Chrono Cross vs. Chrono Trigger

I had fonder memories with Cross.

With the ER currently running, an interest in finishing Chrono Cross has been stirred inside me. As I play the game, I realize that Chrono Cross did everything a sequel should do: it's not tied down to the tropes, characters, or plot of the first game and creates an entirely new gameplay system that builds on the ideas of the original. However, as much as I think Chrono Cross is clearly the better game, I'm sure some of you out there hated the changes and think the original is superior. Share your thoughts: which is the better game?

Didn't chrono cross have a great soundtrack?

I think I vaguely remember the music being awesome.

EDIT: Yeah, I youtube'd some tracks. Chrono Cross definitely had some amazing music. And I rarely care about soundtracks.

@Doctorchimp: It is indeed some of the best music (edit: from a game) I've ever heard. The battle music gets old after awhile, but the breadth of music is just incredible. There's even a nice little homage to the victory music from the original, with a slight melancholic twist.

Did you just compare a pound of poop to a pound of Belgian chocolate? I'll let you figure out which is which. 

Cross was okay but it was just too damn weird for me. I wasn't a huge fan of the million interchangeable party members thing either.

@Doctorchimp said:

Didn't chrono cross have a great soundtrack?

Only redeemable aspect of that POS....

Okay, I guess the world it took place in was vibrant and colorful, but outside of that, you are a bad person if you like chrono cross! >:|

Trigger is the only answer.

No contest, Crono Cross was a blast to play, but Chrono Trigger will always hold a higher value in my heart.

Never played Chrono Cross. I know it got fantastic critics, but I don't think I can play any polygonal game from that era anymore, it's that step between great 2D art and good polygonal models.

Chrono Trigger is amazing.

Edit: Looked at some screenshots, doesn't look as bad as I remembered, oh well.

Cross had better music, a really cool premise with pretty, (for the time) colorful graphics, and probably the best gameplay system ever in an RPG. Unfortunately, the story and characters were shit.

Chrono Trigger is the better game, sorry. Cross is fine enough, but the story gets so convoluted and up its own ass eventually that the whole second half of that game is just a blur to me.

I remember you becoming that other guy, and then Crono, Marle, and Lucca making some weird guest appearance because... of... something? As far as I can tell it's not even the same world, so, I don't know why they even showed up in the game. And if it IS the same world why is it completely not the same world at all (you clearly see the world map from all of the time periods in Trigger and the place that Cross takes place in does not exist in any of them.) Oh, and science. I think.

I also don't ever remember caring about ANY of the characters in Cross. There were simply too many of them. It was like they tried to go for a Suikoden type roster, except then never gave you any reason to care about any of the characters because the story didn't matter one bit. Because Cat-man, Surge, something something, science, austrialian girl was tied to Trigger, and Crono, Marle, and Lucca. And then randomly there were dragons.

ahhh, I loved chrono cross.

That is all.

@FateOfNever said:

Chrono Trigger is the better game, sorry. Cross is fine enough, but the story gets so convoluted and up its own ass eventually that the whole second half of that game is just a blur to me.

I remember you becoming that other guy, and then Crono, Marle, and Lucca making some weird guest appearance because... of... something? As far as I can tell it's not even the same world, so, I don't know why they even showed up in the game. And if it IS the same world why is it completely not the same world at all (you clearly see the world map from all of the time periods in Trigger and the place that Cross takes place in does not exist in any of them.) Oh, and science. I think.

I also don't ever remember caring about ANY of the characters in Cross. There were simply too many of them. It was like they tried to go for a Suikoden type roster, except then never gave you any reason to care about any of the characters because the story didn't matter one bit. Because Cat-man, Surge, something something, science, austrialian girl was tied to Trigger, and Crono, Marle, and Lucca. And then randomly there were dragons.

That inconsistency is explained in the game...by an NPC speaking outside of a textbox in the middle of a Disc 2 dungeon so packed with text that you end up ignoring most of what is written. (The reason is science and time travel, by the way.)

I was a big Cross fan back in the day. The battle system is fun if very easy, the graphics were top of the line for PS1 games, and the soundtrack is my favorite among all video games. I could easily pop CC into my Playstation today and have fun completing it again. However, in terms of pacing, challenge, playable characters, and story motivation, the game has some major shortcomings that could turn away new players or those not accustomed to the lunacy of pre-modern JRPGs. Chrono Trigger is a game I would sum up as being "graceful" - battles are fast-paced, pacing is usually spot-on, characters are memorable and not annoying, and the soundtrack is about as good as it gets. Cross just gets too many things wrong for me to rank it with Trigger, though nostalgically it remains in my All-Time Favorites list.

Everything I have played of Chrono Trigger suggests that it is the top-tier classic it is remembered as. Whereas, everything I've heard about Chrono Cross basically relates back to the part where the story goes off the deep end somewhere halfway through.

Both Trigger and Cross have great music composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. Many melodies in Chrono Trigger can be found in Chrono Cross.

Both games differed in their plot - Trigger was centered on time travel, while Cross focused on multiple dimensions. I appreciated the tie-ins of the characters from both games (Glenn/Frog, Balthasar, Magus/Janus, Lucca, Scala, etc.), but the story itself was very confusing for me. I was bothered with the fact that Chrono Trigger's story involved the entire planet, while Cross was focused on a single archipelago. It seemed to me the game could have just been its own, without being tied back to Chrono Trigger.

I thought there were too many characters to manage in Chrono Cross than in Trigger. Some characters, secret or regular, just didn't seem necessary to be a part of the actual party.

It's easy for me to select Chrono Trigger over Chrono Cross any time.

@Oobir said:

@FateOfNever said:

Chrono Trigger is the better game, sorry. Cross is fine enough, but the story gets so convoluted and up its own ass eventually that the whole second half of that game is just a blur to me.

I remember you becoming that other guy, and then Crono, Marle, and Lucca making some weird guest appearance because... of... something? As far as I can tell it's not even the same world, so, I don't know why they even showed up in the game. And if it IS the same world why is it completely not the same world at all (you clearly see the world map from all of the time periods in Trigger and the place that Cross takes place in does not exist in any of them.) Oh, and science. I think.

I also don't ever remember caring about ANY of the characters in Cross. There were simply too many of them. It was like they tried to go for a Suikoden type roster, except then never gave you any reason to care about any of the characters because the story didn't matter one bit. Because Cat-man, Surge, something something, science, austrialian girl was tied to Trigger, and Crono, Marle, and Lucca. And then randomly there were dragons.

That inconsistency is explained in the game...by an NPC speaking outside of a textbox in the middle of a Disc 2 dungeon so packed with text that you end up ignoring most of what is written. (The reason is science and time travel, by the way.)

Yeah, after I wrote that I decided to check out the Wiki for Cross to see what it said about the story. Honestly, I don't remember the whole lavos-schala thing at all. Actually, reading about it kind of reminded me of FF9 and how you apparently spend most of the game doing one thing, just for at the second to last minute someone to go "oh no, wait, here's the real bad guy!" and then at the last second they go "But here's the REAL real bad guy!"

I don't remember actively hating Cross or anything though, I remember it being an ok game and enjoying it when I played through it when I was younger. But the fact that I remember so little about it's plot

really means I don't look back on the game that fondly.

The story for Trigger, I think, works so well because although it might be complicated in spots, it's still a rather simple story - Accidental time travel, mini-adventure, trouble, desperate time travel, discovery that the future is awful, try to fix the future. They get to the heart of what you're trying to do really early in the game and then everything else just ends up being twists and turns of you learning the truth about Lavos (At least so long as you're not playing the DS version and its bonus dungeons/ending, then it gets more complicated/weird) but it's all always in service of the final goal. It doesn't pull the rug out from under you at the last minute (least not in a meaningful way) and it never tries to pull a siwtcheroo on you in regards to the villain or your goal that you set out to do in the first few hours of the game.

Cross, on the other hand, goes freaking crazy in the latter half. It starts fine enough from what I remember, but then you have

and there's even more stuff than that. I mean, Trigger has some crazy stuff in it too, but it's all usually in favor of fleshing out the world and the different time periods, and most of it is side quest stuff that directly relates to the stories of the individual characters. The stuff in Cross is all part of the main story and all comes flying at you at ludicrous speed in the latter part of the game, seemingly because "we need to tie this to Chrono Trigger somehow."

At the same time, I'm truthfully sort of tempted to throw Cross in and play through it again, just to see how it all plays out again. It all sounds insane from the story summary on the wiki page, and thusly doesn't surprise me I forgot most of it (like I did with FF9.) And maybe I'd appreciate it more now, but, I think I more or less agree with the second part of your post.

After reading a Let's Play of it, I would not mind playing Cross. It would have to show up on PSN though, I don't want to have to hunt down a copy.

Ludicrous Speed.

If you start it again, do a blog about it. I remember getting really dis-interested during the guitar-playing minigame. -_-;

@Beforet said:

After reading a Let's Play of it, I would not mind playing Cross. It would have to show up on PSN though, I don't want to have to hunt down a copy.

Supposedly it just made it's way to PSN this last month or so. At least according to a topic on the forums. Don't know if it's accurate or not (as I don't own a PS3, but, figured I'd mention it.)

They're both really good. Trigger has the better story but is more straightforward. Cross is more complex, and has a great twist half-way through, but sort of falls apart at the end. They both have really good combat systems. Both have great music. Both had great graphics for their time.

BUT, Trigger seemed more fun to me overall. I guess it was due to the light-hearted nature of it. Plus Cross' ending sort of left a bad taste in my mouth.

The only good thing about chrono cross was the soundtrack.

@FateOfNever said:

@Beforet said:

After reading a Let's Play of it, I would not mind playing Cross. It would have to show up on PSN though, I don't want to have to hunt down a copy.

Supposedly it just made it's way to PSN this last month or so. At least according to a topic on the forums. Don't know if it's accurate or not (as I don't own a PS3, but, figured I'd mention it.)

So it did! And it's 10 bucks, so clearly enough people liked it if Sony is willing to price it the same as FFVII. Now I get to eat my words by not actually buying it. Money's tight, what can I do?

I also noticed that Breath of Fire IV is on PSN. Apparently that's something of a classic. It's also cheaper, so I'd probably buy that first.

@Beforet said:

@FateOfNever said:

@Beforet said:

After reading a Let's Play of it, I would not mind playing Cross. It would have to show up on PSN though, I don't want to have to hunt down a copy.

Supposedly it just made it's way to PSN this last month or so. At least according to a topic on the forums. Don't know if it's accurate or not (as I don't own a PS3, but, figured I'd mention it.)

So it did! And it's 10 bucks, so clearly enough people liked it if Sony is willing to price it the same as FFVII. Now I get to eat my words by not actually buying it. Money's tight, what can I do?

I also noticed that Breath of Fire IV is on PSN. Apparently that's something of a classic. It's also cheaper, so I'd probably buy that first.

The $10 price point is just the Square-tax. I don't think it has much to do with the game's popularity.

@Pierce said:

Ludicrous Speed.

If you start it again, do a blog about it.

Way ahead of you my friend.

@JasonR86: There is that, you're right. I forgot that Sony doesn't practice much control over how third parties price goods on their service.

Cross is my favorite game of all time.

EDIT: Trigger is top five.

I've finished Chrono Trigger, but haven't played Cross. I am in absolutely love with both the music though, maybe Cross over Trigger though.

I really can't choose. I've played through Chrono Cross years ago, and I really liked it. The soundtrack is great, the mechanics work as advertised, the design and look of everything is just pretty to look at.
But the more I see of Chrono Trigger makes it seem so much better, the characters are way more developed, so far the story has been better and makes more sense than Cross, and I actually think the sprites give out more personality than the full polygonal party ever did.
But I won't decide until I know how Chrono Trigger plays for myself. I think they look like similarily good games with different merits.

Trigger might be a better game. I always liked Cross a little bit better though. The setting and atmosphere was so much more appealing than anime Europe. Still listen to the soundtrack now and then. The sheer scope of the music is incredible!

Chrono Cross was very good, but I love love love Chrono Trigger. I just re-played through the DS version.

If they focused more on a core group of characters instead of giving you a group of 30 uninteresting nobodies, it would've been great.

I actually LOVE the way it connected to Chrono Trigger... very atypical, but lot of nods if you pay close attention. Plus, it leaves room for a direct Trigger sequel that we'll never, ever, see.

Oh look, a double feature of mediocrity.

I really liked Chrono Cross but Trigger is a bit more fun for me. Maybe I should get back to Chrono Cross sometime (although that status effect outside of battle poop is horrible).