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[Mejilan]

Well, CT kinda didn't do its characters. That was really my only problem with it. And coming off Final Fantasy VI, at the time, that was a bit of a drag. Excellent scenarios, little actual character growth. It was a fantastic experience, but one I felt would have been much better had more focus been placed on the characters.

 

[bengraven]

I agree.

Chrono Chross is an amazing game.

 

[JayDub]

I also found the plot that was there ridiculously boring. I loved the music, I liked the art style (even though I missed having Toriyama), but I did not like anything else about the game. Not just because it abandoned things from Trigger, but, because, on its own, it just wasn't a very interesting RPG. It was dense and confusing, with a stupid battle system (I wasn't a fan of the elemental area of effects, or being able to use spells only once, or never gaining EXP and leveling up like a normal RPG), and, as always: too many useless additions to the cast. Claim that they are "optional" if you want, but few of them add anything to the game and nobody would probably care if half the cast of playable characters did not exist. Even optional things should have a reason for being there, and many of the extra characters in CC did not.

I really enjoyed CC's characters and subplots. True, a lot of character's had no real "story" after they join you, but all of them have interesting ways/stories to get them. The day I got one of the boss characters (not Lynx) as a party member, I was amazed. If you had this character equipped/active in your party to visit an NPC (who, earlier, said they had lost their son when he was young), you'll find a short scene where its revealed that he is the lost son.

With many games, "the game plays different each time" is never executed transparently. In CC, it never once occurred to me that I could play this game any other way, until I went to my friend's house and witness a scene in the game play out in a completely different way.

I never felt like any of my characters were shallow. Unmemorable, but never obviously shallow.

Start a new game simultaneously with a friend, and I guarantee you that you both will have a very different file. It fits with the game's "time" premise. Change something in the past, and the future will be drastically different. Its only fitting that every decision in CC will change your whole game.

If anything, the game is consistent, and if the biggest complaint CT fans could bring to it is that it didn't live up to expectations, then thats fine.

 

[bengraven]

I think the reason I absolutely loved Chrono Chross is that I only played a couple of hours of CT back in the day and it was hard to find when CC came out. I didn't have a PC, so I didn't have emus anyway.

So for me, i didn't go into CC thinking of it as a CT sequel: I thought it was just a really fucking amazing RPG.

And since I've never beaten CT in the time since I played CC, nothing has tarnished that.

 

[Splatt]

With many games, "the game plays different each time" is never executed transparently. In CC, it never once occurred to me that I could play this game any other way, until I went to my friend's house and witness a scene in the game play out in a completely different way.

I especially loved the manor infiltration part. So many ways to do that one

Start a new game simultaneously with a friend, and I guarantee you that you both will have a very different file. It fits with the game's "time" premise. Change something in the past, and the future will be drastically different. Its only fitting that every decision in CC will change your whole game.

Time? Wasn't it paralel dimensions :?

 

[SomeDude]

Well, CT kinda didn't do its characters. That was really my only problem with it. And coming off Final Fantasy VI, at the time, that was a bit of a drag. Excellent scenarios, little actual character growth. It was a fantastic experience, but one I felt would have been much better had more focus been placed on the characters.

Yeah, I totally agree with this. Chrono has some amazing events that happen through the game. But the characters are pretty generic.

 

[JayDub]

I especially loved the manor infiltration part. So many ways to do that one



Time? Wasn't it paralel dimensions :?

I think so, I havent played the game for years. Loved the manor infiltration scene, I don't remember his name, but in my file, I was "rescued" by that monkey character on a boat, while my friend simply ran out the back door.

 

[ZephyrFate]

All I'm saying, guys, is if after 40 hours or whatever a game has to sit you down before you enter what is more or less the final dungeon of the game, and say to you, "Okay, here's how everything you've been doing makes sense"...

It's not doing its job properly. There is a breaking point for "mystery" for most people. A lot of people stopped watching LOST because it kept answering questions with more questions - mystery on top of mystery, and cryptic dialog that never seems to go anywhere.

Chrono Cross only makes sense if you stick it out until the end of the game; otherwise all you're doing is wandering around completing tasks and events are happening as a result of those tasks and very rarely is it ever said why. Just about every question the game raises is left unanswered until the last possible moment, when it dumps everything on you all at once.

That is, I would say, a sign of a bad writer. Complex does not always necessarily mean "good". If you are so preoccupied with your twisted mystery that you forget to keep the reader interested (and I definitely stopped being interested in Chrono Cross after a certain point), you are failing as a writer.

Cross was not the continuation I wanted of Trigger, and, save for the music, it openly defecated on everything I enjoyed about Trigger. Call that "daring" if you want, I just call that "obnoxious".

Wrong. The game basically feeds you a ton of information at the halfway mark that helps you tie a LOT of plot together. It's only at the end (which is generally the way a lot of great, great literature is dealt with) that you get the full picture.

This is not, and I say this without being judgmental (like you are), the sign of a bad writer. The pacing sucked, yeah. That does not mean the story is bad, or the writing is bad. It just means that the pacing sucks. A lot of great, cherished literature has shitty pacing. See: Heart of Darkness.

 

[ag-my001]

I think so, I havent played the game for years. Loved the manor infiltration scene, I don't remember his name, but in my file, I was "rescued" by that monkey character on a boat, while my friend simply ran out the back door.

I think you've got two different scenes there.

Spoiler

The first infiltration always ends with Kid getting stabbed and the jump off the cliff. There is a second infiltration as Lynx where Grobyc helps you escape out the back.