The Time Devourer Issue

[Celdine]

Yeah for the first part of the fight, the TD will intentionally interrupt your chain. I don't know if its a based on health, number of turns or w/e but eventually it will actually start to help you complete the chain for the CC. Only way I've ever been able to get it off on it.

In terms why you don't see that in games much, has to do with the fact that many players felt alienated when they went through the whole game, defeated the TD, and got treated to nothing... I know I was pissed until I found out that, that wasn't the real ending.

[V_Translanka]

All you have to do is equip all colors in your earliest Elemental row on your grid, make sure you equip any Stamina Rings and Belts you may have and then wait for it to use one of its Elements. Make good use of Defending and the minimal number of attacks necessary to use the necessary Elements (and the Chrono Cross!) and you shouldn't even have to wait for it to start off the chain. I could even do it with Guile in the party with his funky grid (he probably has good stamina recovery) no sweat...

[utunnels]

All you have to do is equip all colors in your earliest Elemental row on your grid, make sure you equip any Stamina Rings and Belts you may have and then wait for it to use one of its Elements. Make good use of Defending and the minimal number of attacks necessary to use the necessary Elements (and the Chrono Cross!) and you shouldn't even have to wait for it to start off the chain. I could even do it with Guile in the party with his funky grid (he probably has good stamina recovery) no sweat...

In fact, if you use the elements in correct order, TD just doesn't move.
First time I used Guile and ran out of action points, I let Serge use the last few elements, hacked TD to build up points, then used Chrono Cross.
V_V

[Acacia Sgt]

I'm not sure, in my game it surely knew when to ruin it.

Many times did I was close, only needing to use the Chrono Cross, then TD uses a Black element, ruining the whole thing.

[Celdine]

In fact, if you use the elements in correct order, TD just doesn't move.
First time I used Guile and ran out of action points, I let Serge use the last few elements, hacked TD to build up points, then used Chrono Cross.
V_V

TD is slow but it will attack during your chain, and for most of the fight ruin it.  V_Translanka's advice is sound though, taking advantage of TD's slowness is probably the easiest way to get the CC off.

[utunnels]

TD is not slow sometimes(his speed is averange), but will be stopped if you cast the elements in correct order.
I don't know how long this effect lasts, but obviously TD gets tamed, sort of.

[Magus_Brokenhart]

I don't care for Serge, but he is stronger than Crono. The elements probably replicate real magic. Wasn't Dalton using them in the extra content? The spells don't look the same because they can't be portrayed exactly alike in 3D. I mean, look at the pendant on the Playstation's FMVs. Also, remember that Serge is somehow special. Schala chose him instead of Crono for some odd reason. >_>

I think defeating the Time Devourer with brute force was how you fulfill FATE's prophecy. Instead of fusing with the TD, you end up helping it evolve and letting it escape into the real world. Enmity fulfilled.

[Chrono'99]

Also, remember that Serge is somehow special. Schala chose him instead of Crono for some odd reason. >_>

Serge is Schala's soulmate. The ending FMV depicts an alternate version of Schala Kid looking for an alternate version of Serge (who happens to the player). Remember, this FMV doesn't depict the future, it depicts an alternate dimension. Maybe even multiple alternate dimensions if the Schala Kid that wrote the diary and has a photograph isn't the same as the other(s). If Schala Kid and Serge are destined for each other in that alternate dimension or these alternate dimensions (not to mention Radical Dreamers), it's safe to assume they were destined for each other in the Chrono Trigger/Cross dimension too, from the very start.

I – So you wanted to connect the works with the relationships between Serge and Kid, and also Schala.

Kato – To pin it down, Serge and Kid were where I tried the hardest, moreover making a ‘boy meets girl’ kinda thing. A kid named Serge meets a girl named Kid and together they get wrapped up in an adventure. From the world he doesn’t know about secrets are slowly revealed, about Serge himself, Schala from the past, and how fate is tied in. This could just be an ending where boy meets girl and they do their story, but perhaps there’s another dimension, another story, a different meeting, and a completely different life story that you could have. I persistently tried my hardest to get the player to question things like this.

I – So for a good ending movie, you tried to use the crossing point of a young girl and her other side to imagine “a story in another dimension.”

Kato – Yeah, like that. I thought that was the perfect material to use to give meaning to a parallel world. In each independent parallel world there would be respective developing stories. If we did it that way, people at home could use the experience of Serge in the game’s worlds to think about the reality of their own world. Maybe somewhere in our world there’s a Kid, and surely someday we will find and meet. For a long time I’ve wanted realizations developed from games to not just stop with the game, and now I feel I’ve done it right. There’s a message that comes after the ending movie finished, and I hope that all players will understand these words that have come from my heart. That’s what I’d love to have happen.