overdrive's Chrono Cross review

This was like having a really good conversation about the downfalls of Chrono Cross with a good friend. One of those reviews of the game which makes me glad, because I don't have to write one, now. The only part I disagree with is "it's a great junk food game that goes by quickly." Chrono Cross does NOT go by quickly. It's frickin' 60 hours long.

Though I guess if you just spammed the enter button on all the dialog, you could get through in about half the time.

Anyway, great job, Suskie.

I guess by "junk food goes by quickly", I mean just the actual game without the padding. I did about everything until the second disc, when I stopped trying to get L7 powers for characters I didn't use, as well as additional characters you only can get really late in the game and it took about 50 hours to beat it. Take away the unnecessary optional stuff that I did and it'd probably be about 40-45 hours.

Which, by today's standards, is next to nothing. Took about 70-80 to play FF XIII and still haven't done all the postgame marks. Or a western game like Skyrim, where you can put 100 in and not feel like you've done nearly all you can do.

It's crazy how RPGs have become time-eaters over the years. A far cry from Dragon Warrior and its one continent.

Yeah, in every way, I feel Chrono Cross is an example of trying to have one's cake and eat it too. Like how they go through great lengths to tell this complex, dreamlike story in a potentially fascinating setting and then fill it with too many characters to ever really connect. Or how they give us this big, beautiful world to explore and then limit the experience system in such a way that every minor battle after the first five or six between story-related bosses yields virtually no reward. Your review communicated all of that, so well done. And thanks for the comments, Masters.

Perhaps the greatest sin of Chrono Cross is that it isn't Chrono Trigger.

I disagree. I feel the greatest sin of Chrono Cross is that it is Chrono Cross.

This was a great review, Suskie. Probably one of your best, and one that I agree with wholeheartedly.

Don't forget, though, that Chrono Cross wants you to play it three frickin times in order to fully fill out your roster. There are three ways to approach Viper Manor the first time you go there and each bags you a different set of characters. Incidentally, that was one thing I did enjoy about the game, was how the branching paths really are different. The whole thing where you have to decide whether or not to save Kid leads to two entirely different games, which lasts a long while until the sections dovetail again.

I vaguely remember some scene in Chrono Cross where the half naked rock star plays a concert and he flies around on stage with a bunch of faeries. Did that actually happen or am I making this up?

Everybody is expecting to play Mass Effect 3, and not Chrono Cross.

Get on with time.

I don't think I will like this game anymore :(

However I feel this has to do with the fact that JRPG's in general have not aged well at all (note: I haven't played one since around 2003 so things might've changed).

It totally happens, Genj. There's also a scene where a hideously old man turns you into kittens and you play as kittens as a while, a scene that takes place in one of Dali's paintings, and a Catman who dramatically shouts at the screen (ALL CAPS): YOU ARE THE CHRONO TRIGGER1!!

You know one thing that was really cool about Chrono Cross? That opening CGI movie that plays if you let the game sit too long at the intro scene. I think I've spent more time watching that intro than playing the game.

Okay, probably not, but I certainly enjoyed it more.

Oh hey, you didn't mention the terrible battle music. I suddenly feel like this review is somehow incomplete.

EDIT: oh wait, nevermind. There it is. This is a Chrono Cross review after all.

That opening movie is awesome. In fact, as long as you only watch it, the entire game is awesome! It's just the whole dealing with characters while going through the same dungeons repeatedly part that gets a person down...