The Chrono Series Iceberg: Deep Dive

easily one of the most underutilized franchises in all of gaming a pair of games that would spark a generation of gamers and set the rpg bar higher than anyone could have imagined initially conceived by a team of superstars that perhaps flew too close to the sun this is the chrono series iceberg deep dive [Music] [Applause] [Music] so this video will have a bit of a different format than my normal iceberg videos i've already created both a chrono trigger video as well as a chrono cross but my trigger video was cannibalized by the copyright monsters and it was unfortunately left a mangled awfully edited mess and the commenters were very vocal in letting me know and my chrono cross video was admittedly a little lackluster as well so i figured i could just remake both of them combine them both into one longer more extensive project for the series as a whole and in honor of the new chrono cross remaster it felt like the right time to make this video don't forget the high search traffic volume yeah that too so for these deep dive videos i want to correct some of my previous videos mistakes integrate new information and of course put the spotlight on the viewers for once people brought a lot of great theories and information that deserve to be shared so i'll include some of them here i won't butcher your names but i just want to give a big general thank you for your thoughts and your feedback i'll structure this video starting with chrono trigger and slowly transition into cross and its entries let's begin in your hands perhaps one of the greatest aspects of chrono trigger is its flexibility in the route you choose to take during your playthrough the game doesn't have a linear path that you are forced to take at a certain point in the game you're given multiple different options for how to continue the game you can jump directly to the final boss which can be truly difficult to downright impossible or pursue any of the optional side quests to finish characters story arcs and make your party stronger while this may not have been the first game to implement this feature it's certainly the first one i played and it no doubt added to the game's value and perceived experience [Music] the dirty dozen depending on how you play the game and the decisions you make through your playthrough you're granted 12 or more different possible endings new endings were also added to re-releases of trigger there is a dubbed bad ending when you lose to lavos and you watch him reign destruction on society as well as a true ending which is widely considered canon to the story this ending consists of the epoch surviving at the end of the game you defeat lavos through the omen at 12000 bc and magus lives this is established in chrono cross the final anime cutscene showing marl and colonel marrying and frog becoming human are all considered canon although some argue that every story ending could be considered canon in their own respective timeline and dimension some endings are more challenging to complete but some of them only contain minor differences like a simple background change and one ending is completely unique with a room of npcs representing each of the core developers giving personalized dialogue from each of them another unique ending is the memory lane ending where luca and marl break the fourth wall noticing the end credits appear on the screen then they go so far as to request the art director to proceed forward in the scene where they go through memories of their travels but it slowly shifts into a smash or pass rating session for the two girls nevertheless it's interesting to see all the different ways your characters can go through the story death and resurrection perhaps one of the most intriguing elements of the game is when the main protagonist literally dies through your playthrough of course you can resurrect him by substituting a clone of chrono but losing primary characters is a powerful storytelling device that has a major impact on the experiencer and trigger pulled this off exceedingly well and in a game about something as complex as time travel several theories have been crafted regarding his death and another commenter said that chrono we save isn't technically the same person as the chrono we've been traveling with suggesting that the previous chrono died outright or was whisked away from annihilation by parallel timeline party members colonel trigger's writer masato kato originally wanted chrono to stay dead in the story the rest of the party was forced to find and recruit a younger version of chrono to finish the game's storyline but daddy's square stepped in and said that it was too depressing and requested it to be changed but we can see an ending similar to their original vision if you defeat lavos before you save crono recruitable villain the tri-tagonist of the game magus has their fate determined by the player you can face him twice throughout your playthrough though the second battle is entirely optional you can either engage him in battle for a second time or you can choose not to fight recruiting him to your party instead each time you engage with magus in battle he's stronger than the recruitable version of the character and if you engage him in the second battle with frog in your party frog and magus actually have a 1v1 duel of honor there's also a new game plus ending where a legit frog and magus duel occurs ending with a caped figure standing on top of magus castle though we don't know if this was intended to be frog or magus standing atop the castle despite being an optional character magus is integral to the story and just giving players the option to recruit the character was a great touch and helped to leave an impression on us all dream team one of the biggest reasons we don't see games of this caliber anymore is that the five core developers of the game were all masters in their crafts and would go on to become superstars throughout the industry between the five of them they'd created and played major parts and world famous franchises like dragon quest dragon ball z and final fantasy with each of them being a candidate for the greatest in their own respective realms their culminated talent and experience in artistic and music development was almost unparalleled at the time the crew was lovingly deemed the dream team with chrono trigger appropriately being nicknamed the dream project it was one of the greatest melding of minds in gaming history we may never see such a collection of nerd chads unite like this again and as previously mentioned each of these five members created an npc that can be interacted with in the dream team ending of the game each with their own unique dialogue a woolsey project ted woolsey served as the game's core translator to the english language miraculously he was given only 30 days to translate the colossal project of chrono trigger normally a game the size of this would require at least two and a half months to fully translate many argue that the short time span was the reason we see such blatant references being used such as all the biblical references as well as other obvious references like ozzy slash and flee from their musical inspiration counterparts but it's interesting to note that these three characters names were originally based on condiments vinegar soy sauce and mayonnaise it was woolsey who was responsible for completely setting the tone of the game for the english-speaking audience it was his interpretations that set the foundation for how the west received it for instance it was woolsey's choice to have frog speak in an old english tone and woolsey went on to have quite an accomplished career translating a number of influential games because of this i consider ted woolsey to be another core member of the dream team that brought this game to fruition some of his content would eventually be cut or scrapped due to time constraints such as the original name of the masamune being grand leon and all instances of alcohol references were changed into soda or soup he went on record saying that chrono trigger was one of the most satisfying games he'd ever worked on or played the final piece of the puzzle we've spoken about the dream team as well as ted woolsey but i like to think that another key component to the dream team behind this game is yasunori mitsuda who is working as a sound engineer before chrono trigger's development but wanting to work as a composer he gave an ultimatum to hironobu sakaguchi let me compose or i quit in response to his cojones he assigned him to the trigger team where he arranged 54 of the 64 original tracks masuda worked tirelessly on the project often sleeping in offices and deriving melodies directly from his dreams he worked so hard on the game's music that he reportedly had to visit the hospital to treat stomach ulcers caused during the development process his efforts were worth a strain however as he was able to produce some of the most powerful and impactful video game music ever it's really no wonder that dozens of creators have sampled songs from the game [Music] [Applause] one song in particular had an uncanny familiarity to it when rick rowling first became popular some people noticed that robo's theme was remarkably similar to it [Music] and you my friend just got robo rick rolled maker you are not funny despite the clear similarities yasinori matsuda has gone on record to say that he'd not previously heard rick astley's famous tune and any similarities were simply coincidental singing mountain this was a location that was originally scheduled to appear in the prehistoric era but it was cut before the game's launch it's theorized to look similar to mystic mountains and become accessible after the battle with magus at fiendlord's key this area would eventually be overwritten by the black omen its location is speculated to reside in the mountainous region east of tyrone elaire some players were able to glitch the original game cartridge into playing the pairing song that accompanied the area also named singing mountain this song is typically inaccessible by normal means players have found that a dungeon once existed here that would serve as the home for the song the development team felt the dungeon did not serve enough purpose and moving the story forward so it was eventually cut singing mountain as a song was unfortunately cut along with it maru island the game originally took this on as the name of the project it was initially designed to come out as part of the mana franchise for an upcoming nintendo cd console but the console would soon be canceled after this the dream team reimagined it for the cartridges renaming it to chrono trigger in the process trigger retells the bible easily one of the most controversial and debated topics within the community is the parallels between the stories in chrono trigger and the bible a fatherless hero dies and resurrects three wise men who possess the names balthazar melchior and gaspar each bringing the hero gifts kernel's magic was originally called light like holy and many other similarities while many people disagree with the concept disregarding it completely others adamantly argue for it suggesting even more meaningful connections than we realize no matter what your stance is on the matter it's a hot topic and worthy of a mention here unofficial sequels throughout the years fans have created many unofficial games that continue on the story in various means some are smaller projects like ct plus a game mod that opens the game up even further in its story options and adds new easter eggs and other small modifications then you have more elaborate and controversial projects like crimson echoes and flames of eternity crimson echoes was the name of a fan-made sequel of trigger based five years after the events of the official game this became such a big project that square enix stepped in and issued a cease and desist letter to halt its production to which the developers humbly obliged completely abandoning their unfinished project however shortly after these efforts were halted a new team of fans took the groundworks that was developed for crimson echoes to create a different game in their own vision they finished the project and titled it flames of eternity the game was met with mixed reception especially for many super fans avidly agreeing or disagreeing with the project to begin with the xenogears connection one of the writers of trigger went on to write for another great jrpg xeno gears as a homage to the game that meant so much to him luca appears as a helpful npc that explains to the player how the save points work but the connection between chrono and zeno could lie far deeper than this as this commenter brings up quote human beings incomplete and serving only as a fragmented existence for a bigger purpose outside of their will the save systems in both games as surveillance data storage by a higher entity to manipulate those below deus and lavos being very similar this connection probably warns a video in itself but it's worth at least highlighting here who is the entity throughout the game we're introduced to what's known only as the entity there are several hints to who or what its true identity is but no matter who it is it seems to be guiding you throughout the game throughout the game's dialogue we're never given a firm answer to this because of this most players were forced to theorize who the entity really is some people theorized it was sasha a lot of people thought it was a representation for the player others thought it was time or perhaps even kronos cat one interesting theory suggests it was simply the developers of the game speaking to the player as a fourth wall meta narrator that also translated the game's languages it suggested that not every character was speaking the same language ayla may have been speaking in a series of grunts frog may have been speaking in an old shakespearean english that's difficult to comprehend or magus may speak in a similar manner except with more of a zelian accent and the occasional zealand term thrown in and robo may very well be speaking in a series of beeps and whistles similar to r2d2 perhaps the entity serves as the universal director translator and gel that brings together such a diverse cast and timelines but as many of you have indicated the official answer for who the entity is confirmed through the game's manual is the planet that the game takes place on nevertheless it's fun to speculate king of zeal referenced throughout the game you can learn about the king of zeal who died before the fall of zeal in antiquity he does not have an in-game sprite and is only briefly mentioned throughout the game he's theorized to have the traditional blue hair and elvish ears of the other enlightened ones and with janus and shala's magical abilities it's possible the king also possessed great magical strength dalton conquered guardia after defeating once king dalton on the ds game he states i'll raise the greatest army the world has ever seen in pour and use it to wipe your pitiful little kingdom off the map and in the playstation games fmv we can even see the fall of guardia many claim that dalton held true to his word and brought about the fall of guardia ayla's hidden element ayla doesn't use magic throughout the game however she does possess a small amount of resistance against fire magic as other characters possess a weakness of an opposite element it's theorized that if she would have been given a magical element it would have been fire they may have potentially removed her magical element so as not to overlap with lucas fire magic some even going so far to say that her name can loosely be translated into i fire but as one commenter on the previous video brings up it could very well be a reference to ayla the main character of the book clan of the cave bear the dream beings there is an often unnoticed character throughout the game that has been theorized to potentially hold more significance than originally understood doreen is the sister of masa and mooney residing in inhasa at 12000 bc you can learn that she has an affinity for dreams and philosophy and will occasionally taunt crono's party about the complexity and absurdity of reality but neither her character nor her dialogue help advance the plot at all also according to this commenter masa and mooney's japanese appearance were said to be that of dream beings made tangible with the power of lavos and this would presumably include their sister dorine as well the commenter goes on to suggest that the dream beings are bound to our reality by using the dream stone as it's hyper conductive to magic this would also explain its effectiveness against the mammon machine and magus as the stone absorbs their magical powers english originated from the reptiles we learned through the game that ayla and the early human tribes speak in their own native language indicated when ayla explains her name's meaning however she's able to understand and speak english well enough to communicate with chrono and the team this theory suggests that she learned english through the only other english-speaking characters present within their timeline the reptites perhaps the human tribes adopted the reptile's language or modified it slightly to create the english language to use thereafter vegeta is glenn we learned that frog's true name is glenn and as discussed earlier akira toriyama served as the character designer so it's not surprising that we see a number of similar characteristics between dragon ball z and chrono trigger looking at the grand flow of time fmv we can see that glenn and vegeta in particular hold a striking similarity my name frog will do it stands for freaking really overpowered guy because that's what i am i am so frog although some commenters think that magus served as a better vegeta and glenn is more likely to be an older gohan and one commenter went on to advocate that glenn is actually trunks and the time machine he uses in dbz was supposed to be the epoch interesting theory chrono break in 2001 square registered this trademark for a game a week later a similar trademark was registered by the company in the european union this was the beginning of a cancelled third mainline entry within the chrono series it's been said that the overall idea of the title was carried over to final fantasy dimensions 2. while the demand for chrono games existed the trademark eventually fell off and there has not been much indication of it being picked back up one commenter even brought forth an idea that it was cancelled due to square's redistribution of development power to final fantasy xi and with ff11 being their first big online endeavor with recurring revenue possibilities it definitely makes sense to put extra effort into it the corrupted sword there exists a sword that can be stolen that is not actually a usable item upon its appearance you will receive an item that appears to be the wolf lobe sword in special characters after completing the battle you can check your inventory and find you never received an item as there exists no data for the item within the game the eighth playable character just like many games that came out before the modern internet there were rampant playground rumors of an unlockable hidden character that can be accessed through various means but like most other rumors in that era they'd never turned out to be true however in an early chrono trigger player's guide we can see several unused character designs one of them features gaspar the old man waiting at the end of time he was said to have once been a playable character donning a zealand outfit as well as a battle staff to add further evidence to this looking at character design art before akira toriyama stepped in showed a much different looking set of characters all of them seemed to line up decently well with their original drafts except the initial design for the cast of playable characters also included an unnamed wise man this is almost certainly gaspar some commenters are also convinced that sasha was also a planned playable character demo leak in 1994 a rom file of the chrono trigger demo was leaked players were able to develop hacks that allowed you to access the rest of the unfinished game some notable differences of the demo include the epoch having a hovercraft form an arena in the future era known as the robot village an incomplete map with a futuristic version of lena square and the lavos battle arena looking much more metallic among many other cut and scrapped pieces of content chrono and marl's descendant you give this seed to an old man at the heiress dome in one of the endings it's revealed that doane is actually the descendant of the kings of guardia meaning that marl is a distant relative and this would make doane the descendant of chrono and marl another eden cyrus is frog another eden is the acclaimed spiritual successor to the coronal series for the ios and android it features some of the same artists as chrono trigger and one of the characters in the game is called cyrus and he bears a remarkable resemblance to frog from chrono trigger they both seem to use swords and their elements are both water also cyrus is the name of the knight and friend of frog who was killed by magus and chrono trigger some think that these characters are linked somehow but others think it's just a simple homage to the characters shala's original role it's theorized that shala was originally meant to have a much larger role within chrono trigger in a cut scene you can see her free the characters after they are captured in the kingdom of zeal they're then sent back in time with the portals sealed behind them and in the leaked demo players were able to find a dungeon hidden behind the bookshelf in shala's room there were no enemies nor any items to find but it's theorized you could be caught by the prophet from there which leads to the events that take place in the game [Music] ayla is bisexual in the japanese version of the game ayla states in her first appearance that she likes strong men and women equally luca would reply that she's not into that sort of thing suggesting a potential sexual undertone instead of just a general blanket statement in the english version they took out that response and they changed the dialogue to state that she respects strong people and luca replies that she thinks she's crazy removing the undertone though the ds version was adjusted to be more accurate chrono is from the future this is an interesting theory that suggests crono and his family once lived in antiquity his father was a brilliant scientist that specialized in time travel however seismic activity hinted at an approaching apocalypse in response his father sends his wife and son to 1000 a.d to avoid the cataclysm however something went wrong and they both ended up with amnesia some evidence for this might be crono's hair which is more in line with 12 000 bc citizens and his particularly uncommon lightning magic lavos never died the last thing you see after defeating lavos are the silhouettes of your party as well as the silhouette of one small piece of lavos this theory states that lavos refused to die at this point in the game as we're led to believe what was left of lavos sought out shala and assumed the role of dream devour in the ds version of the game and eventually would become the time devourer in chrono cross lavos isn't evil depending on how you view lavos he may not even be considered evil in the traditional sense lavos was simply a parasite its life cycle involved manipulating the evolution of a planet and eventually recreating with lavo spawn to launch into space much like human beings would harvest a field of wheat there was no malicious intent it's simply a biological need to live lavos is a very clear threat to humanity but he wasn't evil in the same way zeal was for instance sacrificing everything for their own power and gain shalla created save points at the end of the antiquity arc shala is jettisoned outside of time this theory states that it was there that she used her magic to create the save points that are used throughout the game these were used as a way of both returning to a moment the party had touched the point as well as a way of influencing them to do certain things shallow trigger this theory postulates that the trigger was never meant to be used on chrono gas bar said that the person has to be important to the flow of time yet this version of lavos can be defeated without chrono in the party so by this logic the party should have actually rescued shala instead cut pyramid dungeon the blue pyramid will appear in the present day it can only be accessed using shala's pendant to acquire one of two chests however the leaked demo revealed an entrance to a fully fleshed out dungeon it lacked any enemies or chests but it was almost certainly going to be a dungeon at one point never-ending time loop the reason that the characters are going after lavos was from witnessing the record of him emerging from the surface in 1999 to destroy the world which would have never happened if he was dead this causes the continuum to wrap back around on itself and this is the reason for new game plus this theory states that the characters are stuck in a never-ending time loop unable to escape or conclude their story the mystic human war was staged this theory states that lavos would predict magus would eventually attempt to rise up and overthrow him to distract magus from this lavos altered human dna so that humans would be able to use magic but would be hideous in the process this would cause men to reject them and build up resentment causing magus to spend his life leading the mystics in their war instead of fighting lavos crono is a time devourer this theory suggests that lavos in all his nearly godlike abilities was able to sense greater potential within kronos mother gina and then implanted a seed within her to spawn and spread kin across the universe it's no secret that chrono is incredibly powerful a side effect of lavoids and humans merging is a distinct redness exactly the same color as kronos hair is it possible that lavos is kronos father viewer submissions this person apparently traveled through the first portal on a brand new copy of the game and upon reaching their destination they came up against the final boss in the game i can only imagine coming up against lavos before even learning the characters in the game another commenter noted about an ending cut scene where the epoch travels through different areas but apparently this viewer somehow saw a unique setting where you defeated the dragon tank and it fell through the bridge but the cutscene that they saw showed an unknown sprite and two guardian soldiers repairing the bridge this commenter brings forth an interesting theory that lavos is the product of a biological weapon from a lost civilization perhaps that in xeno gears and while we're on the subject of xeno games this commenter connects the entity to that of xenoblade axe where an alien race communicates with others via an unknown power possibly coming from the planet another viewer comments on a very distinct similarity between lavos and hp lovecraft's cthulhu and upon reading the description of the dream devourer in particular the similarities become all too evident the dream devourer capable of feeding on thoughts memories and dreams across time very well could draw some serious inspiration from lovecraft's work the original box art shows what appears to be a tech of some kind but appears to show marl using fire magic instead of ice magic this commenter brings forth an elusive secret stone item that swapped luca and marl's elements upon further research i found several discussion threads about this very topic while i never found anything about a secret stone instead i heard rumblings of a large purple coat that she's wearing being the source of her fire magic and perhaps the item on the ground behind her having more to do with it as well another thread used a beta image from the game as reference pointing out that this had been the exact scenario that was illustrated on the cover art minus the purple coat but when viewing the triple tech arc impulse in game you can see that despite using ice magic chrono's blade briefly flashes a fiery red so perhaps the mistake on the box art was just a misunderstanding or miscommunication or perhaps there really does exist an undiscovered ultra-rare zealand purple coat that turns marl's magic to fire reptite timeline this is a timeline within the reptile dimension in which lavos crashed into the planet this allowed the reptiles to flourish and would eventually go on to conquer the human tribes including ayla completely wiping them out of existence this race of reptiles would go on to evolve into the dragonians building dinopolis and the dragon god from chrono cross radical dreamers this is the 1996 text-based adventure game developed and published by square enix it was published on the failing console satella view it forms part of the chrono series acting as a side story to the trigger game the game centers around an infiltration carried out by the titular thief gang led by kid aided by serge and gill they seek out an artifact called the frozen flame and revenge on its keeper you play as lord links as you navigate through the mansions and environment and you impact the story's progression through text written and directed by masato kato they'd later use many of the plot elements from radical dreamers in their next game but during the development of dreamers kato was said to have experienced a breakdown from harboring frustration while working on chrono trigger and it was because of this that influenced both radical dreamers and chrono cross to have a darker tone than their predecessor in the end the developers were unhappy with the project of radical dreamers and it was completely reimagined into the following entry colonel cross the true sequel of chrono trigger after the canonical events of trigger end were introduced to the characters that would deliver us the conclusion and finale of the epic of chrono we officially learn who the entity is who orchestrated the survival of surge the primary protagonist of cross who was necessary to save shala the game's still very controversial the producer of cross has stated that it is not a sequel to trigger though many argue that this was more of a pr move than anything else it's a much more complex and convoluted game than its predecessor it has a completely new combat system all new characters and it doesn't even reference the events that happen in trigger until later in the game because of all these things and more players will adamantly argue that cross is not a true sequel to the game as it doesn't take place in the same world rather in a different reality or dimension but many people seem to agree that while the game may not have necessarily lived up to the success of its predecessor chrono cross was most certainly a sequel to the game we need only check the back cover art to read 20 years after the events of chrono trigger a new set of adventurers are preparing for battle that will surpass time and space the long-awaited sequel to one of history's favorite adventures and although the sequel may not have referenced its predecessor as much as people would have liked its plot and timeline relies directly on the first game especially in the final segments of the game but at their core the two games offer two very different themes chrono trigger offers themes of free will while cross consists of themes of determinism one of the key takeaways is that fate will always be the result of higher entities using lesser as pawns for their goals [Music] character returns while trigger's cast may not return in the form of playable characters some characters are implied to return in some form or another though some characters only appear in the form of a small reference or easter egg robo whose real name is prometheus is already a time traveling robot he helps another character named fiona by staying with her from 1000 ad to present day in trigger to restore a lush green forest there is a reference to this in lucca's house in cross with a portrait that reads robo made the desert green as far as the story goes robo makes an appearance as the repurposed prometheus circuit though some people argue that the promethean circuit simply cannot be the same robo that we met in trigger as the conditions were not met for his existence and instead it's the evolution of the robo-like prototypes that luca was making and one ending of the trigger game but robo is eventually terminated by the supercomputer fate masa and mune both return in cross as well the older brother masa the brave and the younger brother moone the wise both return as avatars of the masamune their big sister dorin also reappears chastising the brothers in the process the three siblings all fuse into the blade combining with serge's original weapon the sea swallow to create the most powerful weapon in the game the master moon a in the japanese version it's known as the goran dorin which is a play on words meaning grand dream we also have more important appearances like shala who is pivotal to project kid where a daughter clone of shala is created before the devour of time integrated with her this clone takes the role of kid who was raised by luca we actually see her discovering the child in an fmv many people bring up questions about why her hair is blonde instead of blue like other zealians one commenter brings up a response to this with a theory suggesting that the higher people from zeal actually painted their hair blue as a way to distinguish themselves from the earthbound people as a symbol of notoriety and power magus was actually supposed to make an appearance in cross but he was scrapped because square deemed his complex backstory to be too difficult to fit within the story he was eventually replaced by guile an added ending in the ds version of trigger implies that he became an amnesiac many argue that in the journey to regain his memories he would slowly shift into guile though this is never explicitly confirmed it's heavily implied in an fmv cutscene that marl and chrono died during the invasion of guardia after chrono became the heir to the throne with his queen marl as heavy-handed as this is chrono and his team served their purpose to allow the events of chronocross to take place luca takes perhaps the largest role in all of the returning characters despite not being shown in the game after luca found kid and established an orphanage lynx and harley raided them in an attempt to release the prometheus circuit and allow fate to access the frozen flame during this raid kidd managed to escape it's presumed that luca was killed by lynx after she failed to disengage the lock although this is not confirmed and she may have escaped one theory suggests that she was transported into the xeno gears dimension through one of her own devices or another circumstance regardless of her fate she managed to leave behind a letter an incomplete time egg as well as the astral amulet while frog doesn't officially return his name and image was modeled into the character glenn in cross like his namesake he emerges from obscurity claims a legendary sword and can even initiate frog's x-strike dual tech with surge another nod to frog is with turnip who speaks just like frog from trigger ayla does not return in cross herself but leah serves as her substitute we also find out by defeating the game with her and our party that leah is in fact ayla's mother of the three gurus of zeal we only see the firm reappearance of balthazar the guru of reason he was the one that constructed chronopolis it was here that he learned of shala's fate and began orchestrating project kid an elaborate plan to free her by splitting the universe in two and essentially playing as god orchestrating and manipulating the events that take place it's said that gaspar the guru of time remained at the end of time to watch over each of the eras and act as a guide to lost time travelers while melchior the guru of life stayed around after the end of trigger witnessing chrono and marl's wedding when the masamune is corrupted 15 years later he is not around to fix it so most people assume that he eventually vanished or died another minor set of reappearances can come about after completing the us and canadian versions of the game upon this feat players can encounter a battle with the infamous slash flea and ozzy an often misreturn is that of johnny the racer you can see johnny's mangled corpse strewn about on an interstate in the dead sea gato luka's singing robot can also briefly be seen dying during a flashback the trio returns krono luca and marl make a special reappearance in chrono cross through special circumstances at the end of the game after you've acquired the astral egg you can use the astral amulet to trigger a unique scene with childlike versions of triggers trio each of them have their own unique dialogue that explains the plot of the game even further confirming many points and giving the player insight as to how why and when events are taking place between the duration of the two games colonel also appears once more in an illusory space at terra tower when balthazar informs serge about the dragons and the trio's final appearance takes place immediately before the final battle of the game where they inform serge that wazuki has turned into links by fate and implore him to destroy lavos [Music] cut characters although chrono cross has an impressive cast of 45 characters their original aim was to have upwards of 64 different characters they wanted to have each character have their own unique ending with up to three separate unique endings for each of them it's wild to think that they had even more in mind when many people think that there were already too many characters and instead wish to have a more focused approach on a smaller cast like trigger split second janus inshallah if you cast black hole on one of the kranopoulos islands an image briefly flashes in the sky appearing to depict a young boy or perhaps a girl and a wooden art figure there's no real reason for this image to be here leading some to speculate it's an easter egg depicting janus and shala the purpose of the art figure is currently unknown [Music] chrono in cross theory due to the lack of chrono in cross many fans have speculated what exactly happened to him with the fact that his only appearances in game do not confirm his fate a popular theory is that miguel as chrono miguel's red hair the name of his daughter lena as reference to lena his absent wife his position in relation to the chrono spirit as it is always near him his status as the most difficult boss in the game his knowledge of the future his approximate age and several ambiguous lines of dialogue are all cited as evidence it is believed that he may have changed his name and moved to serge's home after the fall of guardia possibly so that lena could be raised in peace he is also one of the only three white innates which would match crono's light power set the rebuttal for this theory includes evidence such as colonel being left-handed while miguel is right-handed also since he's from a city in the future it is simply possible that he was spending his time studying the past chrono was also strong enough to beat lavos and would not lose to surge at this point in time alpha links despite supposedly being links's right-hand jester he never once mentions harley he has no dialogue or scenes with her and he never once even looks at her the only time you see them together is in the orphanage flashback where lynx doesn't even acknowledge her existence shala is the true villain this is a quite controversial theory the ds port established that she so hated humanity that she made it nearly impossible for them to rescue her and thus save themselves and really life itself colonel cross is entirely her fault her only method given created war and torment for millions and had balthazar not been a better mastermind than her any one of the steps taken could have completely wiped out life on earth of all the people in history she could have saved people in the throes of suffering she plucked out a kid she fancied after the credits she's stalking him again after resetting his memories nobody has been saved all you did was give her the freedom to start all over again colonel cross sabotage many people believe the game's original plot would have placed chrono cross as a more apparent sequel to chrono trigger however an executive who was a final fantasy fanatic feared that the game would fare better than the upcoming final fantasy 9 and managed to get his hands on the script from there it's said he modified the narrative pacing and some other plot elements so chrono cross's status as a sequel to the greatest rpg of all time would have been contested and ff9 would have been better by reputation solely because of the competition with the remaster of chrono cross we're gifted another glimpse into the game that stands atop many players greatest games of all time so enjoy your play through friends let me know if you like this style of deep dive video and which subjects we should dive into next if you'd like to support the channel consider joining the channel membership but a like and subscribe is more than enough thank you so much for watching maker out

Channel: Maker

Views: 123,278

Keywords: chrono trigger, chrono cross, radical dreamers, crono, lucca, magus, marle

Id: WApPHCT8wGs

Length: 47min 17sec (2837 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 06 2022