I was a huuuuuuuge fan of Chrono Trigger, but I had my doubts about Cross when there was no involvement from "The Big Three" (I have no idea how much involvement they DID have in the original, it may have just been some mental thing). I really liked the "Another World" song, but that was pretty much it for the entire game.
I didn't like the battle system at all with the varying levels of attack and those elemental rings or whatever, I didn't like that I could escape every battle (including boss battles supposedly), how normal battles didn't really amount to much character growth (mainly for loot items after the battle?), made them seem pretty pointless. Also didn't like being able to heal up "for free" after each battle, it kind of made things seem too easy.
I felt no connection to any characters whatsoever, and several of them annoyed the hell out of me. That damn "CHA" guy was the last straw character-wise. I got to some hydra boss about 5 hours in, beat him, then quit. It also did not help that I found the regular battle music to be the absolute worst battle song I had/have ever had the misfortune to listen to (yes even worse than FF2 on the Famicom's).
Then when I heard how they just throw away the main characters from CT (they die or something) I was glad to have traded it in. It was pretty much Strike 2 for me that generation with Square (after Xenogears). There was just pretty much nothing of enjoyment value for me from the game. :/
I was incredibly looking forward to the game and just walked away as disappointed as someone could possibly be. Made me pretty disenchanted with Square's output, but I figured I would try one more game..either strike 3 or awesome. Happened to be Strike 3, but on the bright side I had just started to get back into the Dragon Quest games after pretty much ignoring them for about 6 or 7 years.
Maybe I'm just in a pissy mood or something, I tend to avoid discussion about the games I really don't like, they're pretty much some of the higher regarded stuff a lot of the time.