Completion time: 39:46:13

I originally had Chrono Cross listed as the 25th game of this series, but then I started thinking….I need something that has the potential to be amazing, that’s a long play, that I have played before but never came close to completing before. So I swapped what was originally the 26th game with the 7th game and moved the 26th game to 25 (if you got confused, that’s fine, I’m confused about why I did those particular moves for the most part anyway!) Another reason why I expedited Chrono Cross was because, unlike what was originally slotted as 7th, I’ve never beaten this, and have been notoriously awful at beating an RPG when I get close to the end. This was an excellent test to give myself – play a damn fine JRPG early on, and play it to its completion.

Chrono Cross has always been spoken highly of by a majority of RPG enthusiasts, and although I had only gotten a dozen hours or so into it before this playthrough, I could easily understand the admiration for it. There’s so very little wrong it does, and the overall package is stellar, even 21 years later. It’s got an interesting combat system, it’s absolutely gorgeous for a 32-bit game (with a brilliant use of colors, and quite honestly, it might be the best looking 32-bit game ever), the soundtrack is outstanding, and the main storyline get absolutely bonkers going into act 2 (and it doesn’t relent, right up to the moments before the final fight).

Even with all of the acclimation it receives from me, I can’t help but to point out a few of nagging issues that came up during my playthrough. First, other than several boss battles, there wasn’t much of a challenge (not even the final boss pushed me anywhere close to my limits), and I ended up not even using a number of the spells and tablet abilities given throughout the game. Second, it gets a bit confusing to keep tabs on, without going all spoilery, where things are in different places. It adds some unnecessary backtracking, in a genre that has enough of that already. Finally the ending….pure and unadulterated “WTF”. What do I mean by that? You beat the last boss, black screen, then the credits. I will be looking up whether this has multiple endings, and I didn’t do something specifically to get the best ending. If I find that I did miss something, if my save file allows me to, we will go back (off the clock) and beat the game again. I can’t believe that the game just ends like that, not after the amount of exposition bombs during the final 15 minutes.

With that all in mind though, I cannot say that Chrono Cross is anything other than epic. This is easily a top ten RPG on the console, and maybe if I had more time to sit and think about it, a top five RPG on the console. For whatever faults that I encountered, there were literally a dozen other things that made this an experience to have. It’s a shame that the Chrono franchise has only seen two RPG’s in its lifetime, but damn is this one an absolute treat. If you’ve ever had the urge to play Chrono Cross, and you’re able to now, it’s well worth your time. I wish I had stuck with it all those years back when I started it and then stopped, but then again, we wouldn’t be having this moment right now, would we?

Rating: 10

Twitch VOD’s:
Part 1/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/925314108
Part 2/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/927756308
Part 2.5/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/927756555
Part 3/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/931726285
Part 3.5/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/931734646
Part 4/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/932882862
Part 4.5/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/932865991
Part 5.1/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/934058150
Part 5.2/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/934066141
Part 5.3/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/934066607
Part 5.4/5: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/934068486

YouTube video: