The battle system deviates slightly from the RPG norm. The traditional active time bar has been replaced with a bar of seven stamina points. While the engine is still ostensibly turn based, any character can take a turn at any time as long as he has at least one stamina point remaining. Enemies can even interrupt your characters' attacks. Party members can unleash a weak, medium, or strong attack, requiring respectively one, two, or three stamina points. Even though the game pauses while waiting for input, the ability to start and end a character's turn whenever you please makes for a more frantic, pseudo-real-time experience.
Elements - Chrono Cross' magic system - are divided into six colors: black and white, red and blue, and green and yellow. Each character has a color alignment that determines his affinity to certain elements. Once you obtain a spell, you place it in an acceptable empty slot on a character's element grid. For example, a spell with level "5+/-2" is a level-five spell, but it can be placed in any slot from three to seven with the expected drop/rise in effectiveness. Successfully landing a weak, medium, or strong attack adds one, two, or three bars to a character's element grid. A character with sufficient element bars can cast a spell, but the cost is seven stamina points, temporarily dropping him out of action. Combine building element grids and plummeting stamina bars with the dynamic nature of characters' turns, and battles become a constantly shifting endeavor - yet always remain under your total control. Once you understand the intricacies of the battle system, encounters are always over quickly.
Two other features of the battle system are dual techs and the color field. As in the original Chrono Trigger, characters can combine their special techniques for combined attacks; while not as prevalent as might be expected, the combos are there to be discovered. The color field keeps track of the color of the last three spells cast. If the field becomes a single color, characters with that color alignment gain a statistical boost. Moreover, a monochromatic field is the only time when one of the game's mighty summons can be unleashed. Manipulating the field so that it becomes a single color is trickier than you might expect, as your opponents' spells (and interference) can't be ignored.
Chrono Cross has to be the most battle-friendly RPG ever released. All encounters are visible onscreen before they occur, making them easy to avoid - or to engage. Even more pleasantly, every battle can be escaped whenever you like with a 100 percent success rate. Even boss battles. Don't like the way the battle is going? Are your three red magicians hopelessly doomed against a blue powerhouse? Don't reset your console; just run away, regroup, and re-engage. And last but far from least, the option to automatically heal at the end of a battle is a boon from the RPG gods. Don't misunderstand; the game doesn't cure your party for free. But it will intelligently dig through your available spells and stocked inventory and use the necessary elements to return your party to fighting speed. Goodbye, post-battle trips to the status screen, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Chrono Cross also features a list of key items that can be selected and used on the overworld map and field screens. These items advance the plot, bypass obstacles, and recruit characters to your cause. While no one will fall head over heels in love with this gameplay "innovation," it does add an old-school adventure-game feel and an element of interaction with the environment that most console-RPGs lack.
Surprisingly, Chrono Cross' seemingly endless supply of characters works to its benefit, not to its detriment. The secret to its success? Every last one of the 40-plus members is a unique, story-driven, and valuable contributor. Unlike many cast-of-thousands RPG epics, each character in Chrono Cross is an interesting and worthy addition to your team. Everyone has a beautiful character model, excellently animated attacks, and even three unique limit-break-type special skills. There's even a miniquest or special requirement for every character's best skill - that's a lot of extra adventuring! While you'll certainly have your own handful of favorites, you'll never add someone to your party and wonder, "Why is he in the game?" There are no disposable placeholders in Chrono Cross.
Even more surprising is the amount of unique text in the game. There is no dialogue spoken by "assorted other party members." All characters have their own reactions to and feelings about the story's events that are expressed in their own special dialects, speech patterns, and dialogue styles. Moreover, many exchanges are only found by having certain characters in your party. If your opponent has a history with one of your members, the two of them will hash it out before you fight. If one of your characters has an experience he feels pertains to the situation at hand, the character will share it with you. Hopefully, Square's localizers will be up to the formidable task presented by Chrono Cross.
Chrono Cross has to be the most battle-friendly RPG ever released. All encounters are visible onscreen before they occur, making them easy to avoid - or to engage. Even more pleasantly, every battle can be escaped whenever you like with a 100 percent success rate. Even boss battles. Don't like the way the battle is going? Are your three red magicians hopelessly doomed against a blue powerhouse? Don't reset your console; just run away, regroup, and re-engage. And last but far from least, the option to automatically heal at the end of a battle is a boon from the RPG gods. Don't misunderstand; the game doesn't cure your party for free. But it will intelligently dig through your available spells and stocked inventory and use the necessary elements to return your party to fighting speed. Goodbye, post-battle trips to the status screen, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. Chrono Cross also features a list of key items that can be selected and used on the overworld map and field screens. These items advance the plot, bypass obstacles, and recruit characters to your cause. While no one will fall head over heels in love with this gameplay "innovation," it does add an old-school adventure-game feel and an element of interaction with the environment that most console-RPGs lack. Surprisingly, Chrono Cross' seemingly endless supply of characters works to its benefit, not to its detriment. The secret to its success? Every last one of the 40-plus members is a unique, story-driven, and valuable contributor. Unlike many cast-of-thousands RPG epics, each character in Chrono Cross is an interesting and worthy addition to your team. Everyone has a beautiful character model, excellently animated attacks, and even three unique limit-break-type special skills. There's even a miniquest or special requirement for every character's best skill - that's a lot of extra adventuring! While you'll certainly have your own handful of favorites, you'll never add someone to your party and wonder, "Why is he in the game?" There are no disposable placeholders in Chrono Cross. Even more surprising is the amount of unique text in the game. There is no dialogue spoken by "assorted other party members." All characters have their own reactions to and feelings about the story's events that are expressed in their own special dialects, speech patterns, and dialogue styles. Moreover, many exchanges are only found by having certain characters in your party. If your opponent has a history with one of your members, the two of them will hash it out before you fight. If one of your characters has an experience he feels pertains to the situation at hand, the character will share it with you. Hopefully, Square's localizers will be up to the formidable task presented by Chrono Cross.
Graphically, Chrono Cross is nothing short of stunning. While Square's Final Fantasy is glossy and polished, Chrono Cross has an organic feel lacking in the former's "perfect" environments. Vibrant color, creative design, and just the right number of ambient effects bring the settings to life. Again, while Final Fantasy drops your characters into a small subsection of a large, epic environment, Chrono Cross lets you explore every nook and cranny of a scandalously detailed town, building, or dungeon. While we don't intend to slight Final Fantasy's excellent graphics and design, many gamers will prefer the more down-to-earth, personal, and "gritty" feel of Chrono Cross. Environments are well worn and lived in, not newly constructed movie sets.
Battle graphics are also excellent. Characters and enemies are universally well modeled, textured, and animated. Camera movement, for the most part, always offers a great view of the action. Special accolades should be given to the spell effects; while they're impressive and suitably over-the-top, they're also short and fast.
Thankfully, the sound and music more than match the graphics. Sound effects are varied and always appropriate to the situation at hand. The music is, in a word, gorgeous, and it will undoubtedly bethe favorite part of the Chrono Cross experience for many players. Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda has returned and crafted a masterpiece. Composition and sample quality are both outstanding, and the soundtrack runs the emotional gamut, presenting everything from playful mambo jams to sorrowful violin solos. While many songs are new and unique to Chrono Cross, the influence of Chrono Trigger can definitely be heard. Some songs are rearrangements of Chrono Trigger tunes, while other songs merely tactfully reference a three- or four-note phrase that none but the most devoted series fans will recognize.
With Square agonizing over every detail of its flagship property, the members of the Chrono Cross team were apparently left mostly to themselves. Consequently, the game shares an all-out enthusiasm and joie de vivre found in the best 16-bit titles - back before games became multimillion-dollar properties that had to answer to glaring shareholders. Chrono Cross may not have had the largest budget, but it has the largest heart.
