Chrono Cross: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to grasp that answer now, from deep within the flow of time...''}}

 

 

The story revolves around Serge, a village boy who accidentally blunders into an [[Alternate Dimension]] while trying to get a gift for his sweetheart. This other world is mostly similar to his own, but has a number of very important differences. For starters, in the other world, [[It's a Wonderful Plot|he's dead]]. This scenario leads to Serge trying to learn why he's so important to both timelines, getting dragged along on an adventure by a certain pugnacious Aussie girl, mastering the art of dimension-hopping between his Home World and Another World, and, just maybe, saving all of space and time.

* [[Aborted Arc]]: There is [http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Arbiter.html speculation] that the game was originally intended to contain a subplot going into greater depth about Serge's role as the Arbiter of the Frozen Flame. More generally, the game itself is widely suspected to have been rushed and incomplete in its later stages of development, which would why many major plot threads are resolved only in the form of a [[Info Dump]] right before the final battle that was added for the North American version of the game.

* [[Actually a Doombot]]: The first battle with Lynx.

* [[Alien Sky]]: Dual moons, one white and one red. Oddly, both ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' and ''[[Radical Dreamers]]'' only have one.

** Somewhat Justified {{spoiler|in that the Second Moon came into existence when Dinopolis was pulled into the world during the Time Crash.}}

* [[Attract Mode]]: Featuring ''[[Wasted Song|The Dream That Time Dreams]]''.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Summon Elements require you to convert the entire field to their alignment color before use, making them an more trouble than they're worth if you're just trying to kill things. The various "field" spells (which turn the entire field the appropriate color instantly) make casting summons a lot easier, but neither black nor white have one. What they ''are'' useful for is turning enemies into "shiny" items needed to create the best equipment in the game... even if that's not anything like necessary to actually beat the game.

* [[Badass Family]]: Fargo's family (consisting of the man himself, his children {{spoiler|Nikki and Marcy}}, and his sister-in-law {{spoiler|Irenes}}) make up one very badass family.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Miguel, and arguably anyone on your party who was just a peasant before joining you.

* [[Cosmetic Award]]: One of the things you can find is a collection of new skins for dialog boxes.

* [[Creepy Child]]: The Ghost Children.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Compared to the endlessly upbeat optimism of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', ''Chrono Cross'''s story, in which the characters are often suffer through confusion, anger, and despair, comes off as such, despite its colorful, hand-painted visuals and character designs. Fans [[Broken Base|are split]] on whether or not this worked in the game's favor.

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: How Grobyc joins your party.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Glenn uses the legendary sword [[Gratuitous German|Einlanzer]] for his ultimate weapon... and can also retrieve its alternate-timeline counterpart and use them ''both at once''.

* [[Dual World Gameplay]]: One goes between parallel worlds although there was only one point at which you could travel between them, and you didn't receive the ability to do so until late in the game. Despite being parallel worlds, one side could affect the other e.g. cooling scorched ground on an island in one world allows plant life to grow in the other world.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Time Devourer.

* [[Eldritch Location]]: The Darkness Beyond Time, and probably the [[Time Crash|Dead Sea]] as well.

* [[Elemental Crafting]]: The weapon forging system ranks.

* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: Chronopolis vs. the Terra Tower, in the game's distant past.

* [[Evil Is Not a Toy]]: The Frozen Flame.

* [[Field Power Effect]]: The colors in the field.

* [[Fighting Your Friend]]:

* [[Flying Saucer]]: And it's plot-relevant, to boot.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: When the Dead Sea is destroyed, ribbons of flame emerge from three triangular spots on the water. These spots correspond to {{spoiler|Chronopolis's isles}} in the mirror dimension.

* [[For Want of a Nail]]: Serge's presence (or lack thereof) is the driving force in the differences between Home and Another world.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|The Dragoons}}. {{spoiler|Harle}}... [[Heel Face Revolving Door|kind of]]. And to a lesser extent {{spoiler|Lynx/You}}.

* [[He Knows About Timed Hits]]: Radius kindly instructs the player on Field Effect in the beginning of the game, while Solt and Peppor explain a new mechanic to you almost every time you fight them.

** Other supporting baddies, the {{spoiler|Reptites}} and {{spoiler|Mother Brain}}, also turn up in new guises.

* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]: You can't, however, name Serge "Crono".

* [[Last-Disc Magic]]: The titular ''Chrono Cross'', which is only effective on the Final Boss (and required for the good ending).

* [[Lethal Joke Character]]: Poshul and Pierre, two rather pathetic characters, get significantly powered up when equipped with the proper key items. Poshul only needs one, but Pierre needs ''three''

* [[Living Memory]]: Used to represent destroyed timelines. Three of them take the forms of chibi versions of [[Chrono Trigger|Crono, Lucca, and Marle]], but this appears to be primarily a [[Red Herring]] (or a [[Player Punch]]) rather than having much relevance.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: With extreme variations of relevance to the plot. Then again, if you ever wanted to form a party with an animate, talking voodoo fetish or a sentient turnip, have we got a game for you!

* [[Mythology Gag]]: The game is ''packed full'' of them, not only referencing ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' but also ''[[Radical Dreamers]]''.

** Glenn's name is a reference to Frog, whose real name before his transformation was... Glenn.

** Serge's brief journey into Kid's past is a mirror of Lucca's trip to her mother's. They both involve a main character {{spoiler|going to Lucca's house in the past}} in order to prevent something terrible from happening to someone important to them.

** In Home Arni's tavern, some customers make a throwaway reference to the Radical Dreamers, Kid's gang in the titular game.

* [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]]: Many fans believe that {{spoiler|Crono, Marle, and Lucca}} are dead, due to {{spoiler|Porre's invasion of Guardia and Lynx's attack on Lucca's orphanage}}. They also appear as "ghosts", but see the [[Living Memory]] entry above. {{spoiler|Robo}}, who became the {{spoiler|Prometheus Lock keeping the FATE supercomputer in check}}, is actually "killed" near the end of the game, unless it was {{spoiler|a copy of his programming rather than his actual "self"}}. Magus, however, is implied to be alive, though that's a whole 'nother [[Fan Wank]].

** Good lord, even the [[Mascot Mook|mascots]] aren't safe! Johnny's mangled corpse is strewn on an interstate in the Dead Sea, and the singing robot Gato is about to fatally short out when Serge travels back in time to Lucca's orphanage.

* [[A Taste of Power]]: The opening dungeon (which is a premonition of future events) has everyone armed with Mythril/Silver weapons and a few hundred HP. Of course, by the time you get to that point of the game, you can't get Silver weapons; the best you can do is Iron. Once the premonition is over, you're back to bone weapons and a few dozen HP, as well as much fewer element levels.

* [[Time Crash]]: [[Trope Namer]]. The Dead Sea is the site of a [[Time Crash]], where the bad future from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' tried to reassert itself into time.

* [[Unexplained Accent]]: Unavoidable with so many accents on display, but Kid's [[Land Down Under|Aussie]] twang is somewhat baffling.

* [[Unholy Holy Sword]]: The Masamune.

* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: Leena. She is the childhood friend, the first girl, and they are most definitely dating, but then Serge meets Kid and Leena is forgotten about. The poor lass even has the game's fortune teller bluntly inform her (well, her alternate-dimension counterpart, at least) that she's not getting a boyfriend for some time. Ouch. Whether she actually ends up with Serge or not depends on which ending you get.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: You can recruit a pink dog that [[Speech-Impaired Animal|sounds like Elmer Fudd]], a glam rocker, a skeleton clown, a plant baby, a voodoo doll with a three-foot iron nail through its chest, and a psychic luchador priest, among other things. Few NPC's if any will bat an eye.

* [[Video Game Settings]]:

** [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: The waterways beneath Viper Manor.

** [[Big Fancy Castle]]: Viper Manor. Oddly, after the first visit, Serge can waltz in and out unsupervised.

** [[Broken Bridge]]: Can you say Death's Door? {{spoiler|Dark Serge}} placed the Masamune there; the thing is so utterly [[Made of Evil]] that Lynx has to fetch the Einlanzer to counter its effect. That still leaves the door, which requires a [[Plot Coupon]] to unlock.

** [[Capital City]]: Termina.

** [[First Town]]: Arni Village.

** [[Gravity Screw]]: The Dimensional Vortex looks like an [[M. C. Escher]] design as painted by [[Vincent van Gogh]].

** [[It's All Upstairs From Here]]: Fort Dragonia.

** [[Meat Moss]]: The Isle of the Damned.

** [[Monster Town]]: Marbule, once it's repopulated.

** [[Noob Cave]] / [[Palmtree Panic]]: Opassa beach.

** [[One-Time Dungeon]]: The Dead Sea.

** [[Ominous Floating Castle]] / [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: Terra Tower.

** [[Port Town]]: Guldove.

** [[Secret Level]]: The Bend in Time allows you to revisit old enemies. Useful for Sprigg's Morphs and leveling up Pip.

** [[Ship Level]]: The Ghost Ship, later followed by the S.S. Zelbess.

* [[Wasted Song]]: The amazing song "The Dream that Time Dreams" (frequently [[Spell My Name with an "S"|translated as]] "Time of the Dreamwatch"), which consists of melodies from the original ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' soundtrack and the theme of ''[[Radical Dreamers]]'' done in '''''Chrono Cross''''''s signature style, plays in exactly two places in the game: one of the more obscure [[Multiple Endings]], and the game's ''[[Attract Mode]]''. At least it's on the OST...

* [[Weapon Tombstone]]: Both Dario and his father Garai's graves (in their respective dimensions) are marked with the Einlanzer, a sword they both used. While Garai's Einlanzer is obtained through the course of the game no matter what, Glenn can retrieve Dario's after some [[Character Development]] and use them [[Dual-Wielding|simultaneously]].

* [[Wham! Episode]]: Fort Dragonia; appropriate, as a [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]. Chronopolis is another example.

* [[Where It All Began]]: This works on multiple levels. The portal to the [[Final Boss]] is located at Opassa Beach.