Overview:

Aiight, lemme tell you about Chrono Cross.  It’s a sequel to one of the most beloved RPGs from Squaresoft which deviates from its predecessor in every form.  Chrono Cross is a 3D game that utilizes prerendered backgrounds with polygonal characters getting into battles.  These battles are sweeping vistas with three of your characters engaging enemies in turn based combat.  The catch is that each element you use adds to a bar on the top right.  Depending on how many of the bars of the same color it will enhance the power of elements of the same color.  Rinse and repeat.  Outside of battles, you’re exploring a vibrant world and meeting a TON of unique characters all with very hard to understand dialog.

Visuals:

I’m arguing with myself over here because 16 year old me was all about this game.  I loved how different it is from the Final Fantasy games and how it was just charming.  Me, now, can kind of take it or leave it.  The characters are super over done and there are just so many characters that I really lose track of everyone.  The characters also get mixed up with the backgrounds because of everything being super colorful and they just blend together.  Looking at the battles with a new lens I really get annoyed with the transitions.  The sweeping camera angles and overall presentation is just overdone.  Sometimes you can go simple but this game doesn’t do it.

Audio:

Likewise the audio is a mixed bag with me.  I loved the music when I was a teenager and still jam to it but, now, I feel it is just too much.  Hearing the callbacks to Chrono Trigger is always nice to hear but it really makes the juxtaposition between the two games so readily apparent.  You can just hear the difference between two styles and it just makes you miss the first game.  That said, the opening intro music is still a fucking banger.

Completion:

I’m working on this game and feel it’s going to be a bit of a slog.  I have a save from my first playthrough and it would be quite an undertaking trying to figure out just where I was or what I was doing.  On my new playthrough I just met Lynx and Kid got messed up.  I’ve probably played for a few hours so my quest has just begun.  I’m trying to move through it but, even then, I’m thinking this is going to be a few dozen hours until I complete it.  I’ll keep you up to date!  I’m kind of enjoying it but I really want to beat it just so I can take it off my list finally after decades!

Update: 04/19/2026

I FINISHED THIS GAME! After 25 years or so I finally sat down and played through it to completion. I felt that the opening 2/3rd of the game was kind of middling with extreme amount of setup and lore building while the last 1/3rd or, heck, maybe even the last 1/10th of the game really being amazing. The story finally all clicked together and the environments were amazing. I don’t want to say that it had to ride on Chrono Trigger’s coattails to be amazing, but once the two games started to intermingle is when it started being coherent. The emotional parts hit and the revelations were well deserved. I’m happy that I’m done with this juggernaut of a game and I was happy with the time I had with it!