Leading off from my gushing reminiscence about how I originally found, loved, and subsequently went back to retread, Chrono Trigger, I feel that I have more to say about the game. For one thing, I have finally finished my play through, with all side missions complete and all techs learned. Though in spite of this, I largely stand by my previous comments. The only additional negatives for me are that the game reuses a few tracks of the (admittedly great) music a little too often, and the fact that even with triple and dual techs, I still found myself using the same 2 or 3 party variations all the time. The three characters of a casting bent (Marle, Lucca and Magus) barely ever got used. The former problem is excusable in that it's likely one of hardware limitations. The latter I have to cut some slack because it came as a consequence of an aspect of the game that I really like: most characters have a healing technique and/or at least one offensive spell. So unlike many other RPGs, I never felt shackled to a healer character that sucked at everything else. In CT I was able to roll with a very physical attack heavy party of characters that I liked and still had access to offensive magic to deal with enemies that resist physical attacks, as well as healing techs for the tougher battles. I imagine that other people probably have their own small set of go-to parties that they use over and over.
The real thing that I thought about when I finished the game (yes I have a New Game+, no I probably won't be going for the other endings), wasn't a new criticism of the game, it was dissapointment in its sequel: Chrono Cross. Now don't get me wrong, it's was a well produced game for the time, a game whose scope is far in excess of Trigger and that lets you as the player have much more agency over what's going on. Looking at review scores from the time too, it was very much a good game. Though for the record, I don't really like it. My problem with Cross isn't with the game itself but with how it relates back to Trigger. The long and the short of it is that it essentially makes the events of CT redundant. The way it does it too is in that really shitty, years after a series finished, shoehorning-in-a-sequel retcon kind of way. Like Terminator 3 appearing out of nowhere and shitting over everything years after T2 neatly and awesomely wrapped things up. Like with Terminator 3, I try to pretend that Cross didn't happen.
I feel that Chrono Cross really should have been another IP, or could have done the trope of one of the other Squaresoft series and had no links to the previous game. Instead, Cross is littered with unnecessary callbacks to CT, each one putting more of a downer on the previous game. The main kick in the nuts is that fact that Lavos is back again, rendering the entire previous game pointless. Moreover, little touches: like meeting ghosts of Chrono, Marle and Lucca as children, or Robo being reduced to the "Prometheus circuit" (confirmed to be the case by the game's creator). Yes, this circuit is important to the plot, but it's still an unceremonious end to such an awesome character. Full disclosure: Robo is my favourite character in Chrono Trigger. As I've been subtly hinting, my main problem with Chrono Cross is how it discards most of the previous game, and what it doesn't discard, it actively undermines. Once again, I don't deny that Chrono Cross is a good game, or even that its story isn't worth telling. I just believe that it could have told that story without splattering shit all over Chrono Trigger's story.
So this was a bit of a nerd rant. Still, I couldn't help but feel the satisfaction of finishing Chrono Trigger's story being tarnished by the fact that I know that canonically, bugger all was really achieved. Sadly, this realisation means that I've become something I once sneered at. I'm now no better than people that claim that Lucas raped their childhood by making the Star Wars prequels. Oh dear.
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