time A in order to move on to Time C. This way, it's impossible to miss some of the storyline (which would be very bad, in this game's case).

The plot is very interesting indeed. You may find it as though you're watching a soap opera, and from time to time you'll think (or say) "Oh, no! That's horrible!" "Holy %$#@," or "Why the %$#@ did they do that?!?" Those who have played Chrono Trigger will recall the same thing happening as when they played the SNES game. The storyline and a few characters are closely related, but I'm not about to ruin the story of such a great game!

I will, however, tell you that the characters are very numerous. While you may be thinking, "Oh no, now I gotta remember who all these people are," it's not like that at all. The charcters are so distinctive that you wont be confused at all. They have their own style, attidute, dialect, weaponry, and special skills that you'll know them without even a given name.

The gameplay of Chrono Cross is keypointed at it's battle system. No longer do you have to be in unpleasant anticipation of running into another monster when your health is low and you have no more MP and you can't run away from the stupid guy because he keeps pummeling me with his god%#$@ Blizzaraga and then I die and have to go back to the-- *falls over and starts panting hysterically.*

I'm trying to say there's no random battles, like in the original and like in Earthbound. And even if you get caught in a battle, you can almost always run. And another good thing about the battles is that they're fun. The interface really never gets annoying, which is a lot to say for an RPG.

While attacking, you are offered different modes: Fierce, Strong, and Weak. With strong, you sacrifice accuracy for power, and with weak, you sacrifice power for accuracy. An elemental system is also used for battling. There's Basic, Consumable, Tech, Summoning, and Trap elements/skills. Some Tech Skills and Summons can only be used by certain characters. The elements come in color pairs (red/blue, yellow/green, white/black), each one effective against it's pair. This means that selecting the right party members is as important as the battle itself. And you have plenty of characters to choose from.

Unfortunately, the bosses are a bit varied in difficulty throughout the game. In the end, the bosses are too easy, and on the side quests they're frusturatingly hard. This is most likely because it's very important that the game's plot not be obstructed by tough boss battles, although these aren't even the least bit challenging.

The graphics of Chrono Cross are above average for an RPG, with pre-rendered 3D backrounds that are suprisingly realistic. The character sprites have a quite good resolution, making them easy to recognize. The textures are colorful portrayals of the life-like area, not repetitive and not dull at all. The character animation deserves some recognition, as it surpasses that of some games for the Playstation 2. The figures move with ease, and it seems they have such high frame rates that you wouldn't be able to make them choppy even if you put the game on super-slow motion.

If you're expecting to watch a CG movie through this entire game then you're out of luck. While it does have some CG sequences, they are not nearly as numerous as the last 3 Final Fantasies. However, you will find numerous neat little animations going on in the backrounds, such as the rustle of trees and the swinging of chandeliers, which really brings the game to life.

The only downside to Chrono Cross is it's music. Not that the soundtrack is bad, or anything, it just doesn't have any tracks that you'll remember as really great. The games music is not annoying or repetitive, but don't expect the orchestration to match the epic proportions of the game.

Though the music is not perfect, the sound quality is as close as you can get to perfect, much better than that of the Final Fantasies. It's almost like listening to CD, or even a live performance.

Overall, this is a game of epic proportions, one that deserves to be recognized and placed on the shelf along with other greats such as Final Fantasy II, III, VII, IX, The Zeldas, and of course, Chrono Trigger. This game deserves all the celebration it can get. Why? Because it takes the cake.

So the next time you see Chrono Cross sitting on a shelf in a video game store, do yourself a favor, and pick it up. You have my word, you won't regret it.

Screenshots

Images and some Info obtained from IGN.