CT - "I'm going to break new ground in storytelling and character development." CC - "yo dawg I heard you like multiple characters, so we added 3 thousand. And every future AT ONCE! Are we cool now?!"
Though a tad late, a heartfelt Thank You to every sub that has helped this channel reach past the 40k mark. I sincerely appreciate the patience and enthusiam of the community that supports and shares every adventure in this RECAPitation journey. EDIT: Amazing how the main activity in the comments is arguing how to label the relationship for Chrono Cross to Chrono Trigger/Radical Dreamers. Spiritual Sequel? Non-linear Sequel? Not a Sequel? [I don't care, personally, its just another adventure to me, so don't try and drag me into this debate] Next RECAPitation will be: Suikoden 2
I lived in Southeast Asia my entire life and enjoyed all the RPGs of my childhood - standing on top of them is the Chrono series, with Cross on top of it. While a lot of people hate it and are unbelievably baffled by it, I want to believe I fully understood its message and lore (consumed from Chrono Compendium). It is exhilarating, beautiful and unbelievably sublime. I felt every emotion of all the characters and grew to love them. I created head canons for each one character and somehow was able to connect to them in some way, shape or form. I say this is in my top 5 PSX JRPG, with Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Trigger, FF8 and Legend of Legaia being my personal choices. They made my life so much better. They educated me better, helped me grow to the great values of honor and fortitude while helping me deal with my personal demons as both a child bullied at school with a growing existential crisis. I will always stand by Chrono Cross and believe that, together with Chrono Trigger, that it is the best IP I would ever have played my entire life.
I wanted to love this game as much as I do Chrono Trigger. I really did. CT did multiple time paths well, and managed to weave discarded timelines in to a well stated, cohesive narrative. CC is more like what happens when someone's hyperactive preteen writes fan fiction, and lets her equally unmedicated ADD friend edit it.
Holy crap! I've played this when i was 9 years old and loved it! I've replayed again last year(now i'm 25 y.o.) and it was a BLAST! A superman punch right on my nostalgia. This is probably one of the best games ever made in the history of videogame; The music, the plot, EVERYTHING. Congrats on nailing everything right, you did an AWESOME job, and gained a new sub. Love from Brazil!
So to summarize best: The story exists as a result from the defeat of Lavos in 1999, basically caused a split in space/time. In the 2300 AD Lavos destroyed alternate universe the Mother Brain or FATE controls events through time in both universes with a time travel device that can manipulate humans throughout history. So its the protagonist job to put an end to this add in some convolution and BAM.. Chrono Cross
I’m glad to see someone cover this game more fully. Interestingly enough you can actually skip two boss battles in this game. The first is by going through the volcano without going to the Water Dragon Isle (you don’t actually NEED to freeze the lava to make it through, but it’s suggested) and the second is you can skip fighting the Black Dragon.
I love this game. I was lucky enough to play this before I learned it was actually a sorta-sequel, and thus was able to judge it on it's own merits before I played Trigger, resolving the only big issue I had as a kid with CC, being the CT specific plot elements. I hear a lot of people say that it "ruined the heroes accomplishments" by making them seem like a bad thing. But I always knew (speaking about real life here) that actions have consequences that people really don't and/or can't predict. Looking back on them both, I recognized the problem of what happens to timelines that just end suddenly and found it a compelling plot point that a lot of time travel stories don't really explore. I think this game is a nice example of writers making a sequel story work when they clearly weren't planning ahead of time for there to be a sequel to the first game.
I played this game before Trigger as well, but even at face value, the story for me was terrible. After playing chrono trigger, the gameplay feels to slow and irrelevant to slog through.
Wow,so amazing,the story is so convoluted but it is still in my top 5 games of all time,absolute perfection. Well done recapitation, you really explained everything as it is,a bit difficult to understand everything right away but this is exactly what modern RPG games are missing,a story that sucks you right in and even when it is finished makes you question everything :)
I read this comment around the 5 minute mark and was like nah it wasnt that convoluted was it? about 15 minutes later: WTF I'm so confused. I'm sure the more complex details went right over my head those many years ago.
I fuckin love the music in this game! Especially the main theme. Although not as good as the o.g. chrono trigger theme chrono cross's gives me a distinct feeling of wonder. Marvelous
With how complex the story is and how epic the music is I'm not surprised that people involved in Xenogears helped make this game. I played this game back in the late 90s. I forgot how the story tied into Chrono Trigger so this video was enjoyable to watch. I'm definitely going to go back and play this game again for the experience and to recruit all of the party members I never got the first time around.
Recapitation for Lunar and Grandia would be great. I actually started Lunar for my fiancee because an awesome recap wasn't available. (Then again, don't want to ruin my excuse to play more games.)
I remember playing this game and initially being very disappointed because it didn’t have the distinct feel that Chrono Trigger did. However, I picked it back up again after many many years and found it to be a rather great game in its own right.
Dude, have you seen his drakengard video? Man's a genius. I think after Star Ocean 2, he has recapped all of my favorite RPGs. He does some outstanding work.
It's one of those games where, after researching it for hours, I finally understand it for all of a few days. Then I get confused again and need to research again.
uptown710 with KH, I can easily summarize the entire story. An old man travels back in time and becomes a body snatcher to fight people with key shaped swords. How do I summarize this?
shizuwolf a boy sets out to realign the an divergent timeline created by heroes in the past. See. You can do that for any story medium. I’m talking about how you needed like 3 games to explain the stuff that was happening in the first game. Let’s be honest KHs story is sloppily told. The Trigger series may be complex, but everything you need to figure it out is in those 2 games.
My one complaint with Chrono Cross is that even though they bring back Schalla, they didn't bring back Magus who ended Chrono Trigger looking for her. I know that one character with amnesia is supposed to be him, but it is not Magus. I guess I also hated the fact they killed off the heroes (time relevant) from the first game.
I think you're talking about the magician, right? Guile or something like that. Actually he is said to be an alternate version of Magus or something like that (also, later on he is goddamn overpower. He was almost always on my party, as was Glenn).
After a bit of research, it apparently was originally going to have Guile be Magus but decided not to due to not feeling they could do the relationship with Schalla adequately. It was also something they taking out.
xenostrike the guide and an old magazine from the time had interviews that said they fully intended for guile to be Magus, but it was a lack of time DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS that made them abandon it, and THAT is why this game makes me so mad as a sequel.
He was retconned back in to being Guile. Originally he was meant to be Guile (with amnesia) but they took that plot line out. But then for the DS version they put it back in to link up. If you fight the Dream Devourer with Magus you get a scene where Schala saves him and he loses his memories. This is considered canon.
I remember so little of this. Thank you for the summary -- I failed to absorb so much of this, and it's nice to revisit it now that I'm older without devoting 80 hours to a replay. :)
Man I just replayed this. It's an imperfect sequel but a damn near perfect game. I feel like the massive cast of characters fits the theme of the game; everyone is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things and the world is going to do what it does regardless.
During the first encounter with Miguel in the Dead Sea, you mention Lavos having fed on the planet for 'hundreds of years'. I chuckled. I think you meant millions.
I played this when I was like 5 and I've been trying to find the name of it for years. Been searching "jrpg where you play as ghost blue haired kid that figures out he is dead." I had a very comprehensive understanding of the games story
Chrono Cross is the first JRPG I've finished and it's still my favorite to this day. No other soundtrack can even come close to this game's soundtracks even now. I wish SE would atleast re-release the series or remaster them properly on current and next generation hardware.
I remember playing and liking it. I don’t remember much of it. This video is great to help me relive the game without actually replaying it. Very well made man. Subscribed.
yep indeed . this is my all time favorite game. favorite soundtrack. if ill be reincarnated and be in a game world. ill pick this game.ill be with the fishing old man sitting and just enjoy the view
Thanks a lot for the summary!! I didn't understand much of this when I played it 18 years ago, but this sure is really part of my childhood. Spent most of my summer breaks and weekends playing this. SO NOSTALGIC.
Young me before getting the strategy guide "yeah, they are gonna force Kid onto my team. I guess I have no choice" and then later me "WHAT?!? I could have totally chosen to NOT allow her to travel with me?!?!? THAT'S CRAZY COOL"
This is because if you don't play the game in a specific way, once you reach the point where you fight Time Devourer, you get booted straight to the credits. 14 year old me was so extremely frustrated by this that I've hated Chrono Cross (and have never played it again since). But seeing this recap certainly made me nostalgic and wanting to finish the game "for real" this time.
Wow....I think I need to replay this game sometime, as I either forgot or for some reason, missed that Kid and Schala were connected. My only issue with Chrono Cross are some of the bosses, some of them would act effectively as massive roadblocks for me, looking at you Dario & Garai. The game I feel is a good sequel to Chrono Trigger, hell, I believe it is a good ending to the series, this game, so much awesome!
Wow... 9 year old me was NOT ready for all of that, the only part I can say i understood from my first playthrough was how FATE really had everyone playing out how it should've... Past that I was just mesmerized by the beauty that was Chrono Cross. Thankyou for explaining this so well!
She’s the prettiest in town until Serge expanded his horizon and hot out of there. He dumped her for Kid. I liked Leena in my party though, her magic is top tier
This is hands down my favorite game of all time. I remember buying this at Toys R Us back in early 2000’s, the new Disturbed Down with the Sickness album had just come out too and playing this game, strategy guide in hand, while listening to Disturbed has been cemented into my mind as one of the greatest childhood memories I hold! Thanks for the video!!!
Spiritual Sequel? Chrono Cross is an actual sequel, it does not only build on elements from Chrono Trigger but is the following chapter--after Radical Dreamers--concluding the story Chrono Trigger began! The "Hydra Humour" has NOTHING to do with a humorous bone--which connects a scapula to radius and ulna of the forearm! "Hydra Humour" refers to Hippocrates' Theory of Humorism which theorizes the healthy body has a balance of four "humors"--blood, black bile, phlegm, and yellow bile--with disease being attributed to humor imbalance. You are sent after the Hydra's internal fluid to make an antivenom. Though Lynx did grab the Dragon's Tear after acquiring Serge's body, he never left with it. Lynx revealed his reason for the body-swap to be Serge's body is the key to FATE, not the Dragon's Tear. Lynx immediately crushes the Dragon's Tear before destroying the dragon idols which is why there were shards which Karsh collected in the "Chamber of the Dragon Tear" before passing them on to the party as the Tear of Hate. ...everything else seems spot-on though!
Considering that Lavos travels through time, we could actually assume that it saw this alternate future and set things in motion so that Dalton could be a piece in the whole game to promote this storyline. He's still pathetic, and I believe he was used all this time. Just like other characters who coveted Lavos' power were used by it and ended up furthering its plans. The idea of time paradox and of Lavos knowing everything that would happen is what makes this series so interesting, since it could be easy for any normal person to just give up the quest to save the planet because it was fruitless, since Lavos could just end up doing what it did, foreseeing the results in that timeline and making a backup plan to succeed in a paradox future. If we think of that, this series could be a loop in itself, because there are millions of different possible futures in which Lavos could take advantage of something to try to succeed
thats pretty much it. lavos is a multi-dimensional being so he is aware of all these things. The universe where he still fails is teh one in trigger and cross and that alone is amazing to realize.
One of my favorite games helped create my now gamer name as well as background for my own OC. Being comprised of both serge and lynx unifying their souls in a different timeline
Hey very good video!!!!!! Chrono Cross is my favorite video game, there is something at the very end that I have not been able to bypass, after finishing Terra Tower and having Nikki in your party, if you go to Another World and sleep in Fargo's ship Nikki and Fargo will have a convo talking about their counterparts and Fargo just states his kids died and screen just stays there, I bought two other copies thinking it was the disc! If you could check this out I would appreciate it!
All I have to say is... Although the game was confusing af to follow, the soundtrack was impeccable. The gameplay was fresh for it's time and this will forever be a part of my top 5 games of all TIME. I'm now 33 and still upset that they never continued with Chrono Break... If I had the money, the power and the people that could make it happen, I would make Chrono Break happen just so 9 year old me in 2000 can have closure.
Wow, I do not think that I, in no way, had the full scope of this game when I initially played it. All I really remembered about this game is that there were a ton of characters to collect, awesome techs, multiple dimensions, Surge/Lynx personal story, that Kid was an ancient princes, and going to that future island to fight FATE. I also remember enjoying the game so much.
one of the most unnecessarily hated games ever. I feel it would have been in the legendary games category if it didbt have "Chrono" in the game title. But it actually connected the games well...even if it wasn't a direct sequel with the same cast. Also, imo it has the best soundtrack ever. Mitsuda even pulled from it in some sections of xenoblade chronicles 2. Morytha has an eerily similar mood/sound to the dead sea
My problem with it was stomping all over the plot and feel of Chrono Trigger. CT's ending deliberately made sport of the "time travel is dangerous and will ruin everything" cliche, which fit an overall more cheerful and happy go lucky tone... then CC turned around and embraced the cliche and gloom fully, undercutting the heroes and their accomplishments. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't really have animus towards CC, and probably even enjoy a lot of it.. but because of the way they did it I do, and still would like a proper CT sequel that fit the original's plot and tone. It was one of the best games ever made.
Everything you describe is seen through the dark lens of Chrono Cross. Most were there for the heroes to correct as part of the uplifting nature. Other unhappy events were added to later versions of CT to tie into the upcoming CC storyline. If not outright retcons, many folks like myself noticed the stark contrast to the tone of the original. And Frog? He's my favorite character, with an epic and uplifting theme (on my playlist for decades)! More fairy tale territory than gloomy.^^ And as for your bitterness at killing further sequels... I can empathize but not take credit, as I wasn't discussing CT/CC with anyone but my brother at the time. I feel it might better be directed at Square for failing to deliver a game that kept with the original's tone - and even taking legal action against awesome fan projects aiming to recreate that greatness, and would've really fired up the fanbase.
Taikaru You speak as if you're living in the fantasies you've built within your own mind. Time to swallow pride and face facts, if CT was remade with today's technology you'd shit all over it because you'd see how truly grim the events and story were/was. But due to cart limitations you got a game in a cartoonish art style. CC absolutely appreciated and expanded the lore of the game before it, but the tone was just more realistic because it was made further down the line where technology could showcase it better. Sorry to say, but the poster above you is 110% correct, delusional people like you who blinded themselves to facts and complain due to personal bias are the reason the series did die. You may not have directly contributed, but your mindset is what did. Grow up my man.
Much opinion. Very hostility. Wow~ You didn't even try to refute a single point I made. Were the events Pepe refers to not either A) Overcome by the heroes of CT as part of their triumph, or B) Added to later versions specifically to tie into Chrono Cross? And isn't it implausible heroes who bested every great foe through history, including death itself and the most powerful of all time (literally) would succumb to a mere human invasion? (A Porre one at that - see it's right in the name. :D To argue whether a disappointed mindset or the product that caused that disappointment is to blame for lack of sequels is the definition of a "which came first, the chicken or the egg" question. In any case, I eagerly contributed to sales figures for both games. But as I said, despite your hostility, as a huge fan of Xenogears/Saga and Suikoden, I truly empathize with grief over the lack of sequels for ones' favorite stories. Wouldn't wish that on anyone even if I wasn't a fan of the direction those sequels took the story.
honestly, i've never liked the body swapping thing in any story, not DBZ and not here, and you spend more of the game as lynx then as surge, then you find out it was your own dad who stole your body, a very convulted story and i just lost interest fairly quickly. also, the dimension switching thing was okay, but it wasn't time travel, which is what made CT great. When i heard it was a sequal to CT, i thought, sweet, i'dlove to travel through time once more, but to see what become of chrono and marle sucked, that there were only two worlds with a lot of depth that was hidden and hard to understand..... I may give the game another try after watching this vid, but we didn't get the RD novel, so coming from CT to CC was a slap in the face or a splash of cold water, not what you expect or want, honestly
I remember back in 2013 when i was 10 and i watched my older sister play this game, then after few minutes of watching i got really hooked. So i start a new game for myself and i poured many hours into the game, i remember that i was staring at the menu screen for a really long time before starting the game just to hear the menu music, I will definitely play this game again. Never had such a blast from playing a videogame before.
I remember playing this and remembering parts of this story, but even at 15 or whatever, I don't think I could fully grasp this. Not to mention aren't there like 11+ endings? Insanity.
What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to grasp that now, from deep within the flow of time. But, for a certainty back then, we loved so many and hated so much. We hurt others and were hurt ourselves. Yet even then, we ran like the wind... whilst out laughter echoed... under cerulean skies. Always liked the beginning. Never got to the part where all of the CT references came rushing in. They should have put a few closer to the beginning to hook us. They'd have sold twice as many copies or more.
They did, a game named Radical Dreamer but the maker unhappy of the quality and never released it in common platform that time PsX or Saturn or Sega or whatever....made a big hole between Cross and Trigger and cause Trigger fans to hate Cross stating that Cross isnot a sequel to Trigger. The answer is simple...Trigger, Radical Dreamers and Cross.
Really appreciate this. I didn't really understand the story that well when I was younger and played this, but this cleared a lot of things up for me. I already enjoyed the game a lot, but this video only makes me appreciate the game more.
the big take away i got when i played chrono cross ages ago was the reptile people returned as the main antagonist. i honestly forgot all about them after the BC plot was resolved in chrono trigger. i was so blown away when they came back for round 2
omg i started to play this game last week too!!! after i havent played this game in YEEEARRRSSS :) love this game! i wouldve loved to seen a prequel to this and sequel to CT. That whole Radical Dreamers game.
Man, Crono’s team had it rough. Crono and Marle - magic users and defeated a planet eating alien only to be defeated by snotty Dalton and his Porre army. Presumably killed during the Fall of Guardia. I hope not Lucca - kidnapped by Lynx and Killed Magus - devoted his life to find his sister. Wasn’t even mentioned in the CC, even by his sister when she was rescued from the TD. Was Magus and Guile the same person or is it Serge who’s Magus in this timeline? I need a third game or a remake to fully smoothen the story. Robo - badass character with a Rick Astley theme. Killed by FATE. I guess Ayla and Frog only had natural deaths. Although Ayla married an inferior Kino and Frog let her love of his life, Leene, marry an older man and had his Holy Sword became corrupted Edit. 35:32 Kid and Serge got married? Poor Leena
When the first time I played this when I was 10, I understand only 10%. Now after I watch the walkthrough from some videos in 2023 when I was 29, I finally understand it 50% lol Seeing Kid with that wedding gown is so cute, I'm so happy for them
Chrono Cross is my all time favourite game. I remember the first time my uncle gave me a joint, I ate all my little cousins’ Halloween candy and played chrono cross for 6 hours. Happy days.
Good work summarizing a story of this nature. I remember buying this game on day 1 (still have the clock that came with it). I feel ashamed that I finished the game feeling a giant "meh" about the story. Actually, I felt that about every aspect of the game (story, art direction, characters, battle system, etc.), outside of the music which I've always loved and felt as the greatest soundtrack tied with Metal Black (I call this OST a work of experience, while I call Chrono Trigger a work of passion). This game is like a fine wine to me, the more I replayed it and time went by, the more I began to like most aspects of the game, and realized what they were trying to do with it. Fort Dragonia, The Dead Sea, and Chronopolis have to be some of the greatest areas ever made for an RPG, both in terms of music and story. The art direction is also insanely good. I still love the environment for this game.
The map was too small actually. The should just make it 4 discs, add Porre continent, add real time travel and real place travel, feel free to join dinopolis or chronopolis instead cheating each other and force us to beg the dragons for their summon elements and then kill them with that, make shiny weapon with that. I would say....what a pathetic selfish bastard of the writer...wrote such an unfinished job with no sequel for decades because we dont buy the CD high enough for sequel. I love the game but with no sequel......i think the writer himself hate the game.
Haha I was curious how you would handle that exposition dump at the end there! Well done! The story is convoluted, it would have been better to weave the exposition into the narrative of the story instead of "this is what happened. Let's save schala." Either way still one of my favorite games of all time 😊
What a complicated story. Major props for this video though, so much effort went into it. I'm a major fan of CC. I think it's pretty underrated. Being a successor to CT never helped it though. I still think it's very comparable. One of my favourite games ever
I love how you can pinpoint the exact moment when the writer started hitting the blunt
Yep.... Page one. :)
Lmao
That part would be meeting and defeating Miguel, and learning there is some terrifying god entity named FATE mucking shit up.
the tabs*
@@UnimpressedViking Speeeed tabs, maaaan.
There's no way the 10 year old me understood all this.
Same, and its still confusing after watching this lol.
same here XD
I was 15 and didnt understand but also havent played trigger yet so...
25 year old me still doesnt understand all this
You need 300 iq to understand this
CT - "I'm going to break new ground in storytelling and character development."
CC - "yo dawg I heard you like multiple characters, so we added 3 thousand. And every future AT ONCE! Are we cool now?!"
Yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeesssssss!!!
Yeah, I don't think they actually understood why people liked Chrono Trigger.
@Shin Shaman Understandable, you got your opinions, but please don't meddle with others
The multiple characters isn't really that bad once you realize how their stories intertwine.
@Shin Shaman Eh its your opinion, but I think Radical Dreamer's told a much better story than this nonsense.
Though a tad late, a heartfelt Thank You to every sub that has helped this channel reach past the 40k mark. I sincerely appreciate the patience and enthusiam of the community that supports and shares every adventure in this RECAPitation journey.
EDIT: Amazing how the main activity in the comments is arguing how to label the relationship for Chrono Cross to Chrono Trigger/Radical Dreamers. Spiritual Sequel? Non-linear Sequel? Not a Sequel? [I don't care, personally, its just another adventure to me, so don't try and drag me into this debate]
Next RECAPitation will be: Suikoden 2
Oni Black Mage fuck yes. Suikoden, imo is the greatest JRPG series ever. Fuck Konami
will the phantasy star recapitation?
YASSSSSS!
Oni Black Mage what took you so long? Haha it's good to nag you back.^_^
The upload slipped past me! Thank goodness I found it!
This video needs some supporting diagrams, mapping out relationships, timelines, different dimensions, ...
have you found a video with the diagrams yet?
not really
and another jrpg starting with "good morning sleepyhead, time to wake up". it's the law.
Didn't CT start that trope?
I lived in Southeast Asia my entire life and enjoyed all the RPGs of my childhood - standing on top of them is the Chrono series, with Cross on top of it. While a lot of people hate it and are unbelievably baffled by it, I want to believe I fully understood its message and lore (consumed from Chrono Compendium).
It is exhilarating, beautiful and unbelievably sublime. I felt every emotion of all the characters and grew to love them. I created head canons for each one character and somehow was able to connect to them in some way, shape or form.
I say this is in my top 5 PSX JRPG, with Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Trigger, FF8 and Legend of Legaia being my personal choices. They made my life so much better. They educated me better, helped me grow to the great values of honor and fortitude while helping me deal with my personal demons as both a child bullied at school with a growing existential crisis.
I will always stand by Chrono Cross and believe that, together with Chrono Trigger, that it is the best IP I would ever have played my entire life.
You feel the way about video games the same way I feel about them. They shaped who I was as I was exposed to them at a very young age
ASEAN
One of the best soundtracks ever, thank you.
The Cajun One if not the best...
Lan Nogara Agreed. And Chrono Trigger had an awesome soundtrack also for a 16bit game.
I wanted to love this game as much as I do Chrono Trigger. I really did.
CT did multiple time paths well, and managed to weave discarded timelines in to a well stated, cohesive narrative. CC is more like what happens when someone's hyperactive preteen writes fan fiction, and lets her equally unmedicated ADD friend edit it.
Holy crap! I've played this when i was 9 years old and loved it! I've replayed again last year(now i'm 25 y.o.) and it was a BLAST! A superman punch right on my nostalgia.
This is probably one of the best games ever made in the history of videogame; The music, the plot, EVERYTHING.
Congrats on nailing everything right, you did an AWESOME job, and gained a new sub. Love from Brazil!
So to summarize best: The story exists as a result from the defeat of Lavos in 1999, basically caused a split in space/time. In the 2300 AD Lavos destroyed alternate universe the Mother Brain or FATE controls events through time in both universes with a time travel device that can manipulate humans throughout history. So its the protagonist job to put an end to this add in some convolution and BAM.. Chrono Cross
This game takes place after the Eclipse of time, as revealed in the DS version of Chrono Trigger
I’m glad to see someone cover this game more fully. Interestingly enough you can actually skip two boss battles in this game. The first is by going through the volcano without going to the Water Dragon Isle (you don’t actually NEED to freeze the lava to make it through, but it’s suggested) and the second is you can skip fighting the Black Dragon.
lol i didn t knew what could freeze the lava ouch im feeling like a noob right now :v
You can also skip Dario and the mighty Cryosphinx!
I love this game. I was lucky enough to play this before I learned it was actually a sorta-sequel, and thus was able to judge it on it's own merits before I played Trigger, resolving the only big issue I had as a kid with CC, being the CT specific plot elements. I hear a lot of people say that it "ruined the heroes accomplishments" by making them seem like a bad thing. But I always knew (speaking about real life here) that actions have consequences that people really don't and/or can't predict. Looking back on them both, I recognized the problem of what happens to timelines that just end suddenly and found it a compelling plot point that a lot of time travel stories don't really explore. I think this game is a nice example of writers making a sequel story work when they clearly weren't planning ahead of time for there to be a sequel to the first game.
Frankly all the CT references felt more like Easter eggs than "Hey, this is a sequel"
@@isaacgraff8288 technically, Lucca's involvement in the storyline forces it to be a sequel in a very 'arms reach' manner.
I played this game before Trigger as well, but even at face value, the story for me was terrible. After playing chrono trigger, the gameplay feels to slow and irrelevant to slog through.
Chrono cross is a great game and not necessarily a great sequel
At least there's some love for this game. Even though it's not a sequel
This was just as complicated in explanation as it was in play and I STILL LOVE IT😂👍👍
Seriously? Ive played that game as a 19yo in 2001 and ive died 3 times during first playthrou. It wasnt complicated at all. The story tho...
Wow,so amazing,the story is so convoluted but it is still in my top 5 games of all time,absolute perfection. Well done recapitation, you really explained everything as it is,a bit difficult to understand everything right away but this is exactly what modern RPG games are missing,a story that sucks you right in and even when it is finished makes you question everything :)
R3volution of Gaming well I mean, you do have a harlequin icon so I’m compelled to believe you :)
I read this comment around the 5 minute mark and was like nah it wasnt that convoluted was it? about 15 minutes later: WTF I'm so confused. I'm sure the more complex details went right over my head those many years ago.
I love your profile picture!
I fuckin love the music in this game! Especially the main theme. Although not as good as the o.g. chrono trigger theme chrono cross's gives me a distinct feeling of wonder. Marvelous
What is Chrono Cross? My childhood game.
And my first ps1 game ever.
Any thorough video about my favorite game deserves a like
With how complex the story is and how epic the music is I'm not surprised that people involved in Xenogears helped make this game. I played this game back in the late 90s. I forgot how the story tied into Chrono Trigger so this video was enjoyable to watch. I'm definitely going to go back and play this game again for the experience and to recruit all of the party members I never got the first time around.
How'd that work out for you?
"And help him out of the strange Van Gogh realm" xD That made me laugh so hard xD
This is still my Favorite game of all time.
Its hard to say that when I loved the lunar games and Xenogears.
Rothur The Paladin xenogears!! I get excited when I hear that name
Recapitation for Lunar and Grandia would be great. I actually started Lunar for my fiancee because an awesome recap wasn't available. (Then again, don't want to ruin my excuse to play more games.)
I absolutely love the Lunar games. Eternal Blue is my personal favorite
Its always wonderful to see Lunar fans in the comments for these types of videos.
Jeremy Manuel Same. I actually got into the Lunar series last year when I tried Eternal Blue and I became obsessed with the series.
Lesson learned: don't do time travel so things won't get complicated
And secondly, don't play the hero saving the world without knowing the bigger picture.
I hope give Vagrant Story the Recapitation treatment in the near future.
he did it!
I remember playing this game and initially being very disappointed because it didn’t have the distinct feel that Chrono Trigger did. However, I picked it back up again after many many years and found it to be a rather great game in its own right.
Blasphemy...I think it is better.
@@jeffersonderrickson5371 lol no
Oh no. My opinion isn't yours. Get out of here.
@@jeffersonderrickson5371 Oh no. Neither yours is mine. You get out.
@@fleeplayTV though he didnt deny your opinion
What an endeavor it was deciphering this hodgepodge of convolution. Fantastic job!
This story got me so cross eyed, I formed a full on double helix
I didn’t even remember some of the background information. I had to play a bootleg CT version that was a fan made “what happened afterwards” story.
I loved Chrono Trigger, I was so hyped for this. I got it on release and beat it... I couldn't remember a thing about it, until I listened to this.
I can't believe you managed to make Chrono Cross digestible.
Yeah! A fat man can digest an all you can eat buffet better than this!
Dude, have you seen his drakengard video? Man's a genius. I think after Star Ocean 2, he has recapped all of my favorite RPGs. He does some outstanding work.
One of the first RPGs I ever played. I'm so happy u did this one!!!
One of the few RPGs I couldn't explain to friends after finishing it :P
You can't even explain it to others who played it.
It's one of those games where, after researching it for hours, I finally understand it for all of a few days. Then I get confused again and need to research again.
I couldn't explain Final Fantasy 7 to anyone either.
@@Melodyofthesea78 I understand it but not completely. It’s very complex but interesting.
I still don't know what happened. And I played the damn game.
SAME
As a side note, Lavos was feeding off the planet for thousands/billions of years, not merely hundreds.
65,001,999 to be exact.
'pulls out calculator, does the math' yup that math checks out, crashed in 65,000,000BC > day of lavos at 1999AD
Everything about this game is heaven! One of the best memories of my childhood. The greatest piece of art i can remember
Best game I ever played, best soundtrack I ever heard, loved story and characters, and the reason behind my love for RPG games😊
Now I feel nostalgic and old.
i feel you man lol
Your never to old when playing games.
I'm 30 lol
Na. Young gamers will never know the struggle of real games.
@@rogueveteran77 I know right growing up games where different. Even rpgs were more about the story. Now it’s how good it looks most of the time
One of my favorite ps1 games. Played it when I was about 12, so alooooot of the story kind of went over my head 😅
And I thought Kingdom Hearts’ story was all over the place
shizuwolf you sir are starting to understand all game stories in the square enix francise
It’s actually very eloquent the way Kato pulled off these two games. KHs plot is, in my opinion, more haphazard.
uptown710 with KH, I can easily summarize the entire story.
An old man travels back in time and becomes a body snatcher to fight people with key shaped swords.
How do I summarize this?
shizuwolf a boy sets out to realign the an divergent timeline created by heroes in the past.
See. You can do that for any story medium. I’m talking about how you needed like 3 games to explain the stuff that was happening in the first game. Let’s be honest KHs story is sloppily told.
The Trigger series may be complex, but everything you need to figure it out is in those 2 games.
uptown710 Chrono series. It’s the only word that appears in both titles
My one complaint with Chrono Cross is that even though they bring back Schalla, they didn't bring back Magus who ended Chrono Trigger looking for her. I know that one character with amnesia is supposed to be him, but it is not Magus.
I guess I also hated the fact they killed off the heroes (time relevant) from the first game.
I think you're talking about the magician, right? Guile or something like that.
Actually he is said to be an alternate version of Magus or something like that (also, later on he is goddamn overpower. He was almost always on my party, as was Glenn).
After a bit of research, it apparently was originally going to have Guile be Magus but decided not to due to not feeling they could do the relationship with Schalla adequately. It was also something they taking out.
xenostrike the guide and an old magazine from the time had interviews that said they fully intended for guile to be Magus, but it was a lack of time DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS that made them abandon it, and THAT is why this game makes me so mad as a sequel.
Lucifer Faust I agree as there are so many superfluous characters they couldn't do the Magus plot line that was intended was really annoying.
He was retconned back in to being Guile. Originally he was meant to be Guile (with amnesia) but they took that plot line out. But then for the DS version they put it back in to link up. If you fight the Dream Devourer with Magus you get a scene where Schala saves him and he loses his memories. This is considered canon.
RIP Razzly -_- Haha but I agree Glenn does have more weight to the story... Good job! I missed these videos!
I remember so little of this. Thank you for the summary -- I failed to absorb so much of this, and it's nice to revisit it now that I'm older without devoting 80 hours to a replay. :)
Such a great sound track to this game. Probably my favorite ever. I wish this game got an HD remake.
Let's just say pre rendered backgrounds don't scale well.
And I highly doubt they have the original assets.
It only took 3 years, but with a remaster leaked looks like your wish is coming true.
@@iamplaceholder yay.
@@TearDownGenesis its official bro april 7
@@Nemesis13Blades yeah, just saw, trying to pre0order but link isn't working.
Still... confused... ugh...
TigerWolf I watched many explanation videos on this game and still confused. Lol I gave up a long time ago
Listen to it again.
brainhurtz.exe running. CPU overheating.
That’s what happens if you add time and parallel dimensions.
@@kennethjose7159 Dark was simpler than this
Man I just replayed this. It's an imperfect sequel but a damn near perfect game. I feel like the massive cast of characters fits the theme of the game; everyone is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things and the world is going to do what it does regardless.
See you sir are a genius
My favorite game of all time. I like how you casually beat Garai and Miguel- both of those took me forever as a 4 year old.. awesome video .
4? Stop. Just stop.
Favorite part was playing as Lynx. I was so annoyed when you shift back to Serge
During the first encounter with Miguel in the Dead Sea, you mention Lavos having fed on the planet for 'hundreds of years'. I chuckled. I think you meant millions.
I played this when I was like 5 and I've been trying to find the name of it for years. Been searching "jrpg where you play as ghost blue haired kid that figures out he is dead." I had a very comprehensive understanding of the games story
Same, I search an RPG ps1 game that had 2 cd's. And found it
Chrono Cross is the first JRPG I've finished and it's still my favorite to this day. No other soundtrack can even come close to this game's soundtracks even now. I wish SE would atleast re-release the series or remaster them properly on current and next generation hardware.
This game is a master piece... Imagine if Square actually put the Magus story in it? Daaamn, it's only a dream now
I mean he essentially WAS in the game but they changed quite a lot.
I remember playing and liking it. I don’t remember much of it. This video is great to help me relive the game without actually replaying it. Very well made man. Subscribed.
yep indeed . this is my all time favorite game. favorite soundtrack. if ill be reincarnated and be in a game world. ill pick this game.ill be with the fishing old man sitting and just enjoy the view
Thanks a lot for the summary!! I didn't understand much of this when I played it 18 years ago, but this sure is really part of my childhood. Spent most of my summer breaks and weekends playing this. SO NOSTALGIC.
Young me before getting the strategy guide "yeah, they are gonna force Kid onto my team. I guess I have no choice" and then later me "WHAT?!? I could have totally chosen to NOT allow her to travel with me?!?!? THAT'S CRAZY COOL"
Shit, I've now realized I've never finished the game, I killed the dragon god, but never fought lavos and Schala!
This is because if you don't play the game in a specific way, once you reach the point where you fight Time Devourer, you get booted straight to the credits. 14 year old me was so extremely frustrated by this that I've hated Chrono Cross (and have never played it again since). But seeing this recap certainly made me nostalgic and wanting to finish the game "for real" this time.
My mind and body is ready for this RECAPitation 😁
Wow....I think I need to replay this game sometime, as I either forgot or for some reason, missed that Kid and Schala were connected. My only issue with Chrono Cross are some of the bosses, some of them would act effectively as massive roadblocks for me, looking at you Dario & Garai. The game I feel is a good sequel to Chrono Trigger, hell, I believe it is a good ending to the series, this game, so much awesome!
This game may not be in my top 10 RPGs but that intro song is just beyond amazing.
Chrono cross sold over 1.9 million copies worldwide. However, I highly doubt even 25% of those actually understood the convoluted story.
Wow... 9 year old me was NOT ready for all of that, the only part I can say i understood from my first playthrough was how FATE really had everyone playing out how it should've... Past that I was just mesmerized by the beauty that was Chrono Cross. Thankyou for explaining this so well!
i've always thought leena is some kind of manipulative partner for serge. it is like a toxic relationship where he has to do whatever she wants
She’s the prettiest in town until Serge expanded his horizon and hot out of there. He dumped her for Kid.
I liked Leena in my party though, her magic is top tier
This game brings back some great memories, man , I miss my friends
This is hands down my favorite game of all time. I remember buying this at Toys R Us back in early 2000’s, the new Disturbed Down with the Sickness album had just come out too and playing this game, strategy guide in hand, while listening to Disturbed has been cemented into my mind as one of the greatest childhood memories I hold! Thanks for the video!!!
Spiritual Sequel? Chrono Cross is an actual sequel, it does not only build on elements from Chrono Trigger but is the following chapter--after Radical Dreamers--concluding the story Chrono Trigger began!
The "Hydra Humour" has NOTHING to do with a humorous bone--which connects a scapula to radius and ulna of the forearm! "Hydra Humour" refers to Hippocrates' Theory of Humorism which theorizes the healthy body has a balance of four "humors"--blood, black bile, phlegm, and yellow bile--with disease being attributed to humor imbalance. You are sent after the Hydra's internal fluid to make an antivenom.
Though Lynx did grab the Dragon's Tear after acquiring Serge's body, he never left with it. Lynx revealed his reason for the body-swap to be Serge's body is the key to FATE, not the Dragon's Tear. Lynx immediately crushes the Dragon's Tear before destroying the dragon idols which is why there were shards which Karsh collected in the "Chamber of the Dragon Tear" before passing them on to the party as the Tear of Hate.
...everything else seems spot-on though!
too bad all the first game characters were killed off screen
Accepting this as sequel would be accepting that Dalton the most pathetic villain in the series actually made all of this happen
and whats wrong with that?
Considering that Lavos travels through time, we could actually assume that it saw this alternate future and set things in motion so that Dalton could be a piece in the whole game to promote this storyline. He's still pathetic, and I believe he was used all this time. Just like other characters who coveted Lavos' power were used by it and ended up furthering its plans. The idea of time paradox and of Lavos knowing everything that would happen is what makes this series so interesting, since it could be easy for any normal person to just give up the quest to save the planet because it was fruitless, since Lavos could just end up doing what it did, foreseeing the results in that timeline and making a backup plan to succeed in a paradox future. If we think of that, this series could be a loop in itself, because there are millions of different possible futures in which Lavos could take advantage of something to try to succeed
thats pretty much it. lavos is a multi-dimensional being so he is aware of all these things. The universe where he still fails is teh one in trigger and cross and that alone is amazing to realize.
Good to hear you again, Oni
I'm replaying this and legend of dragoon right now both are such great games
One of my favorite games helped create my now gamer name as well as background for my own OC. Being comprised of both serge and lynx unifying their souls in a different timeline
Hey very good video!!!!!! Chrono Cross is my favorite video game, there is something at the very end that I have not been able to bypass, after finishing Terra Tower and having Nikki in your party, if you go to Another World and sleep in Fargo's ship Nikki and Fargo will have a convo talking about their counterparts and Fargo just states his kids died and screen just stays there, I bought two other copies thinking it was the disc! If you could check this out I would appreciate it!
All I have to say is... Although the game was confusing af to follow, the soundtrack was impeccable. The gameplay was fresh for it's time and this will forever be a part of my top 5 games of all TIME. I'm now 33 and still upset that they never continued with Chrono Break... If I had the money, the power and the people that could make it happen, I would make Chrono Break happen just so 9 year old me in 2000 can have closure.
a great game that connects the story with trigger, i still play it to this day, wish there was another sequel.
I just started a series on this game! That's how I found this video. Good recap vid. I'm glad people still haven't forgotten about this amazing game
God bless u OBM. I've been waiting for this
Glad to see a new video from you. I will always drop anything im doing to watch. Thanks for everything!
Wow, I do not think that I, in no way, had the full scope of this game when I initially played it. All I really remembered about this game is that there were a ton of characters to collect, awesome techs, multiple dimensions, Surge/Lynx personal story, that Kid was an ancient princes, and going to that future island to fight FATE. I also remember enjoying the game so much.
Man i missed ALOT in my first 2 playthroughs of this!
That abrupt ending and the song just hits in the feels.
Damn this game was great. Ty for the content
one of the most unnecessarily hated games ever. I feel it would have been in the legendary games category if it didbt have "Chrono" in the game title.
But it actually connected the games well...even if it wasn't a direct sequel with the same cast.
Also, imo it has the best soundtrack ever. Mitsuda even pulled from it in some sections of xenoblade chronicles 2. Morytha has an eerily similar mood/sound to the dead sea
My problem with it was stomping all over the plot and feel of Chrono Trigger. CT's ending deliberately made sport of the "time travel is dangerous and will ruin everything" cliche, which fit an overall more cheerful and happy go lucky tone... then CC turned around and embraced the cliche and gloom fully, undercutting the heroes and their accomplishments. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't really have animus towards CC, and probably even enjoy a lot of it.. but because of the way they did it I do, and still would like a proper CT sequel that fit the original's plot and tone. It was one of the best games ever made.
Everything you describe is seen through the dark lens of Chrono Cross. Most were there for the heroes to correct as part of the uplifting nature. Other unhappy events were added to later versions of CT to tie into the upcoming CC storyline. If not outright retcons, many folks like myself noticed the stark contrast to the tone of the original. And Frog? He's my favorite character, with an epic and uplifting theme (on my playlist for decades)! More fairy tale territory than gloomy.^^ And as for your bitterness at killing further sequels... I can empathize but not take credit, as I wasn't discussing CT/CC with anyone but my brother at the time. I feel it might better be directed at Square for failing to deliver a game that kept with the original's tone - and even taking legal action against awesome fan projects aiming to recreate that greatness, and would've really fired up the fanbase.
Taikaru
You speak as if you're living in the fantasies you've built within your own mind.
Time to swallow pride and face facts, if CT was remade with today's technology you'd shit all over it because you'd see how truly grim the events and story were/was. But due to cart limitations you got a game in a cartoonish art style.
CC absolutely appreciated and expanded the lore of the game before it, but the tone was just more realistic because it was made further down the line where technology could showcase it better.
Sorry to say, but the poster above you is 110% correct, delusional people like you who blinded themselves to facts and complain due to personal bias are the reason the series did die.
You may not have directly contributed, but your mindset is what did.
Grow up my man.
Much opinion. Very hostility. Wow~
You didn't even try to refute a single point I made. Were the events Pepe refers to not either A) Overcome by the heroes of CT as part of their triumph, or B) Added to later versions specifically to tie into Chrono Cross? And isn't it implausible heroes who bested every great foe through history, including death itself and the most powerful of all time (literally) would succumb to a mere human invasion? (A Porre one at that - see it's right in the name. :D To argue whether a disappointed mindset or the product that caused that disappointment is to blame for lack of sequels is the definition of a "which came first, the chicken or the egg" question. In any case, I eagerly contributed to sales figures for both games. But as I said, despite your hostility, as a huge fan of Xenogears/Saga and Suikoden, I truly empathize with grief over the lack of sequels for ones' favorite stories. Wouldn't wish that on anyone even if I wasn't a fan of the direction those sequels took the story.
honestly, i've never liked the body swapping thing in any story, not DBZ and not here, and you spend more of the game as lynx then as surge, then you find out it was your own dad who stole your body, a very convulted story and i just lost interest fairly quickly.
also, the dimension switching thing was okay, but it wasn't time travel, which is what made CT great. When i heard it was a sequal to CT, i thought, sweet, i'dlove to travel through time once more, but to see what become of chrono and marle sucked, that there were only two worlds with a lot of depth that was hidden and hard to understand.....
I may give the game another try after watching this vid, but we didn't get the RD novel, so coming from CT to CC was a slap in the face or a splash of cold water, not what you expect or want, honestly
I remember back in 2013 when i was 10 and i watched my older sister play this game, then after few minutes of watching i got really hooked. So i start a new game for myself and i poured many hours into the game, i remember that i was staring at the menu screen for a really long time before starting the game just to hear the menu music, I will definitely play this game again. Never had such a blast from playing a videogame before.
I remember playing this and remembering parts of this story, but even at 15 or whatever, I don't think I could fully grasp this. Not to mention aren't there like 11+ endings? Insanity.
The body swap scene was one of the most WTF scenes ever in a video game
What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to grasp that now, from deep within the flow of time. But, for a certainty back then, we loved so many and hated so much. We hurt others and were hurt ourselves. Yet even then, we ran like the wind... whilst out laughter echoed... under cerulean skies.
Always liked the beginning. Never got to the part where all of the CT references came rushing in. They should have put a few closer to the beginning to hook us. They'd have sold twice as many copies or more.
They did, a game named Radical Dreamer but the maker unhappy of the quality and never released it in common platform that time PsX or Saturn or Sega or whatever....made a big hole between Cross and Trigger and cause Trigger fans to hate Cross stating that Cross isnot a sequel to Trigger. The answer is simple...Trigger, Radical Dreamers and Cross.
Ahhh, the Golden Age of jRPGs. Still the best OST of that genre and absolute TOP5 of all time among all games.
Really appreciate this. I didn't really understand the story that well when I was younger and played this, but this cleared a lot of things up for me. I already enjoyed the game a lot, but this video only makes me appreciate the game more.
Great job explaining such a complex story! I really enjoy this series and look forward to more in the future!
the big take away i got when i played chrono cross ages ago was the reptile people returned as the main antagonist. i honestly forgot all about them after the BC plot was resolved in chrono trigger. i was so blown away when they came back for round 2
This was wonderful I love the chrono series thanks for making this great video. :)
omg i started to play this game last week too!!! after i havent played this game in YEEEARRRSSS :) love this game! i wouldve loved to seen a prequel to this and sequel to CT. That whole Radical Dreamers game.
Man, Crono’s team had it rough.
Crono and Marle - magic users and defeated a planet eating alien only to be defeated by snotty Dalton and his Porre army. Presumably killed during the Fall of Guardia. I hope not
Lucca - kidnapped by Lynx and Killed
Magus - devoted his life to find his sister. Wasn’t even mentioned in the CC, even by his sister when she was rescued from the TD. Was Magus and Guile the same person or is it Serge who’s Magus in this timeline? I need a third game or a remake to fully smoothen the story.
Robo - badass character with a Rick Astley theme. Killed by FATE.
I guess Ayla and Frog only had natural deaths. Although Ayla married an inferior Kino and Frog let her love of his life, Leene, marry an older man and had his Holy Sword became corrupted
Edit. 35:32 Kid and Serge got married? Poor Leena
Serge can't be Magus or else that's Janus marrying his own sister (... sister's clone, I guess)
Please do a recapitation of the first Dark Cloud on the PS2.
Also, I never DID get past Fort Dragonia in Another World.
OMG finally! This is my favourite JRPG of all time.
I think I may finally almost kind of understand the story a bit now. Man this really went out there.
When the first time I played this when I was 10, I understand only 10%. Now after I watch the walkthrough from some videos in 2023 when I was 29, I finally understand it 50% lol
Seeing Kid with that wedding gown is so cute, I'm so happy for them
I still understand like 15%
I have finish the game in my childhood days and confuse what really happen. Now it brings to light
Keep up the good work dude!
Chrono Cross is my all time favourite game. I remember the first time my uncle gave me a joint, I ate all my little cousins’ Halloween candy and played chrono cross for 6 hours. Happy days.
I was 11 years old when i got this. Somehow i beat this game and never I understood the story. I didnt even know it related to chrono trigger
One of my all time favorite games! Although I was too young to fully understand the story at the time.
Good work summarizing a story of this nature.
I remember buying this game on day 1 (still have the clock that came with it). I feel ashamed that I finished the game feeling a giant "meh" about the story. Actually, I felt that about every aspect of the game (story, art direction, characters, battle system, etc.), outside of the music which I've always loved and felt as the greatest soundtrack tied with Metal Black (I call this OST a work of experience, while I call Chrono Trigger a work of passion).
This game is like a fine wine to me, the more I replayed it and time went by, the more I began to like most aspects of the game, and realized what they were trying to do with it. Fort Dragonia, The Dead Sea, and Chronopolis have to be some of the greatest areas ever made for an RPG, both in terms of music and story. The art direction is also insanely good. I still love the environment for this game.
The map was too small actually. The should just make it 4 discs, add Porre continent, add real time travel and real place travel, feel free to join dinopolis or chronopolis instead cheating each other and force us to beg the dragons for their summon elements and then kill them with that, make shiny weapon with that. I would say....what a pathetic selfish bastard of the writer...wrote such an unfinished job with no sequel for decades because we dont buy the CD high enough for sequel. I love the game but with no sequel......i think the writer himself hate the game.
Dude thanks for this. Always love to listen to these. Looking forward to ur work in the future!
Haha I was curious how you would handle that exposition dump at the end there! Well done! The story is convoluted, it would have been better to weave the exposition into the narrative of the story instead of "this is what happened. Let's save schala." Either way still one of my favorite games of all time 😊
What a complicated story. Major props for this video though, so much effort went into it.
I'm a major fan of CC. I think it's pretty underrated. Being a successor to CT never helped it though. I still think it's very comparable. One of my favourite games ever