It's good to know what you're getting into in life. If you're taking on a new job, you want to be more than passingly familiar with your profession. If you're about to become a parent, it would behoove you to study ahead of schedule. And if you're going to play Chrono Cross, well, maybe it's not on quite the same level, but it still pays to know the basics.
Chrono Cross isn't an especially hard game, per se. Square Enix doesn't drop many titles gunning for a seat with FromSoftware at the toughness table. But JRPGs like this one are positively sprawling with sub-systems, many of which are left vague or totally unexplained.
To that end, here are some things it's handy to know when first firing up Serge's time-bending, multidimensional adventure.
5 It's Actually Important to Talk to Everyone
In some RPGs, townsfolk speak so blandly, you'd think the writers fell asleep at the keyboard. Oftentimes, these games are populated by people who have no greater purpose than to exist. It doesn't matter if you ever interact with them; no insight is gleaned, no thoughtful commentary made.
Chrono Cross isn't one of them. Not only do NPCs offer many splendid supplementary stories critical to the game's narrative themes, but you will bump into many instances in which the hidden key to progressing the story is through chatting up a character you might have otherwise skipped entirely.
You'll generally know when something good's been triggered when your party assembles all orderly-like rather than sticking to wherever they happened to be standing when you first pressed the action button in front of someone. We can't even begin to count the number of times we've unexpectedly watched this occur when we had no reason to suspect a certain person was so important at the time.
4 Don't Blindly Rely Upon Element Auto-Allocation
It can be tempting to auto-fill the ever-expanding number of blank slots on your Elements Grid. First-timers frequently find the whole system overwhelming. "Why can't I just assign a few good skills and spells and ignore all the fluff?"
As it happens, the "fluff" is there for a reason, but the game's auto-allocation doesn't do the greatest job illustrating it. There are excellent Elements to stuff into spots that Chrono Cross' AI tends to insist be overloaded with a high number of attack-oriented spells native to a given character's innate Element.
To put it more simply, auto-allocation strongly favors giving a Green-innate character like Glenn AeroSaucer after AeroSaucer, Bushwhacker after Bushwhacker. But is Glenn, one of the game's best physical attackers, truly going to benefit from more than a couple of these per battle? Unlikely.
Instead, fill up on status-healing spells and other curative fare. Think outside the innate Element box with rad boss-busters like Diminish, which halves all Elemental damage, crippling many of the game's hardest foes. In short, don't let the game emphasize offense to an absurd degree. Utility is your best tool by far.
3 Recruit Zappa Posthaste
There's a blacksmith in the city of Termina by the name of Zappa. You'll know the guy; not only is he big and burly, but he's at the kiln all day and night.
We won't spoil when exactly this can first occur, but at a certain point still relatively early into the game, interacting with one of the Zappas (Chrono Cross tasks Serge and friends with jumping between two fully fleshed-out dimensions, after all) volunteers to join the party.
When we first played, we made the mistake of not checking in on him to snag his recruitment offer until much later in the story. What's the big loss? Well, for starters, you can eventually trigger a sidequest with both your Zappa and his otherworldly counterpart that unlocks Rainbow equipment, the best gear you'll ever find. Without Zappa on your side, this simply never happens.
But more important to the long haul, the earlier Zappa hops aboard Serge's journey, the sooner you'll gain the terrific Blacksmith's Spirit key item. This lets you synthesize fresh equipment anywhere in the world, even in the depths of a dungeon. Total game-changer.
2 See That Thing? You Can Thing It
Yeah, our headers are the best in the business.
But no, seriously, Chrono Cross is bursting with hidden items that can only be acquired by pressing 'X' (or the corresponding action button on your platform of choice in front of stuff that's very much "painted" into the landscape.
Arni Village at the start of the game is rife with this. Try investigating the bed in the room behind the town's cafe for a Heckran Bone. Bringing the bone to Poshul is the only way to get the big pink dog in Serge's party this early, doubling your strength.
Along similar lines, chat up the fisherman in the house beside the cafe. He's downstairs. You'll get a Shark Tooth, which you'll surely want to show to his counterpart in Another World. Chrono Cross rewards exploration, and inaugural playthroughs will almost certainly miss some nifty items. But now you'll at least know to poke about.
1 Steal from Dragons
Every boss battle with one of Chrono Cross' powerful dragons is memorable in its own way. These encounters are plot highlights and real spectacles. They're also the source of unique items you can only acquire through stealing, and there's no worse feeling than finding that out after you've beaten the game.
Each dragon holds an elemental plate. Black Plate, Green Plate, Red Plate, and so forth. These one-of-a-kind accessories grant the wearer the ability to absorb every spell of their associated Element at the cost of being extra vulnerable to that Element's opposite. The Black Element, for example, is held by the Black Dragon (of course). Hand it to a White Element like Riddel in a big battle with a Black innate and watch her shrug things off instead of die in a single hit.
Again, these are only obtainable by stealing from the dragon bosses. Fargo may join somewhat late, then, but he certainly earns his keep in due time.