Just picked up a vita and noticed that PSN is having another sale this week with both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross only being about $3.50. Is there one you'd recommend over the other? I've watched a bit of the Chrono Trigger ER so I'm semi-familiar, but wasn't sure if Chrono Cross made significant improvements, etc.
Most importantly, I just want a battle system I can comprehend and a story that's enjoyable. I have some traveling to do this summer, so I plan on using the Vita a bit with some "classic" rpg's.
Chrono Trigger is absolutely worth playing, although the Vita version (which is the PS1 version) isn't the best one to get. If you don't have a choice, however, you may as well pick it up. I can't think of another JRPG with a tighter combat system.
I may be in the minority, but I really hate Chrono Cross, particularly in the way it plays. I think it has one of the most boring combat systems I've ever seen. I didn't play more than a few hours though, so maybe it gets better later on? It's supposed to have a good story, but good god I can't make it that far.
From what you say, sounds like they'd both be good ways to spend time on your trip(s). They've got good length, the battle systems aren't too tricky, and I like the stories.
Chrono Trigger is absolutely worth playing, although the Vita version (which is the PS1 version) isn't the best one to get. If you don't have a choice, however, you may as well pick it up. I can't think of another JRPG with a tighter combat system.
I may be in the minority, but I really hate Chrono Cross, particularly in the way it plays. I think it has one of the most boring combat systems I've ever seen. I didn't play more than a few hours though, so maybe it gets better later on? It's supposed to have a good story, but good god I can't make it that far.
Your opinion mirrors my own. The Vita version is not the best version, but it's not a bad investment.
And I hate Chrono Cross. The combat system not being my thing was part of it, but the storyline makes the absolute worst attempts it can at shoehorning the plot and characters in the Chrono Trigger timeline. It's a game that would have been better served had it been its own thing and not treated as a sequel.
Chrono Cross is something of a love-it-or-hate-it type of game. I wish I loved it, but despite multiple attempts, I'm resigned to being in the other camp. Since it's pretty inexpensive, you could always buy it as a coin-flip purchase and gamble to see how you come down on the game. I am not able to recommend the game, myself.
I didn't finish either (have but never even played Chrono Cross). Those are games my brother played a lot of. Anyways, same can be said for Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Cross has a great soundtrack. The overworld theme is very pleasant. Why not buy both?
I'm gonna put in some love for Chrono Cross. Aside from having maybe the best soundtrack a video game has ever had, the world is fantastic and the cast large and well done. The story may be nonsense, but everything around it is worth seeing.
Chrono Trigger is definitely worth it. Chrono Cross is not as good, but I wouldn't say I hate it from what I can remember. I plan on trying to get them both during this sale, along with Tales of Symphonia and Soulcalibur V.
I never liked Chrono Trigger one bit. Not sure why. I got about a third to half way through and stopped. I watched the endurance run. Still don't think it's anything special.
My uncle found Chrono Cross at the dump and I gave it a try. It had potential but there is a reason it was at the dump; it was scratched up bad and would freeze at the first cutscene outside the starting town.
Chrono Cross has the best soundtrack of all video game time; other than that a pretty good game. Chrono Trigger is somewhat overrated but still an excellent game.
I dropped a couple hours (Like 5 or 6?) into Chrono Cross and I had zero fun. It made no sense, and I had no idea what was going on.
Chrono Trigger however? Yeah, you should play that. If you want to play a classic RPG; Chrono trigger will deliver on everything you want; Engaging combat, memorable characters and a soundtrack to blow your socks off! The PS1 (Vita?) version is totally fine, the only gripe would be the minor load times between areas and at the start of encounters, which might be alleviated by it being installed on the vita? My PS1 classics seem to load faster on my PSP than they're disk based counterparts so the load times may vanish entirely.
Chrono Cross is best if you look at it like its own thing, and not connected to Trigger. Because for like 97% of the game, it's completely unrelated anyway.
Those parts where an old name comes up? Merely a harmless reference. Nothing more.
If you can only play one, play Chrono Cross. It's a better game than Chrono Trigger, just like Majora's Mask is better than Ocarina of Time. Most people are smart enough to know this. :)
I loved Chrono Cross. I played it before Trigger, but I still feel like it's the better overall game. Fantastic combat, beautiful art, a cool story, incredible music. Also a ton of replay value with all the characters to find and endings to unlock.
They're both really, really good. Trigger has a much simpler story and a ton of charm, good combat and sick 16-bit bass. But Cross is the one that still sticks with me.
Chrono Cross is best if you look at it like its own thing, and not connected to Trigger. Because for like 97% of the game, it's completely unrelated anyway.
Those parts where an old name comes up? Merely a harmless reference. Nothing more.
Both are excellent. Cross just gets some flack for being such an odd choice in direction for a sequel. It is a fantastic jrpg in its own right, though.
Trigger is easily the best game ever, so it's a definite must buy even if it's the PS1 version with the load times. Cross...... even if your a fan of Trigger, Cross is a painful miss direction but it's nice in reminding what late 90s JRPG era was like.
I've given Chrono Trigger multiple chances over the years and I've always given up on it 15 hours in just because it's so incredibly boring in every way. Like, literally nothing it has to offer is interesting. I'm convinced it turns into a totally different game later on, because I just cannot see why people like this game if it continues on like that. Maybe you should give it a shot, though, since I seem to be the one person on the entire planet who does not adore this game. I'm actually probably gonna give it another shot soon, I've been into replaying old RPG's as of late for some reason. I heard the PS1 version isn't great though.
As for Chrono Cross, that game seems far more interesting than Trigger, but I never really liked how you have like a million party members in it. I dunno, I like a focused cast of characters. Definitely gonna try to pick this up soon as I've been dying to play it for a long time now. So yeah, I'd say if you only wanna buy one, go for Chrono Cross. It seems to be a completely different game though. Like, virtually nothing about that game from what I saw resembles anything from Chrono Trigger. Also, Chrono Cross has that Radical Dreamers song in it, which is simply amazing.
I've given Chrono Trigger multiple chances over the years and I've always given up on it 15 hours in just because it's so incredibly boring in every way. Like, literally nothing it has to offer is interesting. I'm convinced it turns into a totally different game later on, because I just cannot see why people like this game if it continues on like that. Maybe you should give it a shot, though, since I seem to be the one person on the entire planet who does not adore this game. I'm actually probably gonna give it another shot soon, I've been into replaying old RPG's as of late for some reason. I heard the PS1 version isn't great though.
As for Chrono Cross, that game seems far more interesting than Trigger, but I never really liked how you have like a million party members in it. I dunno, I like a focused cast of characters. Definitely gonna try to pick this up soon as I've been dying to play it for a long time now. So yeah, I'd say if you only wanna buy one, go for Chrono Cross. It seems to be a completely different game though. Like, virtually nothing about that game from what I saw resembles anything from Chrono Trigger.
Large casts can be done well. Suikoden's focus on large casts and how they interact and work together is a defining trait of the series and one that has been pulled off to great effect. Chrono Cross doesn't have nearly as many characters and doesn't pull it off because it doesn't provide the right level of focus on the cast, either individually or as a whole.
Chrono Trigger is just so charming and fun, I would recommend it to any gamer. Chrono Cross is okay. I remember enjoying it when released, but I can't say I remember much else.
@hailinel: Ugh, thanks for reminding me of another series I'm eventually gonna have to play. :P Well, at least II anyway. I haven't heard great things about literally every other game in that series.
@hailinel: Ugh, thanks for reminding me of another series I'm eventually gonna have to play. :P Well, at least II anyway. I haven't heard great things about literally every other game in that series.
Suikoden III and V are great. I haven't played the original, so I can't be a judge of it. Suikoden IV is painful to play through primarily because of its slow ship travel and Skies of Arcadia-esque encounter rate.
As long as they're that cheap, it's worth the buy. CT was a pretty good game, (not the all-timer that fanboys make it out to be) albeit shallow and lacking sufficient challenge to make the gameplay more compelling. Chrono Cross was mediocre. I nickname it Soundtrack the Videogame. At the time I completed it I thought to myself, "I have no idea what that game was about, but damn it had a nice soundtrack!"
@steadyingmeat: @hailinel: Suikoden IV is decidedly "okay." I thought it was disappointing at the time but in retrospect and having played it some more it does have genuinely good combat and probably the most powerful protagonist in the series in said combat. It definitely does have issues relative to III and V and probably caused the death of the series but it's still a fine game. Running around in first person is pretty amusing. Suikoden Tactics on the other hand... that's a piece of shit.
@steadyingmeat: @hailinel: Suikoden IV is decidedly "okay." I thought it was disappointing at the time but in retrospect and having played it some more it does have genuinely good combat and probably the most powerful protagonist in the series in said combat. It definitely does have issues relative to III and V and probably caused the death of the series but it's still a fine game. Suikoden Tactics on the other hand... that's a piece of shit.
Oh, definitely. There was a lot that I did like about Suikoden IV. It's just that, at least at the time that I played it, the cons outweighed the pros and made it a slog to play.
Love Trigger, hate Cross. Cross is like if they made a Suikoden game where there was no point in getting all the characters, but the characters were still written just as superficially, because you're not going to be using any of them for longer than an hour.
Chrono Trigger is absolutely fantastic and you should give it a shot if you like JRPG's, video games, or pleasant things in general.
I bought Chrono Cross just now, I've been eyeing it for a while anyway. I don't know much about it other than that it's a) divisive and b) has really good music.
I've given Chrono Trigger multiple chances over the years and I've always given up on it 15 hours in just because it's so incredibly boring in every way. Like, literally nothing it has to offer is interesting. I'm convinced it turns into a totally different game later on, because I just cannot see why people like this game if it continues on like that. Maybe you should give it a shot, though, since I seem to be the one person on the entire planet who does not adore this game. I'm actually probably gonna give it another shot soon, I've been into replaying old RPG's as of late for some reason. I heard the PS1 version isn't great though.
As for Chrono Cross, that game seems far more interesting than Trigger, but I never really liked how you have like a million party members in it. I dunno, I like a focused cast of characters. Definitely gonna try to pick this up soon as I've been dying to play it for a long time now. So yeah, I'd say if you only wanna buy one, go for Chrono Cross. It seems to be a completely different game though. Like, virtually nothing about that game from what I saw resembles anything from Chrono Trigger. Also, Chrono Cross has that Radical Dreamers song in it, which is simply amazing.
Well, 15 hours is usually more than halfway into Trigger unless you're grinding and taking a lot of time. I love pretty much everything about it. Its plot, its music, its characters, its visuals, most of its gameplay. I think that Chrono Trigger needs a hard mode and sometimes needs to be clearer on where you need to go, but otherwise I just can't find that game boring. To each his own. Doesn't hurt that Chrono Trigger was the first JRPG I ever actually finished - in 2012.
You know it's weird, up until recently I was under the impression that Chrono Cross was another FF VII/Chrono Trigger kinda game where most people loved it and that it was the best game in the universe. Weird to see that so many people don't actually like that game. :/
Both are amazing. The way some people talk about Chrono Cross, you'd think it broke into their house and stabbed their dog.
Cross was an aesthetic and gameplay departure, but the story is actually very direct in its connections to Trigger (you just don't get them until hours into the game). It also has the best graphics of any PSone game and perhaps the best soundtrack of any game ever.
Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are both pretty cool.
I think there is a reason though why Chrono Trigger is always on lists and Chrono Cross is not.
Chrono Trigger is funny, serious, thought provoking, excellently scored, and has in game systems that are pretty fun to manage. I have beaten it five or six times, and playing through a couple times different ways to get different endings is pretty cool.
You can also attempt to beat the game IMMEDIATELY after it starts (which just...would not work) or any point after which is interesting.
The PS1 version has load screens though and I read that playing it on the Vita reflects those load times which is super lame.
Meanwhile Chrono Cross is okay - more of a standard jrpg experience gameplay wise. Still a fun story and great soundtrack.
Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest game of all-time. In my eyes, it's damn near flawless. Interesting and entertaining story, characters, and gameplay.
Chrono Cross, however, is one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever tried to play. 500 characters, and barely any backstory for most of them, nonsensical gameplay mechanics, and a plot that just screams "PS1 Era Squaresoft game", a time where I felt that they got their heads so far up their own ass that they couldn't tell the most basic of stories without throwing in a thousand lame-ass plot twists and melodrama if they tried.
Chrono Trigger is an excellent, excellent, excellent game. It's simple enough that you can play it fairly mindlessly but has so many easter eggs, secret quests and such that there is a surprising level of depth to the world and its lore considering how simple the game comes off on its surface.
Chrono Cross has an equally great soundtrack, and it's significantly more complicated/weirder. I've always felt that enjoyment of that game comes down to whether or not Glenn joins your party as he and Serge combined makes for the game's best approximation of a steamroller. Complaints about the number of characters are really missing what the point of them was, which was to see their cool, unique, often SUPER weird attack styles and find out what pairings of characters gave you double and triple limit breaks (or whatever they called the special moves). I also think the combat system is appropriately challenging even if it comes off extremely obtuse at first. It's use of an AP-like system for pretty much everything made for an RPG that played like nothing else I've played before or since.
You know it's weird, up until recently I was under the impression that Chrono Cross was another FF VII/Chrono Trigger kinda game where most people loved it and that it was the best game in the universe. Weird to see that so many people don't actually like that game. :/
I agree, this thread is a bit baffling. Chrono Cross is a very long, very absurd game, but it's also gorgeous and full of interesting situations and enemies and locales, and most of the men characters are pretty freaking good. There's also that story twist at the start of Disc 2 (or was it Disc 3) that was fucking EPIC at the time, both for the art style of the world you were in and its implications on the story.
Most importantly, I just want a battle system I can comprehend and a story that's enjoyable. I have some traveling to do this summer, so I plan on using the Vita a bit with some "classic" rpg's.
Thanks!
Ok, I might just consider Chrono Trigger then. Chrono Cross' story is a bit confusing and the battle system comes from that era of JRPGs where battle systems got kinda pointlessly complex in an attempt to make the games feel more distinctive. It's still a great game, but Chrono Trigger is simpler and better all-around.
@mightyduck: Cross and Trigger have really different focuses. Chrono Trigger has a core party of around 6 party members who have fairly fleshed our stories and get extra sidequests at the end of the game to further build upon those.
Chrono Cross has something like over 40 playable party members without a major focus on anyone branching out of the real few key characters. Also a weird thing about this large amount of party members is that your starting party from the very beginning of the game has a random 3rd person every time you start a game. So clearly not many of the characters are heavily plot relevant.
Chrono Trigger is a classic that still holds up. The SNES or DS version are the way to go though, the PSX version, which is what the Vita uses, has some pretty insane load times.
@masturbatingestbear: Quite a few characters are fully fleshed out in Chrono Cross; the characters are certainly much more interesting than the actual plot of the game or Serge/Kid. Fargo/Viper/Glenn for life. Also don't sleep on Starky as one of the best characters in anything ever.
I bought both, mainly because you can't make sub $5.00 purchases on PSN, but also now I don't have to dig up my copy of Chrono Cross to go listen to the world map theme/intro.
@masturbatingestbear: Quite a few characters are fully fleshed out in Chrono Cross; the characters are certainly much more interesting than the actual plot of the game or Serge/Kid. Fargo/Viper/Glenn for life. Also don't sleep on Starky as one of the best characters in anything ever.
Also, I don't remember the third party member being random at all...I'm pretty sure the only valuable starting member was Guile, but the game made a choice between three party members based on you you approached that first big mission if I remember correctly.
Log in to comment