Pitch Your Ideal Chrono Cross Remake

[Mr Bekkler]

Pitch your ideal Chrono Cross Remake. Assuming Square Enix has decided to give Cross a similar treatment, but not necessarily with the same approach, and they hire you to run the project. What would you keep? What would you remove? What would you twist or rearrange? Would you tie it closer with Trigger, or sever those ties that already exist? Would you want to keep the 3d models or switch to sprites? This is not meant to antagonize die-hard fans of Cross who love it how it is, just meant to be a fun thought exercise and hopefully get some discussion going.

Mine isn't set in stone, but I would want fewer playable characters, but more personal moments with the ones that remain. I would want the story to be simplified a little and spread out more. Perhaps we could find out Lynx was Serge's father right before they switch bodies, and soon after find out he's controlled by FATE from Harle. That kind of thing.

I would want the battle system to take place on the map field like Trigger instead of it's own separate location, but I wouldn't necessarily change the mechanics of battle, except maybe separating consumable items out of the Element system.

I would want to change a few things to connect to Trigger more, like Miguel would be explicitly Crono and Guile would be named Magus or Janus. Glenn would be the descendant of Trigger's Glenn and would be like Glenn XIV. Character designs would be toned down, closer to Toriyama style, because with fewer of them, they wouldn't have to try as hard to stand out from each other. I'm sure there's more stuff I would want personally but I'll have to think on it more.

Do you agree or disagree? What's your pitch?

...

Inspired by the discussion of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake changes in this thread: https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=13311.0

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, let's see, if I were in charge of a Chrono Cross remake...

Honestly, I'd mostly give it the HD treatment. Not sure I'd want to change that much gameplay-wise, and that includes keeping the roster size as it is. I mean, a remake nowadays will have much more room to work with than PSX discs, so this can be a chance to give more characterization to the big cast. Perhaps one or two of the unused characters can be added too!

That said, there are some things I'd specifically do. First, I'd make it so the characters present with Serge at Fort Dragonia also get sent with him into the Temporal Vortex. I feel there was some unused potential there. Like, imagine if Glenn or Leena were there to fight against their respective fathers? That sort of stuff.

I suppose another would be to make it go full circle and make it so Guile is indeed the amnesiac Magus from the bonus ending of CTDS. Make him fully recover by the end of the game and all that stuff.

Admittedly, that's all I have. That I can recall off the top of my head at least.

[Razig]

Things I would like to see in a Chrono Cross remake:

KILL KORCHA
Korcha is sent to the Darkness Beyond Time. Not in-game, but IRL; someone needs to go back in time and prevent his existence. If that can't be accomplished, I would be satisfied if his only appearance in the remake is a nonspeaking cameo wherein he is burned to death. With matches.

ENHANCED GRAPHICS
An obvious necessity in any remake project. Chrono Cross holds up surprising well today, considering the era it came from, but it could still use higher-poly models, more detailed textures, spiffier animations, all that stuff. I'm not sure how the environments would work. If they're kept as stationary, prerendered backgrounds, we would need higher-resolution scans of the original artwork, assuming it even still exists. Otherwise we would need the environments to be faithfully recreated in 3D. It could be done, but it would be a massive undertaking.

CLARIFIED SCRIPT
Answering questions such as:

• Who or what are the ghostly children? Are they the ghosts of the Chrono Trigger team (since "Lucca" addresses Kid personally) or are they walking infodumps summoned by the Entity for some inexplicable reason (since they know things those characters couldn't possibly have known while alive)?
  
  
• Who or what are the ghostly researchers in Chronopolis? Some will react to your presence and answer questions while others seem ignorant of anything that's happened since just before the Time Crash.
  
  
• What are the implications of the Darkness Beyond Time? Did Crono and his friends really cause the people of 2300 AD to be sent there by preventing the Day of Lavos? Are those people aware of their plight, suffering for eternity, or were those same souls born into the happy future instead?
  
  (In other words, is there one Doan, blissfully ignorant of the original future, or are there two Doans, one born into the happy future and another suffering forever in the Darkness Beyond Time?)
  
  
• Did Kid merge with Schala at the end? If so, that's terrible—you freed Schala from being forcibly merged with another being, only to have the same thing happen to Kid, who was even less deserving of such a fate.
  
  
• How were the timelines merged? Did Home World's history simply overwrite Another World's? If so, that's terrible—wouldn't it doom Another World's people to the Darkness Beyond Time?
  
  
• How did Guardia fall, and what are the fates of Crono, Marle, and Lucca? This only tangentially touches the plot of Chrono Cross (via Kid's backstory), but come on, it's something Chrono Trigger fans NEED to know.
  
  
• Was the Time Crash intentional? If so, how did Belthasar possibly foresee the extremely complex sequence of events that would eventually lead to the creation of the Chrono Cross? Indeed, how did he know that the Chrono Cross could even exist, let alone that it would be the exact thing necessary to free Schala? Even with the benefit of FATE's spacetime monitoring at his disposal, this level of knowledge seems nothing short of godlike.
  
  
• If the Time Crash was not intentional, was everything that happened simply the result of extraordinary luck and Belthasar "winging it?"
  
  
• Did the Time Crash send Chronopolis back 10,000 years to 7,600 BC, or 14,400 years to 12,000 BC? This isn't crucial to the plot, but it's an annoying discrepancy.
  
  
• What's the deal with the ape skeleton on the display in Chronopolis? It directly contradicts what we're shown in Chrono Trigger—that humans in 65,000,000 BC were anatomically identical to modern ones. Ayla was a hot babe, not a monkey. And grammar issues aside, she seemed perfectly capable of understanding everything that was going on. Not only that, she had some of the deepest insights of the whole cast. So I think the whole business about the Frozen Flame speeding up human cranial development, thus making humanity the offspring of Lavos and extraneous to the planet, needs to be dropped. It would make much more sense if the Frozen Flame was the catalyst that enabled humans to use magic, and magical ability was the aberration instead of brain size.
  
  
• Was the Frozen Flame the "strange red rock" mentioned in the book in Belthasar's secret room at Enhasa? If so, did the writers plan the Frozen Flame from the very beginning, or was that passage referring to Dreamstone, and the fact that it could also be interpreted to mean the Frozen Flame was just a happy accident? (This is just a personal curiosity, it probably couldn't be covered in the game without breaking the fourth wall.)

IMPROVED PACING
More gradual exposition is needed; space out the infodumps that occur frequently near the end of the game—or preferably, reveal information organically through play instead of relying on exposition at all. An extra dungeon or two would go a long way with this.

UPGRADED BATTLE SYSTEM
Battles happening on the field screen would be cool, but I don't know how that would work with the prerendered backgrounds. It goes back to how the graphical upgrade is handled.

As for the battle system itself, leave it mostly as-is, but rework the difficulty. Currently, there is no real reason to do anything but mash the attack button in most fights. Buffing and debuffing are fairly useless outside of casting Diminish on a couple of bosses. Fights are so easy that characters' stats don't matter—everyone is equally good as everyone else in every situation except for the few times when innate color matters. If the difficulty was increased, this would create a need for actual strategy. At the same time, I wouldn't want the game to be so difficult that it becomes a slog.

Elements should be rebalanced. Some are virtually useless (especially the aforementioned buffs and debuffs) while others are so good that they're the only things worth casting if you bother casting at all. New elements should be introduced as well, to create more variety. All of the level 6+ elements being innate-only means your top-end grid slots consist of your level 7 tech, the level 7 summon, the level 8 summon, and ten copies of UltraNova or BlackHole or whatever.

REWORKED LEVEL-UP SYSTEM
I know I just got through saying that characters' stats don't matter, but it still bugs my inner completionist/perfectionist to no end that the randomized stat gains means it's nearly impossible to create a "perfect file" with everyone at their personal maximums. Stat gains should be fixed at each level, or at the very least, overwritten with the maximums at level 99.

BETTER CHARACTERS
Because Chrono Trigger gave us such an extremely memorable cast, I feel that "There are too many characters!" is one of the most valid of the common criticisms of Chrono Cross.

The playable cast should either be trimmed down to just those characters who have an actual reason for joining you, or the lackluster party members should be polished and given meaningful character arcs and backstories and stuff. As it is, it seems that most of them join you simply because they are bored, unemployed, and have no concern for their personal safety.

In either case, every character should have unique reactions to every situation. Everyone having the same dialogue, differentiated only by accent, was objectively terrible.

BONUS FEATURES
Bestiary / Chapter Replay / Music Box / Element & Tech Showcase / FMV Theater / Ending Theater / Treasure Atlas / etc.
Basically, all the cool things the PS and DS versions of Chrono Trigger gave us, and then some.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Razig quite literally addressed all the plot points and "fixes" I'd like to see in a hypothetical remake. More clarification, less text dumping, and proper closure where necessary.

I don't mind all the optional characters, but I'd like to see their side quests expanded to make their inclusion more memorable and meaningful. One Chrono spiritual successor, Another Eden, does a great job with it's side cast: each has three missions of increasing difficulty, with each quest unlocking additional skills and stat boosts while also providing meaningful insight and story development for said character.

Heck, expand the Chrono Cross cast for all I care, but make the core group (Serge/Lynx, Sprigg, Radius, Norris, Grobyc, Riddel, Viper, Fargo, Leah, Starky) not only mandatory, but make their inclusion more meaningful and expand the need for their presence. Let this be our core "Chrono" cast with character development, while all the others are simply optional filler (although they also have their own development through their side quests).

[kaionaziozeno]

Things I would like to see in a Chrono Cross remake:

KILL KORCHA
Korcha is sent to the Darkness Beyond Time. Not in-game, but IRL; someone needs to go back in time and prevent his existence. If that can't be accomplished, I would be satisfied if his only appearance in the remake is a nonspeaking cameo wherein he is burned to death. With matches.

ENHANCED GRAPHICS
An obvious necessity in any remake project. Chrono Cross holds up surprising well today, considering the era it came from, but it could still use higher-poly models, more detailed textures, spiffier animations, all that stuff. I'm not sure how the environments would work. If they're kept as stationary, prerendered backgrounds, we would need higher-resolution scans of the original artwork, assuming it even still exists. Otherwise we would need the environments to be faithfully recreated in 3D. It could be done, but it would be a massive undertaking.

CLARIFIED SCRIPT
Answering questions such as:

• Who or what are the ghostly children? Are they the ghosts of the Chrono Trigger team (since "Lucca" addresses Kid personally) or are they walking infodumps summoned by the Entity for some inexplicable reason (since they know things those characters couldn't possibly have known while alive)?
  
  
• Who or what are the ghostly researchers in Chronopolis? Some will react to your presence and answer questions while others seem ignorant of anything that's happened since just before the Time Crash.
  
  
• What are the implications of the Darkness Beyond Time? Did Crono and his friends really cause the people of 2300 AD to be sent there by preventing the Day of Lavos? Are those people aware of their plight, suffering for eternity, or were those same souls born into the happy future instead?
  
  (In other words, is there one Doan, blissfully ignorant of the original future, or are there two Doans, one born into the happy future and another suffering forever in the Darkness Beyond Time?)
  
  
• Did Kid merge with Schala at the end? If so, that's terrible—you freed Schala from being forcibly merged with another being, only to have the same thing happen to Kid, who was even less deserving of such a fate.
  
  
• How were the timelines merged? Did Home World's history simply overwrite Another World's? If so, that's terrible—wouldn't it doom Another World's people to the Darkness Beyond Time?
  
  
• How did Guardia fall, and what are the fates of Crono, Marle, and Lucca? This only tangentially touches the plot of Chrono Cross (via Kid's backstory), but come on, it's something Chrono Trigger fans NEED to know.
  
  
• Was the Time Crash intentional? If so, how did Belthasar possibly foresee the extremely complex sequence of events that would eventually lead to the creation of the Chrono Cross? Indeed, how did he know that the Chrono Cross could even exist, let alone that it would be the exact thing necessary to free Schala? Even with the benefit of FATE's spacetime monitoring at his disposal, this level of knowledge seems nothing short of godlike.
  
  
• If the Time Crash was not intentional, was everything that happened simply the result of extraordinary luck and Belthasar "winging it?"
  
  
• Did the Time Crash send Chronopolis back 10,000 years to 7,600 BC, or 14,400 years to 12,000 BC? This isn't crucial to the plot, but it's an annoying discrepancy.
  
  
• What's the deal with the ape skeleton on the display in Chronopolis? It directly contradicts what we're shown in Chrono Trigger—that humans in 65,000,000 BC were anatomically identical to modern ones. Ayla was a hot babe, not a monkey. And grammar issues aside, she seemed perfectly capable of understanding everything that was going on. Not only that, she had some of the deepest insights of the whole cast. So I think the whole business about the Frozen Flame speeding up human cranial development, thus making humanity the offspring of Lavos and extraneous to the planet, needs to be dropped. It would make much more sense if the Frozen Flame was the catalyst that enabled humans to use magic, and magical ability was the aberration instead of brain size.
  
  
• Was the Frozen Flame the "strange red rock" mentioned in the book in Belthasar's secret room at Enhasa? If so, did the writers plan the Frozen Flame from the very beginning, or was that passage referring to Dreamstone, and the fact that it could also be interpreted to mean the Frozen Flame was just a happy accident? (This is just a personal curiosity, it probably couldn't be covered in the game without breaking the fourth wall.)

IMPROVED PACING
More gradual exposition is needed; space out the infodumps that occur frequently near the end of the game—or preferably, reveal information organically through play instead of relying on exposition at all. An extra dungeon or two would go a long way with this.

UPGRADED BATTLE SYSTEM
Battles happening on the field screen would be cool, but I don't know how that would work with the prerendered backgrounds. It goes back to how the graphical upgrade is handled.

As for the battle system itself, leave it mostly as-is, but rework the difficulty. Currently, there is no real reason to do anything but mash the attack button in most fights. Buffing and debuffing are fairly useless outside of casting Diminish on a couple of bosses. Fights are so easy that characters' stats don't matter—everyone is equally good as everyone else in every situation except for the few times when innate color matters. If the difficulty was increased, this would create a need for actual strategy. At the same time, I wouldn't want the game to be so difficult that it becomes a slog.

Elements should be rebalanced. Some are virtually useless (especially the aforementioned buffs and debuffs) while others are so good that they're the only things worth casting if you bother casting at all. New elements should be introduced as well, to create more variety. All of the level 6+ elements being innate-only means your top-end grid slots consist of your level 7 tech, the level 7 summon, the level 8 summon, and ten copies of UltraNova or BlackHole or whatever.

REWORKED LEVEL-UP SYSTEM
I know I just got through saying that characters' stats don't matter, but it still bugs my inner completionist/perfectionist to no end that the randomized stat gains means it's nearly impossible to create a "perfect file" with everyone at their personal maximums. Stat gains should be fixed at each level, or at the very least, overwritten with the maximums at level 99.

BETTER CHARACTERS
Because Chrono Trigger gave us such an extremely memorable cast, I feel that "There are too many characters!" is one of the most valid of the common criticisms of Chrono Cross.

The playable cast should either be trimmed down to just those characters who have an actual reason for joining you, or the lackluster party members should be polished and given meaningful character arcs and backstories and stuff. As it is, it seems that most of them join you simply because they are bored, unemployed, and have no concern for their personal safety.

In either case, every character should have unique reactions to every situation. Everyone having the same dialogue, differentiated only by accent, was objectively terrible.

BONUS FEATURES
Bestiary / Chapter Replay / Music Box / Element & Tech Showcase / FMV Theater / Ending Theater / Treasure Atlas / etc.
Basically, all the cool things the PS and DS versions of Chrono Trigger gave us, and then some.

All these plot changes are holes that could be the starter point of a sequel.

If I was in a Remake project, i would try make a sequel instead.

I believe that the "ghosts" are Trigger's characters in other plan/reality/universe. Probably the Darkness Beyond of time, after loosing the Dream Devourer battle.

In this sequel, i would create a new character in future (not doomed), who works in a time control institute. Kid/Schala will reach this guy, looking for rescue Trigger's characters. With this interference, time will crash, and Lavos will be able to merge itself with the "entity".
The game would have 3 playable groups: the guy in the future + Kid/Schala, Serge and his crew, and Crono and his crew.

[Sheiken]

Rework the visuals, add a hard mode, rework the plot to clarify some of the plot holes, add optional side arcs for all characters to give them more meaning, and reveal that Guile is Magus after his memory wipe from the Dream Devourer.

I love Chrono Cross to death as it is, but these improvements would be great with the remake treatment.