The Shrine

https://youtu.be/Y-yP2GS4Zmc

After watching the trailer it occurred to me that although Chrono Cross is probably overrated, it's opening is pretty amazing and probably responsible for the unrealistic expectations that it did not live up to. I don't really feel anything out of this trailer, and I can see they tried to copy the whole thing, but it's just not the same. When you play Chrono Cross and the scene goes to the beach where it zooms in on Kid's eyes you have like no idea who she is but it seemed very mysterious and important. In this trailer they tried to do the same thing and with some guy I have no idea who it is and it just feels like what's the point.

On the same subject, I saw the new opening for Chrono Trigger remake way back and it just doesn't feel the same as the original opening. The Anime version likewise just doesn't have it. I think both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross is still the gold standard on how to hype up the game in one opening scene. It covers a lot of important stuff but doesn't give too much away. Yes you see some game breaking events like Kid getting stabbed, Lavos showing up, the Epoch, and Black Omen. But at that point you don't understand what's their significance or context so it's not really spoiling that much. Heck, the whole beach scene where it pans into Kid's eyes turns out to have no relevance whatsoever, and yet it was one of the scenes I was looking forward to the whole game because it seems like that was supposed to be a scene where the secret of the universe is revealed!

Holy crap I was just posting this.

There's rumors via the nvidia leak a CC remake is incoming, after seeing this collab, I'm kinda convinced it's real.

I mean it's certainly a good IP to make a buck from, though I'm not sure remake for CC would work all that well right now. They'd probably have to do something more like a reboot on CC because the baseline material for CC to work with just wasn't very good. It should be something more like Radical Dreamers that focuses around only 3 characters: Serge, Kid, and Janus.

According to the datamine from Another Eden, they're congratulating Chrono Cross on the remaster, so I expect an announcement @ the game awards of this just coming out? Either a shadow drop same day, or an announcement of a release date shortly after.

And it's just a remaster, so probably computer machine learning HD overhaul for those backgrounds, maybe remake a couple of the CG scenes. Not a full remake, just a version of Chrono Cross that isn't 160p heh.

A remaster makes sense. Square’s been doing a lot of those.

But yeah, I’m not sure why such a huge discrepancy in Kato’s writing style and story directing style on this one and Chrono Trigger, they barely resembled one another. Chrono Trigger was filled with exuberance, but Chrono Cross was filled was vapid and delivered much of its plot with exposition.

I also felt he kind of ruined Lavos and Schala in one fell swoop.

Kato’s writing and directing weaknesses were clear on Xenogears where there was a notable quality drop for his sections (while Soraya Saga and Trtsuya Takahashi did the majority of the game, there were sections covered by Kato) - and I know he pissed Mitsuda off with how he used some of the music - like using Flight, a song meant specifically for Maria’s story, for the gigantic Chuchu battle

The game did a lot of things well though, and its music was a strong point. I’d probably play a remaster of the game since it’s been so long. Mitsuda did a good job - his last game with Square for over 17 years (he had a nervous breakdown).

As a note, I worked in gaming retail around this time, and during that time we constantly played gaming advertisements. Chrono Cross’s opening cinematic was used, and because of the high pitch of the tune, it always stood out… I heard that opening Chrono Cross song on rotation every half hour for like 7 months (we had a bunch of game adverts that would constantly play. I never want to hear that song eeeever again

I think it's just hard to care about anyone in Chrono Cross because you got 50 characters where their dialogue is written with an ad-lib generator. Unlike say, Suikoden, they don't even have anyone that's kind of consistent like Flik because Kid leaves halfway and Harle has like no purpose and no one else even matters to the story, and then it ties back to Lavos in a way that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Another video:

The dialogue reminds me how utterly pointless the Radical Dreamers are. I mean, I don't think you're even part of it. Maybe in Radical Dreamers the entire party is part of the Radical Dreamers, but in Chrono Cross it's just Kid and she leaves party half of the time.

I read a little more into it, and I think it's not so much that Kato's a bad writer so much that he'll give a B-effort if under too much pressure. He's the sort that will phone it in rather than perfect. He's not the sort of guy who will put himself in hospital to get the best he can get... good for him! But maybe with the right amount of time, he could give a proper game.