Chrono Trigger DS new ending/boss(Spoiler)

[Eric]

Last boss is the Dream Devourer(The last boss of Chrono Cross) in it's infant-like stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVeXLEvXydQ

Nice bonus for people who are holding out hope for another sequel.

[Blotus]

Pretty radzilla, Eric. I could never play through CT without getting Magus. I think I may have not gotten him the first time through, but for subsequent plays he was essential.

[Zeus]

Hopefully it sold well enough that they'll resurrect Chrono Break for the DS. I loved Cross and can't wait for another

[Blotus]

I'm up for another sequel. I really liked Cross even though I couldn't make myself play through it the last time I tried. Don't give me a Trigger remake, though.

[Julius Seeker]

850K so far. Though they had a very limited release in Europe; no one over there can find it, but sales are only 40,000; kind of reminds me of Phoenix Wright over here when they launched with only 10k copies for the continent. It's sold better than the original SNES version over here.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this one; and it's one I'll likely play a lot more in the future. Play with headphones.

[Zeus]

I'm up for another sequel. I really liked Cross even though I couldn't make myself play through it the last time I tried. Don't give me a Trigger remake, though.

Minor spoilers below. You've been warned.

Cross is rough in the beginning as both the story and battle system start out very slowly. I was not liking it very much and was considering putting it down but once I hit about the 12 hour mark, everything seemed to come together. We started seeing the storyline develop and tie in with the orphanage part and you finally got decent enough elements to make that magic be more than a useless Xenogears-like one. From that point on, the game becomes just awesome, particularly the fight with the father

[Don]

I fail to see what's the point of adding an optional boss who is not even as hard as Spekkio at level **. And Schala's dialogue makes no sense as there's never any indication that she just wanted to destroy the world or whatever. Even her characterization in Cross is better than this, and that's saying a lot. I suppose it could make sense if they're actually planning to release Radical Dreamers, but I highly doubt it.

[Zeus]

Radical Dreamers! That was the name of the ROM I was lookin' for!

[Don]

I remember naming Serge as something like "Super Duper Guy of Utter Destruction" like what I do on most Japanese games that lets you name your character so I'll remember when they're talking about him, but then I forgot that was his name and was wondering why the dialogue reads so weird. I named Butz as 123456 in the Japanese version of FF5 and forgot that's what I named him, too.

I think I got healed by someone (probably Schala, who knows) and then got killed by a ceiling trap because I probably forgot to get something before moving, like how old school games where you can save at a spot where you have no chance of winning becuase you didn't get some item earlier. The original version of The Girl Who Stole a Star is better than the one in Cross, IMO.

[SineSwiper]

The boss was really damn boring in the video. No updated attacks or anything. They just took Lavos and put her on top. Although, I'm guessing that they are re-writing the whole Guile/Magus connection with this ending.

Also, am I the only one that really liked Chrono Cross? The ending wasn't the best, and some of the character development was shakey. But, the gameplay was really good and unique, the music was really awesome, and characters like Lynx had an level of depth and just plain coolness that few villains had.

The story was actually pretty deep, but somewhat hard to follow towards the end. The idea of a temporal 5th dimension counter balance threw people off, but it was pretty original, especially in an RPG (which are usually less than original in the plot dept).

[Don]

Chrono Cross's story was needlessly convoluted. At time it felt like it was just forcing stuff to go with Chrono Trigger. They could have said Crono was killed by Stormtroopers and that'd have made about as much sense as what actually happened to them (they got killed by... er... something). I don't think Lynx had that much depth but he was a pretty cool villian. Cross does have a very strong gameplay element especially if you just go with the default element grid instead of wimping out and take something like 15 Healing Winds. The major bosses in CC are really epic if you play it like the way it's supposed to.

Miguel, Dark Serge, and Dario are pretty awesome when you finally do beat them when you're limited to something like 1 Healing Wind and 1 Heal All on each of your characters because you have to know when to defend and when to disrupt them from setting up an advantageous field effect. Of course the game gets stupid when you get Chrono Cross (resets your element grid) because you basically can never die at that point...

Also some of the characters play really differently, like Guile (I think that was his name) who has a tiny element grid but does a ton of damage. The story was pretty good on its own, but not when they tried to tie it into Trigger.

[SineSwiper]

There wasn't all that much in terms of ties to CT, really. There was the Dragon Tower, but I thought the whole counter balance thing was pretty cool. The ending wasn't all that great, considering they had somebody explain a bunch of elements at once, and there was basically zero tie-in to the Lavos/Dream Devourer boss.

True, they killed off the CT cast (or they just didn't really appear), but it was their way of saying that this was a "sideways sequel", a sequel that resides in a different fifth dimension. (Hell, anime does this shit all the time, parallel universes and alternative timelines.) At least they had a boss scene that explained how it linked together.

Chronopolis was still damn cool, and adding Belthasar didn't really seem forced.

[Don]

The ties were weak enough that it just looks like a cheap effort to make money off the Chrono Trigger name.

The weird thing was that the story part of Cross is reasonably solid. It could have been a fine story even if it had no connection to Trigger whatsoever.

[Zeus]

And Lucca's orphanage?

[Don]

And Lucca's orphanage?

Kid could have been adopted in Bob's Orphanage and it would not have made any difference whatsoever.

It's like saying Secret of Evermore is related to FF4 because Cecil has a weapon shop in there.

[SineSwiper]

It's more like the connection between Secret of Evermore and Secret of Mana. It's sort of a sequel, but not really.

[Zeus]

And Lucca's orphanage?

Kid could have been adopted in Bob's Orphanage and it would not have made any difference whatsoever.

It's like saying Secret of Evermore is related to FF4 because Cecil has a weapon shop in there.

The main character is from the orphanage that one of the main characters from the prequel set up and they spend some decent time tying the backstory of the orphanage to Lucca. Decent enough tie to me.

Look, I agree that it's only got a minimal tie-in to Trigger but there's no doubt that Cross is a sequel.

[Julius Seeker]

Chrono Cross is a remake of the side quest Radical Dreamers.

[Don]

I actually did some research on Radical Dreamers. It looks like Kid has the Chrono Trigger in Radical Dreamers and combining it with the Frozen Flame gives you the power to rule the universe or something like that.

Far as I can tell Cross is only similar to Radical Dreamers because there's Kid in both game and there's a Frozen Flame. I guess there's a Chrono Trigger in both, except Serge is the Chrono Trigger in Chrono Cross and I think in Cross that just means he has the admin access to Chronopolis.

Anyway, just because I make a game that stars a guy that went to Fei's school of martial arts, doesn't mean it's meaningfully related to Xenogears. Lucca's Orphanage serves no purpose whatsoever. At no point in Chrono Trigger was it ever alluded to she's even going to make one. Even when she made one there was no special significance other than that she opend up an orphanage. It was literally like someone important fell out of the sky and landed in her orphanage.

[Don]

By the way, I really like the concept of Chronopolis, the Fortress of Time. I think they managed to handled it without being cheesy. It was sort of your standard 'machine controls everything' but if you look at the history of Chronopolis it seems like it's humanity that just decided better off leaving the defense of the universe off to some perfect computer. And you can argue that FATE managed to defend the dimnesion quite well against extra dimensional invaders. Perhaps you can say that the heroes of Cross are so poorly developed you don't care for them, but Lynx and FATE strikes me as people who genuinely had a good idea that just wasn't the same as what the guy you were controlling thought. I was always under the impression that FATE is trying to preserve this world in the safest way instead of just hoping 5 teenagers put together can somehow stop Lavos.

And if you look at its track record, it seems like FATE is well equpped to deal with Lavos and maybe even the Time Devourer.

[RentCavalier]

I played Chrono Cross first, so that warped a few things in my head for me.

Personally, I found it strange how the Reptites are really really sympathetic in Cross, but in Trigger they're basically just total assholes.

[SineSwiper]

Personally, I found it strange how the Reptites are really really sympathetic in Cross, but in Trigger they're basically just total assholes.

Mind you that the Reptites in CC are from a future where humans were wiped out. The Dragon Tower was from the same time PERIOD as Chronopolis, but a different time LINE. So, it was far in the future on their 5th dimension parallel.

EDIT: This pulls a lot of it together pretty well

[Mental]

I think to understand the full Chrono plot you have to have played that Radical Dreamers title, and I think it only came out in Japan for some weird system that didn't come out here or something? (I want to say it was the WonderSwan but, not sure, and I don't feel like going to Wikipedia to check tonight.)

Still my favorite RPG series. I'm waiting for the third one and if they never release it I'll still be waiting until the day I die and afterwards.

[Don]

Radical Dreamers was for SNES but you had to download it from some weird network thing Nintendo had in Japan.

Of course, you can just download the ROM.

[RentCavalier]

I'd like to point out, however, that Chrono Cross has some of the best graphics ever seen in the PSX era--the detail in the environments and the fluid character animations rival some of the earliest PS2 games.

[SineSwiper]

I'd like to point out, however, that Chrono Cross has some of the best graphics ever seen in the PSX era--the detail in the environments and the fluid character animations rival some of the earliest PS2 games.

Fucking awesome music, too.

[Don]

I'd like to point out, however, that Chrono Cross has some of the best graphics ever seen in the PSX era--the detail in the environments and the fluid character animations rival some of the earliest PS2 games.

Fucking awesome music, too.

Problem is the battle music in Chrono Cross totally sucked since they insist on using the exact same 2 songs for all the battle/boss music throughout the game, and honestly the two special boss themes (FATE/Fusion Dragon) isn't really that good, at least by Mitsuda's standards.

Oddly enough I thought Miguel had a great boss theme even though it was clearly an environment theme. The whole atmosphere is pretty much saying it doesn't matter what you do, the future is doomed. I mean this is a guy who has an attack called Holy Dragon Sword and yet he's supposed to be the bad guy, and it really reflects the theme how whether you're good or evil, you're still powerless before the power that FATE wielded.

There's a lot they could've done with the music. The Girl Who Stole a Star would've made a good boss music for the Time Devourer. Certainly it can't be worse than silence?

[SineSwiper]

I really liked the battle music, and they actually had a few more than two tunes:

Gale - Used in Home World; good stuff
Brink of Death - Used in Another World; also really good
Fates (Gods of Destiny) - Boss music? Maybe this was just for FATE
Orphan of Flame - Another major boss theme, Lynx?
Dragon God - Dragon God boss music

Some environment music like Jellyfish Sea was used also for the battles, just to keep it interesting. In fact, I think that happened quite a bit in the game. (You pointed out People Seized with Life, for example.)

Yeah, I agree with Star-Stealing Girl (fucking translations are different for everybody). That's one of my favorites, along with the title theme (Time's Scar) and Chronopolis. I was kinda disappointed in the whole wind theme, but at the same time, it really made a point to illustrate the sheer loneliness and despair in the Pocket Dimension. Here's a game full of music, and you go into the final boss fight and there's nothing but this sad wind blowing. I think it had an effect on its own.

Anyway, no matter how the music was used, Mitsuda really did produce an excellent soundtrack with this game, probably the best one he has done. (Why is it I seem to be defending Mitsuda every three months? The man shouldn't NEED defending!)

[Mental]

I literally listen to that soundtrack almost every day. Sometimes I just leave it on, on shuffle. Mitsuda is teh genius.

[Don]

Environmental music is used as a battle music very rarely in Cross, which is a shame because most of them are better than the themes designated as battle music (like Gale, which really isn't that great). The soundtrack is great but playing the game is like having only 2 tracks 80% of the time since most of the game is still around fighting. Now that I think about it the bosses in the dragon tower uses the background music, and so does a couple bosses in Chronopolis. But still it's notable that many of the key figures like Lynx uses the generic boring boss battle music.