tanta07's Full Review: Chrono Cross for PlayStation 1
Just mention the words “Chrono Trigger” if front of your average gaming geek, and you will see his face light up with a goofy smile. Years after the massive RPG hit on the Super Nintendo, it still has that effect on the general gaming populace. Considered by many to be the greatest RPG of all time, Chrono Trigger featured the then-innovative idea of jumping back and forth between different time periods in order to stop a terrible evil from taking over the planet. It also featured some vary charismatic and memorable characters that still hold a place in the hearts of many. Add to this a very fun and addictive combat system, and a nice little story to boot, and you have one fantastic game that is still being gushed over. So imagine the plight of Squaresoft when they decided to undertake producing a sequel. Basically, disappointment was going to run rampant with many old-schoolers, but they took the bold step of trying to come up with a capable sequel anyway. Enter Chrono Cross, a bold venture that takes many chances with the old Chrono Trigger mold, including revamping the combat system, introducing totally new main characters, and featuring a totally different “time period” and setting. Yes, Squaresoft went out on a limb with this project in many ways, but the successes are actually far more prominent than the failures.
You start out the game as a young boy named Serge. Serge lives in a quite little fishing village, and his only care in the world seems to be his girlfriend. He wanders down to the shore one day to speak with her, and suddenly a blinding flash fills his vision, and he falls unconscious. He awakes to find his girlfriend gone. Dazed and confused, he wanders back to his home village to find that no one recognizes him, though some admit he looks a little like a boy who drowned several years ago. Things only get creepier as he visits his loved ones, and even his mother and girlfriend fail to recognize him, but they do ramble on about another boy named Serge who had died some years ago. You even stumble upon your own grave, having drowned when you were just a wee lad. Slowly, Serge comes to understand that what happened to him on the beach was a strange jump between dimensions. In his current dimension, he actually is no longer alive, having died as a child. Serge alone has the bizarre ability to “jump” between these two different worlds, controlling events in each that will effect outcomes in the other dimension. Not necessarily time travel, like what took place in Chrono Trigger, but still an interesting story development, nonetheless.
As one might expect, Serge discovers that a central evil knows about him and his ability to shift between dimensions, and wishes to exploit it to gain power and control. He teams up with a rag-tag group of adventurers in order to help him systematically control events in the two different dimensions to bring down the horrible evil and, almost as an afterthought, save the world itself. Along the way, of course, he learns a great deal about the nature of his ability, as well as his own past, and the past of several key characters in the story.
Graphically, this is a Squaresoft game, so it is a wonder to behold. As a late-generation Playstation game, it pushes the old gray box’s hardware limits so much that a few times, I thought I heard my trusty old PS One scream in agony. While I personally feel that Final Fantasy IX squeezed the most possible graphical splendor out of the unit, Chrono Cross is a very close second. The cut scenes in the game are absolutely jaw-dropping, with detail and color like you would normally expect to see in an anime, not in a video game. The in-game graphics are also very nice, with detailed cities and locales that sometimes had me slowing down just to take in the scenery. Each town and little village in the game is given its own unique look and architecture, and every little detail is given loving attention. In 2003, the character models for just walking around will probably not blow too many skirts up, but for their time, they were extremely detailed and well animated. The battle graphics can vary a little between “extremely good,” and “Wow!” The main characters look fantastic when placed into battle animations, and the enemies frequently fail to disappoint. Where the real stuff is, though, is in the spell animations. Many of the cut scenes that go along with the various spells will have you using the spell over and over just so that you can see the gorgeous graphics a few more times.
Gameplay-wise, there a few minor quibbles I have that personally brought the score down for me a little. First of all, I though the battle system was top-notch. It is so totally revamped from Chrono Trigger that it is not even in the same ballpark, so those looking for a little bit of nostalgia will have to fire up a ROM copy of the old game, or play the new Playstation version. Chrono Cross features a turn-based battle system that is fast-paced, dynamic, and always fun. Once in battle, you have the option to use three different attacks, a weak one, which has a high hit rate, a medium attack, or a strong attack, which has the lowest hit percentage. Veterans of Xenogears will already be familiar with this, since it uses the same principle; you are originally given a set amount of attack points at the beginning of the fight, and you have to divide them out amongst your physical attacks and spells. You see, if you do two straight strong attacks, you will basically use all of your attack points in the one round, which may do more damage, but will handicap you a little (not to mention use all of your attack points). Once you start to develop some stronger spells, it is actually wiser to mix in a few weak and medium attacks. The reason for this is that the more points you save, the more points you will have to use for spells. Each spell you have equipped to your character as a level. A level one spell will only take one attack point to cast, while a level seven spell will take some saving up to cast. Each time you only use a weak physical attack, you gain a level in the spells you can use. For instance, do three straight weak attacks, you should then be able to finish the enemy off with a level three spell. It’s definitely a system that takes a lot of getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you can use it to your advantage to whoop all sorts of evil a**.
What did I not like about the gameplay? Well, Chrono Cross falls into the all-too-obvious RPG tiger pit of frequently giving you no damn idea of what to do next. I was frequently referring to faqs and guides in order to figure out where I was supposed to go, because while this game does not feature the biggest world map in the universe, it is big enough that you don’t want to wander the entire thing to trigger the next event in the story. During the first few hours of the game, I figured that maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention to the story, assuming that little hints were given out every once in a while to steer you in the right direction. While this is true in a few cases, the vast majority of the time after completing a major objective like slaying a boss, you will then be standing around, wondering what is supposed to happen next. When I would finally figure out where I was supposed to go, I would then wonder how the hell I was supposed to figure that out. Chances are good that perhaps I’m just thick, but I would like to think that this is actually a minus in this game’s design. Also another thing that takes away a little from the game is the sometimes plodding storyline, which will have you chasing down seemingly useless items or plot details that you will feel have absolutely nothing to do with the main story. As Y2JMcDohl so eloquently put it, it sometimes feels like you’re doing “a lot of walking, and not a lot of adventuring.” That really does put it in a nutshell, because I did feel that the majority of my time playing this game as either spent wandering from place to place to find out what to do next, or wandering from place to place to complete a seemingly worthless objective in order to advance the plot.
With the controls of the game, it’s a fairly mixed bag. The before-mentioned system of equipping various levels of spells to each character can become quite a chore, and actually makes character development somewhat of a mind-numbing task towards the end of the game. Each character is given a certain amount of “slots” for each level of spell for you to equip the spells to. As you progress through the game, you will pick up and buy these spells and then equip them to your characters. The annoying thing is that there is a somewhat infuriating color-coding of the spells that will have you swapping them constantly. Let me explain - the spells are all divided into different color-coded categories. For instance, red is fire, white is holy, blue is water, etc. Each character in the game is innate in a certain color, which makes them especially strong when using a spell of that color. Likewise, they can be hurt more by the opposite of that color. If a character is innately black, white spells with seriously mess him up, and vice versa. The annoying part is that when you figure out the innate color of an upcoming boss or area, you would be wise to switch around the spells for all of your characters to give them the best chance of winning. The down side to his is that major battles will be preceded by a bunch of equipping, un-equipping, swapping, and buying of various spells. In a game that is already hindered by a sluggish pace, having to stop everything for twenty minutes before each major boss battles is definitely not a positive.
As far as the music goes in this game, well, once again, it is Squaresoft, and they will not settle for second best in some areas, music being one. The soundtrack of Chrono Cross is one of the most lush and expressive I have heard in a video game, and definitely warrants a purchase of the CDs if you ever have the opportunity. Composer Yasunari Mitsuda has put together something of extreme beauty, mixing in subtle shades of romance, mystery, restraint, and hope. Even something as simple as the world map theme while you wander from place to place comes out uplifting and sticks in you head forever. Something simple like wandering through a mysterious little village is livened by a fresh and intriguing score, while major boss battles and climactic story events are only heightened by adventurous musical flourishes. Mitsuda did a masterful job of also carefully choosing the instruments used in order to capture the right mood for the settings. For instance, most of the pieces that play while you are in little fishing villages and humble shacks are accompanied by humble acoustic guitar and string arrangements. Bolder, more dangerous locales get the full treatment, complete with electric guitar and full orchestras. The boldness and scope of Mitsuda’s arrangement is not only impressive, but it works like a charm.
I didn’t find the storyline of Chrono Cross to be all that engrossing, but that may only be because I found it dragging at so many points. It really does start off with an interesting idea and picks up steam significantly from there, but then kinds of drags only in some key spots. By the time you reach the end of the first disc, I felt like the focus of the story was beginning to be totally lost, as you get swept up in “fetch quest” after fetch quest, with little or no connections to the larger plot (for those not familiar, a “fetch quest” is an RPG tactic where your party is sent after items or people. These missions usually have little to do with the plot, but can be used to artificially extend the playing time of a game). During this rather absurd segment of time in the game, I felt like I had completely forgotten what was even going on in the game as a whole, and I desperately hoped that when ever the next plot element did happen, I would get filled in on what the hell was going on.
Much ado has been made about the many different playable characters in Chrono Cross, dozens in all. Is this really that much of an improvement over an RPG where you just stick with your main party? Eh, not really. The thought of having a stable of dozens of playable characters does look good on paper, but in practice, it really just becomes a jumbled mess of two-dimensional personalities who are really only there to lend their fighting abilities. Too often in the game you recruit a character for really no rhyme or reason, and you are given no real insight into who the person is, and why they want to join your party. With over 40 playable characters, that is the reality of the situation. It does give you add flexibility when fighting a big boss battle, or choosing a strategy for an important area, but if you are looking for anything close to character development with 90% of the playable characters, think again.
All in all, Chrono Cross is a well put together and expertly crafted RPG. It is not a true sequel to Chrono Trigger in that it is not a direct continuation of its themes or plot (maybe in a few ways, but you can see those for yourself). It seems like Squaresoft decided to throw out anything associated with the original game and start from the ground up, save for some vague tie-ins to time travel. What you get is probably a product far superior than what people would have expected from a company that was actually trying not to make a Chrono Trigger II. Because they did take so many risks in re-inventing the wheel, there are a few slip-ups, but all things considered, this really is a fine RPG that would look good in any video game collection.
I highly recommend Chrono Cross to anyone familiar with the RPG genre. It definitely has its own personality and quirks, and I promise it is not really like any other RPG out there. Some people may have a problem with that, since they wanted it to be just like Chrono Trigger, but I feel Squaresoft should at least be applauded for not trying to rehash their past success, and instead trying to breath new life into an old idea.
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