Review
Release Date: 08.02.2000
Platform:
PlayStationDeveloper:
Square Co., Ltd.Publisher:
Square Electronic ArtsReviewed by
Sage Gaspar on 4.11.2003
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 8.14/10 |
Chrono Trigger debuted in 1995 to nearly universal critical acclaim. The unique battle system, time traveling storyline, polished graphics, and jaw-dropping musical score made it an instant cult classic, attracting a massive fan base that, for the most part, has remained enamored with the game to this day. Unsurprisingly, it was with no small fanfare that its sequel, Chrono Cross, arrived in stores more than five years later, and thankfully, it delivers on its hype.
In most ways, Chrono Cross is like its predecessor’s more mature, older sibling. Chrono Trigger was a light-hearted romp through time, tying all its loose knots together in a neat, happy bundle at the end and not worrying about the consequences. Chrono Cross deals with the unresolved ramifications of the actions taken in Chrono Trigger: the paradoxes created by altering the past, the seemingly trivial decisions made daily that can forever change the course of a life, the role of fate and chance in determining the future, and the coexistence of humanity with nature.
Each of these themes is explored in a context relevant to an engrossing storyline that takes place in the El Nido archipelago, an unexplored section of the original Chrono Trigger planet. Along with the rest of the world, the El Nido archipelago has quite literally been divided unto itself due to a series of events that occurred one fateful evening ten years before the game begins, sparked off by the happenings in Chrono Trigger. Although most of the world’s residents are unaware of this change, it becomes readily apparent to the main character, Serge, when he is suddenly pulled into another world that exists parallel to his own. As the game progresses, it begins to become clear that Serge is the fulcrum upon which both of these worlds balance, although exactly how and why remain a mystery for quite some time.
As a matter of fact, it’s not until within several hours of Chrono Cross’s completion that the major conflict is revealed, through several engrossing sequences, wherein both the game’s key fault and greatest strength lie. The fault is in the pacing of these revelations. Throughout most of the game, only cryptic hints are made towards the events of a decade ago and what led up to them, and suddenly the entire storyline is laid forth in two or three conversations. Additionally, this information is not without its own internal contradictions and is incomplete in nature, making the tangled web of events very hard to untangle. However, for those willing to accept the challenge and be an active participant in the storyline, Chrono Cross presents an experience like no other. Debate threads with intelligent posts numbering into the hundreds have been made arguing different scenarios and filling in the gaps for what exactly transpired, bringing in everything from quantum mechanics to the related "many world" theory.
But despite the attempts by many on the web to resolve the scenario set forth by Chrono Cross, many ambiguities and seemingly contradictory facts remain. However, that’s less a fault and more a stylistic choice. In a world where the past can and is altered, at least two parallel universes coexist, fate is controlled by an outside force, and the planet itself has an active role in determining who will prevail, history is less fact and more fluid. It is the player’s job to root out the reality from the fiction, and ultimately determine whether truth has any meaning in the world of Chrono Cross.
Chrono Cross’s development team chose well when they picked a tropical setting. The tropics have oft been thought of as a place of vibrant colors and exotic mystery, where lies and truth intermingle to become reality. The artistic team outdid themselves in recreating this environment, carefully crafting the El Nido archipelago into a work of art. The stunning, lush graphics paint a world of beauty and color which belie the omnipresent danger lurking at every turn. These graphics are backed up by an incredible soundtrack which incorporates themes from the original Chrono Trigger into the mix. In particular, Dream of the Shore Bordering, the map theme for Another World, is a strikingly beautiful song. Working in conjunction, these two facets of the game create an atmosphere that is worth the price of admission on its own.
With everything else going for it, Chrono Cross could have gotten away with the traditional ATB battle system, or a rehash of Chrono Trigger’s battle system, and still been a superb game. However, it chose to go in a completely new direction, and in this case, the innovation works very well. Without going into too much detail, it revolves around six fundamental elemental alignments, represented by colors. Each character innately possesses one of these alignments, which effect how much they are hurt by the physical and magical attacks of their enemies, who also have elemental alignments, and what kind of elemental spells they are most adept at using.
Elemental spells are equipped into a grid, which is divided into levels. In battle, characters can unleash spells whenever they have built up their elemental meter, which rises as stamina is depleted, to the level at which the chosen spell is equipped. Stamina is measured on a seven point meter, which is replenished as other characters attack. Like Xenogears, there are three levels of physical attacks, ranging from one to three points of stamina, with three being the strongest and having the least chance of connecting. Unlike Xenogears, there is no regimented turn structure. Characters can attack whenever they have the stamina to do so. However, there is always the chance of an enemy interrupting a character’s action, and if a character unleashes a spell when they have low stamina, they can actually be placed in negative stamina, putting them at the mercy of their enemies until their stamina is regained once more.
In another welcome change, Chrono Cross does not rely on random battles for stat increases. Major boosts in stats and increases in level, represented by stars, occur largely after preordained boss battles. At no point in the game is it necessary to fight random battles to level up. Regular enemies can almost all be avoided by running around them.
Fans of Chrono Trigger and other Squaresoft games will feel at home with some other returning gameplay features. Square’s trademark summon spells appear in Chrono Cross, thankfully much shorter in duration than those seen in their other recent ventures (read: the Final Fantasy series), but are difficult to cast, requiring a certain series of spells to create a field effect beforehand. The combination attacks from Chrono Trigger are back as well. However, in one of Chrono Cross’s only shortcomings, there are very few of these attacks, making them very rare and much less useful than they could‘ve been. Like its predecessor, Chrono Cross also has a New Game + mode, allowing subsequent playthroughs of the game with a leveled up party and the equipment that the previous game was ended with. During New Game +, the game can be beaten at almost any time, yielding a multitude of different endings, dependant on when it is finished.
Those familiar with the Suikoden series will feel right at home with Chrono Cross’s bevy of characters, maxing out around forty. But while some of these characters receive decent development, most of them are throw-aways, contributing very little meaningful substance to the storyline of the game. Serge, Lynx, Kid, and several others are the main focuses of the game, and the rest of the cast is primarily fluff to be used in battle or discarded. However, even the "fluff" characters receive a heavy dose of character, and there are many with unique accents and speech mannerisms. Despite the fact that these accents can sometimes border on annoying, they add flavor to the characters’ speech and make it clear that they all come from different backgrounds and have different personalities.
Taken as a collection of parts, Chrono Cross has an innovative battle system, stunning graphics, a beautiful soundtrack, an interesting cast of characters, an incredible storyline, and high replay value. Taken as the amalgam of these parts, Chrono Cross is an engrossing mental trip into a tropical world of color, beauty, and death, where each step may change the path of fate. While some may fault it for going past the superficiality of Chrono Trigger, serious gamers should be able to appreciate Chrono Cross as the work of art that it is.
