LogFAQs > #885078004

It's actually been a while since I last played Cross, so I can't comment on what exactly all the issues were that I had with it, which is why I want to replay it. All I can remember was that I took issue with a number of gameplay decisions, but the specifics escape me at the moment.

I also remember a lot of the characters being differentiated by strange accents, which doesn't come across too well in a game with no spoken dialogue, largely because reading accents that are spelled-out phonetically is frustrating regardless of medium. This is a game that would have benefitted immensely from voice acting.

This also sort of stems from the problem I have with most games that carry large casts: it's too difficult to develop that many characters and assign them importance to the plot without them feeling underdeveloped or forced.

Cross has, what, 50-some characters, of which maybe 5 have any sort of meaningful impact to the story. That's fine-ish because most characters are optional, but even then, they largely feel present simply because woo, the more the merrier. Like the luchador, which is anachronistic considering there's no Mexico in the game. Why is he here? Who cares, you've got a luchador party member now!

I dunno. It just feels like, with Suikoden, yeah there were more characters, but they were developed better. For one, you're the resistance trying to scrounge together an army, so you'll take what help you can get. Recruiting these guys felt more relevant to the goals the main characters were trying to accomplish. Also, some of the characters weren't combatants. You'd recruit a chef to cook meals for your army, or an inventor to install an elevator in your castle. These little characters all contributed to the army's success in some way.

With Chrono Cross, what the fuck did the skeleton jester thing do? I'd much rather they'd have spent their efforts crafting a small party of tightly-written characters that I cared about, rather than 50 that I can scarcely remember.