Time Heals All Wounds: Chrono Cross
Chronology
Chrono Cross is a Japanese role-playing game that was developed by SquareSoft (now SquareEnix) in 1999, and made its way stateside in August, 2000. Chrono Cross is a sequel to the beloved Super Nintendo game, Chrono Trigger, which came to North America in 1995. In Chrono Cross you play as Serge, a young boy who crosses into an alternate dimension, in which he’s been dead for 10 years. The game tackles themes of love, loss, hate, racism, environmental and humanitarian crises, all while pitting the player against humans, monsters, gods, FATE, and more, in countless battles across the game’s setting, the El Nido archipelago.
When I first played Chrono Cross back in 2000, I despised the game. What should have been another SquareSoft epic—another cinematic, heart-pounding, JRPG masterpiece to top off the Summer—ended up being one of the most obtuse and depressing games I had ever played. What I wanted was something akin to Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, Star Ocean 2, or The Legend of Dragoon, but what I got was a joyless, seemingly aimless slog of a game, that crushed me, haunted me, and still lingers in my mind to this very day.
Over the past twenty-plus years, I’ve come to learn that I’m not alone in feeling that way about Chrono Cross. The game has clawed at the hearts of many people, for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons seems to stem from peoples’ love of Chrono Trigger, an unanimously beloved classic, often heralded as one of the BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME, which, make no mistake, is sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. With Chrono Cross, SquareSoft opted to scrap/reinvent too much of what people loved about the original, and in the process, created an eerie and unfamiliar work that shared the Chrono name (and therefore expectations), but didn’t deliver anything resembling a Chrono Trigger 2-like experience.
One man’s trash is another man’s GOAT.
So everyone likes Chrono Trigger and nobody likes Chrono Cross, right? Well, that’s pretty much what I thought, until recently stumbling across a writer and YouTuber named, Eric Landon. Eric writes fantasy novels and runs a YouTube channel called Eric Landon RPG, where he talks about, well, RPG’s (Role-Playing Games). While watching one of his AMA’s, I learned that Chrono Cross is his FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME, and my jaw just about hit the floor. I mean, this guy’s played “the greats”; he’s played the Final Fantasy series, Tales, The Legend of Heroes, Dragon Quest, the Mana series, Megami Tensei, Fire Emblem and everything in between. And Chrono Cross is his favorite game of all time?! What could I (and everyone else for that matter) possibly be missing? I had to find out.
So 50+ hours later (which was three days ago as of this post), I rolled credits on Chrono Cross for the second time in 20 years. And once again, I can’t get the game out of my head. However, whereas 20 years ago the game left me feeling depressed and confused, this time around I’m left feeling inspired! (Hence all the writing.) I feel like I need to climb to the top of a mountain and bellow out to the world below: DEAR EVERYONE, YOU NEED TO PLAY CHRONO CROSS AGAIN! ESPECIALLY YOU, CHRONO TRIGGER FANS!
Despite being a Chrono Trigger fan for years and years, I’ve always felt confused about Chrono Cross and its relation to Trigger. Over the years I’d heard rumblings that: “Cross isn’t a sequel to Trigger, it’s a spiritual successor— the devs said so!” Or: “Chrono Cross is just the fully-realized vision of Radical Dreamers, the developer’s other not-a-Chrono-Trigger-sequel game that never made it outside of Japan!” And well, after beating Chrono Cross three days ago, I have news for you: Chrono Cross is most definitely a sequel to Chrono Trigger… it might just not be the one most fans wanted.
You see, whereas Chrono Trigger is the video game version of the most amazing “popcorn flick” you’ve ever seen, Chrono Cross is a confusing “arthouse film” that doesn’t give two flips about whether you’re confused or following along. Another way I like to compare them is to say: Chrono Trigger is the most incredible Disney World vacation you could have asked for, and Chrono Cross is a weird, interactive art experiment in the back corner of a popular museum. And as if Chrono Cross couldn’t be any harder to get into, the game is also a slow burn compared to Trigger, and a lot of the other JRPG’s that came out around the same time.
Make no mistake, Chrono Cross’ story is as long-winded and convoluted as ever before, complete with massive exposition dumps towards the end of the game. However, instead of feeling confused and put off by the story shenanigans like I was 20 years ago, I found that thanks to the Internet, the game’s story was more digestible than ever. Every night when I put the game down, I’d hop online and dig though the various wiki’s, compendiums, and other sites dedicated to the Chrono Trigger/Cross lore. Reading the lore while playing the game gave me a new appreciation for Chrono Cross. Sure, I’d spoil certain plot points for myself here and there, but my understanding of the twisting, turning, millennia-spanning time-travel events in the game was heightened ten-fold. Through this experience I’ve come to realize that not only is Chrono Cross a brilliant follow-up to Trigger, but playing Trigger is COMPLETELY NECESSARY in understanding and appreciating Chrono Cross as a sequel. Simply put: Chrono Cross cannot exist without Chrono Trigger. It wouldn’t make any sense. The games are DIRECLY CONNECTED. They share characters, history, events, timelines, and because of that, Chrono Cross IS a sequel to Chrono Trigger, end of debate.
Chrono Musings
With all of that said, it’s time for me to dig into what makes Chrono Cross so special, and why this “old” PlayStation game is worth playing today.
Let’s start with the music. Chrono Cross’ soundtrack, which was written and composed by industry legend, Yasunori Mitsuda, is absolutely breathtaking. Listening to the game’s music against the backdrop of Cross’ story has given me a whole new appreciation for the game’s soundtrack. Mitsuda’s compositions fit perfectly with the game’s settings and themes. While I still find elements of the soundtrack haunting, it also fills me with sadness, nostalgia, and hope. For me, the Chrono Cross soundtrack is among the best of all time, and sits nicely alongside Chrono Trigger’s as well (which Mitsuda co-wrote).
Next up: characters and story. For better and worse, Chrono Cross’ story and characters rise to varying heights depending on the choices the player makes in the game. Because of this, everyone’s experience with Chrono Cross will differ, whether that’s due to chunks of content the player can unknowingly bypass, which characters they choose to adventure with, or how long they end up wandering aimlessly during the game’s more obtuse sections. There are 45 playable characters in the game, and not all of them are equally as compelling. Knowing this ahead of time, I made sure to play the game differently this time around. I chose a path through the story that I hadn’t previously experienced, and chose to adventure with characters I hadn’t spent time with before. The result of this experiment granted me a newfound appreciation for the game’s characters and lore. I spent the bulk of my journey with Radius, Glenn, and Karsh, who are all part of the Acacia Dragoons, and Norris, who is a high-ranking member of the Porre Military. Because a good chunk of the game revolves around the mystery surrounding the Dragoons’ disappearances and Porre’s invasion of El Nido, having those characters in my party provided a lot of insight into the setting’s past and present.
The twist! [Minor spoilers for Chrono Cross in this section!] …Ok, you’ve been warned… About a third of the way through Chrono Cross, Serge, the protagonist of the story, switches bodies with Lynx, the game’s antagonist. It’s actually super cool and pretty shocking, but 20 years ago it pissed me off to no end. You don’t build up characters in RPG’s just to have them taken away (unless you’re Final Fantasy VII). So this time through the game, not only was I able to see the body swap coming, but I discovered a whole new appreciation for it from a storytelling point of view. Aside from being integral to the game’s plot, the body swap is used to explore themes of racism, fear, power, and existence. While you play as Lynx, some characters in the game respect you as a member of the military, while others fear and/or despise you for being a Demi Human. For the player, becoming Lynx opens some new doors, while also closing others, and in many ways feels like a wholehearted and mature attempt to explore the theme of racism. Beyond that, the game uses this time to ask the question: are we truly more than the sum of our outward appearances? Time and time again we’re told “what matters most is what’s on the inside”, and Chrono Cross asks us to explore that sentiment for truths, lies, and everything in between.
The El Nido Archipelago as seen in Chrono Cross’ World Map
Last but not least, let’s look at Cross’ ties to Trigger. One of my favorite parts about Chrono Cross this time around, are its ties to Trigger! As I mentioned above, it’s become apparent that Chrono Cross could never have existed without Chrono Trigger, because Cross’ entire plot derives from the events that transpire in Trigger. Time Eggs, Balthasar, Lavos, Lucca, Zeal— all that stuff (and more) from Chrono Trigger is in Chrono Cross as well. However, I imagine that for many, the connections between these two games (once the details become known) are heart-breaking. While Chrono Cross eventually makes time to explore the circumstances and effects certain characters’ deaths have on the Chrono timeline, the game admittedly takes quite a while to reach these parts. Therefore, fans of Chrono Trigger who play the game for a mere 20 or 30 hours may never even get to experience Cross’ connections to Trigger. Ultimately, I imagine the developers of Chrono Cross faced an insurmountable dilemma: stay true to themselves, truly pouring their hearts and souls into Chrono Cross in an attempt to create a game people will be talking about for decades to come… or simply give the fans more of what they wanted. I think they chose to follow their hearts, and personally, I think the Chrono saga is better for it.
Time heals all wounds.
Chrono Cross is a game that has only gotten better with time. I believe it’s a masterpiece, though a flawed one. But its flaws lie in its ambitious story, and as a storyteller myself, I can respect that. Chrono Cross’ story is one that, upon release, I’d argue was indigestible to much of its core audience, myself included. However, it’s now twenty-plus years after the game’s initial release, and thankfully we have the Chrono wiki’s and other resources to help clear up most of the confusion surrounding the game’s biggest concepts. I’m sure some will argue that having to seek outside resources just to understand a game’s story is bad storytelling, and I get that. However, for me personally, digging through Chrono Cross wiki’s was no different from reading through online lore docs for Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Nier, Zelda, or any of the countless video game wiki’s I’ve dug into over the years.
I can see why Chrono Cross isn’t a game for everyone, especially those who haven’t played Chrono Trigger (seriously, play Trigger before Cross). But that said, if you’re a fan of Chrono Trigger who, like me, gave up on Cross and wrote it off as confusing garbage, I think you owe Cross one more look. The game’s artwork is still breathtaking, the music is legendary, the characters (most of them anyway) are brimming with life, and its themes manage to resonate more than ever before. To top it all off, Chrono Cross’ story, as a continuation of the Chrono saga, ultimately reveals itself as one of the craziest, most epic, strange, bittersweet, and beautiful stories ever told in a video game. I’d go as far as to say… it’s timeless.
— Matt
Twitter: @FrozenFlameInt
Email: frozenflameinteractive@gmail.com
