If you could change Chrono Cross, how would you do it?

[Yourgingerestfan]

You don't even need Kid. There is no point in the game where you need to have her in the party to be able to beat the game.

I'm pretty sure she forces her way in your party during the infiltration of Viper Manor.

She isnt forced ever , she just appears helps you out the prison and , appears three more times (Treasury,Elevator Hall,Vipers Room) after that you get to go to Guldove , where you can recruit her later on , but she is never actually required not even for her own lvl 7 tech .

[Stanger5150]

The battle system.  I absolutely hate touching one monster, then being magically transported to an arena where there are three monsters!  Active battles all the way.  It's what I loved about Chrono Trigger.  The battle system reminds me of a mesh between Zelda and FF.

[Delta Dragon]

The battle system.  I absolutely hate touching one monster, then being magically transported to an arena where there are three monsters!  Active battles all the way.  It's what I loved about Chrono Trigger.  The battle system reminds me of a mesh between Zelda and FF.

How is it at all like Zelda?  Unless you're referring to Zelda 2.

[Truthordeal]

I think Stanger's referring to the fact that there are monsters on the maps, ala Zelda, but that you find in an ATB like in Final Fantasy.

[V_Translanka]

AoL makes sense since on the map you encounter one enemy and then face hoards. I thought they could have done better on that as well...

There were too few forced battles and the ones that were didn't seem very creative (in CT, for example monsters would fall out of trees, get woken up by other monsters, etc...forced or accidental battles were interesting either way like that & it actually gave some character to even the little snot-nosed RPG monsters).

[Stanger5150]

How is it at all like Zelda?  Unless you're referring to Zelda 2.

I mean what Truthordeal said.  I enjoy how the enemies are all onscreen interacting with the environment, whereas in Golden Sun for example, I can be trying to find a lighthouse and be bombarded by those goddamn random battles with enemies that appear out of nowhere.  The CE team talked about random encounters being easier to program and such... that may be the case, but I think its time for big developers to drop this style altogether.  I really don't see how it benefits a game in any way.  I think it only hurts its overall appeal, and the game becomes less engaging.  

Fixed your quote tags.
                      ~V_Translanka

[V_Translanka]

I think that sort of depends on the style of RPG. For level-grinders you want quick, easy access to battles, and thus random is the easiest way to accomplish that.

[Truthordeal]

With CC though, they pretty much eliminated level grinding through their leveling up system. So the non-random battles fit in well to its gameplay.

[V_Translanka]

Yeah, in the process they made battles that were boring and unnecessary. It almost felt like they were trying to pack the battle system to the gills so people might overlook that or something. I still miss the range-based Techs from CT...

[Bigvinu]

In all honesty, I would have ditched the "Universe" traveling concept and rebuild the story through the same time traveling lens we saw in CT.

[wiz Khalifa]

The battle system.  I absolutely hate touching one monster, then being magically transported to an arena where there are three monsters!  Active battles all the way.  It's what I loved about Chrono Trigger.  The battle system reminds me of a mesh between Zelda and FF.

to add to this, i'd have eliminated the battle music from both chrono games. make em more like seiken densetsu 3 was. battle1 is wack and hurricane's aight but i dont wanna hear it every time i get in a fight, knaamsayin? chrono cross got those chill beats i'd rather be listening to, like in that forest before the Viper Manor

[Licawolf]

Fewer playable characters altogether was my vote. I think a little more than the CT cast is okey, but 43 is too much. Less PCs  and more time for each one to get some attention, more interactions between the PCs. Something else I would like to change would be the end, too open. A game with such a complicated plot really needs a more conclusive ending IMO.

[Mr Bekkler]

I think I would change my vote to "more development time" to sort out the Magus situation and the plot resolution, "bring back Akira Toriyama" because I prefer simple exchangeable bad-assness to excessive flamboyant cuteness, "skip a generation(of video game systems)" because it shined on the PS1 but with some extra power it would have been bigger and arguably more beautiful, or "pull a zelda(have a second game after you beat the game)" to pop a few ct characters in or show a short teaser adventure in the ideal timeline.

[Manly Man]

I'd say to make it harder; it would make what characters you pick more relevant, and you would have to develop genuine strategies for who you fight and how.

Another way that I think it could be improved would be to include more of the world than just the El Nido archipelago. To do that, it would obviously take a bigger machine, at least a PS2, if they were to expand and put as much detail into each place in the rest of the world as they did in El Nido. Imagine how it would be for a place like Truce or Medina to have the same varying areas as they did in Termina. Or, even better, the elaborate things they could do with Porre, and just how intricate they could be with whatever 'castle' place they have for Dalton to rule from.

[Syna]

I really think the playables killed it. They sapped so much potential emotion and drama from the story and a lot of them are just a character design vehicle.

You can do huge casts well-- Suikoden does it. But in Suikoden's case, both the plot and gameplay integrate the huge cast beautifully, and that's just not the case with CC.

Also, wtf was with JRPGs in the PS1 era infodumping you huge amounts of needlessly obscure information in textbox form? I'm all for poetic allusiveness and esotericness, but show, don't tell is something CT does so well. Why did CC not learn this lesson?

Oh well. The music kicks ass.