Chrono Cross was an RPG released by Square on the PlayStation in 1999 in Japan and in 2000 in America.  In 2011 it was re-released for the Japanese and American PSN. Like its predecessor Chrono Trigger, there has been no European release but it is region free so you can still get your hands on it.

While Chrono Trigger’s main focus was on time travel, Chrono Cross dealt more with the idea of parallel worlds. The main character Serge, enters one of these worlds in which he drowned years ago, from here he has to find the truth of what happened and why he ended up in this alternate world. You don’t need to have played Chrono Trigger to enjoy Chrono Cross, the worlds aren’t similar and the main cast of characters are completely new. There are some references to the previous game but nothing in any way major to make a new player feel like they’re missing something. As was the case in Chrono Trigger, enemies are visible on the screen meaning no random encounters.  A new addition was the ability to run away from every battle, boss fights included.

The game had 12 different endings and a new game plus option for you to replay it with your levelled up and well equipped party. Speaking of your party, there are a massive 45 potential members in the game, you are unable to recruit them all in the one playthrough so you will need to replay the new game plus if you want to see them all. When you gain the ability to travel between the two worlds, some of these party members were able to interact with their parallel counter-parts and changes you made to the environment in one world could have a side effect in the other. The strange effect having so many party members had was that you could actually feel quite isolated. At times in the game you are left alone and an ally you had spent time leveling up departs without much of an explanation, leaving you to form a new team again by looking for potential party members.

While personally I enjoyed Chrono Trigger more, Chrono Cross stood out as more unique because of the theme of parallel words and the risks Square took with the ability to run from boss battles as well as the enormous party roster. Graphically it has aged well enough for a PlayStation game and is still worth a look by any RPG fans who missed it.