It's been how many years since the original Chrono Trigger was released? Five, I think. Five whole years of waiting, wondering, making up incredibly ridiculous rumors... But for what? A sequel to what many have called the greatest SNES game ever, to some even the greatest RPG ever. About a year or so ago, Square finally announced Chrono Trigger 2 or "Chrono Cross". Now fans in America and Japan have finally gotten their hands on what could be the zenith of 32-bit quality.

Many say that Chrono Cross is as good as the original, that it is to 32-bit RPGs what Chrono Trigger was to 16-bit RPGs. In my opinion, they couldn't be more correct. THIS is the true successor to the SNES original, and in a few years it will be one of the true PSX "classics", just as CT became an SNES classic.

One thing that obviously comes to mind when one sees CC for the first time is how beautiful it is. Certainly CC has quite possibly the best visuals ever to be seen in a 32-bit system. The CG backgrounds and the characters themselves certainly have the same vibrant, colorful appeal of CT's visuals. The 2-D worldmap even bears resemblance to CT's own worldmap.

The only thing missing is Akira Toriyama's awesome art. Unfortunately though, Square couldn't get him away from the evil Dragon Quest VII, but Nobuteru Yuki is a fine substitute. The N man, famous for his work on Seiken Densetsu III (a.k.a "Secret of Mana 2") and the anime Escaflowne, also has a nice and, um, "interesting" style of character design. Sure, your first impression may be "man, those dudes look like total FREAKS", but in a strange way his "unique" characters appear to blend in with the game's world.

Another place CC's graphics excel in is in battle. As can be expected, the monsters are creatively drawn and designed, and the spells are mind-blowing. But Square squeezed in some extra details to the battlefield. These include swaying plants, seagulls and other avian creatures soaring above you, insects crawling out of holes, beady eyes peering out of darkness, water gushing out of geysers, and so forth. These extra details give CC's battlefields a type of atmosphere or "life" that the battlefields in other 3-D RPGs lack.

If there are any flaws in CC's visual representation, it has to be the frame-skipping and other nasty effects that occur as a result of CC pushing the PSX to its limits. When many characters crowd an area or battlefield, the frame-rates for these characters suffer a little bit as does the fluid movement of the camera. But these are merely trivial flaws, and they really don't seriously detract from the visual feast CC offers.

Much like CT, Chrono Cross excels in the audio department. Yasunori Mitsuda is back, and his CC tunes rock as can be expected. His style this time around is an interesting mix of Xenogears and Chrono Trigger, and he's traded in the pianos for violins and drums. Anyways CC's music is sweet ear candy, full of tracks that excellently highlight the emotion in the game's many events. Mitsuda has also thrown a few familiar themes from Chrono Trigger in the game as a treat for his CT fans. CC's music is a combination of both the old and new, and I doubt many people will be disappointed with the soundtrack.

My only complaint about CC's soundtrack is that each character seems to lack his/her own unique theme, something I highly enjoyed about CT. Otherwise, CC's soundtrack is pure gold.

The sound effects in CC are also very good. This time around Square has thrown in background noises such as roaring winds, screeching birds, crashing ocean waves, and so forth to add yet even more life to the game's battlefields. Some may complain that the lack of music for the game's Final Battle is a disappointment, but I thought the silence and eerie breezes of the final battlefield seemed to speak more than any mere song could. So as a whole, CC's audio is a delight much like the original's was.

Now, one question stands above all concerning CC: Are the characters and plot as good as the original? I say yes. The storyline is once again a Sci-Fi epic about the nature of time, and where the world's future is headed.

You portray a boy named Serge, who hails from the fishing village of Arni. One day, Serge goes to the beach to hangout with his childhood sweetheart Leena. Little did he know that he would run into a dimensional wormhole that would get him involved in a massive struggle over a mysterious relic, the "Frozen Flame". Chrono Cross's storyline is more of a roller coaster than CT's, the "plot-twist" turns being even more dizzying and sharper this time around.

The storyline is very deep, and you may not understand it the first time you play through the game, or even the second. To fully understand this complex epic, you may even have to gather with friends or fellow fans and exchange views and questions about this deep plot.

Besides being deep, the plot also intertwines with themes from CT magnificently. You'll see the mentioning of various names from the original, and you'll even be given new views on events that occurred in the original Chrono Trigger. I'm sure most CT fans will find all the CT references interesting and wicked. Overall, the plot should be a great treat for CT fans and fans of Xenogears' complex storyline.

As for the character department, this is the most controversial aspect of CC. Some people say the characters lack almost any form of personality, but I'd have to disagree. The characters in CC truly have interesting, diverse personalities and characteristics. Sure there are points in the game where anonymous dialogue is given to character#2 or character#3 to say, but these aren't during significant events. Most of the time it occurs when a character is pointing out something, like a weird structure or object, and it doesn't detract from the character that much.

The characters still have their personality, they still have goals, loves, hates, and a unique style of behavior (not to mention their own unique accent). My only complaint about CC's characters is that they lack the same tight closeness CT's cast had, they're more like members of a huge group scattered around the world rather than a close team of friends. But still, for a game with such a huge cast of characters, Square did a stellar job on these individuals.

Finally, how good is CC's gameplay? CT fans need not worry, CC is just as fun and replayable as the original. Squaresoft, though, has made MANY changes to the gameplay. CC introduces a new, interesting gameplay system centered around "Cross-Sequence" action and "Element" techniques.

CC's battles neither flow by time, or turns. Instead we are introduced to "Cross-Sequence", a new style of battle flow. Basically you can attack or move at ANYTIME, but you have to at least have 1 stamina point. All your actions in battle consume "stamina points", and you start battle with the max total: 7. Much like in Xenogears, you attack using a combination of different strikes ranging from weak to fierce. These strikes build up your Element level, which is vital in unleashing your Tech and Element attacks.

Like in FF1, your Techs and Elements are arranged in levels. Level 1 being the lowest and weakest, Level 8 being the highest and most powerful. With the exception of Techs, Summons, and items you can place your elements anywhere in their level range. It's up to you to decide if a weakened but more quickly accessed level 1 element is greater than a powerful but more slowly accessed Level 8 element. Add the fact that each enemy and character has an elemental strength/weakness, and the ever-so-important Field Effect meter and you have a game with mucho strategy.

Luckily, the game isn't that much harder than CT. But I doubt anyone will really find this game to be a cinch, seeing as how character growth (level gaining) is strictly limited and controlled. Yep, CC won't tolerate characters with bloated stats (the first time around, at least) so don't think you can get maxed out stats at the beginning of the game (as a matter of fact, there is no way that I know of to get maxed out stats, without Game Shark at least).

Anyway, besides strategic and exciting battles, CC offers one thing that Chrono Trigger is famous for: Replay Value! There's so much to discover in CC, you won't even be able to get all the characters, items, techs/elements, or other neat features the first time around. In order to get and see every single thing Chrono Cross can offer, you're going to have to play CC more than once. But who's complaining? With New Game+ mode and all, playing through CC again is no problem. And, of course, there are multiple endings to uncover too! So CC has some replay value for everyone!

My only complaint about CC's gameplay department is the fact that swapping characters is such a hassle. You see, you can't easily swap elements between characters, since each character's element grid is uniquely shaped. So instead, you have to de-equip the character your're swapping of all his/her elements, and then re-equip those elements one-by-one to your new party member. This is a bit of a time-consuming hassle, but overall it doesn't detract from the fun-department that much.

So overall CC is truly a sequel that lives up to the original. Despite the few trivial flaws I found in Chrono Cross, I think that Chrono Trigger has finally met its match. Chrono Cross is "The Empire Strikes Back" of RPG sequels, and it's truly a PSX classic.