Diary of a Mute Hero (Chrono Cross)

The "FATE ~ Goddess Of Destiny~ " battle theme is easily among my top ten of all time, up there with "Sun" and "The Extreme." Also, I didn't even learn of the System Shock games until much later, but I thought that FATE's anthropomorphic design was the most awesome visual ever (now, I just consider SHODAN a ripoff of FATE ) It even started a trend where I've named every single computer I've owned after it. Naturally, the "remote terminals" (that is, my laptops) have been named Lynx.

As for the battle itself, well, I'll try to save that discussion for when we actually get there, but man. I remember desperately trying to keep the Element Field from going all black, so FATE's ultimate attack didn't turn into an instant-kill for Serge. Whacking that construct with the L7 White Summon was cathartic.

Orlha is awesome, and I've always had a soft spot for butt-kicking female martial artists. I hate that you can only get her after retrieving the second Dragon's Tear.

This, and...

...this: wasn't the Xeno team actually the same team that did the Chrono games? (Right down to including the Lucca cameo in Lahan, teaching you about Save Points. Incidentally, the Records of Fate are pretty much identical in function to Solaris' holographic memory units.) Xenogears' combat engine, with the three levels of attack that you could mix 'n' match as long as you had stamina, and which rewarded you with points that you could use to perform Deathblows, is pretty much the prototype for Chrono Cross.

As for the music, both Xenogears and Chrono Cross are just Yasunori Mitsuda going through his Celtic phase. I'd KILL for a Creid-style arrangement of the Chrono Cross OST. Speaking of, we're well-past the opening, so why haven't we discussed the indescribable awesomeness of Scars of Time (the best opening theme to any video game yet) and Time of the Dreamwatch (which combines the themes to both Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers)?

(Spoiler-tagging because some people in the LP threads are still new to the games in question.)

You can, by waiting until Serge is back to normal, and using the Chrono Cross by the pot at Sprigg's home. This will let you load your roster from a previous game. So, all you have to do is keep a save file set during Serge's bad hair days, before starting the Dragon Relics fetch quest (so Harle's still with you) and load that when prompted by the Chrono Cross. Unfortunately, like all the other characters, she's reduced to a silly accent in the story bits. I really really wanted to see her reaction to the Sage of Time's revelations atop Terra Tower (when she's outed as the Seventh Dragon,) as well as her ending, but my hopes were dashed.

I liked Kid, despite the corny accent. I felt like she was the connection to trigger, via radical dreamers.

I hardly recall how the battle system is, other than it's the about the easiest RPG ever. Full health restoration after every battle? Don't mind if I do!

(Technically, I don't THINK you actually regained health, but you DID regain all your magic blocks so you could heal up before finishing every battle for free, if I recally this game system at ALL).

Request! Could you actually go into some details on HOW the battle system works, as it opens up? I'm really having trouble remembering

PS: no talk of the opening song? Are we all just taking it as a given that the OST rocks?

Oh dear. It's been a while, so I don't remember exactly. But basically, each character (on your side; my friend has done speedruns on the game so he knows a lot of relatively inconsequential inner workings) has an AP gauge, which ranges from -6.0 to 7.0. (I don't think it's actually called that) There's also an element power counter (which also has a name) for each character.

Characters begin battle with 7 AP and 0 EP, unless you have certain accessories equipped. Each character has 3 basic attacks. The first one costs 1 AP, builds 1 EP, does almost no damage and has a high hit rate. Then there's a medium attack. This costs 2 AP, builds 2 EP, does some damage and has a lower hit rate. The Strong attack, predictable, costs 3, gives 3, does high damage, and has an even lower hit rate. But, each successful hit in a turn, raises the chance that the next hit works, so choosing 1-2-3 is quite likely to work out.

Elements are laid out on the elemental grid, which grows larger as the game goes on. The higher they are, the more EP they cost and the stronger they are (most special techs are restricted to one tier, however). Using an element (regardless of the EP cost) costs 7 AP, which ends your turn. So early on it's really simple, you pretty much just want to 3-3-Element your way through all the battles, but things start to come together later and you get more options and things to think about.

For example, the field attributes. Each element changes the field attribute, and if the field is all one color, elements of that color become stronger, and certain special attacks (esp. summons) become available.

Of course, the game still falls way short of its potential but oh well.

Honestly, the free healing after battles (you rarely even have to plan for it, although sometimes you might not get it if you didn't plan out your last turn) does make things pretty easy/stress-free, but the game isn't about random battles at all and really doesn't encourage you to fight them, aside from the part where you have to. In general the boss battles are pretty tightly tuned because the game has so much control over how powerful your party is and the characters are all nearly identical. A lot of them are still very easy, but then you get stuff like Garai, Dario and Miguel OR MAYBE I DON'T REMEMBER ANYONE'S NAME.

"AP" is stamina. I think "EP" is element level. To add to your post, I believe each character regenerates a certain amount of stamina each turn (Serge, if I remember correctly, regains 10).

Also, each spell has a certain level. If you put a level 3 element on the second tier, you can cast it when your element level is 2, but it's weaker. If you put it on the fourth tier, you have to wait until it's at 4, but it becomes a little bit stronger. Skills work a little bit differently, if I'm not mistaken, in that they can only be put on the tier that matches their level.

You can only use an element once per battle. When healing after battle, I think you can only use the elements you didn't use during battle (except for consumables).

Incidentally, I first discovered Parish ("toastyfrog") from his Chrono Cross FAQs.

Also, you can't just expect to spam offensive/defensive/support Elements either. Once you've spent an Element, and it's not a consumable (like Tablet or Nostrum,) it's unusable for the rest of the battle. So, it's very important to strategize the use of your Element Level as well as your healing magics. You do NOT want to be stuck facing a healthy Miguel or Garai after spending all your non-White healing Elements.

However, there IS a way to recharge your Elements, either through Leena's L5 Tech or through the "Recharge" Red Element (which only works once, natch.) And, IIRC, using the titular item will recharge your entire grid, but it's only available at the endgame.

FUCKING MIGUEL. It's been years since I've played the game, but I still remember how much trouble I had with that fight. It probably didn't help that I stubbornly refused to not use Harle, leaving me with two black element characters for the fight. Going through all the dialogue again each attempt didn't make it any more fun, either.

But anyway. One thing that I always thought was neat about the game is the introduction. The third character you get for that opening segment is random, and it caused a lot of confusion when I talked to friends about the game when it first came out. "Hey, I got Greco to join my party earlier." "Who's that?" "You know, Greco. The luchadore. From the beginning of the game." "Uh, no. The guy at the beginning was a guitarist." "Huh."

I remember starting new games and resetting for a while after that to see how many characters can get picked for that scene. I was kind of hoping that someone would have made a list of them by now, since that's exactly the kind of useless information that the internet is made for. But alas, I couldn't find anything about it on GameFAQs beyond "it's random."

I did see Parish's guide there, though.

Dario and Miguel were gigantic pains in the ass. They were also both pretty memorable fights aside from that, though, particularly Miguel. The Dead Sea is easily my favorite place in the whole game and the music there is particularly awesome.

You can run away when you're clearly screwed, which gives you a chance to, if nothing else, heal back up and try to get luckier, without having to see the scene again.

I remember that guy! I played this game only once, back when it came out. I don't recall much about it, but I will never forget that jerk and the gazillion tries it took me to beat him.

By comparison, Dario was a pushover. I figured out his counter attack system during my first fight with him and used it to shut down his attack pattern.

The ost as a whole? It gets a lot of love, but thinking back I can't remember any of it. Like, at all.

But Time's Scar specifically? One of the best songs ever.

Some of the early game music is great, particularly the first couple towns (Arni and Termina) and the overworld. The common battle themes are appalling though and the early dungeons aren't so hot either. Later on though...the special battle themes (Miguel, FATE, whatever the second-to-last boss was called), sailing, dungeon tracks, town themes, Nikki's concert, the credits...

Honestly guys? I like this game more than Trigger. Hate away. Although seriously they shouldn't really be compared. That's kind of the problem in the first place.

Guile is really Magus*.

* In Radical Dreamers. Okay, Gil. Whatever.

Time's Scar gives me goosebumps, particularly the opening section. Something about "Under cerulean skies" gets to me. And Chronomatic/Chronomantique (seen different spellings) is perfect. The music makes the game.

But I'm the kind of dork that buys the piano music collections from Doremi and spends time arranging it for other instruments, so. ;p

It's funny. Chrono Cross is one of those games I remember liking, but I just watched the intro again and it occours to me that I remember none of it. Except for Kid, because I detested her. Actually, I hated the way everyone had to have a goofy accent in that game.

(Only a video game could ever get away with, "whilst our laughter echoed under cerulian skies.)

I looked up some of the soundtrack pieces. Most of those come back to me because they were pretty brilliant.

I never had a lot of trouble with Miguel, but Garai was a pain in my ass.

I had Leena as my third on my first playthrough. I thought it was intentional by the developers. "Hm. Silent main, blonde ponytail and straight red hair. This seems familiar." The second playthrough gave me Korcha. Sigh.

The first time I played it, I thought it was Serge writing that, like in Radical Dreamers. The "whilst" sentence didn't sound too pretentious, as it would have been part of the sole contribution of an otherwise silent hero.

After finishing the game, though, there was some severe cognitive dissonance. THIS character wrote THAT? ...oh, OK, they wrote it after getting back their memory of who they were previously, so I guess that's fine. That whole family likes spouting awkward adages anyway.

I never finished the game, so maybe that's my problem. I got very close to the end, had to stop playing for a while and had no idea what to do when I turned the game back on.

I should play it over again from the start, but God only knows where my CDs are. Through a hilarious mishap, I have two Disc Ones and an elusive Disc Two.

Guile isn't Gil though. Guile is just Guile, a stage magician.

All I remember about this game was that it was frustrating and massively dumb (stroy-wise). Plus suffered from those awesome translation mistakes that plagued Square in the PSX era. I can't even remember the music, but since it's the Xenogears guy I have no doubt in my mind that it rocks the balls off everything.

I played into the game a bit while waiting for other LPs to finish up, so I have to catch up with myself, but once I do, input like that will be welcome.

Agreed. It was a really interesting idea for a different way to structure an RPG, but it precluded any possibility of depth.

Yeah, I wish Chrono Cross was its own game with no connection to Chrono Trigger.

Also, I like the normal battle music a bit better now that I can tell that it's in 9/8 meter. When I first played through the game I just found it confusing.

Incidentally, I reccomend the episodes of Into The Score that discuss Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross to anyone interested in those games' soundtracks.

Serge's Diary - Fourth Entry



We set off for Termina. First, though, we had to make our way through Bone Valley. Some heckrans got in the way... How unfortunate for them.



I'm not sure what to make of this Mojo fellow, but he makes me laugh. Hmm... Maybe he's made of drugs. That would explain it... Well, don't look a gift voodoo doll in the mouth.

There were Termina soldiers around. They asked if we were exorcists. Obviously we said yes.


Luckily, no exorcism was necessary. A disembodied skull with clown make-up was hopping around, and just wanted help looking for the rest of his bones.


Why do people keep saying that?


We agreed to help. I don't want to be haunted by a clown.

Those two idiots, Solt and Peppor, were once again waiting for a chance to embarrass themselves and get beaten up. Leena, Mojo and I are developing into a pretty good team. Leena is great with magic, and not bad at fighting considering she's armed with a spoon.



Mojo's fighting technique is different, to say the least.

But no less effective. He's not much good with magic, though.

Second recommendation for ITS. As I mentioned in another thread, the first half of each episode is.. a little iffy, but once he gets into the analysis stuff it's usually good. (and most all of the episodes work except for the 2nd, which is MM2, which is.. freaking aggravating)

Also, because no one has done it yet (fools!):

This thread is s-s-shakin'!

Fourth entry, continued

So, after trouncing those dorks again, we continued on to Termina. Kid was waiting for us when we arrived. She immediately got jealous of Leena.





Leena's a little shy about it, though, as I discovered when we met a friend of hers at the item shop.



Ouch. I guess this parallel Leena hasn't been completely won over by my charms yet... Hey, is it cheating if I date my girlfriend in a parallel universe? This is confusing.

A lackey told us about Viper Manor and how well defended it is. Kid wanted to break in.


I do want to find out what that Karsh fellow was talking about, so I guess I'm going along for the ride. Leena had said she was only coming along until Termina, but I guess I've earned her trust... Or maybe she's just high on Mojo.

Kid gave me a teleporter that lets me choose which of my friends to bring along with me. We only travel three-at-a-time, which... I don't know why, I guess... It's just tradition, you know?

Fourth entry, continued

Viper Manor was the next destination, but we took some time to check out Termina. We encountered a variety of strange characters.


It's Korcha, the other person from my dream. He has some kind of feud with this shopkeeper. He didn't recognize me, though.


We met this rich artist kid who was arguing with his father.


Mojo tried to talk to a sword practice dummy.

We met a couple of people who seemed important. They were visiting someone's grave.


The most fruitful conversation, though, was with a dancer named Miki. She was there for a big concert a guy called Nikki, who's apparently a famous musician or something. I've seen his posters, he looks a victim of a makeup overdose. Anyways, Nikki went missing in the woods by Viper Manor. Apparently there's a secret entrance to the Manor there, so we might as well look for Nikki while we're heading that way.


Well, when you put it that way...

Here's what I've always wonders about this game, but never asked: is there any difference between Say, Photon Ray +2 and a level 3 White elemental single attack spell? It seems like most of the magic is entirely redundant when you can move it all up and down level...

I think the spells that have innately higher levels are always stronger, but it's been a while since I've played this game and I don't know the exact mechanics. I'll tinker with things like that a bit once I get further into the game.

Also: Avatars!

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And now, my least favorite part of the game is about to begin.

I'm enjoying this quite a bit, which is more than I can say about the time I watched my roommate work his way through CC.

Put me in the camp that believes this should never have been tied to Chrono Trigger.

But then you'd have another game entirely. Maybe it'd be better, maybe it'd be worse, but I wouldn't take the chance on missing out on the soundtrack.

EDIT: I dunno. I guess.. I appreciate the ties, and I certainly bought it because of the Chrono connection, but I enjoy it on its own merits, and didn't go into it looking for CT 2.

Unfortunately, I recall CC buzz centering on the grand finale of the CT storyline. It didn't help that one of my friends was the original CT fanboy and was roused to boiling heat by the existence of a sequel. In short, I expected CT2 exactly, but received a Final Fantasy instead (at the precise moment I lost all taste for the FF formula.) I've had better times with RPGs.

It's nice to see CC is more fun than I recall, if only in LP form.