Copyright © 2000 Square Co., Ltd.

While Square continued to put out masterpiece after masterpiece in their FINAL FANTASY line of RPGs, and even made two sequels for their ROMANCING SAGA franchise, one RPG that seemed to have been forgotten was CHRONO TRIGGER. This epic RPG released on the SNES (or Super Famicom in Japan), was arguably one of the greatest RPGs of all time, but a sequel was never made. Finally, after so many years, Square has seen fit to release a worthy sequel to CHRONO TRIGGER, in the form of CHRONO CROSS for the Sony PlayStation. With stunning graphics, masterful execution, and story and characters to die for, CHRONO CROSS is truly one of the all-time great RPGs.
The basic premise of the game is simple: you play Serge, a normal, everyday young man, who's loved and respected by everyone in his small fishing village. Meeting up with Leena at the beach, you experience a strange "distortion" of some kind, and when you awaken, you find yourself on the same beach, but everyone's gone. You go back to your village only to discover that they don't know you. In fact, there was a "Serge" that lived in the village, but he died ten years ago! From there you slowly discover that you were the victim of some type of Time Warp, and that this is an alternate, parallel universe. Soon, you find a way to traverse back and forth between both worlds! In an attempt to solve the mystery surrounding yourself and this Time Warp, you meet some of the very same people throughout both worlds, but their histories and stories and dialogs are different (sometimes vastly), and this adds to a wonderful, indelible charm. It's like a light-hearted mystery of sorts, and from there the story and game take off to epic proportions. To describe any more of it would spoil it, but suffice to say that the game is worth it. The best ending in the game the first time through (more on this later) is stunning, slightly sad and completely masterful.
Like its predecessor (which used Toriyama "Dragon Ball" Akira as the lead artist), CHRONO CROSS features another super star artist for its character designs: Yuuki Nobuteru, the master artist behind such anime hits as BATTLE ANGEL, the RECORD OF LODOSS WAR OVA and ESCAFLOWNE. Indeed, this is some of his greatest work, with beautiful, simple and creative designs for all the characters, most notably Kid, the cute and spunky female heroine.
Even though this is a PlayStation 1 game, it features some of the most stunning, gorgeous and creative art for a PlayStation game ever. The backdrops are wonderfully rendered, showing off very unique and wonderful locales, from the crystal blue waters and white sand beaches of your fishing village, to the stunning Dragon Islands, Square's masterful artistry never lets up. The 3D models are also wonderfully well done, and they look very similar to their 2D hand-drawn portraits, which is never an easy task. The game is littered with stunning CG movies here and there, and no more mention needs be made; they are as always, the best in the world. The CG version of Kid is especially stunning, with subtle facial features and emotions very discernible (with no voice-overs), which shows just how good the CG is.
Finally the spell effects are again, solid and stunning—it seems Square took notice of certain gamers' complaints about "long summoning times" when casting the epic, minutes-long summons of FINAL FANTASY VII and VIII, and now the spells are usually very quick and to the point, and even the final summons that you can gain are pretty short. But don't interpret that as a sign of sacrifice of quality, nothing could be further from the truth. It is still as over-the-top as ever; just more concise.
The music is one of the most stunning aspects of CHRONO CROSS, with veteran Square composer, Mitsuda Yasunori returning to score the soundtrack. As hard as it is to believe, his compositions here top his previous high watermark—the original CHRONO TRIGGER soundtrack! The end song, "Radical Dreamers," is a stunning, slightly melancholy yet romantic song, with beautiful vocals by Mitose Noriko. Square USA should be commended for keeping this original Japanese song intact.
And to top off the total package is the stunning gameplay. Square again pushed the limits of RPGs, redefining the gameplay experience once more. There are no "mana points (MP)" in this game. Instead there is an Element system, where you gain "slots" to add a magic spell to. You can only fill that slot with one magic spell, or an item. In battle, you need to "charge up" your level of power by attacking enemies. When you gain enough power, then you can cast magic. Once you use up the magic spell in that slot, it is gone for the rest of the battle. It sounds limiting but it's quite the contrary. Battles become much more strategic; you can't just repeatedly and mindlessly cast the same "most powerful spell" over and over and just win. Now you must deal with power levels, arrange your spells the right way, and so on and so forth. There are also affinities for each person that affect how well a spell does. For example, Kid is a "Fire Affinity (red)" character. That's her innate element of choice. If she casts Fire Spells, she'll do more damage, or they are more effective. Opposite affinity spells will do more damage to her. It sounds pretty complicated, but in truth, it's really easy to pick up, and that's the beauty of Square RPGs—easy to learn, great depth and simple learning curve, with lots of deeper strategies that develop throughout the game.
Finally, the most unique aspect of CHRONO CROSS' gameplay is the sheer amount of characters that can join your party and endings. There are over forty (40!) characters that you can potentially get into your party. Each one of them has their own side story, and special abilities. This alone is massive replay value. You can pick your favorite characters and take them through the game and find out about their side stories. In addition, there are twelve different endings in the game! And they are all vastly different. In short, it is amazing.
In conclusion, Square's CHRONO CROSS is a masterpiece RPG. Despite it being on the aging PlayStation 1 console, it is still hands-down one of the best RPG and gaming experiences you can have. So for anyone looking for a great game to play, look no further than CHRONO CROSS. The beautiful story, wonderful characters and subtle, yet beautiful environments and atmosphere will draw you in and take you to another time. Outstanding.

Rating: 9.5 / 10

Sony PlayStation
RPG
1 player
SLUS-01041/01080
$49.95
Available now in the USA
Where to buy