Chrono Cross

aka: Project Kid
Moby ID: 3810
PlayStation Specs
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Description official description

Serge is a young boy from a fishermen's village. One day, while strolling on the sea shore with his sweetheart, Serge suddenly disappears. He comes back to senses several moments later. Everything seems just the same as it was before, but when Serge visits his home village, nobody recognizes him. He hears from people that he has been dead for ten years. Serge begins to realize that he is now in a parallel world. His first and only wish is to find a way to return home, but, in order to do that, he must understand what has caused the existence of parallel words, allowing inter-dimensional travel. His quest will also reveal to him the truth about his own existence.

Chrono Cross is a Japanese-style role-playing game, and a sequel to Chrono Trigger. The game's story is not directly connected to that of its predecessor, though there are sub-plots and characters that refer to it. Combat in the game is turn-based; like Chrono Trigger, the game has no random battles, and enemies are always visible on screen. During battles, Serge and his party members can perform three kinds of attacks: weak, medium, and strong, which tend to miss more frequently but inflict more damage. Actions in battle deplete a certain amount of stamina, which recovers as other characters act. There are also no character levels in the game: instead, the characters get their parameters increased directly after each battle.

All magic spells, character-specific tech attacks, and consumable items are grouped into six elements, which are divided into three pairs with opposing properties. Each player-controlled character and enemy has an innate element, which enhances the power of spells categorized under it when used by said character, but also weakens his or her resistance to the opposing element. Battle fields may also be marked by a particular element, granting bonuses to attacks based on it, and reducing the damage caused by the opposing one. Player-controlled characters have differently shaped grids which allow the player to allocate purchased or found elements there. When the character participates in a battle, the allocated elements act as equipped spells, and can be cast until their amount is depleted.

Though most of the plot progression is linear, there are several sub-quests that are not required to complete in order to reach the game's ending. The game features many recruitable characters (up to 45, though not all of them can be recruited in one playthrough), several different endings, and the ability to play the game again with the statistics and items from the previous play.

Spellings

  • クロノ・クロス - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (PlayStation version)

80 People (74 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Executive Producers
Producer
Director, Scenario Writer
Art Director
Player Character Design
Music
Battle System Design
Battle Programmer
Event Planning & Staging
Main Programmer, Event System Program, Map Program, Movie Program
Special Effects Programmer, Menu System Programmer
General Manager
Deputy General Manager
Localization Director, Localization Specialist, Localization Programmer, English Auto-Accent Generator
Movie Director
CG Supervisor
Production Manager
Sound FX Supervisor
Sound Program
Synthesizer Program
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 92% (based on 44 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 122 ratings with 5 reviews)

I have lost all faith in squaresoft....

The Good
Chrono Cross has absolutely no redeeming qualities. Seriously. Nothing. Nada. And the really sad part I had high hopes for this game. Having enjoyed the original Chrono Trigger, I anticipated this long awaited sequel. Only to find that it was not even a sequel! Furthermore it is one of the worst games I have ever played!

The Bad
In this portion of the review I will debug the “qualities” of this game. Yes it’s true this is not a real sequel, it cannot be as it is supposed to take place about 20 years after the original yet the world looks completely different…huh? The fact that there are many characters available to join your party is often listed as positive attribute this is anything but. You see, when you can only use three characters at a time the “benefit” is lost. Furthermore, more than half of the party members you can acquire are useless. A common trait in Square’s dubious rpg’s.

You would think that the music would be good right? As the original had such an incredible score but alas, the music and sound for this poor excuse for a game is also lacking.

The graphics are better than those found in the Final Fantasies on the Playstation. But at the end of the day it’s still just a Playstation game. Besides graphics do not make the game.

The gameplay is often called “unique” or perhaps, “original”. This is a lie. The reason is simple the so called originality is that at certain points in the game the player has multiple choices when dealing with a certain situation. This is a lie for two reasons: first is that these events are rare, there are only about three. Second and more importantly, the choice you make does not significantly change the course of the game so choice, is therefore just an illusion.

I saved the best for last, the plot of this tripe. It is funny to me that rpg’ers claim that plot is the most important aspect of an rpg. If that is so then this game cannot possibly be considered good by anyone who enjoys rpgs. The begins with Serge, no joke that’s the fools name, going to kill lizards so he can gather the scales and make a necklace, no joke. And it does not get any better. The rest of the plot unfolds like a Philip K. Dick novel sans being enjoyable to read. There are a few scant references to the original many of which make no sense. And lastly the game’s ending is impossibly retarded, once you finish it you can view many other endings all of which are a waste of time, but then again this game is a waste of time!

The Bottom Line
I would tell others to avoid this game like the plague. Copies of this game should be confiscated, and buried in the desert, and forgotten. Avoid this one at all costs, even if you enjoyed the original.

PlayStation · by MasterMegid (723) · 2007

Doesn't just match Chrono Trigger's quality, it surpasses it

The Good
When Chrono Trigger first came out in 1995, the gaming community was amazed. No previous game had had such a quality storyline and such a unique battle system. Yet, after finishing it, the loyal fans of CT had a distant fear lingering in their minds-- the dreaded "curse of the sequel".

They had nothing to fear. Chrono Cross somehow manages to live up to its' predecessor in almost every aspect. Where Chrono Trigger played with the notions of time travel, Chrono Cross tackles inter-dimensional travel. 20 years after the events of Chrono Trigger, a young boy named Serge (yet another silent protagonist like Crono) goes to meet his girlfriend on a beach outside his village. Suddenly he feels distant, like voices are calling him... as his dimension shifts around him, he passes out and wakes up in a world where he, is in fact dead and gone.

Chrono Cross has, by far, the best graphics of any game on the PlayStation. Gone are the horribly blocky characters of FF7-- every character is modeled and textured beautifully, and the colours are incredibly vibrant and bright. Just one look at Arni Village shows the amazing vibrant skies and oceans this game has. It's almost awe-inspiring in a way, and is a welcome change from games like FF7 which spends the first 20% of the game inside a dark, dreary city.

Like the original Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross features no random battles. All enemies are visible on the screen-- when you run into one, a battle occurs (unfortunately, it switches over to a different battle screen unlike CT, where the battles occurred on the map itself). Tired of the FF series and their dull battles? Chrono Cross has THE perfect battle system. In FF (and other games), all you had to do was wait for your black mage's turn, where he/she would then cast Ultima3 or whatever and the enemies were wiped. In Chrono Cross, however, the more physical attacks you do, the higher level elements you can cast (elements are equivalent to magic). Specific elements can only be cast once per battle. This brings up an interesting balance-- your characters must strike a fine line between physical strength and magic strength, because what happens if you run out of elements? You'll be doomed. It requires more thinking then just the standard "fire and forget" systems in other games. That's why I like Chrono Cross' battle system so much.

The Bad
Thought the story in CT was complicated? Well, this one will knock you off your feet. Don't get me wrong, the story is fantastic (and fits together with CT very well) but it is extremely complicated with many aspects to consider when trying to figure out the grand picture.

The Bottom Line
If you have to buy only one PlayStation RPG, this is it. Too bad it wasn't released in Europe.

PlayStation · by xofdre (78) · 2004

Very original, very enjoyable, but still....somewhat lacking.

The Good
The graphics are the best I have seen in a PlayStation RPG. The OST had some really great works, with the rare exception of a few mediocre songs. The Battle System was really great, as it was original, interesting, and made this game more fun in this way than your average FF Battle system clone. (Don't get me wrong--Square does a really good job of making original battle systems for their games) There were some nice puzzles, too, and hidden sidequests, (also various endings) and when people say that RPGs don't require any skills at all, just think about trying to get the scales from the Komodo you have to jump down to, right? (man, that part's tough....) Also, the reflection of past events from Chrono Trigger, I think, was a really nice touch.It gave the story so much more depth. It made it a sequel in a way, but it is also a "Novel" (if you will) as far as video games go. Also, I thought the concept of having to forge your weapons with various elements and resources was very cool, too. The newgame+ option was also very cool. The story as a whole was very well written, and this is one of the most original RPGs I have played.

The Bad
There was nearly zero character development. And this was due, in part, to how many different characters their were. I mean, people have their story, and then they each have a different manner of speech, (accent, ways of wording things, etc) and that's pretty much it. I would say the most developed character is Kid, but, take Serge, for instance. He's not a character! He's a protagonist zombie who only talks when possessed by other people! NPCs are more developed characters than he is...



The Bottom Line
A very good game, and one that you should certainly consider if you own a PlayStation 1 and/or 2.

PlayStation · by J. David Taylor (27) · 2003

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Greatest hits covers are ugly Alaka (105834) Sep 4, 2010
i need help BJ123443 Aug 19, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PS1 version of Chrono Cross appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

The base ideas for Chrono Cross came from an SNES Satellaview game called Radical Dreamers. It was basically a text adventure game, using a story related to Chrono Trigger. Kid, Serge, and several other characters had their start in that game, though they weren't exactly the characters as found in Chrono Cross.

Endings

Chrono Cross has ten different endings. However, only two of them are available the first time you play the game. After you complete your first game, you can start a new game with all the inventory from the previous one, and eight more paths to various endings become available.

Japanese version

In the Japanese version, Lynx, one of the main characters of the game, is called Yamaneko. Yamaneko is literally "mountain cat", and means... well, a lynx. Another important character - Harle - is called "Tsukiyomi" in Japanese version. "Tsuki" is "moon" (quite logically, since all her special attacks based on moon energy, and also for another reason, which would be a big spoiler to tell).

Magus

Magus from Chrono Trigger was originally planned to be included in the game. However, with over 40 playable characters the designers didn't have the resources to include scenes that would fully explain his presence and develop the character. They based the character Guile on work already done on Magus, which is why the two look alike.

Music

The victory fanfare is actually a version of Lucca's theme in Chrono Trigger.

Mythology

Like many other Squaresoft games, "Chrono Cross" contains a lot of educational material, mainly in the sphere of mythology. For example: Klotho, Lachesis, and Athropos, the three aspects of Fate, who reign over the life of the humans, are an exact reproduction of the three Moiras from the Greek mythology, with accurate names and precise descriptions.

References

In the US/Canada version of the game, after completing the game once players may encounter a battle with three characters returning from Chrono Trigger-- Slash, Flea, and Ozzie. These characters are (obviously) named after rock legends-- Slash of Guns 'N Roses, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Ozzy Osbourne. They are also a mistranslation-- in the original Chrono Trigger, they were named after condiments (Mayonnaise, Vinegar, and Soy Sauce). However, thinking that the joke would not go over well, translator Ted Woolsey changed the names. This presented a problem in the translation of Chrono Cross, when translator Dana Kwon chose to maintain continuity between the games. Thus, the character of Slash (a musician in the style of J-Goth artist Gackt) from Chrono Cross became Nikki, a reference to Nikki Sixx.

Technology

Because the game's 40 playable characters all have different speech patterns, a sub-program was created specifically for the game to generate the different speech patterns around the line, rather than code in every line for every character.

Title

The old Greek word "chrono" means "time", thus the name of the game that has a lot to do with time (for example time traveling and such).

Awards

  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) – #55 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll

Information also contributed by Joshua J. Slone, MegaMegaMan, Tiago Jacques, Timo Takalo and Unicorn Lynx

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  • MobyGames ID: 3810
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Adam Baratz.

PS Vita added by Fred VT. PlayStation 3, PSP added by GTramp.

Additional contributors: MAT, PCGamer77, Unicorn Lynx, DreinIX, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, FatherJack.

Game added April 17, 2001. Last modified March 22, 2024.