Chrono Cross

[Riku]

Well I havent been around lately because I am hooked on this game! It is so awesome I love the music, the storyline, and the elements! Anyone else played this game? Im also hoping that chrono trigger is just as good.

[VT_Hokie_Fan]

Yes, Chrono Cross OWNED! *high fives computer and hurts hand*.

Ow, that actually hurt. Thanx for gettin me riled up. I like the game, but my copy (borrowed from Sage) was messed up and froze before you fought the three people in the lava cave (the girl, the fat dude, and the skinny dude). And my team was good too... :D

[Riku]

Who did you use in your team? Im using Zappa Lynx and ZOAH at the moment. I absolutely love how long this game is. I have 24+ hours already and im only on the first disc still!

[VT_Hokie_Fan]

The 2nd disc is short. Sorry to rain on parade!
I had Serge(and other Serge[don't wanna ruin surprise]), kid, and the Doppleganger guy(if u havent met him yet, then your in for a great plot twist).
The plot in this game is tremendous.

[Riku]

I had Serge(and other Serge[don't wanna ruin surprise]), kid, and the Doppleganger guy(if u havent met him yet, then your in for a great plot twist).

That adds up to 4 people....

[mikeron]

Im also hoping that chrono trigger is just as good.Chrono Trigger is widely accepted as the greatest RPG on the SNES, except for the collection of us who feel that FFVI is slightly better. All other opinions are meaningless.

[vegeta1215]

Yeah, I played Chrono Cross last summer. It was a mix of good and bad...

Story:
It's starts off great, with that flashback and a series of events that keeps you playing to find out what happens - but it just doesn't follow through to the end. The story does have a few great shockers and plot twists, but that's it. The loose ties to Chrono Trigger feel forced and leave so many unexplained elements in the story. To make matters worse they try to explain everything all at once at the very end when you're about to fight the last boss.

Battle system:
I really like the battle system in CC. It was different and very fresh, and made for some unique battles. However, it was not used to it's full potential. Firstly, the battles are not hard enough. Most "tough" battles consist of surviving one devastating attack from the enemy - that's it. Second, Summons are useless. In order to use a Summon, it must be equipped on a character of the same innate color - okay. But you also have to fill the field map color so all colors match that Summon color - okay. The thing that makes Summons useless is that you get them so late in the game. By the time you get them, there aren't really any powerful enemies to use a summon on - by the time your field map color is right, your enemies will be dead, or have changed the field map color with a spell of their own. I forgot to mention there aren't many Dual or Triple Techs in the game. I was lucky to have some characters in my team that had some neats ones.

Characters:
The characters are well designed, but there are too many of them and hardly any of them are developed at all. The only memorable ones are Serge, Kid, Harle, and Lynx...that's about it. The lack of personality and development cannot be overlooked. I will say there were some cool characters. Aside from those main ones, I liked to use Glenn, Norris, Grobyc, and Nikki (he's a guitar player, c'mon!)

Weapon/Upgrade system:
I REALLY liked the weapon upgrade system. It was simple and you didn't have to think about things much. You build weapons from old ones and raw materials, and you can disassemble them to get their raw materials back. The only problem comes in that you have too many characters to equip (you can just equip the ones you like best though). Secondly, getting Prism weapons/armor (the best weapons/armor) is insane. To forge them, you have to get Rainbow shell raw materials, which are really rare, and you have to have a Shiny item left behind by the use of each type of Summon (read above about Summons). You can pretty much not count on making Prism equipment unless you play the game for a really long time.

Graphics and Sound:
Can't complain here. The game is gorgeous and the sound and music is superb, and has some nice CT remixes

Environments:
Though the dimensional travel is a nice new addition, it's kind of boring. The environments in the world are neat, but the two worlds look so much alike, I could never remember which world I was in or what things happened in each (or where I got characters from). Plus you wind up going to each of the places several times in each dimension, to add to the boredom.

Final dungeon:
The "last dungeon" in the game is really cool looking and fun to explore, but the enemies are pathetic and don't offer any challenge. Final dungeons are supposed to be really hard!

One might say that I'm biased cause I am such a big fan of Chrono Trigger, but even if you take out all the problems with the CT tie-ins and poorly executed connections, CC has many flaws, mainly being character development. To summarize:

The good:
- Great graphics
- Great sound and music
- Unique and fun battle system
- Colorful and diverse characters
- Cool weapon/equipment upgrade system

The bad:
- Story relies too much on CT connections that aren't executed very well with many things left unexplained
- Hardly any character development
- Too many characters
- Battle system is not fulfilled to it's potential - it's too easy and summons come too late in the game to be of much use
- Dual and Triple Techs are few and far-between
- Too much work to forge the best weapons/armor
- The two dimensions are too much alike, leading to a boring traversal of the world
- The final dungeon is too easy

CC would have been a much better game if it wasn't related to CT at all. But since that was it's main draw, that's why I was so dissapointed in it (aside from the other problems I mentioned). But, if I had to rate Chrono Cross, I would give it a 6/10.

[Daarkseid]

Yeah, I think FFVI was a better game than Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Trigger is a strong game by any means, thanks to its multiple endings and the fact you can restart your game with your characters levels and magic/techs retained(so playing through for a different ending is quicker.)

I feel Chrono Cross is an excellent game, but you CANNOT compare it to Chrono Trigger. The games couldn't be more different other than that they're RPGs and Chrono Cross contains some very weak links to Chrono Trigger. I feel the game was Square's ultimately futile attempt to answer CT's fans request for a sequel, something that at the time, was impossible because the team that made CT was hard at work for Enix making DWVII. Instead Square attempted to make a CT game with their own talent, and while I feel it is an excellent game, as a true sequel to CT, its a failure. Which isn't a bad thing, but I feel most people have unfairly rated the game because of its lacking anything making it a CT sequel. If you play the game wanting a CT sequel, you will be disappointed.

If you play CT expecting a CC prequel, you could also be similarly dissappointed, though I would hope a more open mind is kept there.

[vegeta1215]

To comment on FFVI vs CT...that's a tough one. I personally feel FFVI to be one of the best and most epic Final Fantasy games ever made. Not too mention it had some great characters and very memorable music.

But...I haven't finished FFVI yet (last time I played was a few years ago and at the time I was building levels in order to prepare for Kefka's Tower), and I've played through CT like 6 times at least. So I'd have to go with CT.

[Blonde799]

Chrono Cross was awesome. I just didn't like the fact that some attacks were cheap damage dealers(I think it was Miguel's Holy Dragon Sword that made me throw my controller). Other than that, I loved Kid....I mean the whole game.:)

[mikeron]

But...I haven't finished FFVI yet (last time I played was a few years ago and at the time I was building levels in order to prepare for Kefka's Tower), and I've played through CT like 6 times at least. So I'd have to go with CT.LAME.

;)

[vegeta1215]

LAME.

;)

What can I say? FFVI lost my attention and I don't have much interest in finishing it, whereas Chrono Trigger has been very fun to play multiple times through.

I will say that I was playing FFVII last summer and immediatly stopped once I started playing Chrono Cross, which despite it's problems, was fun to play and kept me going until the end. I'll eventually continue playing through FFVII, and MAYBE finish FFVI - I just get tired of building levels trying to make all my characters learn all the spells...plus random battles are annoying.

[mikeron]

What can I say? FFVI lost my attention and I don't have much interest in finishing it, whereas Chrono Trigger has been very fun to play multiple times through.

I will say that I was playing FFVII last summer and immediatly stopped once I started playing Chrono Cross, which despite it's problems, was fun to play and kept me going until the end. I'll eventually continue playing through FFVII, and MAYBE finish FFVI - I just get tired of building levels trying to make all my characters learn all the spells...plus random battles are annoying.If you really feel that the difficulty warrants gaining lots of levels, which is reasonable, there is a trick to level up really high in the beginning.

There is a part of the game that takes place on a raft. You set the cursor to memory, and choose the options at the forks in the river that make you go around in a circle. The you simply tape down the A button (on a turbo controller) and come back in a couple of days. You'll have ridiculously high levels, and every new character that joins your party will have sicky high levels as well.

[vegeta1215]

I know that trick ;) but I don't think the game is that hard.

I could probably go and beat Kefka right now, but I would feel better if all my characters were well rounded in the spell casting department. I think the place I was leveling up was in the desert near the southwest, where you fight a lot of Cactrots (lotsa magic points) and Hoover's (good magic points and experience)