Chrono Cross review

Chrono Trigger is often lauded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time and this is not without reason. It had everything such as time-travel, great storyline, solid turn-based combat, catchy soundtrack and was one of the first RPGs to not include random battles.Yet despite all this the games sequel, Chrono Cross, hardly ever gets a mention. I have often wondered why that is so I decided to go back in time and give the game a go myself!

Now let’s get into what is often the biggest gripe people have with JRPGs, the opening. The amount of times fans (including myself) have said “Once you get through the first few hours it’s really good!” is quite surprising and telling of the genre. This is where Chrono Cross is quite clever though because while it does have the typical story building sections to set up the games plot, it doesn’t start there. The game actually begins with your characters raiding what appears to be some kind of temple and throws you straight into the dungeon exploring action. This section is nice and simple so lets you ease into the games workings without much worry. Serge (the main character) then awakens from this “dream” to begin the more traditional opening as well as giving a glimpse of something to come. I was very impressed by this design choice though as it was a nice change of pace from the norm and shows you how your characters could become once powered up.

Lucky that the starting area is nice and simple as well as the combat system isn’t the easiest thing to get the hang of, at least at first glance.  It’s a turn based game so your characters will each take a turn depending on their party position, going from left to right. So far this all sounds pretty by the books but this is where it stops being conventional.

Each character starts with seven stamina points and you can choose between three attacks that are light, medium and heavy. The difference between them is the stamina they consume (1,2 or 3 points respectively), the damage they deal and the accuracy (weaker attacks hit easier).  Each successful hit will also cause your accuracy to go up for the next consecutive hit, as well as add ranks to your element grid depending on what you hit them with (again 1,2 or 3 ranks respectively). Outside of battle you can attach elements (much like materia from Final Fantasy 7) to its matching position on the grid, allowing you to use that spell once you have built up the correct rank. Once used the spell cannot be used again in that fight and you can continue to rebuild your spell ranks to use other elements.

The fact that you can only use each element equipped once per encounter creates a much more strategic feel to the battle system. Using the wrong spell at the wrong time can lead to an early death, this is especially apparent with judging when to use healing elements. Overall I really enjoyed how it worked and spent a lot of time arranging my characters elements into an order I thought was best and adapting them for certain battles. Another nice touch is that you can use remaining ranks and elements after battle to heal up your party, so as to not let them go to waste.

But sadly the games mechanics are not without its flaws. As mentioned earlier it doesn't make much effort in helping you understand its systems, which would be okay apart from I still do not understand some things about the game after finishing it. One gripe I have is that the enemy turn order doesn't seem to make much sense, they seem to just attack when they feel like it even if it’s during one of your characters turns. While I admit that it's not so bad in itself, the part that annoyed me was that it will sometimes (but oddly not always) reset the accuracy you had built up, ruining plans for attack you may have had.

Another weird thing, although not necessarily bad, is that I have no idea how levelling works. It’s linked to summon stars that are acquired after boss battles but the rate in which stats will increase over time seems quite random. The upside to this though is that not much grinding is required in the game as you will generally be at max strength for each boss. Despite this though the lack of XP is oddly disconcerting as there is just something magical about seeing those numbers increase.

With the mechanics out of the way I can come to the part that will often make or break an RPG, its story and theming. The main theme of this game follows parallel worlds, having the Home world and the Another world. While each of these worlds are similar, characters have made different choices and events have unfolded in radically different ways. You eventually gain the ability to swap between worlds allowing you to change between them to acquire certain items and learn about the characters varying pasts. This creates a really interesting dynamic and seeing the difference between the worlds is rather intriguing.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the story itself and this is where Chrono Cross again runs into some minor problems. While it does have some high points with certain twists and events (the Dead Sea portion being a phenomenal standout), there are a lot of dull moments. The lead up to the finale is quite fun in places but it just felt like an elongated fetch quest and the final payoff was not wholly satisfying, making the experience quite inconsistent. A redeeming factor though is that there are multiple parts where the game will pose choices and go down diverging paths. This offers both different story and characters along with there being a multitude of different endings, adding greatly to the games replay value.

The games wide cast

The game also plays host to a massive cast of characters containing far more than you would usually see, offering a possible 45 party members to acquire. This may add plenty of variety with many combinations but it also holds the game back a bit since because of the large cast it’s really difficult to care for all of them. While the game does concentrate on a few major characters that are done extremely well, most characters only have a short segment of story to themselves, leaving overall character development to be quite lackluster. So even though you have a lot of choice I never felt compelled to use more than around 10 of the characters on offer.

Some last things to add about the game; Like a lot of PS1 era RPGs the game toys with different accents by “adjusting” the script of certain characters, which is quite funny in some cases and provides some humour to the game. There are also several mini-games to play, each is well thought out, enjoyable and the gimmicks aren't overused, which is great as those segments then don’t overstay their welcome. The soundtrack is another stronger point of the game, it carries a lot of emotion and the songs used are memorable along with having a great effect, this alone is definitely worth checking out as it is amazing. Finally the game clocks in at around 40 hours so you would be getting your money’s worth for sure.

TL;DR

Whilst Chrono Cross is a bumpy ride that may not quite reach the lofty heights of its predecessor it has a lot of interesting ideas and manages to get a lot right. This is evident in areas such as the outstanding music, a few clever story elements and intriguing battle system that help to offset some of the pacing issues and poorer design choices. All in all I had an enjoyable time playing through this game and would recommend it to any fans of the genre for some good ol’ parallel universe hopping RPG fun.

4/5