qibo's Full Review: Chrono Cross for PlayStation 1
I've been out of circulation, but I just had to write this review.
The burning question in every RPG fan's mind has been, "is it as good as Chrono Trigger?" For me, at least, the answer is yes, with a few minor reservations.
Everything about Chrono Trigger was exceptional. Visually, aurally, and in terms of having a well-crafted, engaging story, Chrono Trigger was as close to perfection as any RPG one could name. Game play mechanics were about as fun and interesting as they could be on the SNES.
Chrono Cross mostly lives up to what one would hope for in a Chrono game. Graphics and sound are among the best on the Playstation. Really. One simply must see the game in action to appreciate the organic, living quality of its characters and environments. Waterfalls, rippling ponds and oceans, in particular, will blow you away. Screenshots do not even come close to doing it justice. Almost all of the game's graphics are done on the same 3D engine. There is very little FMV, only as much as is tasteful and necessary. The FMV integration is close, but not quite as good as that of FF8. The music was, in large part, performed on real instruments by real musicians, and the tunes are consistently of high quality. Chrono Cross deserves much praise for including a lot less cheesy rock than most other Square games. The story is pretty good, too; it's the implementation that may leave some players feeling vaguely dissatisfied. Specifically, there is an over-population problem in Chrono Cross.
Not since the Suikoden series have we seen an RPG with such a huge array of characters. Needless to say, some of these characters are more vital and interesting than others. The main characters, Serge and Kid, are nicely done, whatever opinion one may have of the goofy auto-accent generator. Some are terrific purely on their own merits, like Mojo and Poshul. Others (can you say OrCHA?) are disposable. It's nice that there are so many to choose from, and you can only get certain characters by traversing certain branches of the story tree, but my feeling is that Square would have done better to simply omit the ones who aren't entertaining on their own merits and don't contribute to the story.
The typically Square environmentalist themes are back again, and they are at least as preachy as ever. I feel strongly about preserving the environment, but Square lays it on pretty thick for a game developer.
Still, over-population and eco-evangelism don't detract too much from the game's many merits. Unlike some recent RPGs, the battle system is actually fun! Like Chrono Trigger, encounters are visible on the screen before they occur, so you can try to go around them. A welcome difference between Chrono Cross and any other RPG is that you can run away from any battle, guaranteed. You can even try to run away from boss battles! Most bosses will immediately re-engage, but you at least get a chance to heal up some before they do. I can hear the hardcore gamers muttering about this, but it's a great thing if you find yourself fighting a boss when what you really need at that moment is to go back to a save point and re-group.
The six-fold "element" system is excellent; the element field effect changes every time a character or enemy uses a magic element or elemental technique. If you fill the field with an element the same as your character's, and/or opposite the enemy's, all of your physical attacks and same-color elements will become stronger. The reverse, of course, is also true. Instead of an ATB gauge, each character has stamina points and a fixed stamina recovery rate (which can be increased by equipping certain items). You can launch attacks or elements from any character, in any order, as long as you have enough stamina points. This is much, much better than the ATB system and you will quickly become spoiled by it. You can acquire "trap elements" which can be used to steal elements from your enemies, but since you only have a vague idea of what element an enemy is really going to use, it's easier said than done.
Double- and triple-techs are back, and there are summons as well. To use summons, you have to equip them on a character of the same element and make the element field 100 percent the same element. This is much easier said than done, and I did not have the patience to use any summon elements my first time through the game. I didn't manage to see any double- or triple-techs either, but it seems that my first play was quite nearly the strangest way one could go through, so I never had the right combinations of characters for those techniques.
Chrono Cross has more status afflictions than just about any other RPG, but most are not that debilitating and many can be prevented by equipping an item or casting a status recovery element during battle. There are a few which continue after the battle is over, but they are clearly identified by a persistent floating icon. You don't need to guess whether someone in your party is poisoned or not.
Weapons and armor can initially be purchased; later on, you can go to a number of different smith shops and disassemble, re-forge, and otherwise upgrade weapons, using parts you find throughout the game. You can also get new parts by trading unwanted elements for them at trading posts. It's not as involved as Vagrant Story's upgrade system, but it's quite a bit more fun than that of recent Final Fantasy games.
You may be wondering about Prism equipment. If anything, this class of equipment is even harder to acquire in Chrono Cross than it was in Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Cross includes the New Game + feature from Chrono Trigger, and Continue +, which lets you pick up from an old saved game while giving you access to the better equipment you've acquired.
Chrono Cross has a feel much like that of Chrono Trigger, but with state-of-the-art Playstation development values. It has the strong sense of fun and adventure Chrono Trigger has, something that was lacking for many of us in FF7 and FF8. Aside from major movements of the story, Chrono Cross lets you go where you want at your own pace, and the side quests are for the most part both relevant to the main story and very entertaining. With several distinct paths through the story and a fair number of endings, Chrono Cross will keep you interested for far longer than just the first play; there are probably more than 100 hours of entertainment here. Chrono Trigger fans won't want to miss it, since it resolves some issues from that story, but Chrono first-timers will enjoy it, too. Chrono Cross was more fun for me than any RPG since... Chrono Trigger!
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Chrono Cross for the PlayStation Game System Brand New and Factory Sealed Game. Sequel to the RPG hit Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross expands on the exce...More at eBay
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