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[Silvergun-Blue]

I always felt Chrono Cross was hamstrung by it's connection to Chrono Trigger. Treat the game as it's own entity and you have one of the best JRPG's the Playstation has to offer.

These images are like a visual representation of Square at the peak of their most creative and prolific era.

 

[A-V-B]

I'd love for someone to make a full length RPG using backgrounds in this art style but with today's technology. It'd probably be really expensive, though

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I always felt Chrono Cross was hamstrung by it's connection to Chrono Trigger.

Which is ironic because the producer of Chrono Cross was the original producer of Chrono Trigger back when Trigger was still a SNES-CD game. Cross is the disc-based RPG that Hiromichi Tanaka always wanted to do.

 

[Freddo]

Gorgeous

I would love to have played this, too bad I'm European. Thanks 90s Square.

Yeah, and they didn't even bother to "fix" it by releasing the PS1 games as PS1 US imports on the EU PS Store despite all the begging on the forums/blogs/younameit. So many Square games that never got here. Bastards.

 

[MTC100]

Seriously.

Like look at this.

This was made almost 20 years ago.... 4 console generations ago.
And it terms of detail and mood it still blows a lot of modern games away.

Is this a pre-rendered background or just a painting(the other stuff looks more like painted than rendered)? Either way it's not interactive and surely doesn't blow anything current gen away as it's just slapped into the background.

Still looks great of course but not so much when you play it sadly.

 

[Yarbskoo]

May as well throw in Final Fantasy IX backgrounds while we're on the subject.

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Animated

 

[Captains Curse]

May as well throw in Final Fantasy IX backgrounds while we're on the subject.

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Animated

I remember just gawking at these backgrounds when everyone was in talks about them for the Steam version of the game. Makes me want to replay the game everytime I see them.

 

[Mr. RPG]

Wow, I really need to finish this game... It is so beautiful...

 

[Exentryk]

Game still looks really good! I can even hear the music from these images, haha!

Anyway, someone hire the Team Cherry artist and make us a gorgeous new 2D RPG please!

 

[Wazzy]

Gorgeous backgrounds for CC.

The VIII backgrounds in motion are my favourite. One of the most beautiful RPG's.

 

[bounchfx]

man this game is truly gorgeous. I'm scrolling through all these images and all I can think to myself is that it still looks better than a lot of current gen RPGs in a lot of ways

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Gorgeous backgrounds for CC.

The VIII backgrounds in motion are my favourite. One of the most beautiful RPG's.

The best part about FFVIII was the FMV-to-prerendered transitions. I think there was even a few gameplay sequences that had FMV directly playing in the background.

 

[disappeared]

Will add as backgrounds on the PS4. What a gorgeous game.

!

Awesome idea

 

[randome]

While we're on the subject of CC nostalgia, I came across this cover recently:

Chrono Cross; Dream of the Shore Near Another World [cover] by Gabe Rodriguez & Seda Baykara

Wow what a great cover. Best video game song of all time!

 

[Renmyra]

The best part about FFVIII was the FMV-to-prerendered transitions. I think there was even a few gameplay sequences that had FMV directly playing in the background.

The garden battle has a fairly long scene with an FMV in the background while you're saving Rinoa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifbSWd_UxHc

 

[Izayoi]

My god, this is absolutely amazing.

I know it's mainly nostalgia talking, but what the fuck happened to gaming, and JRPGs in particular?

I miss them.

 

[mattp]

probably relevant to this thread:

i had way too much time on my hands one night and used a ps1 emulator and pieced this together out of tiles i found in the game's memory

too bad the game sucks, its gorgeous

(saga frontier 2)

 

[Sendero]

While we're on the subject of CC nostalgia, I came across this cover recently:

Chrono Cross; Dream of the Shore Near Another World [cover] by Gabe Rodriguez & Seda Baykara

My heart..why?

 

[Captains Curse]

probably relevant to this thread:

i had way too much time on my hands one night and used a ps1 emulator and pieced this together out of tiles i found in the game's memory

too bad the game sucks, its gorgeous

(saga frontier 2)

Super cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Raging Spaniard]

My god, this is absolutely amazing.

I know it's mainly nostalgia talking, but what the fuck happened to gaming, and JRPGs in particular?

I miss them.

Well, back then we used to bitch about the same thing, so yeah

 

[Wazzy]

The best part about FFVIII was the FMV-to-prerendered transitions. I think there was even a few gameplay sequences that had FMV directly playing in the background.

Oh yeah that was such a cool idea in VIII. They did that for Galbadian Garden introduction, Dollet, the train mission and the battle of Gardens. There was a couple more like Esthar and Ragnarok too. I remember being blown away when it transitioned into FMV while the characters were still moving.

 

[HeelPower]

Fixed camera angles need to make a comeback in gaming.


Look, there is something irreplacable about them.

They could go for the Silent Hill 2 route and allow for camera movement from an initial position or add dynamism in some other way ,but they gotta come back.

 

[Alastor3]

any good realistic mat (map) painting games in recent years?

 

[jett]

My heart..why?

You shouldn't listen to this.

Or this.

Definitely not this!

Mitsuda himself is playing guitar on the last two. They're acoustic takes on a Trigger/Cross arrangement album that came out two years ago. They were taken down from the interwebs back then for some reason. I found them some while ago, this topic made me want to reupload them.

 

[Eylos]

You shouldn't listen to this.

Or this.

Definitely not this!

Mitsuda himself is playing guitar on the last two. They're acoustic takes on a Trigger/Cross arrangement album that came out two years ago. They were taken down from the interwebs back then for some reason. I found them some while ago, this topic made me want to reupload them.

Wow the last one Gave me lots of goosebumps

 

[To Far Away Times]

Chrono Cross is one of those games like Symphony of the Night where the visuals and music are both A+ and when taken together they create a super special atmosphere that's pretty much unrivaled.

 

[Voliko]

Anyone wanting more should play Baten Kaitos

 

[Celegus]

Sometimes I forget how dang similar Chrono Cross and Baten Kaitos look. Which is goooooorgeous but I'd be hard pressed to say which is which next to each other.

 

[KojiKnight]

The backgrounds were amazing, the music was amazing, the story was amazing, the combat was.... okay. It's a shame that it didn't get the love it deserved because Chrono Cross wasn't Chrono Trigger 2, even if it was the direct sequel to it.

I always felt Chrono Cross was hamstrung by it's connection to Chrono Trigger. Treat the game as it's own entity and you have one of the best JRPG's the Playstation has to offer.

These images are like a visual representation of Square at the peak of their most creative and prolific era.

I disagree, it's connection to Chrono Trigger in theme is one of the things that makes it so strong. There are consequences to messing with time. Chrono and crew saved the world, but it cost them all something huge.

 

[NHarmonic.]

Chrono Cross is one of those games like Symphony of the Night where the visuals and music are both A+ and when taken together they create a super special atmosphere that's pretty much unrivaled.

Yeah, perfect way to describe it. It's really something else playing Chrono Cross. In the artistic field the atmosphere created is really sublime and special.

It felt like a dream when i played it.

 

[Nicolada]

The things I would do to see this game's scenery in modern hd graphics...

 

[Fou-Lu]

I would be interested in seeing more sequels like Chrono Cross that seem only vaguely attached to the previous entry at first, but in reality everything is connected.

 

[FiveSide]

God I'm just now getting a chance to look through these again, and besides the mega nostalgia feels, I'm just in awe at how good these backgrounds look.

I think Chrono Cross has, flat-out, the best art direction of any game I've ever played. Game is about 30-35 hours long and almost every background is a masterpiece. Add to that the majestic soundtrack and you probably have the most unique and evocative atmosphere in a JRPG, full-stop.

What a game. Chrono Trigger looks great still, but Cross is just something else. It puts modern games to shame.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Not a fan of Chrono Cross' character design, but the backgrounds are gorgeous.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Beautiful game with an amazing soundtrack. I just don't care for it outside of that. Whenever I've tried to replay it, I just get bored quickly and find myself wanting to play Chrono Trigger or Xenogears again. Maybe I'll give it another shot soon.

 

[Yukinari]

How can a game with such fantastic music and art design be so bloated.

 

[BigEmil]

May as well throw in Final Fantasy IX backgrounds while we're on the subject.

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PS1 style prerendered backgrounds needs to come back! Man they all aged so well!

 

[gforguava]

How can a game with such fantastic music and art design be so bloated.

Bloated? Chrono Cross is lean as hell, maybe too lean for its own good.

 

[DJIzana]

God I want an HD version of this game so freaking bad or ANYTHING Chrono... so freaking badly. I hate how basically EVERY SINGLE ONE of my top favorite franchises is dead (or at least dead in the west).

Earthbound? Nope... we'll never get a new one of those again.

Chrono? Obviously not. Not any time soon, at least.

Phantasy Star? Not in the west, nope. Best I can hope for is that fan remake using Unity for PSO.

A new Ivalice game for Final Fantasy? Nope... XIV has patch 4.1 and that's as close as I'll get.

 

[Esque7]

Thanks a bunch, they look great as wallpapers on my phone! My avatar might give it away, but I love this game damn much. From the art, music, gameplay, and story. It's all top notch.

Trigger might be the better game, but this one made more of an impact on me for some reason. I think it came down to it's presentation and exploration of themes, whereas Trigger was a bit more simplistic (not knocking it in any way here).

 

[Admiral Snackbar]

Thank you for posting these. I spent a long summer digging through Cross and these maps are ingrained in my memory. I cherish the time and the game, as rocky as it was in places.

 

[FTF]

Aaaaaand now I want to play through this amazing game again.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Man, seeing those backgrounds makes me misty eyed over CC. I loved my playthrough of the game and the backgrounds were a big part of it. The world just felt really alive yet mystical.

 

[HK-47]

Game was hamstrung by trying to connect to Trigger and not also by not taking after CT and having a small party of well realized characters. Also too many ridiculous accents.

 

[hateradio]

When you have the power of WAIFU on your side anything is possible -- especially waifus!!! (http://waifu2x.udp.jp/)

clicky!

I was thinking of that.

I made this one 5x.

Should look good as a phone background maybe.

Oh my gosh this tool is incredible! I had no idea this existed. Thank you for sharing this!

I use this one on my PC.

https://github.com/lltcggie/waifu2x-caffe/releases

You need the NVidia CUDNN driver though.

https://developer.nvidia.com/rdp/cudnn-download

 

[gun_haver]

I'm hoping pre-rendered backgrounds are going to be coming up in terms of indie retro trends cos it has always been my favourite style of presentation. Pre-rendered with 3D models on top. It will if I have anything to do with it.

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

You don't need to.

Don't be like that.
I know that I definitely do. I already played some 20 hours a few years back and liked it.

 

[MMarston]

I know I only finally got around to finishing this specific game two years ago, but man, these still make me nostalgic for when I first started these RPGs as a kid.

 

[Belstras]

I like the backgrounds of these game, pretty like a childrens book, sad that no one makes game in this style anymore. Maybe ill make a fan game in unity that looks like this.
Fun fact: Chrono cross might be inspired by the Philippines, because El Nido is a province in the northern part of the country. Thought that would be fun to know.

 

[weltalldx]

Incredible how much creativity, effort and detail went into the design of Chrono Cross. Seeing these 300 backgrounds by themselves makes me realize how much work went into making a coherent and cohesive game. If only Square would go back to their PSX era RPG's and learn that being beautiful is not about how realistic the graphics are but about artistic vision and talent. I would argue a game like FF7 has more artistic vision than FF15.

I wonder if there is a similar background pack for FF7.