Controversy
Chrono Trigger was concieved by the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama. They were considered a dream team for good reason, needless to say. The result was arguably the greatest console RPG ever made, and even if you'd argue that it isn't the best, being in the conversation for "greatest of all time" is still pretty good.
Simply put, Squaresoft had captured lightning in a bottle when it developed Chrono Trigger. It was a once-in-a-lifetime game, born from once-in-a-liftetime circumstances, and recapturing the lightning was simply impossible. It would be foolish to even try.
But they decided to try it anyway.
And so they created Chrono Cross. The dream team would have no involvement in its creation, which immediately cast a cloud of doubt over it. Then the previews began to trickle out and it quickly became clear that Cross wouldn't measure up to Trigger. But how could it? Nothing could fill those giant shoes. Of course it fell short. There was no way it wouldn't.
People were divided into two camps over this. Some forgave Chrono Cross for falling short of a masterpiece and appreciated it for what it was. Others were completely unwilling to forgive it and hated it for what it wasn't.
A lot of Chrono Trigger fans fell into the latter camp. Full of indignation, they declared Chrono Cross to be the worst RPG ever.
In response, Chrono Cross fans declared it to be the best RPG ever.
It was a very silly battle. And, as usual with silly battles, both sides were wrong. Chrono Cross was neither perfect nor hopelessly flawed. The truth lay somewhere in the middle.
Story
I'll cut right to the chase. It's got issues.
The first and perhaps most apparent issue is pacing. Some interesting things happen throughout the story, but sweet mother of Christmas, do they take a long time to happen. This is the slowest paced story I've ever encountered, not just in a video game, but in any medium. That doesn't make it bad, after all a good narrative that takes forever to unfold is still a good narrative, but it's downright excessive in its sloth-like pace.
Compared to Chrono Trigger's rollercoaster thrill ride, this is like a lazy Sunday drive with your grandma. Again, I have to stress that this doesn't make it bad. It's just laid back. To a sometimes ludicrous degree.
One of the biggest contributors to this is the antagonist - his goals and motives remain a complete mystery for 95% of the story, which results in a near-constant lack of urgency. What are you trying to prevent him from doing? You don't know. What's at stake? Unclear. There's absolutely no rush to defeat him.
On one hand, this lack of pressure is actually kind of refreshing. Instead of being thrust into a frantic quest to save the world like you are in most RPGs, you feel free to just chill out in the game's lush tropical paradise and smell the roses. But on the other hand, this provides little motivation to progress. There's no reason not to put the main quest on the back burner and wander aimlessly.
Another story issue is its sheer unfriendliness to newcomers. In fact, it's outright hostile to them. You can't start with Chrono Cross. You have to play Chrono Trigger first or else you'll have no idea what's going on and none of the "big reveals" will make any sense. Of course everyone should play Chrono Trigger, but Cross is so inaccessible to people who haven't played it that it's frankly unreasonable.
Ultimately, the story's neither great nor terrible. There's definitely fun to be had, and the cheerful, lighthearted tone makes it generally entertaining. But it's also undeniably flawed. These flaws aren't enough to ruin it but they're a constant albatross around its neck.
I can't finish this section without mentioning the multiple endings. Yes, Chrono Cross has several different endings, although only two can be accessed on your first play through. Starting a New Game + unlocks the others. It would've been nice if every ending was available from the get go, but I guess Squaresoft figured this was a good way to add replay value.
Characters
Chrono Cross sports an astonishing 40+ recruitable party members. And if you think they must be pretty shallow because it's impossible to flesh out such a huge cast of characters... Yeah, you're right.
While some of them get a moment or two to shine, they have little personality beyond a silly accent or speech pattern for the most part. Which can actually be amusing, but don't expect to get too emotionally invested. Take the characters for what they are: a strange assortment of simplistic weirdos who talk funny. Go in with this expectation and you can enjoy them.
One character in particular is kind of a problem, though. Chrono Cross never gives you a reason to care about her, yet it inexplicably expects you to. She never says or does anything particularly endearing, and although she isn't bad, she's nothing to write home about. If you made a list of the most interesting characters in the game she'd rank somewhere near the bottom.
But the plot assumes you're totally infatuated with her. It tries so little to make you care about her while expecting you to care so much. It's bizarre.
Other than that, the characters are fine for what they are, and collecting them, discovering their unique skills, and uncovering all their story scenes provides plenty of replay value.
Music
The music of Chrono Cross is mostly good. Some of it is even really, really good. But none of it is truly great.
It isn't catchy or emotionally stirring enough to leave a big impression, and a lot of it blends together because it's so tonally similar. "Soft and soothing" describes about 70% of the soundtrack. I'm talking soothing to the point that it can sometimes make me sleepy, which isn't really knock against it because I mean, hey, that's pleasant, but it probably should've been a bit more exciting.
This isn't to say there aren't any exciting tracks, because there are, and they're pretty nice. With the exception of the normal battle music, that is, which is a frantic cacophony of violins and percussion. Although it seems totally okay at first, it can become grating once you hear it for the thousandth time. Battle music needs to have infinite listenability and this doesn't have it.
Over all, the soundtrack is perfectly serviceable but not particularly memorable. You'll probably have two or three tracks stick in your mind and forget the rest. Honestly, the best way to describe it is bland but also enjoyable.
It's blandjoyable.
Battle System
The gameplay of every RPG revolves around its battle system, and the battle system in Chrono Cross is all kinds of weird. It's difficult to even explain.
Upon entering battle, your party members each get 7 stamina points(which is the maximum). Every action you perform costs stamina. A character can't act when his or her stamina reaches 0.
When one party member spends stamina, everyone else including the enemies gains the same amount of stamina. So if Party Member A spends 3 stamina points, then Party Member B, Party Member C, and the enemies all gain 3 stamina.
When an enemy gains enough stamina, it attacks your party.
That's the gist of it. Now let's get into the many, many details.
Your party members can equip spells, otherwise known as Elements. These can only be used once per battle but are instantly replenished once the battle ends. In other words, if you use a Fireball Element during a battle then you won't be able to use it again during that battle, but once you enter the next battle, it'll be usable again. You can also equip multiples of the same Element, such as 3 Fireballs, giving yourself 3 casts of it per battle.
The vast majority of Elements are non-consumable, meaning that you can equip one Fireball and never run out of it. Some Elements are consumable, however, so you'll actually lose them when you use them. There aren't many of these but it's something to be aware of.
As your party members level up they're able to equip more, and also stronger, Elements.
Now, do you think you can just use Elements? You think it's that easy? Oh you poor naive fool, you have no idea just how complicated Chrono Cross is. Before you can use an Element you have to power it up first using physical attacks.
There are 3 physical attacks you can perform; weak, medium, and strong. Weak has the highest accuracy, strong has the lowest accuracy, and medium is naturally in the middle. They cost 1, 2, and 3 stamina respectively. When a party member lands an attack(missing doesn't count), it does two things. One, it raises their accuracy in general, so landing 1 weak attack will boost the accuracy of subsequent weak, medium, and strong attacks(the boost wears off once they run out of stamina). And two, it raises your Element power level by the amount of stamina you spent. For example, land a weak attack and your Element power level will be increased by 1, meaning you can use level 1 Elements. Follow it with another weak attack and you'll be able to use level 2 Elements. Then follow that with a strong attack and you'll be able to use level 5 Elements, and so on.
Once you use an Element, your Element power level is reduced by the level of the Element you used(i.e., using a level 4 Element will reduce your Element power level by 4). Also, Elements cost 7 stamina. So if a party member uses an Element, then everyone else regains 7 stamina, right?
Wrong! When one of your party members uses an Element, your other party members(and the enemies) only regain 1 stamina point. Because Elements are weird like that.
Even more confusingly, despite Elements costing 7 stamina to use, that doesn't mean you need 7 stamina to use them! If a party member with, say, 1 stamina tries to use an Element, they'll actually be able to do it, but they'll enter a 6 stamina deficit. Yes, that's right, they'll end up with -6 stamina!
Having negative stamina is known as being "Out". This isn't terribly significant, it just means that a character will have to work their way up from negative stamina to positive stamina before they can act again. Sometimes putting a party member "Out" is worth it, sometimes it isn't.
Adding yet another wrinkle to the combat system, you can switch between party members at any time as long as they have stamina. So you could perform an attack with Party Member A, immediately switch to Party Member B to perform an attack with them, then switch back to Party Member A. You can execute a couple of different strategies by juggling your party members like this.
Defending is also an important part of combat. Each party member can Defend, which tremendously reduces the amount of physical damage they receive and regenerates 1 stamina for everyone, including the defending party member. If all non-incapacitated party members(meaning those not dead or "Out") defend at once, then everyone receives a massive stamina boost but at the cost of the enemy attacking.
Then there's Elemental Alignment and Field Effect. Each character, and this includes party members and enemies alike, has an Elemental Alignment. What does that mean? Well if a character has a red Elemental Alignment then they'll excel at using red Elements and do more damage against characters of the opposite Elemental Alignment, blue. They also won't be very good at using blue Elements.
As for Field Effect, this is a system that "remembers" the colors of the three most recently used Elements during a battle. If you use a blue Element, than the color blue will appear on the Field Effect gauge, and blue Elements as well as characters with a blue Elemental Alignment will receive a bonus. Red Elements and characters with a red Elemental Alignming, meanwhile, will receive a penalty. Entirely filling the Field Effect gauge with one color will yield the highest bonus(as well as the highest penalty), and it will also allow you to use Summon Elements, which summon powerful beings to aid you.
One very convenient feature is that at the end of a battle, dead party members are automatically revived with 1 HP, and you're given the option to instantly heal your entire party using both consumable and non-consumable healing Elements. Although the latter are only available if your party has enough stamina left over to use them.
Surprisingly, you can also run from any battle, including boss battles. Sometimes they don't let you run far, but you always have the chance to heal, change your party's Elements, and try again.
I'm glossing over some of the nuances and minor details of the battle system for the sake of brevity but this overview is enough to get a solid understanding of it. And yes, it's just as complicated as it sounds. Chrono Cross turned tradition on its head with this wild, crazy reinvention of RPG combat, and amazingly enough, it really works.
Squaresoft tried other experimental battle systems during the Playstation era with Xenogears and Final Fantasy VIII, but I think those missed the mark. This one hits it. It's well thought out, well executed, and I'd say it's the absolute highlight of Chrono Cross, although learning its many complexities can be daunting. It's something insanely different, and this works both to its advantage and its detriment.
Material World
Money and items are obtained in typical RPG fashion, which is to say by defeating enemies and looting chests. But slaying your foes also gives you Elements and materials, the latter of which needs some explaining.
Various enemy types yield different materials such as feathers, bones, eyeballs, and more. These materials can be used to forge weapons, armor, and accessories. Stronger items require more, and rarer, materials. There actually aren't that many enemy types and the materials they give are fairly logical(birds give feathers, etc.), so hunting for these materials never gets too confusing or overwhelming.
You're given the option of trading Elements for materials, as well, if you don't feel like farming them from enemies. Although the best material can't be traded for.
In Conclusion
Following up Chrono Trigger was a terrible idea but I'm glad Squaresoft did it, because Chrono Cross is a fascinating, frustrating, beautiful mess. Its bizarre existence is interesting, which is more than can be said about a lot things, and the world would be a more boring place without it.
Every fan of RPGs should experience this oddity if only to gawk at its oddness. In fact, even people who don't like RPGs should give it a try, considering how much it throws tradition out the window and changes all the rules.
You might love it. You might hate it. Or maybe you'll fall somewhere in the middle. But either way, your life isn't complete until you've played Chrono Cross.
I can't recommend it highly enough.
