Simply put, Chrono Cross is a masterpiece. Every mere second of playtime is mesmerizing. The Element/Innate/Field Effect system is very original, and it's really fun. Every character has an attribute called an Innate. The color of your Innate effects how much damage you take from certain kinds of Elements. Elements are basicly magical spells, except they don't use MP. They all have levels that determine how powerful they are, and the ones with higher levels can't be allocated until later in the game. You can hold as many of the same Element as you want, but you can only use each one once every battle. While fighting, there is a meter in the top left corner that looks like three ovals, one inside the other, decreasing in size each time. Every time an Element is used, the smallest oval changes to that color, pushing the previous color into the next oval. This is called the Field Effect. What colors these ovals are effects the power of the Elements used during that time. For example: If the entire Field is Black, and you use a Black Element, it will do much more damage than it would otherwise. If the entire field is White, it would do much less, because White is it's opposite color. Together it is a strategic and fun system that complements the greatness of the game.

The story line is easily the greatest ever. It continues from the story of Chrono Trigger, it's Super Nintendo prequel. It's deep, and interesting doesn't even start to discribe it. As most of you should know, "chronos" is Latin for "time". In Chrono Trigger, you and your friends travel through time. That is where the name came from. In Chrono Cross, you travel between dimensions. It's nothing short of genius if you ask me.

The graphics are great, some of the best on the Playstation. The character models are cool, and the backgrounds very detailed. The only PSone game I've ever seen with better graphics would be Final Fantasy IX. But, there is one thing in partcular that makes this game what it is. The music. I've been through the game two whole times and I've yet to hear a song that wasn't absolutely brilliant. All the World Map themes, the S.S. Zelbess music, and especially the song Nikki plays at the Marbule concert, pretty much every one is stunning. I highly recommend the soundtrack. And lets not forget the elimination of random battles! I'm so sick of getting attacked every other second, and that's another thing that makes this game so unique. In most cases, you don't have to engage in battle unless you want to, and learning how to juke out different enemies adds to the strategy. The only other game to pull this off was Chrono Trigger. So as you can see, this series is incredible.

But surprisingly after all this, I must admit the game isn't perfect. It would be better if the little icon appeared over the characters head when you were close to something which can be interacted with, like in Final Fantasy IX. The speech of some of the characters doesn't read very well, like Harle or Kid for instance. I guess it does add personality to them, but it's hard to do in a text only RPG like this. Also, I think the game has too many characters. 44? That's just way too many. With that many characters, you can't focus on character development at all. But the main thing which could be bad, and in most cases is, would be that the game is only two discs long. That just doesn't cut it these days. The only upside to that is that it makes the New Game + feature fit in a little bit better. If the game was four discs long, it would be really hard to beat it three times. Overall, I think Chrono Cross is an absolute classic that no RPG fan should be without. Once again, Squaresoft reigns as the RPG king.

Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 9
Music: 10
Originality: 9
Replay Value: 8
Sound: 10
Storyline: 10
Overall: 10