Chrono Cross

[Calliander]

How dare you.

Threads of Fate is a gay name mostly because Dew Prism was such a cool one. That there's an entire job whose sole duty is to mangle titles, names, cover-art, etc. to make them more palatable for Americans bothers me. I somewhat understand the need *at times* but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Changing the ultra-cool Dew Prism title to the generic and forgettable Threads of Fate was neither needed nor welcome. My guess is that the people with these jobs are worried they'll be fired if they *don't* change stuff.

Um, I think you've got it the wrong way around, my friend. "Dew Prism"? Number one, that name makes absolutely no sense. Number two, it sounds like a sex toy for people who have teh gay.

Threads of Fate was a cool name and the game was good.

Chrono Cross was a phenomenal game. Hands down, the best console RPG I've ever played. I only like two games more than Chrono Cross and they're both PC games - Heroes of Might & Magic 3 and Morrowind.

I can still play through CC over and over again and I can also sit there and watch someone else play.

[NoFace]

I just got to thinking, seeing as how Chrono Trigger was a collaboration from Square and some key people from Enix, plus Toriyama who seems to do most of his work for Enix, wouldn't it be great if Chrono Break (or whatever the next game will be) had a bunch of the Enix guys help out the CC team? I think that'd be a pretty nice outcome from the Square Enix merger.

I'm also thinking how a lot of the CT team now works at Monolith Soft, so maybe my babbling is pretty far off. Oh well.

The moral of the story is that I want Chrono Break or Chrono Something to get shown off soon. Thanks.

[sleeve]

"no returning characters from Chrono Trigger", or "the game wasn't enough like Chrono Trigger" is often the dumbest reason people cite for not liking Chrono Cross.

The entire fucking game plays like a love letter to CT. Every single aspect of it is somehow inspired by the game, from the music to the graphics to the story to the characters. Not only are almost all of the major CT protagonists present in some form in CC (as plot devices if never actually playable), but many of the CC playable characters are subtle tributes to CT, such as:

-Pierre, the French swordsman (he's a "Frog", get it?), who ironically is a complete coward
-Luccia, scientist and dead ringer for Lucca
-Glenn, another swordsman and Frog reference
-Serge, obviously a tribute to Crono
-Guile, another obvious one (Magus)

...plus a ton of other original characters and subtle references to CT.

Ultimately, the people who really appreciate CC are the ones who prefer subtlety and creativity over cookie-cutter, fan-service sequels. Sure, Square could have hired Toriyama again to draw up new characters and made "Chrono Trigger II", and that would have satisfied the fanboys, but it wouldn't have broken as much new ground. Instead they created a wildly original plot filled with beautiful CT tributes -- the Enertron in the Dead Sea, Glenn's story, the brief snippets of the main CT theme inserted into the Home World theme, and the moment you realize why the game plays Lucca's theme during the end-of-battle screen.

CC is at least as good as CT (I personally think it's better), and I don't understand why more people (CT fans especially) don't see this.

[NoFace]

Um, I think you've got it the wrong way around, my friend. "Dew Prism"? Number one, that name makes absolutely no sense. Number two, it sounds like a sex toy for people who have teh gay.

You obviously didn't play the game all that much. The Dew Prism was a very powerful relic that both Mint and Rue along with the villians were all searching for. So Dew Prism was a very appropriate name (and while I don't mind Threads of Fate anymore, I think Dew Prism was a better title. Neither one of them is "gay".)

[haohmaru]

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).

The Crono Cross OST is three discs, afaik, (in a four disc case). Includes a booklet with liner notes, interview with noriko mitose and has commentary from the people that made the soundtrack.

I think it's among the best soundtracks that I've ever heard, FFT included.

[Captain Vegetable]

Ultimately, the people who really appreciate CC are the ones who prefer subtlety and creativity over cookie-cutter, fan-service sequels.

I don't think this could have been put more succinctly. I agree.

[Shakey]

It was a great game, I think if it hadn't been the sequel to Chrono Trigger my initial experience would have been better. Once I looked at it independantly of CT the only real problem I had with it was the staggeringly low amount of character individuality that was instituted in order to cram a previously unheard of mass of playable characters into the game. It was absolutly gorgeous though, one of the best looking games I've ever played.

[Compass]

... in order to cram a previously unheard of mass of playable characters into the game...

suikoden series.

[burgundy]

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.

I pretty much agree with all of this, perhaps with less emphasis on the character criticism. Kid and Harle, however, were two of the most interesting characters I've ever seen in a game, and the world was chock full of back-handed references to the original.

What was everyone expecting? "Chrono and Marle had to save the planet from Lavos...again!"

I don't get what the problem with the under-developed characters in Chrono Cross is all about. The characters who the story focused mainly on (Serge, Kid, Lynx, Harle, etc.) were all fleshed out beautifully, and their design was some of the most colorful I've ever seen. Colorful is good. Very good, considering we live in the era of the dark, drab anti-hero. In fact, the singular problem I had with the design was the Masamune. It should have been a sword. I do like how Masa and Mune make a re-appearence, of sorts, but they should have been a sword.

The Masamune was a sword. It was the cursed sword by which Radius killed Darai and with which Dario attacked Karsh. Only after Doreen (Masa and Mune's older sister) merges with the blade does it become the Mastermune, the dual bladed ultimate weapon for Serge.

-Guile, another obvious one (Magus)

In Radical Dreamers, Guile was named Gil, and he was later revealed to be Magil, which is the Japanese name for Magus I believe. The connection was scrapped for Cross because of the difficulty in constructing a relationship between Kid and Guile, who would essentially be siblings in some very convoluted way. However, Lucca's letter to Kid mentions something like "say hi to Janus for me" which seems like a reference to Guile.

[Captain Vegetable]

I didn't really pick up on that Guile/Magus bit until this time through. You see, I never chose Guile as my guide to Viper Manor. Go friggin' figure. He is a dead ringer, though. I'm sure that's why he's got the mask. Not to add any measure of mistique, but to get speculating.