• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Is Chrono Cross worth playing if I just finished Trigger?

Chrono Cross is better. Better world, story, main characters, battle system. There are a ton of side characters you can recruit and the New Game+ mode is great as you get a fast forward option(best thing ever added to an rpg).
 
One of my favorites of all time. But I sold it around 2000 to help fund a pile of SNK games for Dreamcast.
 
Underrated by some people means nothing. CC was a hit and got tons of high scores when it first came out. It was the first 10 on Gamespot, iirc. Pretty much beloved by most review sites.

Time has taught most people it's actually not that good. Hey, people can like it for what it is but I didn't enjoy it at all.

Most people? Even within this thread thus far the majority of people are saying it is a good to great game as long as you aren't trying to tie it to another game it was never trying to be tied to in more then a superficial manner.

There are countless JRPGs out there that exist within the same series / game world but don't try to make any meaningful ties to the other games that don't have the same ridiculous standards they are held to.

You don't see people complaining that the ties between FFXII and FF Tactics weren't more meaningful even though they exist within the same game world. People take the game as its own thing and judge it (for good or bad) accordingly. Even a good portion of the complaints about CC in this thread end up being "it isn't CT" including your own previous posting of your opinion on it.
 
No.

Chrono Cross may be good if you never played Chrono Trigger.

If you played Chrono Trigger it is a hugely lackluster sequel that shits over the original.

The music is good....get that, avoid the game.
 
The game's only fault is trading low-numbered pre-defined party members for a Suikoden-esque catch 'em all system. Because of that, very few characters have personalities and you have to find your enjoyment of the story elsewhere. Had the game have eight or so party members that followed you everywhere and who had personalities, the game would have been unstoppable, and more people would be siding with it instead of with Trigger.
 
The game's only fault is trading low-numbered pre-defined party members for a Suikoden-esque catch 'em all system. Because of that, very few characters have personalities and you have to find your enjoyment of the story elsewhere. Had the game have eight or so party members that followed you everywhere and who had personalities, the game would have been unstoppable, and more people would be siding with it instead of with Trigger.
It still lacks a solid story (all of this just to fix a boo boo from the first game?), good combat (I have zero comprehension for how people think generic skills that almost never form techs > character-specific skills that do; plus, the bar system is uninteresting), and it feels like a poor follow-up (huge disconnect) to CT. Sure, more people would like it because it would be less bad, and I hated the collect-a-thon when I played it, but it is not the only problem. That you need to play the game 3 times to collect everyone is mega dumb, though.

I might do another playthrough in the next year. My wife is playing CT for her first time right now, and maybe we will do CC together afterward. Fresh impressions can't hurt, though these conversations always bring up the stuff I hate, and it tends to be the stuff others love. The notion that there was a ton of stuff going on behind the scenes of CT that you never even knew about is so lame.
 
No.

Chrono Cross may be good if you never played Chrono Trigger.

If you played Chrono Trigger it is a hugely lackluster sequel that shits over the original.

The music is good....get that, avoid the game.

Both are great games. The awesomeness of Trigger in no way diminishes the quality of Cross. It simply had the unenviable task of following one of, if not the best entries in the JRPG genre ever, which will forever bring with it comparisons.

Play it and enjoy it.
 
People need to realize that Chrono Cross is not a sequel, it's a side story. It exists to tie up (end of game)
the Schala thread from CT.
It expands the world in kind of interesting ways, has some amazing art direction, and the soundtrack of the gods.

As good as CT? Not really, but doing its own thing it is still spectacular.
 
Yes, totally worth it if you want to know the destinies of several characters, and the overall impact the events of Trigger had on the world.
 
No.

Chrono Cross may be good if you never played Chrono Trigger.

If you played Chrono Trigger it is a hugely lackluster sequel that shits over the original.

The music is good....get that, avoid the game.

I have to agree. I still love Trigger and find that it aged extremely well, especially the DS port. Cross, on the other hand, hasn't. It has nice art and great music, but I feel is technically bloated and lacks charm, especially compared to CT.

Side note, not to be rude, but it feels like there's been plenty of these CT/CC topics lately, doesn't it?
 
Chrono Cross blew my mind earlier this year when I beat it.
I can't believe they made us play with the main villain appearance (and the consequences that go along) for pretty much 1/3 of the game, if not more. And it's not even the craziest thing that happens in this game.

Nevermind that. How the hell did Schala become blonde?
 
I have to agree. I still love Trigger and find that it aged extremely well, especially the DS port. Cross, on the other hand, hasn't. It has nice art and great music, but I feel is technically bloated and lacks charm, especially compared to CT.

Side note, not to be rude, but it feels like there's been plenty of these CT/CC topics lately, doesn't it?

We want a new game in the series and not some mobile piece of shit like Breath of Fire 6.
 
People need to realize that Chrono Cross is not a sequel, it's a side story. It exists to tie up (end of game)
the Schala thread from CT.
It expands the world in kind of interesting ways, has some amazing art direction, and the soundtrack of the gods.

As good as CT? Not really, but doing its own thing it is still spectacular.
Sequel = comes after something, yes?

A side story would be occurring concurrently, or it would not be directly related to the main story.

Cross goes out of its way to let you know how small and meaningless everything that happened in CT was, and the events of the game follow as direct consequences of your actions. How is that not a sequel?

Chrono Cross blew my mind earlier this year when I beat it.
I can't believe they made us play with the main villain appearance (and the consequences that go along) for pretty much 1/3 of the game, if not more. And it's not even the craziest thing that happens in this game.

Nevermind that. How the hell did Schala become blonde?
The dream devourer wanted to consume everyone's hope for a beautiful blue haired waifu.
 
The game's only fault is trading low-numbered pre-defined party members for a Suikoden-esque catch 'em all system. Because of that, very few characters have personalities and you have to find your enjoyment of the story elsewhere. Had the game have eight or so party members that followed you everywhere and who had personalities, the game would have been unstoppable, and more people would be siding with it instead of with Trigger.

er...except suikoden somehow managed to incorporate 108+ characters AND incorporate unique personalities to all of them.

CC just took the same lines and gave them all funny accents. Even the worst suikoden (this will start fights) handles its cast better than CC did.
 
YES. The pros outweigh the cons.

Best soundtrack ever.

Best RPG battle system ever.

Worst integration of characters ever. Many just feel tacked on.
 
Sequel = comes after something, yes?

A side story would be occurring concurrently, or it would not be directly related to the main story.

Cross goes out of its way to let you know how small and meaningless everything that happened in CT was, and the events of the game follow as direct consequences of your actions. How is that not a sequel?


The dream devourer wanted to consume everyone's hope for a beautiful blue haired waifu.

Prove your arguments. Chrono Cross never "diminishes" the events of Trigger. How could it? Without the events of Trigger, NOT A SINGLE EVENT would happen in Chrono Cross.

If anything, Cross establishes that Trigger's events are ESSENTIAL.
 
Just keep in mind that Chono Cross is a semi-sequel to a Chrono Trigger spinoff that was never released in America. So the connections are there, but a bit disjointed.
 
Good to see I'm not alone in this opinion. And I believe that Chrono Trigger is the best game ever made.

Real talk, I sold my copy of CC back to GameStop, and bought the re-release of DBZ: Final Bout. Not kidding.

CT is the best game ever made.

But CC is something everyone should play, if only for the atmosphere and soundtrack. It's messy, but something you won't regret playing.

Just keep in mind that Chono Cross is a semi-sequel to a Chrono Trigger spinoff that was never released in America. So the connections are there, but a bit disjointed.

I'm assuming you mean Radical Dreamers, which I never played and still was able to enjoy CC.
 
While we're on the subject maybe someone could explain how this connects to CT.

I remember seeing the ghost of Crono or something, but it made no sense to me.
 
The game's only fault is trading low-numbered pre-defined party members for a Suikoden-esque catch 'em all system. Because of that, very few characters have personalities and you have to find your enjoyment of the story elsewhere. Had the game have eight or so party members that followed you everywhere and who had personalities, the game would have been unstoppable, and more people would be siding with it instead of with Trigger.

To say the supporting cast didn't have personality is completely wrong. Every character in Cross is oozing with personality. There are so many unique dialects, unique abilities, every character has a different style for the most part, they do have short back stories, where the quest to get them is the extent of it. They don't have much character development, is what I think you're trying to say, but there are exceptions. The main characters, who the story is focused on, are extremely well developed. And while the side characters aren't given any huge stories mostly, they are just as well developed as the characters in Trigger save for a few. Just because Frog/Glenn's story is dragged out through the course of the game doesn't mean it's any more complex than some of the characters in Cross.

I love Trigger as much as anyone, but I feel Cross gets dumped on just because it's not called Chrono Trigger 2 and doesn't feature the same characters.
If you don't like the battle system of its own merit, don't like the style, lack of depth in back stories, not enough development of some of the side characters, etc... Those are valid complaints.
 
I thought CC was a mess of a game but if you love CT then it's worth going through if you want to see
what happened to schala
. it's still alot better than half the jrpgs out there, but it's nowhere in the same stratosphere as CT or any of the "golden era" squaresoft games
 
I still think it shouldn't have been named Chrono Cross for the fact that it barely connects with Trigger in any way.

Still a good game though.
 
Prove your arguments. Chrono Cross never "diminishes" the events of Trigger. How could it? Without the events of Trigger, NOT A SINGLE EVENT would happen in Chrono Cross.

If anything, Cross establishes that Trigger's events are ESSENTIAL.
Hahaha, I already know better than to try and have a reasonable discussion with you. All I will say is what is obvious: important and essential are not the same thing. The events in CT are essential because they have a causal relationship with the events of CC, but that is unrelated to my claim. The achievements of your team are diminished in magnitude because CC decides that they lead to radically different consequences than they do in CT, consequences that are beyond the scope of anything in CT. The entire game's plot plays like a secret ending gone wrong.
 
Didn't like it at first because it was nothing like Chrono Trigger. Then grew to love it because of the huge cast of playable characters and the interesting world.
 
I gotta admit something guys.

I cannot (like, literally cannot) boot this game up without listening to Scars of Time at least one complete time.

Seriously, my thumb is physically unable to press start without hearing that theme once and the fact it hasn't been linked in this thread makes me sadder than watching
Lucca's house/orphanage burn down
.
 
Hahaha, I already know better than to try and have a reasonable discussion with you. All I will say is what is obvious: important and essential are not the same thing. The events in CT are essential because they have a causal relationship with the events of CC, but that is unrelated to my claim. The achievements of your team are diminished in magnitude because CC decides that they lead to radically different consequences than they do in CT, consequences that are beyond the scope of anything in CT. The entire game's plot plays like a secret ending gone wrong.

Oh, the classic "I can't prove my points, so I will pretend I won't bother with you". Every event in Cross is directly related to the adventure of Crono and the others had, and the future they created
(El Nido was created by FATE, which in turn ONLY EXISTS because Crono and the others saved the future).

How is that trying to "diminish" the events of Trigger?
 
I absolutely love Trigger and Cross, both are among the top 10-15 games of all time for me, and picking between the two is like picking a favorite child. Although it's not as polished as Chrono Trigger, i think i slightly prefer Chrono Cross. Gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds, beautiful soundtrack, ambitious and convoluted story (some people say that's a negative, but i disagree), great battle system, large worlds with lots to do...i don't know, to me it's a game that's more than the sum of its parts and i found it to be a very special experience. It's a game that has gotten a lot of backlash for not being Chrono Trigger 2 and seems to be very divisive (people either love it or hate it), but at the very least you should try it out for yourself.
 
The only thing good about the game is the music and the visuals. The story is not very well told, insane, convoluted, and it's explanations and plot twists are what you would expect to see in a 12 year old's fanfiction based off of CT.

If crazy and convoluted is what you're looking for, still you should play Xenogears instead. It's a far better game in every way. A poster mentioned in the other thread that Xenogears feels more like a spiritual sucessor to CT than Cross does. I would agree with that.

If you want to play a game with an amazing soundtrack, you should play Nier instead. Unlike Cross, everything else about the game is great too.

Edit: There are many games that are worth playing for the soundtrack alone and also happen to have other good things about them besides the soundtrack. I recommend finding those games.
 
Just echoing the sentiments that the game is worth playing for the soundtrack alone. It really elevates the environments and, to a lesser extent, the story into something really special.
 
We just had a huge thread about this. A lot of people hate Cross, some love it. Few are ambivalent toward it. I hate the game more than most, because I feel it has:
-bland combat
-uninteresting characters
-a weak, convoluted plot
-a tendency to dump on CT

Exact same reasons why I'm not entirely fond of the game.

However the OST is godtier. If you liked Xenoblade's OST then you're in for the same kind of treat.
 
The only thing good about the game is the music and the visuals. The story is not very well told, insane, convoluted, and it's explanations and plot twists are what you would expect to see in a 12 year old's fanfiction based off of CT.

If crazy and convoluted is what you're looking for, still you should play Xenogears instead. It's a far better game in every way. A poster mentioned in the other thread that Xenogears feels more like a spiritual sucessor to CT than Cross does. I would agree with that.

If you want to play a game with an amazing soundtrack, you should play Nier instead. Unlike Cross, everything else about the game is great too.
I actually love Xenogears as well, but i thought the pacing was a bit off. It dragged for hours in certain spots.

I found Nier to be flat out boring. I never thought i would see anyone say Nier is better than Chrono Cross, but i guess that's why they're called opinions.
 
What? What game wasn't released in the US that is part of the Chrono series?

It's a text-adventure game by the name of Radical Dreamers and features a few of the cast and most of the plot points which would eventually reappear in Chrono Cross. It was japanese only though because it released for the Satellaview, a satellite communictions setup for the SNES that let you download games to a cartridge and even participate in a few live gaming events. The only way to obtain/play it now is through emulation since the satellite has long since gone out of commission and only ever transmitted to Japan anyway, but there's a good translation patch floating around out there, and the original rom is easy enough to find. It's a bit clunky though, and since it's a text adventure the gameplay is completely unrelated tot he rest of the series, and most of the story gets revisited in Cross (with the exception of a character named Magil, but I won't spoil any more than that).

I'll say what I've said for years about Cross, it's a great game on its own, but it's a pretty god awful Chrono Trigger sequel. TBF though, Trigger ended in a way that you really couldn't make any kind of true sequel without it being hamfisted plot-wise anyway.
 
Top Bottom