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''Chrono Cross'', a [[Role Playing Game]] developed by [[Square]] for the [[Play Station]], is the follow-up to ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''. More specifically, it is a remake, or re-imagining, or sequel (sort of -- it's [[Continuity Snarl|confusing]]) to ''[[Radical Dreamers (Visual Novel)|Radical Dreamers]]'', a [[Visual Novel]] based on the ''Chrono'' [[The Verse|'verse]].
 
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, [[ItsIt'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.
 
There's much more, including a [[Sinister Scythe|scythe]]-wielding [[Catfolk|cat-man]] with a personal interest in Serge, an [[Face Heel Revolving Door|ambiguously]] aligned [[Villainous Harlequin|harlequin]], dragon knights, pirates, a [[Masked Luchador|Mexican wrestler]], cyborgs, musicians who fight with [[The Power of Rock]], dragons, robots, a masked magician, dinosaurs, an undead clown, aliens, a living turnip, and a grand total of [[Loads and Loads of Characters|45 playable characters]]. There isn't room on the page for the charts and diagrams necessary to explain all the [[Kudzu Plot|tangled plots]] and [[Gambit Pileup|overlapping schemes]] going on.
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''Chrono Cross'' is finally available on the PSN for those who missed the game the first time around. There were rumors of a sequel when Square registered a trademark for the term ''Chrono Break'', but it has since faded into [[Vaporware]].
 
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=== This game provides examples of: ===
* [[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.
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* [[Anti Grinding]]: It's impossible to [[Level Grind]], meaning you also can't just level up to burst through difficult boss fights. Your characters do get stat gains, but they're directly linked to plot progression and gaining "stars", which expands their element grid, for completing boss fights.
* [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]]: In a game with 45 playable characters, you're only allowed three in battle, [[Can't Drop the Hero|and one of them must always be the main character]], except in [[New Game Plus]] where you can replace him.
* [[Armor -Piercing Slap]]: [[Girl Next Door|Leena]] and [[Mama Bear|Macha]] both have one as a Tech. So does ''[[Miles Gloriosus|Pierre]]''.
* [[Artifact of Doom]]: The Frozen Flame is the main one, but the Masamune also counts.
* [[Ascended Fridge Horror]]: When Marle is temporarily removed from the timestream early in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', she's still alive and conscious in some sort of void. ''Chrono Cross'' explores the implications of changing the timestream and condemning people to that void.
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* [[The Chessmaster]]: ''Quite'' a few, but {{spoiler|Belthasar}} probably takes the cake.
* [[Cloning Blues]]: When it's revealed that {{spoiler|Kid is Schala's "daughter-clone"}}, she's unwilling to accept it at first. How it's resolved depends on your interpretation of the game's [[Gainax Ending]].
* [[Color -Coded Elements]]: Inverted; the colors ''are'' the elements. Red incorporates [[Playing With Fire|fire]] and [[Magma Man|magma]], blue is [[Making a Splash|water]] and [[An Ice Person|ice]], yellow is [[Dishing Out Dirt|earth]] and [[Shock and Awe|lightning]], green is [[Blow You Away|wind]] and [[Green Thumb|plants]], black is [[Casting a Shadow|darkness]] and [[Gravity Master|gravity]], and white is [[Light 'Em Up|light]] and [[Death From Above|meteors]].
* [[Combination Attack]]: There are many, although they are actually [[Guide Dang It|much rarer in practice]] than in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', mainly due to the game's [[Loads and Loads of Characters]].
* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: The rules imposed on the player for combat [[My Rules Are Not Your Rules|don't apply to the enemy]] -- they can basically do whatever they want. In addition, the success percentages given for your physical attacks are quite difficult to believe; prepare to miss frequently if the percentage is anywhere below 85%. This is especially blatant in the monster arena [[Mini Game]].
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* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Compared to the endlessly upbeat optimism of ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|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.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: You ''can'' choose to simply punch out the Time Devourer, but he gets better. Which is bad. The ''right'' way to defeat him is... a little more complicated.
* [[Disc One Final Boss]]: Three times, in conjunction with the three Disc One Final Dungeons mentioned below: {{spoiler|Lynx}}, {{spoiler|FATE}}, and {{spoiler|The Dragon God}}.
* [[Disc One Nuke]]: Several sidequests, minigames, and hard-to-find items count.
** Before entering Viper Manor, you can get the Profiteer's Purse from Gogh's house. Then you can either use it to increase gold drops for the rest of the game, or dismantle it for 3 copper and 3 iron (the latter of which is very powerful at that point in the game).
** A bit later on, ''in'' Viper Manor, a minigame involving the care and feeding of dragons nets you a piece of iron equipment if you get the best result... and you can just keep trying until you win.
** You can easily acquire Serge's [[Infinity Minus One-1 Sword|Mastermune]] ''way'' sooner than you're supposed to be able to by exploiting a bit of [[Artificial Stupidity]] on the part of the boss you have to fight to get it.
* [[Distress Ball]]: Kid catches it a few times, although her clearly-established impulsive nature makes it slightly easier to swallow.
* [[Don't Think, Feel]]: The advice given to the sailor guy played by Nikki in his concert/pretentious [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]] skit, in order to play the song of Marbule.
* [[Downer Ending]]: The main ending is actually not a downer ending in the least, but a number of the bonus endings are.
* [[Dragon Rider]]: The Acacian Dragoons.
* [[Dressing As the Enemy]]: At Viper Manor.
* [[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.
* [[Dub Induced Plot Hole]]: The penultimate boss, the Dragon God, is labelled "Time Devourer" in the North American release. Given that the Time Devourer is the [[True Final Boss]] and the relationship between the two isn't exactly obvious, this just makes the [[Mind Screw|already confusing story]] even moreso.
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** Leah is also an Expy of Ayla. Beating the game with Leah in your party implies {{spoiler|that she is actually Ayla's ''mother''}}. Yay for time travel?
* [[Extranormal Institute]]: Chronopolis fits the bill.
* [[Family -Unfriendly Violence]]: {{spoiler|Kid's stabbing scene}} is probably enough to give most younger players nightmares. Even the writer expressed concern that the scene may have been too intense.
* [[Fan Service]]: Serge's naked scene. It even has a good shot of his bare butt. [[Bare Your Midriff|Kid]], [[Amazonian Beauty|Orlha]], and Janice (a [[Little Bit Beastly|bunny-girl]]) also probably count in general.
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Humans and Demi-Humans do not get along, and players will experience that firsthand {{spoiler|from both sides}}.
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* [[Giant Wall of Watery Doom]]: The Dead Sea was in the middle of getting pummeled by these when it froze.
* [[God Guise]]: The inhabitants of El Nido seek guidance from the Goddess of Fate, going so far as to directly ask for advice from the aptly-named [[Justified Save Point|"Records of Fate"]]. Little do they suspect that they're actually communing with {{spoiler|a [[Master Computer]] from 1400 years into the future, the artificial intelligence FATE}}.
* [[Good Morning, Crono]]: A callback to its predecessor.
* [[Gotta Catch Them All]]: With 45 playable characters and the requirement of three playthroughs to get them, what do you expect? A more straightforward example is the need to fight all six Dragon Gods and obtain their relics before you are allowed to enter the Sea of Eden.
* [[Grand Theft Me]]: {{spoiler|Lynx and Serge}} forcibly swap bodies as a step in the former's [[Evil Plan]].
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* [[Happy Ending Override]]: Several events in ''Chrono Cross'''s backstory have unpleasant implications for the characters of ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', though their fates are never ''directly'' addressed.
* [[Hartman Hips]]: Even though many of the female characters embody this trope, Lady Riddell stands out the most.
* [[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose]]: Lynx vs. Kid in Fort Dragonia.
* [[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.
* [[Hijacked By Ganon]]: The whole game is, ultimately, an elaborate scheme to kill {{spoiler|Lavos}} in a way that doesn't result in a [[Time Paradox]].
** 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".
* [[Humans Are Bastards]]: Many demi-humans have this opinion. One of the endings revolves around it.
* [[Hustling the Mark]]: How the alternate world Fargo takes your boat. [[Hoist By His Own Petard|It backfires]].
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* [[Info Dump]]: The Chronopolis segment is particularly guilty of this. The {{spoiler|apparitions on Opassa Beach}} right before the final battle also lay it on thick.
* [[Interdimensional Travel Device]]
* [[ItsIt's All Upstairs From Here]]: Fort Dragonia and, later, the Terra Tower.
* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]: The game deals with numerous different periods of time (from the far future to prehistory) in more than one timeline broken into alternate dimensions. You only actually play in two dimensions, both at the same point in the timeline, but it's an open question whether this makes it more or less confusing.
* [[Joined Your Party]]: Those messages are personalized for each character's accent/verbal tic/gimmick. "Marcy, like, joined your party!" (has some [[Valley Girl]] speech patterns), "ZOAH JOINED YOUR PARTY." (speaks in [[No Indoor Voice|ALL CAPS, ALL THE TIME]]), and "Greco tagged into your party!" (is a [[Masked Luchador]]) come to mind.
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* [[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!
* [[Lost Forever]]: A lot of stuff: characters, level 7 techs, and other things. It's actually impossible to gather the full party on your first go-around; you have to play the game ''three times'' on the same save file to get everyone... and even then, many things that are [[Lost Forever]] are ''huge'' [[Guide Dang It]] moments.
* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: Maybe a record of how many times this trope is used in a game. Several characters are revealed to be related. Admittedly a lot of the times both parent and child know of their relations, it's just Serge & his party that get the reveal. Examples include:
** Serge, {{spoiler|Lynx}} is your father.
** {{spoiler|Kid}}, you are...uh, [[My Own Grampa|your own mother]]. Kind of.
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* [[Never Found the Body]]: Home World's Dragoons have all vanished, having gone on a quest for the Frozen Flame. {{spoiler|They're all dead, having been led to the Dead Sea and frozen by Lynx}}.
* [[New Game Plus]]: Required not once, but twice (meaning three total play-throughs) for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]. As with ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', beating the [[New Game Plus]] at different points in the plotline will also result in different ending scenes.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Repeatedly. Serge ''[[Trope Namer|named the item]]'' on [[The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches]].
* [[Only the Chosen May Wield]]: Used with the Einlanzer.
* [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]]: Subverted with Fargo (another) as he does lock you up when you first encounter him. Played straight with home Fargo, as the most he does is cheat people of their money through rigged gambling.
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* [[Shout Out]]:
** A very subtle one, but not to ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'': the "Sea Swallow", the name of Serge's initial weapon, was also the codename of the character Irene Lew in the NES ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' games, which the writer of the ''Chrono'' series had previously worked on.
** Gaea's Navel is likely a Shout Out to "[[Spell My Name With an "S"|Gaia's Navel]]" from ''[[Secret of Mana]]''.
** One of the available window frames is the same one used in ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' (which was developed by the same team).
** Starky's [[Dub Name Change|Japanese name]] is [[2001: A Space Odyssey|Star Child]].
* [[Spell My Name With an "S"]]: Seen with the ''soundtrack'' of all things; there are a lot of different translations floating around for the track titles. The best example is probably "The Dream That Time Dreams", aka "Watching the Dream of Time" and (more nonsensically, but ironically probably the most popular translation) "Time of the Dreamwatch".
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: The developers' original goal for ''Chrono Cross'', as it had been for ''Radical Dreamers'', was allegedly not so much to make a full-fledged sequel to ''Chrono Trigger'' as to make another game set in the same world, hence the immensely different style, tone, story and gameplay. Even after its release, the developers were adamant that ''Chrono Cross'' was not ''Chrono Trigger 2''. ''Chrono Cross'' itself got its own Spiritual Successor of sorts in ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'', a game (with a sequel of its own) for the [[Game Cube]] featuring some of the same developers, the same unique visual style of 3D character models set against a hand-drawn background (hand-drawn by the same person, no less), a vaguely similar battle system focusing on multi-hit combos and customizable move sets, and in the first game, the same writer. It's not exactly another ''Chrono'' game, but fans looking to recapture just a bit of that ''Chrono Cross'' feel are suggested to check them out.
* [[Star -Crossed Lovers]]: Serge and Kid, though the ending leaves it ambiguous whether, in some time period or reality, they will eventually be together.
* [[Storming the Castle]]: Viper Manor and, later, the Terra Tower.
* [[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]].
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* [[Unholy Nuke]] / [[Unrealistic Black Hole]]: Blackhole.
* [[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.
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: Serge just keeps ''falling'' for it. Fortunately for him, the ultimate [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]] in the game, {{spoiler|Belthasar}}, is a good guy, so everything works out in the end... assuming you defeat the last boss the [[Guide Dang It|right way]].
* [[Urban Legend of Zelda]]: This game was ''created'' because of one: {{spoiler|Schala Lives!}}.
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** [[Gravity Screw]]: The Dimensional Vortex looks like an [[MC Escher]] design as painted by [[Vincent Van Gogh]].
** [[Hailfire Peaks]]: Mt. Pyre, should you choose to [[Exploited Trope|exploit]] a key item and cause the magma to freeze over. In [[Path of Most Resistance|a fit of sadism]], the treasure chests also freeze, preventing you from ever opening them.
** [[ItsIt's All Upstairs From Here]]: Fort Dragonia.
** [[Meat Moss]]: The Isle of the Damned.
** [[Monster Arena]]: The Grand Slam.
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** [[Noob Cave]] / [[Palmtree Panic]]: Opassa beach.
** [[Nostalgia Level]]: [[Played for Drama]] in the Dead Sea.
** [[One -Time Dungeon]]: The Dead Sea.
** [[Ominous Floating Castle]] / [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: Terra Tower.
** [[Port Town]]: Guldove.
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* [[Villains Out Shopping]]: One of the endings is like this.
* [[Warmup Boss]]: Mama Komodo. Incidentally, you've just finished killing all of her babies, and she's pretty steamed. Her [[Death Cry Echo]] is rather piteous, too, making this (yet another) instance of [[You Bastard]].
* [[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 (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' soundtrack and the theme of ''[[Radical Dreamers (Visual Novel)|Radical Dreamers]]'' done in ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|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]].
* [[Weird Moon]]: Viper Manor's suspension bridge is overshadowed by two of these babies.
* [[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.
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: The El Nido archipelago is located somewhere in the ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' world, but the game never clarifies ''where'' in the world map it's located, particular in reference to the Zenan continent and it's oft-mentioned country of Porre.
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: {{spoiler|Schala, the [[Friend to All Living Things]] from the first game, fused with Lavos and formed the Time Devourer, which wants to destroy all of existence.}}
** The DS re-release of ''Trigger'' elaborates on this a bit: {{spoiler|because of the intense hardship of her life, Schala deeply wished for all the horrible things in the world to have never occurred... or in fact, for everything about the world to have never occurred, which gave Lavos an opening to take over her soul.}}
* [[Word Salad Lyrics]]: Used by a random NPC. "Lah lala lalah! / I don't need a recipe book / Because I'm the happy cook / Who feeds the people gook!
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