Imagine that you're living a quiet and content life in a small seaside town where everyone seems happy and peaceful. Although all seems well, you've been having strange dreams that are very ominous and foreshadow some dark event. They leave you shaken and disturbed.

When you awake you are alone on the beach. Confused, you make your way back into town, only to find that no one knows who you are. This strange, yet familiar place looks like your home, but the truth is far from what you'd ever expect.

This is the interesting scenario you are faced with in Chrono Cross, the long awaited sequel to the 1995 smash-hit Chrono Trigger, which was released on the SNES platform. The executive producers of this fine game are none other than Tomoyuki Takechi (CEO of Square Japan) and Hironobu Sakaguchi (CEO of Square U.S.A and producer of the highly acclaimed Final Fantasy series).

In Chrono Cross you take on the role of Serge, the silent protagonist, battling dragons, humans and Fate itself in your struggle to set things right after being transported to a parallel dimension that is extremely similar to your home world.

During the course of your journey you will search for answers to not only who you are, but also what you could have been. Along the way you will be aided by many people and have the opportunity to recruit up to 44 separate characters with unique abilities. You will also use a number of customizable weapons, items, and elemental spells to accomplish your goals.

One of Serge's main cohorts is Kid, a very outspoken and boisterous young girl with a mysterious past. The two meet when Serge is attacked by a group of ruffians intent on bringing him before their ruthless commander, Lynx, and she jumps into the fray to assist him.

Lynx is the feline, demi-human adversary in Chrono Cross, whom you will cross paths with numerous times. Kid is determined to destroy Lynx with a vehement conviction, labeling him as her enemy. There is an evident, yet mysterious link between the two of them somehow.

Only you, as Serge, can piece together what has happened and reclaim the life that was violently torn from you.

The gameplay in Chrono Cross is very easy to follow, but it does have its drawbacks. Each character, friend or foe, has an innate elemental color affinity. For instance, a character with a red affinity would be able to use a fireball element with greater success than a character of a different elemental affinity. Likewise, a character and their elemental abilities will do more damage against a foe of the opposite innate color (i.e. red-blue, green-yellow, and black-white).

At the beginning of the game you start off with a small elemental grid in which you can place various spells. As the game progresses your elemental grid expands and you also learn various tech skills that allow your characters to perform devastating combos and attacks.

Chrono Cross introduces the "Cross Sequence Battle" system, allowing you to attack with any character in any order as long as you have stamina left. During battle you start a round with seven stamina points, which decrease with each action you perform and recover a little at a time once another character or foe initiates an attack. This way the gauge is usually completely refreshed by the time the next round begins.

During battle you have the choice of using a weak, strong or fierce type of attack, each with a different percentage rate for success that increases with each consecutive hit. The type of attack you use also consumes a different amount of stamina points. If you choose to use an elemental attack it will consume all seven of your stamina points, sometimes putting you in the red if you've already attacked that round and, therefore, it would take longer to recover your full stamina.

All of the battles in Chrono Cross are initiated when the lead character comes into contact with an enemy on the field map. There are no random battles and you can easily bypass confrontations with enemies altogether by simply avoiding them.

Once a battle is over you receive gold pieces, items and an increased star level if you just destroyed a boss monster. Increasing your star level is the equivalent of increasing your experience, but is only granted after defeating a boss monster. Most of the time receiving another star also grants you another slot in your elemental grid, increasing the number of spells that you can carry at once.

You will find many different types of weapons in the game and have the ability to disassemble them and forge new ones with stronger materials. Each character can only use a certain type of weapon best suited for them (i.e. a sword, dagger, wand, frying pan, etc.)

One aspect that can be very tedious about gameplay is equipping your characters. You will encounter numerous individuals that can be recruited into your band, and each time you change your party (comprised of three characters) you have to fill the slots in their elemental grid, if you wish them to be able to cast any spells. This arduous process can be extremely time-consuming, depending on the character's current level.

The graphics in Chrono Cross are truly amazing. From the waves lapping against the beach or the beautiful skylines to lush forests and regal mansions, the astounding pre-rendered backgrounds are vibrant with color and movement. The characters are not horribly boxy and only move with a slight degree of rigidity. The elemental, tech skill, and summon animations are great. Even the simplest ones are fun to watch. The animators even take such care as to create characters' reflections on mirrors and polished floors.

Probably one of the most unique locations you will come across in Chrono Cross is the Dimensional Vortex, which is a painted world that resembles a cross between something created by Vincent Van Gogh and M.C. Escher. The CG cut scenes are absolutely gorgeous and perfectly directed.

The music in Chrono Cross is exceptional, written by Yasunori Mitsuda, who has also done music for Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and Tobal No. 1. There are many memorable selections from the soundtrack, including the driving, emotional titles Chrono Cross~Time's Scar and The Dream that Dreams Dreams, the lilting choir of Garden of the Gods, the eerie organ sounds of Ancient Dragon's Fort, the world map theme Beach of Dreams and the aggressive battle theme Gale.

The sound effects compliment the overall gameplay very well, whether you're listening to a meteor recklessly crash into an opponent, a sword slice through the air or the clunky movement of a robot's metal shell. Chrono Cross also utilizes Dolby Digital Surround sound, giving you an impressive, full audio experience.

Undoubtedly there will be a time when you've heard the battle theme or the world map music one too many times and consider throwing the disc out the window. However, I suggest turning the volume down instead and save yourself the trouble of retrieving your game. The music does eventually change, but in a 40+ hour game sometimes it doesn't happen soon enough. Luckily, Yasunori Mitsuda's melodies are non-abrasive and very tolerable for a game of such epic proportions.

If you enjoyed the story for Chrono Trigger you should also like Chrono Cross. Where Chrono Trigger was about time travel, Chrono Cross is more of a parallel dimension adventure where something you do in one world alternately affects the opposite world.

For fans of the first game you will find plenty of references to previous characters and events. You will even have the opportunity to fight three of the characters from the original game that were trapped in the time stream. You also have the option, many times, during the story to choose your own path and determine which characters you can recruit and affect the outcome of the story.

A couple of downsides to the story are the fact that it is very dialogue intensive and you sometimes find yourself fed up with discussions and just want to confront the next enemy of the game. Also, near the end, everything comes together but doesn't necessarily make sense due to the complexity of the story. At certain points the story can become very jumbled and hard to follow.

One interesting thing the game does involves establishing accents for the characters. Many of the people you encounter have a slightly different dialect and Squaresoft is able to portray that very convincingly through written dialogue, without the use of voice-overs.

Control of the game is fairly simple and you don't have to struggle with numerous menus and sub-menus as with many other RPGs. Equipping and using items is pretty straightforward as is general movement. However, there are moments when you want to examine an item or search a room and your placement becomes crucial. If you are not in an exact spot the control becomes very unforgiving and you will not find what you are looking for.

Chrono Cross also utilizes Dual-Shock controller compatibility, though I prefer to turn the vibration function off rather than spend battles with the controller incessantly rattling in my hand after every bone-crushing blow or deafening explosion.

Overall, Chrono Cross is a very satisfying sequel to its predecessor. The characters are well designed and memorable. It's probably one of the few games in which you can recruit a turnip for your party. The backgrounds and CG sequences are simply stunning and sparkle with color, the music conveys emotions very well and matches the gameplay perfectly with its beautiful orchestration, the story is interesting but stretches the limits of complexity and control is simple and doesn't require you to delve too deep into intricate sub-menus and options.

Chrono Cross has excellent replay value with a New Game+, which introduces added features, such as the ability to replace you main character, Serge, with another character, a fast forward and slow motion option that allows you to complete long battles in a fraction of the time, and the option of completing one of the nine different endings for the game. The fast forward feature is great because a game that would normally take you 40 hours to complete should only take you about 8 hours when using this speedy option.

Though there are some minor things that could be improved, as a whole this should be one title that you will want to experience for yourself. Squaresoft has done well with yet another RPG. Let's just hope it doesn't take five more years to see another sequel.