LogFAQs > #885073589

Raganork posted...

I played Chrono Cross before Trigger, so there's no nostalgia or bias when I say Cross was a painfully dull experience.

I played Cross when I was around 23 and Trigger when I was 24 or so. And I've always felt like playing Trigger years after it was released - on the PS1 instead of the SNES, and after other, better RPGs had already come out - has played a very large role in why I've spent most of my time since not giving a single shit about it, and sort of shaking my head at the insane people who act like it was one of the greatest RPGs ever.

I wouldn't say Chrono Cross was a great RPG in and of itself (even at the time, I'd probably give the nod to Final Fantasy and Suikoden instead - and that's not even getting into non-JRPGs like Baldur's Gate or Deus Ex), but it felt light-years ahead of Chrono Trigger. For one thing, I found Cross' metaphysics to be far more interesting and entertaining than Trigger's (and the whole "change the past, change the future" mechanic had certainly appeared in other games by then). For another, the characters in Chrono Trigger had the distasteful taint of Toriyama on them (who we've discussed in regards to Dragon Warrior/Quest), and most of their personalities were bland at best and annoying at worst. So I never had the "Man Frog is so coolzors!" or "WOMG Magus is badass awesomesauce!" attitude so many 90s kids seemed to have about it.

With Chrono Cross, the "recruit 40+ allies, half of which are mostly nameless and lacking in personality" gimmick reminded me of how Suikoden handled the 108 Stars, so it was already a concept I had zero problems with (and honestly, I'd almost rather have a dozen generic allies than one who annoys the piss out of me). And while the art style was still a bit "cutesy", I vastly preferred Yuki's designs over Toriyama's (and Cross was designed for the PS1 while Trigger was designed for the SNES and only ported to the PS1), so Cross just looks better than Trigger to me in pretty much every possible way.

I also wasn't coming into the game as a Chrono Trigger fan who was pissed about "my" characters getting unceremoniously killed off or denied their own sequel, which I'm still absolutely convinced is at least a large part of why Cross gets most of its hate.

When it comes to gameplay I'm less likely to comment (considering my usual standard philosophy of narrative, character, and setting being far more important than mechanics for my personal enjoyment of any game), but at the time I don't remember considering either system to be appreciably better or worse than the other. They were both relatively serviceable, and honestly, if I had to give the nod to either on mechanics alone I'd probably still go with Cross if only because the elemental system seemed to force a slightly more tactical style of play, as you had to plan your moves in advance for maximum effect combos.

And Cross wins hands down when it comes to music, because Time's Scar alone is better than any song in the entirety of CT (including the oft-cited Frog's Theme, which I've always found meh at best).

Cross definitely bogged down at times, and I could easily accept the argument that it could be dull at times (though I'd probably disagree if you said the entire game was - I enjoyed the overall experience), but I'd also apply those same criticisms to Trigger, and I'd absolutely say that almost any problem I had with Cross was both present and worse in Trigger.


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