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White is a more mystical element than others, encompassing light, holiness, and healing. One of the characters with a White element is a religious person. White innate characters have access to the most powerful healing spells in the game. White corresponds to ''Chrono Trigger''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "Lightning" element, which was actually known as "Heaven" in the original Japanese version of the game. (Heaven included lightning spells because lightning comes down from the heavens.) It was renamed Lightning in the English localization due to [[Nintendo|Nintendo of America]]'s strictly enforced policy which demanded that any and all religious references be omitted from North American versions of games. Note that the character Pip is capable of evolving and, in doing so, changing his element.
White is a more mystical element than others, encompassing light, holiness, and healing. One of the characters with a White element is a religious person. White innate characters have access to the most powerful healing spells in the game. White corresponds to ''Chrono Trigger''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "Lightning" element, which was actually known as "Heaven" in the original Japanese version of the game. (Heaven included lightning spells because lightning comes down from the heavens.) It was renamed Lightning in the English localization due to [[Nintendo|Nintendo of America]]'s strictly enforced policy which demanded that any and all religious references be omitted from North American versions of games. Note that the character Pip is capable of evolving and, in doing so, changing his element.



*[[Serge (Chrono Cross)|Serge]] (Swallow) (Male)
*[[Doc (Chrono Cross)|Doc]] (Shot) (Male)
*[[Doc (Chrono Cross)|Doc]] (Shot) (Male)
*[[Image:Pip normal portrait.png|16px|Pip]] [[Pip (Chrono Cross)|Pip]] (Glove) (Male)
*[[Image:Pip normal portrait.png|16px|Pip]] [[Pip (Chrono Cross)|Pip]] (Glove) (Male)

Revision as of 23:28, 3 March 2006

Chrono Cross
Chrono Cross North American Box Art
Developer(s)Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)Japan Square Co., Ltd.
United States of America Square EA
Platform(s)PlayStation
ReleaseJapan November 18, 1999
United States of America August 15, 2000
Genre(s)RPG
Mode(s)Single player

Chrono Cross (クロノ・クロス Kurono Kurosu) is a PlayStation RPG created by Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix) with a story that builds upon Chrono Trigger. However, Chrono Trigger team members Hironobu Sakaguchi (Supervisor), Yuji Horii (Supervisor, Initial Scenario Writer), and Akira Toriyama (Character Design) were not a part of the Chrono Cross development team, and their absence is very noticeable. Indeed, few of the original staff participated on the game as they had been reassigned to different teams over the years.

In 1996, Chrono Trigger had a side story released in Japan called Radical Dreamers for the Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom (SNES), but was an illustrated text adventure. When Chrono Cross was being designed, parts of the plot and characters of Radical Dreamers were used. However, Chrono Cross cannot be viewed as a mere remake of Radical Dreamers as they have a lot of differences and incompatibilities.

Chrono Cross was released in United States in 2000 and features music composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. The game was hailed by professional reviewers, but some Chrono Trigger fans denounced it as an inferior sequel. In some cases, this is a result of these players wanting to control the old cast of Chrono Cross's predecessor and play a more direct sequel. Chrono Cross sold to expectations in the United States, but disappointing Japanese sales lead some to speculate that the Chrono series has been halted.

Like the majority of Square productions, Chrono Cross has yet to be granted an official European release. Square has cited a combination of economic and technical expenses involved with formatting the game for PAL territories as the reason behind not converting this game for release in Europe.

Plot

Template:Spoiler The story of Chrono Cross revolves around the character Serge, the protagonist, who, as a small child, is supposed to drown, but is saved by a powerful force. The resulting shift in the world's history creates two distinct parallel dimensions. In one dimension, he survives and lives for 10 years before the game begins. In the alternate dimension, he drowns in a beach near his home.

The plot itself revolves around Serge's unknowing efforts to free Schala from the Time Devourer: a fusion of Lavos, the ultimate enemy from Chrono Trigger with the capacity to destroy the planet, and Schala, a princess of Zeal and sister of Magus with immense magical power who has disappeared into the Darkness Beyond Time due to an accident. Years in the future, Belthasar, a former guru of Zeal, discovered that the Time Devourer had formed and planned to consume all spacetime; he thus set in motion an almost ludicrously complex chain of events meant to give rise to and guide Serge to venture to the Time Devourer and use an artifact known as the Chrono Cross to restore the dimensions to one and free Schala from Lavos's grasp. While the plot is sound, its delivery is criticized by some as excessively complex. Unlike Chrono Trigger, in which the basic plot is simple and straight-forward, much of the dialogue throughout the game of Chrono Cross must be read carefully in order to make sense of the story. Because some Chrono Cross players do not listen to much of the game's characters, they mistakenly accuse the plot of being weak and senseless. Thus, many players resort to guides, such as the following link, to understand the story's intricacies. [1]

While Chrono Cross incorporates elements from Radical Dreamers, the stories of the two games are incompatible. To resolve the scenario continuity issue and to acknowledge the existence of Radical Dreamers, the designers suggested that the events of Radical Dreamers did happen, but took place in a parallel dimension. This can be found by reading one of the computer consoles in Chronopolis, a city which was pulled back in time due to a failed experiment. Chronopolis now monitors the El Nido Archipelago, in an attempt to prevent a paradox from occurring which would prevent its existence in the future. The most notable difference is that Magus is absent from the game. While confirmed to be Magil in Radical Dreamers by both the game and its creator, Magus does not assume the identity Guile in Chrono Cross, as is commonly assumed. It was noted in an interview that the developers originally planned for Magus to be in the game, but scrapped the idea due to difficulties representing his story amongst forty-three other characters.

File:Chrono-Cross-title-screen.jpg
Chrono Cross title screen

Characters

There are 44 characters normally (Lynx unlockable through an odd twist in the gameplay), with six Elements for each of them. While the presence of six elements is a departure from Chrono Trigger's limit at four, the game does provide an explanation for the change — that Chrono Trigger's magic was the manipulating of the basic four fundamental properties of the universe, and Chrono Cross's magic is the use of manufactured tools to effect changes in nature.

The game has 45 possible party members to acquire, all of whom come with several abilities of their own, with some combining into Double and Triple Techs.

Because of the incredibly vast number of possible party combinations, the North American version of the game contains a system to modify base text for each character's accent. Whereas other games would need to program different blocks of text for each character, this game uses the same text and modifies it based on the character using it. This was done so that a North American localization would be possible.

An example of its coding in the script:

Member Name:
l.et's2 .go.suffixe, Serge..
the w.ater1 .Dr3agon .mus1t .be.
be.yondth1is1 .point...

White innate characters

White is a more mystical element than others, encompassing light, holiness, and healing. One of the characters with a White element is a religious person. White innate characters have access to the most powerful healing spells in the game. White corresponds to Chrono Trigger's "Lightning" element, which was actually known as "Heaven" in the original Japanese version of the game. (Heaven included lightning spells because lightning comes down from the heavens.) It was renamed Lightning in the English localization due to Nintendo of America's strictly enforced policy which demanded that any and all religious references be omitted from North American versions of games. Note that the character Pip is capable of evolving and, in doing so, changing his element.


Black innate characters

Black is a darker element than others. Two of the characters with a Black element are undead or spirits. Great with offensive magic. This roughly corresponds to the "Shadow" element from Chrono Trigger.

Red innate characters

Red innate characters have a high focus on power. Many of the Red characters are some of the most powerful. Naturally, red is the element of fire and lava. In Chrono Trigger, it was simply called, "Fire".

Blue innate characters

Blue innate characters are good healers and offensive magic users. Leena is one of the best healers. Blue is the element of water and ice. This matches Chrono Trigger, in which Marle uses ice magic but as labeled "Water" like Frog.

Green innate characters

Green innate characters are good healers as well as good offensive magic users, like Razzly, and also good with physical attacks, like Glenn and Karsh. Green is the element of air and nature. It has no equivalent in Chrono Trigger.

Yellow innate characters

Great offensive fighters. Some of the most powerful characters, especially Leah. Yellow magic is rooted in electricity and earth. However, it does not correspond with any element in Chrono Trigger; Trigger's Lightning element is merely an invention of its localization team (the original element being Heaven).

Returning characters

Six characters from Chrono Trigger return in the sequel. These characters, however, are not playable and only make brief appearances, though some fans have speculated that some of the game's player characters are in fact Chrono Trigger characters (especially Magus) going by another name.

  • Crono - Crono appears as a spirit on two different occasions; once in the Dead Sea, and again near the portal to Lavos.
  • Marle - Marle appears as a spirit on three different occasions; once while the party enters the Hydra Marshes, again in the Dead Sea, and last near the portal to Lavos.
  • Lucca - Lucca appears in more than one form. She first appears in the Dead Sea, as the spirit of a child. Later, when you're in Kid's memory, you will see her for a brief instance as Lynx takes her away, to assist him in his plans. She once again appears as a spirit, near the portal to Lavos.
  • Robo - Robo appears in Chronopolis, under the name Prometheus. He is used to keep FATE locked up, and after talking to Serge and company, he is executed by FATE.
  • Magus - In a letter sent by Lucca, she says to Kid that Janus may be watching over her, and "if so, hello, Janus!" Some claim that he was in the room, based on a human-shaped shadow that appears when the letter is being read.
  • Lavos - Lavos returns as the main villain of the game, but never appears until the very end of the game. While Serge and company believed that breaking FATE's seal on the Dragons was a good idea, it turned out that they were not the Dragons they had once been, their original united form having been assimilated by Lavos' Devourer of Time form. As the Time Devourer, Lavos had Schala attached to him, this being due to Lavos' existence being cast into the Darkness Beyond Time -- where Schala had previously been banished by Lavos -- once Chrono and his friends from Chrono Trigger defeated him.
  • Ozzie, Slash, and Flea - Appearing in a hidden boss fight, the three have no bearing on the plot. Sprigg can learn to transform into any member of the trio. As Slash, she can perform the "Z Slash" triple tech when teamed with Fargo and Glenn.

Character relationships

It is revealed at many points different relationships between playable and non-playable characters. Here's a list of relationships.

  • Serge - Boyfriend of Leena, Son of Lynx, Future Husband of Kid/Schala[2]
  • Pip - Specimen of Luccia
  • Riddel - Daughter of General Viper, Fiancee of Dario
  • Lynx - Father of Serge
  • Wazuki - Original identity of Serge's father
  • Miguel - Friend of Wazuki, father of Leena
  • Guile - None (was going to be Magus, Schala's brother, but his backstory was dropped due to complications)
  • Luccia - Friend of Lucca
  • Kid - Daughter-clone of Schala, raised by Lucca, future wife of Serge[3]
  • Miki - Lead dancer for Nikki's show
  • Macha - Mother of Korcha and Mel
  • Zappa - Father of Karsh, Husband of Zippa
  • Zippa - Mother of Karsh, Wife of Zappa
  • Marcy - Acacia Deva, Daughter of Fargo, Sister of Nikki, Niece of Irenes
  • Fargo - Brother-in-law of Irenes, Father of Nikki and Marcy
  • Nikki - Son of Fargo, Brother of Marcy, Nephew of Irenes, Friend of Miki's
  • Irenes - Sister-in-law of Fargo, Aunt of Nikki and Marcy
  • Leena - Girlfriend of Serge
  • Una - Sister of Leena
  • Korcha - Son of Macha, Brother of Mel
  • Glenn - Brother of Dario, Son of Garai, Friend of Karsh
  • Radius - Friend of Viper, the three Devas, Glenn, Riddel and Garai, Former Acacia Deva, Murderer of Garai
  • Karsh - Acacia Deva, Son of Zappa, Killer of Dario, Friend Glenn, Riddel and Radius
  • General Viper - Acacia Dragoons leader, Friend of Lynx, Glenn, Radius, Father of Riddel
  • Mel - Daughter of Macha, Sister of Korcha
  • Garai - Father of Glenn and Dario, Wielder of Einlanzer, Friend of Radius
  • Dario - Brother of Glenn, Son of Garai, Wielder of Masamune

Music

A three-CD official soundtrack was released soon after the game, and eventually sold out. Yasunori Mitsuda noted in the OST's liner notes that he was happy to accomplish even half of what he envisioned in terms of transferring his ideas to the Playstation's sound capabilities. He also named several influences in the liner notes, including a Mediterranean theme, Fado music, African percussion and old music from several cultures — most notably Celtic. After Chrono Cross was completed, Mitsuda personally undertook a playthrough to observe how the tracks matched up to their correspondent scenes and settings in the game.

Though the Chrono Cross OST sold out a year or two after its release, SquareEnix recently reissued it due to popular demand. Currently, the only legitimate way to purchase the soundtrack is through Amazon Japan [4]. Amazon Japan will gladly ship overseas and does feature English support for its pages.

Awards/Ratings

This is a list of various awards and overall ratings that the game has so far received.

Also, GameSpot has reviewed over 1100+ games and has only given 4 of them a perfect 10/10. Chrono Cross is one of them.

As of January 2006, Rottentomatoes.com gives a rating of 92% for Chrono Cross, Gamerankings.com provides a rating of 93%, and the fan ratings on GameSpot averages to 9.3/10.

"Chrono Break"

Square applied for a trademark for the name Chrono Break in the U.S., late 2001, resulting in speculation by fans of the possibility of a sequel. However, the trademark was dropped in the United States on November 13, 2003, confirmed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The trademark still stands in Japan, where it was registered as Chrono Brake. It is suspected that the project had been planned at one point (with one of the original Chrono Trigger project leads at the helm, and not the Chrono Cross/Xenogears/Final Fantasy XI staff), but cancelled before production could begin. Focus on other games such as the Final Fantasy series may have also contributed to Square's abandonment of this title.

Packaging artwork

See also

Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Chrono Cross

Template:Chrono Cross

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