Information AboutChrono Cross |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CHRONO CROSS | |
| 1999 video games | |
| chrono series | |
| playstation games1999 video games | |
| chrono series | |
| playstation games | |
''Chrono Cross'' (クロノ・クロス ''Kurono Kurosu'') is a PlayStation RPG created by Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix ) with a story that builds upon '' Chrono Trigger ''. However, ''Chrono Trigger'' team members Hironobu Sakaguchi (Supervisor), Yuji Horii (Supervisor, Initial Scenario Writer), and Akira Toriyama (Character Design) were not a part of the ''Chrono Cross'' development team, and their absence is very noticeable. Indeed, few of the original staff participated on the game as they had been reassigned to different teams over the years. Character design for ''Chrono Cross'' was done by '' Escaflowne '' character designer Nobuteru Yūki . In 1996 , ''Chrono Trigger'' had a Side Story released in Japan called '' Radical Dreamers '' for the Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom (SNES), but was an illustrated Text Adventure . When ''Chrono Cross'' was being designed, parts of the plot and characters of ''Radical Dreamers'' were used. However, ''Chrono Cross'' cannot be viewed as a mere remake of ''Radical Dreamers'' as they have a lot of differences and incompatibilities. ''Chrono Cross'' was released in United States in 2000 and features music composed by Yasunori Mitsuda . The game was hailed by professional reviewers, but some ''Chrono Trigger'' fans denounced it as an inferior sequel. In some cases, this is a result of these players wanting to control the old cast of ''Chrono Cross'' Like the majority of Square productions, ''Chrono Cross'' has yet to be granted an official European release. Square has cited a combination of economic and technical expenses involved with formatting the game for PAL territories as the reason behind not converting this game for release in Europe. PLOT The story of ''Chrono Cross'' revolves around the character Serge, the protagonist, who, as a small child, is supposed to drown, but is saved by a powerful force. The resulting shift in the world's history creates two distinct parallel Dimension s. In one dimension, he survives and lives for 10 years before the game begins. In the Alternate Dimension , he drowns in a beach near his home. The plot itself revolves around Serge's unknowing efforts to free , the ultimate enemy from ''Chrono Trigger'' with the capacity to destroy the planet, and Schala , a princess of Zeal and sister of Magus with immense magical power who has disappeared into the Darkness Beyond Time due to an accident. Years in the future, Belthasar, a former guru of Zeal, discovered that the Time Devourer had formed and planned to consume all spacetime; he thus set in motion an almost ludicrously complex chain of events meant to give rise to and guide Serge to venture to the Time Devourer and use an artifact known as the ''Chrono Cross'' to restore the dimensions to one and free Schala from Lavos's grasp. While the plot is sound, its delivery is criticized by some as excessively complex. Unlike ''Chrono Trigger'', in which the basic plot is simple and straight-forward, much of the dialogue throughout the game of ''Chrono Cross'' must be read carefully in order to make sense of the story. Because some ''Chrono Cross'' players do not listen to much of the game's characters, they mistakenly accuse the plot of being weak and senseless. Thus, many players resort to guides, such as the following link, to understand the story's intricacies. {Link without Title} While ''Chrono Cross'' incorporates elements from ''Radical Dreamers'', the stories of the two games are incompatible. To resolve the scenario continuity issue and to acknowledge the existence of ''Radical Dreamers'', the designers suggested that the events of Radical Dreamers did happen, but took place in a parallel Dimension . This can be found by reading one of the computer consoles in Chronopolis, a city which was pulled back in time due to a failed experiment. Chronopolis now monitors the El Nido Archipelago, in an attempt to prevent a paradox from occurring which would prevent its existence in the future. The most notable difference is that Magus is absent from the game. While confirmed to be Magil in Radical Dreamers by both the game and its creator, Magus does not assume the identity Guile in ''Chrono Cross'', as is commonly assumed. It was noted in an interview that the developers originally planned for Magus to be in the game, but scrapped the idea due to difficulties representing his story amongst forty-three other characters. CHARACTERS There are 44 characters normally (Lynx unlockable through an odd twist in the gameplay), with six Elements for each of them. While the presence of six elements is a departure from ''Chrono Trigger'' The game has 45 possible party members to acquire, all of whom come with several abilities of their own, with some combining into Double and Triple Techs. Because of the incredibly vast number of possible party combinations, the North American version of the game contains a system to modify base text for each character's accent. Whereas other games would need to program different blocks of text for each character, this game uses the same text and modifies it based on the character using it. This was done so that a North American localization would be possible. An example of its coding in the script: Member Name: l.et's2 .go.suffixe, Serge.. the w.ater1 .Dr3agon .mus1t .be. be.yondth1is1 .point... White innate characters White is a more mystical element than others, encompassing light, holiness, and healing. One of the characters with a White element is a religious person. White innate characters have access to the most powerful healing spells in the game. White corresponds to ''Chrono Trigger''
Black innate characters Black is a darker element than others. Two of the characters with a Black element are undead or spirits. Great with offensive magic. This roughly corresponds to the "Shadow" element from ''Chrono Trigger''.
Red innate characters Red innate characters have a high focus on power. Many of the Red characters are some of the most powerful. Naturally, red is the element of fire and lava. In ''Chrono Trigger'', it was simply called, "Fire".
Blue innate characters Blue innate characters are good healers and offensive magic users. Leena is one of the best healers. Blue is the element of water and ice. This matches ''Chrono Trigger'', in which Marle uses ice magic but as labeled "Water" like Frog.
Green innate characters Green innate characters are good healers as well as good offensive magic users, like Razzly, and also good with physical attacks, like Glenn and Karsh. Green is the element of air and nature. It has no equivalent in ''Chrono Trigger''.
Yellow innate characters Great offensive fighters. Some of the most powerful characters, especially Leah. Yellow magic is rooted in electricity and earth. However, it does not correspond with any element in ''Chrono Trigger''; ''Trigger''
Returning characters Six characters from ''Chrono Trigger'' return in the sequel. These characters, however, are Not Playable and only make brief appearances, though some fans have speculated that some of the game's player characters are in fact ''Chrono Trigger'' characters (especially Magus) going by another name. Even so, there is a severe amount of confusion as to what truly became of them during the gap between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross.
Character relationships It is revealed at many points different relationships between playable and non-playable characters. Here's a list of relationships.
MUSIC A three- CD official soundtrack was released soon after the game, and eventually sold out. Yasunori Mitsuda noted in the OST's liner notes that he was happy to accomplish even half of what he envisioned in terms of transferring his ideas to the Playstation's sound capabilities. He also named several influences in the liner notes, including a Mediterranean theme, Fado music, African percussion and old music from several cultures — most notably Celtic. After ''Chrono Cross'' was completed, Mitsuda personally undertook a playthrough to observe how the tracks matched up to their correspondent scenes and settings in the game. Though the ''Chrono Cross'' OST sold out a year or two after its release, SquareEnix recently reissued it due to popular demand. Currently, the only legitimate way to purchase the soundtrack is through Amazon Japan {Link without Title} . Amazon Japan will gladly ship overseas and does feature English support for its pages. AWARDS/RATINGS This is a list of various awards and overall ratings that the game has so far received.
Also, GameSpot has reviewed over 1100+ games and has only given 4 of them a perfect 10/10. ''Chrono Cross'' is one of them. As of January 2006, Rottentomatoes.com gives a rating of 92% for ''Chrono Cross'', Gamerankings.com provides a rating of 93%, and the fan ratings on GameSpot averages to 9.3/10. "CHRONO BREAK" Square applied for a trademark for the name '' Chrono Break '' in the U.S., late 2001, resulting in speculation by fans of the possibility of a sequel. However, the trademark was dropped in the United States on November 13 , 2003 , confirmed by the United States Patent And Trademark Office . The trademark still stands in Japan, where it was registered as ''Chrono Brake''. It is suspected that the project had been planned at one point (with one of the original ''Chrono Trigger'' project leads at the helm, and not the ''Chrono Cross''/'' Xenogears ''/'' Final Fantasy XI '' staff), but cancelled before production could begin. Focus on other games such as the Final Fantasy series may have also contributed to Square's abandonment of this title. PACKAGING ARTWORK |
|
|