Poetry. Chrono Cross is digital poetry, lyrical and beautiful. The art, the music, the writing, and the game play all blend into an intoxicating vision of fantasy and adventure. I’ve rarely seen a game as sublime in so many categories. And while it doesn’t surpass Chrono Trigger, it doesn’t mimic it, either.
Chrono Cross is a masterpiece all its own. Where Chrono Trigger had a raw energy, Chrono Cross has sophisticated, masterful elegance. Chrono Trigger had a rough–and–tumble feel; Chrono Cross has the atmosphere of a dream. Chrono Trigger told the story of Crono and his friends; Chrono Cross spins the tale of Serge. Chrono Trigger fans will find a bevy of crossovers between the two games, but you won’t need any knowledge of CT to get through Chrono Cross. There are several winks and nudges between the two – sweet references here and there – but the characters are different, the world is deeper, and the game play is something all its own.
Serge is a quiet boy living in a seaside town until he discovers – accidentally, it seems – a portal to an alternate reality where the people and places are the same but the history is entirely different. Remember that Simpsons’ Halloween special where Homer went back in time, squashed a bug, and changed the modern world? That’s sort of the theory behind Chrono Cross’s parallel worlds. Each represents a fork in the highway of time: a crucial decision, a possible event, another choice taken. As you traverse the worlds, you’ll encounter the same people living in different situations, familiar faces in unfamiliar roles. Each new area in Chrono Cross is like a variation on a theme, giving the game a sense of constancy despite the always–evolving plot. And that plot is the thing that links all the worlds together, and might destroy them all.
Serge is not alone in his journey through the worlds. Chrono Cross boasts dozens of playable characters – 40, if you can find them all (and you’ll have to beat it more than once). Some are integral to the plot, such as the cute blond thief Kid, while others are incidental comic relief. That’s one of Chrono Cross’s few tiny flaws; with so many characters hanging around the game, only a couple of them get the exposition and development they deserve. And all too often, they’re just there to fill out the party and be goofy. But at least Square worked hard to give each of them a unique personality. Some have text–based accents – like Kid’s Cockney "I’ll kick your arse so hard you’ll kiss the moons" – while others rely on catchphrases. For example, the wild–boy punk Korcha peppers his text with "don’tCHA" whenever possible.
Different characters wait along different paths, and the paths in Chrono Cross split and weave like channels over a shallow riverbed. There are subquests galore, several endings, and unlike most games with "choices" different dialogue selections, lead to entirely different portions of the game. The standard game is long enough that when you add in the myriad possibilities for exploration, you get a game that can and will fill up every Saturday afternoon for a year or two.
And the possibilities don’t end when combat begins. The designers of Chrono Cross didn’t take the old ideas of RPG combat and recycle them with a few tweaks — they built their own system from the ground up. There’s no tactical combat, but every battle requires strategy. Forget turns – instead, your characters alternate attacks until they run out of stamina while enemies interject their hits. You can whap the bad guys with physical attacks, weapons and the like, or blast them with spells called Elements. Each Element has an associated color, and, as you and the enemies cast them, different types of magic accumulate on the battlefield. Cast the same magic three times in a row, and your Elements will do more damage. On the other hand, if you throw an Element onto a battlefield filled with its opposite, don’t expect it to do much damage.
And if that isn’t interesting enough, Chrono Cross also assigns every character a color. Cast spells of the same color, and they’ll do more damage, but if you get hit by the opposite hue, you’ll be hurting. Certain characters can also team up for combo attacks, just as in CT. But you can’t haphazardly use combos and Elements, you’ve got to dish out physical attacks (which come in three flavors) to build up your power first. Complex? A bit. Better than standard RPG combat? Much.
But if you don’t want to fight, you don’t have to. Chrono Cross gives you a few bonuses for challenging enemies, but if you want to avoid them, you can dodge the small fries on the main map and run straight to the bosses. The battles might be a tad tougher, but you’ll still be able to get through them. No boring ’leveling up’ or monster hunting necessary. When you do go into battle, the graphics are amazing.
Chrono Cross’s polygonal characters push the limits of the PlayStation; they’re as beautiful and detailed, and the animations are brilliant. Pre–rendered backgrounds make some areas difficult to explore, but they provide gorgeous canvases for the action of the game. The soundtrack, however, is only rivaled by the writing. The music is akin to dreams crying in the winds of another world. And I don’t care if that made any sense. Actually, the music is very celtic–like.
All RPG fans will like Chrono Cross, and most will love it. Chrono Trigger zealots may be a little disappointed that this offering isn’t a true sequel, but I think there will be enough cool references within Chrono Cross that they simply won’t care in the long run. Everyone else should at least rent Chrono Cross and experience the beauty for themselves.
"Sometimes beauty does not indicate depth, whether in a fellow human being or in a game. Fortunately for PSX’ers, both beauty and depth–of–play apply to Chrono Cross!"
