Chrono Cross

[MechDeus]

When I bought mine, GameStop (then Babbages) was giving away free soundtrack CDs with this and Legend of Mana (which is another game I love, and the haters can juggle my nuts). I got them both and they're still some of the best music to come out of anywhere, let alone a game.

Yeah, I can see mine from here. There was one other game they were giving stuff away for that summer, as they released three games a couple weeks apart and each had a bonus from preorders. Can't remember what it was, I think it was something I didn't want.

But I still need to get the full four-disc soundtrack, that thing is sweet as hell. I'm not sure what packaging it comes in, I hope it's more like the FFVIII soundtrack (large beige package with a beautiful insert book) then the FFIX one (simplistic typical CD case).

[Captain Vegetable]

Threads of Fate was the other game. I didn't want it either, but from what I understand it was pretty neat.

I, also, need to get that 4 disc OST. Let me see if I can't find a picture of the cover. Then you can tell me whether or not you approve.

[MechDeus]

Threads of Fate was the other game. I didn't want it either, but from what I understand it was pretty neat.

Nevermind, I guess do own that. It was alright gameplay-wise as it nothing special if you take out the art design and writing, but Mint was absolutely hysterical. I remember some cheap level design being in there and I never finished the second path. Maybe one day.

Yeah, the OST cover is pretty but I think it's just a regular double CD case. Doesn't really matter too much anyway.

[frostwolf ex]

I forget, all i know is that i wound up re-erasing it,and thinking i should have just kept the cc save.

[NeoZeedeater]

I liked Chrono Cross a lot but I got stuck at about the 10 hour mark. Some day I'll go back to it. I must say that that glam rock character was pretty lame.

[Kinopio]

I should first note that Chrono Trigger is my favorite game.

With that said, I feel that CC suceeded both as a sequel to my favorite game and as a standalone product. The music is unrivaled, really. Its just so beautiful and haunting.

I started playing it again eariler this summer, and it reinforced just how smart the gameplay is. No leveling up, automatically refilling characters HP, and lack of random battles. Brilliant! More RPGS need to get rid of the shackles of the genres past and make the game bearable to play, or maybe even, dare i say, entertaining.

On a final note to those new to the series, I must say that you should play CT before CC. The key scenes don't mean much to you unless you have played CT first.

[Son of Bryce]

I was appalled by the first screens of Chrono Cross too, lost all enthusiasm for it. When my friends got it and beat it I still never had any interest. I never got around to playing it till I got my PS2 and went on a PS1 RPG frenzy. After finally finishing Xenogears, I put some time into Chrono Cross. "It wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either", my opinion of the 10 or so hours I played.

... A year later I download the soundtrack and after a few listenings I get the urge to play again. A couple weeks ago, I went to Toys R Us and pick up Chrono Cross along with FF9 (first FF purchase in 5 years). Chrono just began to get interesting and that's all I have to ramble about as of now.

[NoFace]

Chrono Trigger still ranks among my favorite games. That said, I had *huge* expectations for Chrono Cross, but didn't like a lot of what they did with it, mostly in the story/characters department.

Gameplay I felt was indeed refreshing and quite fun, lots of neat ideas present. Graphically it's easily one of the best looking games for it's system, so no gripes there. Character design however, I didn't like. Even though it's by the same artist who did the designs for Escaflowne (which I thought had some cool ones), I don't think what they produced for CC was that great.

Related to characters, here's probably my biggest gripe with the game. Having so many characters at your disposal meant most all of them only got developed somewhat... you could never really grow to love any of the characters quite like you could the main cast of Chrono Trigger. And this is just a personal gripe, but I wish there were more connections to the first game.

And yea, like it's been said a thousand times, the music is just top notch. I love all of what Yasunori Mitsuda does, and a lot of the tracks produced for this game rank high on the Mitsuda "best of" list (IMO).

And yea, Threads of Fate... fun game. Very easy, but it had a great atmosphere and also great music (I forget the composer's name though). If you like action-RPGs, it's certainly an enjoyable diversion.

[Compass]

Chrono Cross, Dew Prism, and Legend of Mana all came out within a few months and were part of Square's "Summer of Adventure" promotion if I recall. They all came with soundtracks if you preordered them. CC is the only one I bought right away so that's the only promo-CD I got.

I never bothered listening to the single (I still have it somewhere) because it wasn't long after I finished the game that I bought the full soundtrack for like $40. This is significant because I *never* buy videogame soundtracks (in fact, this might be my only one). Great stuff on there as several people have mentioned. The game itself though...

Well, I liked it. And I loved Kid. And a couple other of the ancillary characters were interesting. But overall I can't see all the fuss. I played CT when it came out (i.e. a loooooong time ago) so I was *real* hazy on what happened in that game by the time I started CC. Basically all the cool tie-ins were lost on me 'cause I couldn't remember what happened in CT. I also was kinda burned out on RPGs when I played it so I don't know, maybe it was brilliant and I just played it at the wrong time.

Now, Legend of Mana on the other hand.... lol, this game crashed and burned in so many ways except for one: the art style (er, two, the overhead map music was nice). What the hell was with the instrument-making? And using them to lure those little spirits or whatever. And what was the significance of the moon phases and stuff when placing artifacts. I don't know, it all seemed overly complex with too little instruction. And the battles were a boring joke. Oh, I really tried to like this game mostly due to the art and nice map music (I'm a sucker for pretty tunes). I restarted it twice and got pretty far the second time. Ultimately though it just felt hollow and way too homework-like to continue.

p.s. I loved the cactus guy who'd jump up after you left your room and write little blurbs about your latest finished chapter. He wrote some very cute things in there.

Dew Prism (Threads of Fate is a gay name), I have and will play someday soon. I'm looking forward to Mint and her sassy ways.

[Lordmrw]

count me in as another who started the game but stopped playing for some reason. its not that i hate it, because after i put some time in, everything i didn't like i easily forgot about. i think it just wasn't my time to play it yet. thanks to my dexdrive, i still have my save, so i think someday when i finally get around to finishing xenogears, i'll get back to it.