Chrono Trigger was a dream project. It’s a miracle it came out and continues to amaze two decades later. Square was ahead of its time with this one, so the question then was what was to come next.
Should there be a sequel? If so, what should it be about? The answer was Chrono Cross, and the name alone made it sell. However, it’s also nothing like its predecessor. It, too, is a treasured RPG for its platform, the PS1. Both games have their fans, but which among them is the best? Let’s go through every aspect of the games in order to determine a winner.
Updated on April 26, 2022 by Ritwik Mitra: Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, so it's surprising that a lot of people don't really talk a lot about its sequel. This could be partly due to limited sales upon launch — a problem that has been rectified with the recent remaster of Chrono Cross. More and more people are trying out this great game and realizing that it actually stacks up to its predecessor in more ways than people could've imagined.
12 Story: Chrono Trigger
Time travel, up to this point, was a rare feature in RPGs and games in general. It was mostly used as a backdrop for games, or maybe a mechanic, but it was not so intricately woven into a story until Chrono Trigger.
The story is timeless, whereas it’s a bit harder to articulate what exactly Chrono Cross was about. It was a bit too convoluted and confusing.
11 Party Members: Chrono Cross
One of the defining features of Chrono Cross was its diverse cast of optional characters. More does not always mean better. In this case the game didn’t have enough time to allow players to get to know them, unlike Chrono Trigger.
That said, in terms of gameplay variety for characters, Chrono Cross has its predecessor beat by a mile.
10 Characters: Chrono Trigger
As it was just touched on, the failures of Chrono Cross’ characters is that the game doesn’t allow players enough time to get to know them. Variety is the spice of life, and because there are so many different possible combinations, this means all types of players can create their own play styles.
As cool as that is, the smaller, more intimate party in Chrono Trigger, is better from a narrative perspective. The only exception is Crono, who is a blank slate, but so is Serge, so that point is kind of moot.
9 Replay Value: Chrono Cross
Just like the character selection, Chrono Cross’ endgame content is legendary. Both RPGs have excellent New Game+ modes in fact, which allow players to re-experience the games from new perspectives.
That said, the one thing Chrono Cross has over its predecessor is a fast-forward feature. This was implemented way before it became more standardized for remastered versions of games. In this way, Chrono Cross was ahead of its time.
8 Music: Chrono Trigger
"Time’s Scar" from Chrono Cross, is hands down not only one of the best songs ever created, but it was a way better opening tune than Chrono Trigger’s. It jazzed the player up for an ultimate adventure.
While the other music in the game is also beautiful, there’s just no beating the consistency of Chrono Trigger’s soundtrack. From the court scene melody to Frog’s theme, these are songs that will forever be embedded in the heads of players.
7 Maturity: Chrono Cross
Chrono Trigger was a pretty riveting game, but one can't deny that the idea of a world-ending threat didn't really seem all that scary, given the reactions of the characters. However, Chrono Cross was a completely different beast in this regard.
The tone of the story was decidedly more mature, and the consequences of time travel were discussed in great detail. It didn't skimp out on the details, which is what made Chrono Cross feel more mature at times.
6 Graphics: Chrono Trigger
Technically, Chrono Cross was a more impressive game at the time of its release. While its colors and diverse island locations help it stand out among PS1 games, it still looks a bit dated.
Chrono Trigger’s graphics, on the other hand, have pixel-perfect sprites that could stand next to modern pixel games and look equally as new, if not even better. The 16-Bit generation wins a lot of battles when it comes to standing the test of time.
5 Complexity: Chrono Cross
Unlike its predecessor, there are a bunch of mechanics in Chrono Cross across all aspects of its gameplay and story. This has split fans down the middle, who don't necessarily consider the overly complex nature of this game to be a positive factor.
However, there's no denying that Chrono Cross' ambition was pretty brilliant and made the entire game feel pretty epic. This complexity might take a while to wrap one's head around, but mastering the combat and understanding the intricacies of the story is a blast once players really put some effort.
4 Gameplay: Chrono Trigger
There are so many reasons why Chrono Trigger’s mechanics are better than its sequel. First of all, Chrono Cross went back to random battles.
There are team attacks (sort of) in the game as well, but they were not as fleshed out and easy to use compared to Chrono Trigger’s. At its heart, Chrono Trigger was just a tweaked version of Final Fantasy, but one that was tweaked to RPG perfection.
3 Customization: Chrono Cross
People could argue that Chrono Trigger was more rigid in its gameplay, with characters having classes and special attacks of their own that couldn't really be mixed and matched around. Chrono Cross is completely different in this regard and offers a greater degree of customization.
As a result, it's more satisfying to nail the perfect combination of attacks for a party in Chrono Cross. With the sheer number of characters in the game, this can be somewhat overwhelming... but it's quite enjoyable after a point.
2 Villain: Tied
Both games struggled to have a defining villain. While Magus was a cool first third, the rest of the game features a giant alien bug that posed a threat but didn’t have charisma. Chrono Cross suffered almost the exact situation.
It first focused on Lynx, but then the plot veered toward dragons and inter-dimensional beings, which again, caused some convoluted plot lines to appear. In order to be truly memorable, there has to be a good villain. Look at Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. Without him, the game wouldn't be nearly as exciting or memorable.
1 Verdict: Chrono Trigger
This was hardly a fair fight. Chrono Trigger is one of the best RPGs, or games really, ever made. It was a dream project between so many legendary creators from Japan that recapturing that magic without the whole team was seemingly impossible.
The SNES was blessed. Chrono Cross is by no means a bad game, even though it lost to its predecessor in most of these categories. It is a very good RPG, but it wasn’t groundbreaking, unlike Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger is available on the SNES but has now been ported to PlayStation and several other formats.