Re-visit of old classic
OK, I lied. I never played this game before but thought that it would be more logical to have such title. Why else would you want to play game from year 2000 nine years later. Well simply put and bit of background on me. I've been into videogames for closer to 25 years and even though I've been always interested in RPG's, but still I've missed most great JRPG's. Having just recently picked up and finished Chrono Trigger for DS (which btw is something I will return to for other endings one day, maybe when I retire). I though that I would play and review the fine sequel Chrono Cross. Played on the original platform of course.
Let's get started with the facts. The original Playstation graphics from 1999-2000 are of course no match for today's games. Having more or less avoided most of PS games back in the days I can not compare this to other games from same times. Nevertheless the graphics do look dated on my HD television but like any good game, it is not about the appearance. Having said that the background and scenery is bright and colourful and got no complains in this department, some of the buildings and the sea theme reminds me of Monkey Island, which is of course good thing. In the major story parts FMV is used and this looks really awesome, even still.
Now to the best part of the game, for me at least. The sound that is. I am guessing this is before the console's could handle full voice and that is something you surely won’t miss here. Who wants to hear annoying teenagers anyway? So the sound besides the music is minimal and this is in good way. The music instead is something else again. Would be perfect 10 had it not been the annoying combat theme with violins. Luckily there are fights with other theme but too many with this violin theme. The other themes have so catchy melodies that you will be humming them for hours. Even my wife was doing this, and she is not into videogames at all. Certain themes will give you a instant feel of the place. The general harbour town theme can be mentioned here.
About the game play and difficulty. Being a typical RPG with overall map and smaller locations to visit. Each such smaller location is pretty straight forward. Even if it is a dungeon or town. No chance of getting lost but still complex enough to give a challenge most times, well not the towns doh. Combat is traditional turn-based with normal physical, magical or defence/escape tactics. The magic, called techs in game are used as items instead of real magic and these also all have their own colour which give various benefits if the whole colour map is same colour or the enemy/your ally is innate to that specific colour and vice versa doing more damage if it is the opposite colour. The physical attack is broken down with stamina time, you are given seven points which you can distribute to different attacks. These attacks taking either 1-2-3 points, the last doing most damage but being least accurate to start with. Not too bad system, but you end up using the same kick ass spells, eer techs and same physical attack combos all over again. Tad automation had helped, but then again this leaves some option for strategic. The level upping has also been simplified from the traditional experience collecting. You get a new star from some of the major bosses which will upgrade your stats same time. Fighting normal monsters will give you a minor on update on the stats after new star level. This is limited so that there is no need for powerleveling. In the beginning I didn’t like the system but in the course of game I started to appreciate this simplified approach.
The difficulty level I found to be quite easy, not dumbfound easy. Only couple of the monsters gave me hard time, including the last one. Some mandatory puzzles are also included to break down the game a bit. Refreshing change but nothing else. On the weapon/armour customisation part I feel that more could have been done. The various loot from monsters can be used for crafting but this is more or less useless, at least after the first few weapons. On the weapon selection each character has one type weapon they can use and this can be upgraded when new rare materials are found. Same goes for the armour where you got two types for each class, vest and mail. In addition there are big collection of items that can be used on the third slot, well 3 items for this extra slot, which give small variation in the buff's and such, but again no change in the appearance.
The storyline, this being the juice of RPG is usually what makes or breaks the game. Well I won’t go too much into detail into this because the changes are that you already know what to expect here. This being a Playstation Square Enix RPG. Won't mention cliché’s because those are just required in these types of games. The few tie-ins with Chrono Trigger and its characters are interesting. Game has several endings as well and there are couple of major plot turns. The confusing start scene will pull you in straight away and most times will keep you coming back. Overall good story with multiple time dimensions, which sometimes are tad confusing especially with the characters. Speaking of the characters you will get to select two side-kicks any given time. These are met in different places and some of them have major impact in the storyline. You get to roam around with Mexican wrestler, 80's glam rocker, dragon baby, some sort of blob and some kind of android to name few. The vast selection is keeping the story interesting at least. Could have done without the generic language types still.
Generally it is hard to review a 10 year old game, especially when I never managed to play the game when it was out. Regardless I would still rate Chrono Cross as one the Playstation's top RPG's with few minor flaws. Definitely a game that still can keep up with toll of time, pun tended.
