------------------------------------------ CHRONO CROSS DEMO FAQ/WALKTHROUGH ------------------------------------------ version 1.3 by ToastyFrog (tfrog@camalott.com) Last revision Sept. 21, 1999 ------------------------------------------ After years of clamoring for a Chrono Trigger sequel, fans of the game were finally given a nod when Japan's weekly magazine Shonen Jump confirmed the existence of a game called "Chrono Cross." And because video games fans could best be described as "friggin' morons," the first thing they said was not, "Great! At last!" but rather, "This sucks! It's not exactly like Chrono Trigger!" Ah well... you can't win 'em all. This is neither a thorough guide, nor is it 100% accurate; and I haven't decided whether or not I will create a walkthrough for the full game (most likely I will). Rumor has it that the Playstation reissue of Chrono Trigger due in November will offer a new and different Chrono Cross demo. If this is the case, I intend to cover that as well. If you'd like a more attractive view of the Chrono Cross demo, please check the video games section of my website (www.toastyfrog.simplenet.com) - the online demo guide includes all of this text, plus images, diagrams, preview screenshots, character art, music and a nifty layout (if I do say so myself). ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ CONTENTS: I. DEMO WALKTHROUGH A. THE CHARACTERS B. THE DUNGEON C. SERGE'S VILLAGE D. TOKAGE GROTTO II. PART II: GAMEPLAY MECHANICS A. THE BATTLE ENGINE B. ELEMENTAL ATTACKS 1. SPELL TYPES 2. THE ELEMENT METER 3. ELEMENTS & THE STAMINA METER 4. DEM OL' FIELD EFFECT BLUES 5. SUMMONS (NEW) 6. CUSTOMIZED SPELLS C. COMBINATION ATTACKS D. OTHER INFORMATION 1. AFTER THE BATTLE 2. SQUARE BUTTON MENU (NEW) 3. MAGIC CHART 4. COMBO CHART 5. ITEM CHART 6. WEAPON CHART 7. ARMOR CHART 8. ACCESSORY CHART III. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, ETC. A. REVISION HISTORY B. LINKS C. MAD PROPZ!!! ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ PART I: DEMO WALKTHROUGH The demo can be divided into three sections - the dungeon, Serge's village, and Tokage grotto (yeah, I'm just making most of those names up, because I'm too lazy to translate them). Of the three parts, the dungeon is the least impressive; unfortunately, it also represents the initial image everyone receives of the game. Not such a good way to make a great first impression. However, those who stick with the demo will find the ending to be wholly satisfactory - a 5-minute in-game preview of the completed game that brings a warm feeling to the hearts of all. Please note this demo guide wantonly tosses about spoilers, so if you don't want to know anything about the demo storyline or events, please skip on down to Part II. -------------------- A. THE CHARACTERS Admittedly, the demo contains a pretty limited roster of characters, but I fully expect at least 7 or 8 characters to be in the finished game... hopefully at least one of them a secret. Although face it, being able to play Yamaneko would be too obvious, don't you think? SERGE Age: 17 Occupation: Unlikely Hero Serge is described by Square as affable and good-natured. You'd think that would be a natural trait in a hero, but after dour pretty boys like Squall and Cloud, you can't take anything for granted. Serge seems to have a good outlook on life despite the fact that his parents named him after their favorite soft drink. He uses a very large and very impractical double-bladed sword in combat (maybe it's supposed to be used for scaling big fish, I dunno; he's from a fishing village, see). His elemental skills (Laser, Photon, Comet) appear to be similar to Robo's Shadow techniques from Chrono Trigger rather than Lightning like Crono. Ho ho ho! No Luminaire for you, bud! KIDD Age: 16 Occupation: Pickpocket I don't know if there are any gypsies in Chrono Cross, but Kidd represents the requisite "thieves" and "tramps." You can't see it in her portrait, but she has a birthmark on her back that reads "Jailbait." Sadly, it seems this mark controlled her destiny, because jailbait is exactly what she's grown up to be. Her outfit screams "future sexual harrassment lawsuit plaintiff." I suppose I'd be a little nicer to her if her occupation and outfit weren't almost exactly a carbon copy of Rutee from Tales of Destiny. Sorry, kid. The peroxide job doesn't really help you look like less of a rip-off. As you can only imagine, her fiery personality is matched by her Elemental affiliation - fire. GLEN Age: 20 Occupation: Internet discussion flashpoint As everyone who has played Chrono Trigger knows, the character Frog was actually a young man named Glenn who was cursed with an amphibian body by the superficially evil Magus. So all of a sudden, we discover a young man named Glen in the sequel to Chrono Trigger... are they connected, or is Glen destined to be the next Cid? Well, they look somewhat alike, which is a good start. But considering that Glen's main magic element seems to be Ice/Water just like Frog, and he is capable of using a cross-up combo attack with Serge just like Frog could do with Crono, you have something very interesting to ponder until the full game hits the street. And believe me, you'll be hearing a LOT of crackpot theories over the next year or so... YAMANEKO Age: In human years, or cat years? Occupation: Ominous-looking guy In keeping with the Chrono series' traditionally brilliant naming scheme (i.e., Crono, Frog, Kidd, etc.) we have Yamaneko, a catman whose name is Japanese for wildcat. He's described as being cold and ruthless, although I bet with a little catnip and a rub on the tummy he'd be anyone's buddy. Villains are always so misunderstood. Then again, he might be sincerely evil (if evil can indeed be said to be sincere). I guess we'll have to wait and find out. OTHER CHARACTERS: BOSHUL: a purple dog-like creature that lives in Serge's village and appears to be a party member in the preview trailer. My spider-sense is tingling... I have a bad feeling that Boshul will be the obligatory cute-cute character in the game. As if Chu-Chu wasn't bad enough. RIDDLE: In the preview trailer, she appears to be a beast-woman (Mystic, perhaps?) who inhabits a library and speaks of ending the world of humans. Probably not an ideal date. ZOA: A knight who appears in the preview. Or maybe just a random guy who like to wear a knight's helmet. MARCELLA: A rather creepy-looking little girl who seems to be in cahoots with some old guy in the preview. LENA: A girl from Serge's village who appears to have a thing for him. She expresses her affection by asking him to slaughter lizards. Serge ditches her to go cruise through dimensions. Typical man... LESLIE: A macho sprite who kicks Serge out of the forest. HIRONOBI SAKAGUCHI: A powerful warrior who appeared in the secret Programmers' Room in Chrono Trigger; he seems to be one of the few returning characters from the original game. -------------------- B. THE DUNGEON Items in this area: Tornado (Element) Salamander (Element) Iceburg (Element) Barrier Ring (Accessory) Remember the old days of RPGs when the hero had to forge out on foot from Tantagel Castle everytime he wanted to go someplace? Well, lucky for young Serge and his party, even ancient ruins have modern conveniences in these newfangled 32-bit RPGs. The Chrono Cross demo begins with the three presumably intrepid adventurers taking the express elevator to a dungeon where they're looking for, er, a switch apparently, which can be seen from a convenient balcony... too bad the party is too dumb to just jump down and save some effort. I mean, really... it doesn't look that far to me, and if FFVII taught us anything it's that game characters can survive falls from great heights. Heading in the opposite direction of the balcony will bring the party to a large area full of twisting catwalks patrolled by monsters who apparently have nothing better to do. A bat-like creature, apparently eager to die, will immediately beseige the party, instigating a cool blurring effect. I get the same sort of light show when someone attacks me in real life, right before I pass out in pain. When attacked, the party lines up facing the enemy party, which also lines up. It's less of a free-for-all melee and more like a game of red rover. Except with weapons. And a half-naked chick who, despite her immodest dress, still possesses about the same resistance to injury as Glen, the battle-tog-clad knight. Uh, huh. Once the battle is completed, the party can continue wandering around the dungeon and collect treasures which were left in boxes sitting in the open, yet which no one has looted in the years they sat there. It's pretty easy to find your way through this dungeon, so I won't go into too much detail - although you may find a dead end or two. Be sure to snag the Salamander summon on the lower exterior level. It's tremendously powerful. Like in Chrono Trigger, there are no "random" battles with invisible enemies. You only battle enemies you can see walking around, meaning you can often avoid fighting altogether. The dungeon is populated by bat-things, large golden armor knights (aka "Machineries") which can take quite a pounding, and a pair of fierce "Tiger-kuns." I really hope they translate that into "Mr. Tiger" for the English version. I think that would be cool beyond comparison. Your ultimate goal is to reach the door on the lower level of the main room, located at the top left-hand corner of the screen. I suppose "northwest corner" might be more accurate, but this ain't Tomb Raider. Head to the top left and live with it. There you will find an empty room, which should be a sure sign you're about to enjoy a surprise ambush leading to a boss fight. Technically, it doesn't seem to say that the Sidestep is the boss of any of the creatures, and I didn't notice any monster labor unions on the way in. But big unique monsters are called "bosses," OK? It's the law of videogames. Mr. Sidestep is accompanied by four of those darned bat things. I recommend you build up Serge's Magic meter to 4 in his first attack flurry and save one stamina point to cast Comet immediately, which will take out (or weaken) the bats, leaving just the Sidestep. The big beastie hits pretty hard - you'll learn to cringe when you see the huge blue wall o' polygons (aka "Flood" - or maybe "Fraud"? It's hard to know with Japanese) approaching so it might be good to give Serge or Glen lots of healing magic and items. Kidd can use her fire Elements against the Sidestep... you know, that ol' rock-paper-scissors trick. The bat-things are good to keep around - they use Fire-based attacks and can help your party push the Field Effect meter into 3 red rings, allowing Kidd to summon Salamander. A single use of Salamander and an X-Slash from Glen and Serge will finish the battle in a hurry. Unless you suck, or can't read any Japanese and are just pressing buttons randomly, you should be able to win this fight fairly easily. As a reward for murdering the creature whose home you invaded without provocation, you get to press your stupid little switch. I hope you can live with yourself, you heartless jerk. Once the switch is thrown, head on back to the central area of the dungeon. When you reach the uppermost central hub you'll be teleported to the exterior of the dungeon, where a large door awaits. Unfortunately, Serge touches the door without realizing that it's dusted with LSD, because as soon as it opens he sees a strange psychotic hallucination of himself standing over Kidd's dead body, blood dripping from a knife in his hands. Or perhaps it's not a hallucination but a glimpse of the future. It's obviously not a fantasy, because if it was, that would be Marle's dead body laying there, not Kidd's. And who is the other person in the dream, whose cloak can be seen in the background? Gee... I sense foreshadowing. -------------------- C. SERGE'S VILLAGE Items in this area: 200G (unders Serge's bed) Holy (Element) Tablet (Item) Capsule (Item) After the bizarre and seemingly tragic vision at the top of the dungeon the screen fades to black and a voice calls out to Serge. The scene fades in to show... OH MY GOSH!!! Serge is dead! Oh wait, he's just asleep on his bed. Hmm, now why do I have a sense of deja vu? Maybe it's the way he opens his curtains... or perhaps how he finds his 200G stash beneath his bed... or possibly the way he goes downstairs to see his mother and a pair of cats. Hmm. I just dunno. You can wander around Serge's village for a while. He lives in a fishing village, it turns out, which is why there's an obscenely large swordfish flailing about in the hot sun. What do you want to bet that if you come back the village hours into the game it'll still be there? You can wander about the village, and if you read Japanese you might even learn something. For instance, you might be able to determine the nature of the item the fishmonger in the basement gives you, and to figure out what the heck the sign on the purple dog-thing's house says. Be sure to pick up the Holy element in the back room of the restaurant - check the case on the desk. Also, you might take note of the "Dynamite Dancer" poster that seems to resemble Kidd, and also chat with the friendly fellow who mentions "Radical Dreamers" (the OTHER precursor to Chrono Cross). However, you cannot leave the village until you visit the dock to the north (i.e., the back of the village scene). To the programmers, this is an "event trigger"; to Serge it's a "sweet lovin' rendezvous." Go on, ya little hormone, and chat up the cutie at the end of the dock. You can tell she's an important person, because she has a character portrait that pops up whenever she speaks. Heck, not even Serge's mom gets that. Lena tells you that she'd REALLY like a new necklace, and she'd really like one made of lizard scales. You can try to give her the Lizard's Scales the fishmonger gave you, but that will just prompt her to giggle coquettishly and tell you that she REALLY wants a necklace made of scales from the Kodomo lizards in Tokage Grotto. Once you've triggered the event flag -- err, talked to Lena, you may leave town through either the right (east) exit. This will take you to the really stupendously attractive world map in which you can leave Serge's village and do several things. You can head north to a rather ominous cleft with steaming geysers and big blue beasties that look almost but not completely like Nu's - it leads to a rocky cliff at which you can view a rockheap that does absolutely nothing. You can head northeast to a cave where some soldiers will tell you to bugger off. You can head due east to a forest where a cute pixie will tell you to bugger off. Or you can go west, young man, and find a tropical grotto populated with lizards and, surprisingly, Kidd and Glen who, unsurprisingly, rejoin Serge. This bit rather reminds me of the way Bart and Elly popped in to join Fei during the Xenogears demo, so I suspect Kidd and Glen won't be participating in any raindeer games at this point in the finished version. -------------------- D. TOKAGE GROTTO Items in this area: Heat (Element) Illusion Cape (Armor) Cure-ra (Element) Heavy (Element) Double Plate (Armor) That's To-ka-ge, not "tokage." One day, Chrono Cross' staff was sitting around Square headquarters trying to think of a way to stump Japanese illiterates who had the temerity to purchase Chrono Cross before it was translated to English. "I've got it!" said the lead programmer (subtitled for your convenience). "We'll add the Tokage Grotto!" "Brilliant work," said their boss. "This will show those stupid gaijin!" And as their peals of laughter rang into the night, countless frustrated Americans threw their controllers to the ground in bewilderment. This part can be a little vague if you aren't capable of reading Kidd and Glen's comments, so let's start with the simple matters. The grotto is divided into three sections - upper right, lower right and left. The left area contains a hidden treasure that is accessed in an unusual fashion - head to the middle left of the section and leap into a hidden hole that shoots you into the upper part of the central pool. When you have grandkids, you can tell them that you used to make people jump into sphincters for fun. You can find the hidden treasure chest up and through the tunnel which just happens to be guarded by a big mean fish. You can locate another "inaccessible" treasure box in the lower right area by finding a submerged box near a rolling rock. Convenient, huh? It just so happens that this rock will shake the box loose, causing it to float to the top. And in other unlikely coincidences, it turns out that Luke Skywalker is actually Darth Vader's son. OK, now that you've got the goodies, down to the task at hand. Apparently killing a giant bug wasn't enough - now Serge and his bully buddies want to kill lizards as well. After all, what is the value of mere lizards' lives when that cutie Lena wants to make a necklace from their scales? It just so happens that a single wily lizard lives in each section of the grotto - your goal is to kill them. Kill! Kill! Let none survive. The first and easiest of the lizards is found in the upper right portion of the area; you'll find it zipping through a tunnel. If you come through the tunnel yourself, though, it'll jump into the water and high tail it out of the area. The trick here is to approach from around the ridge and scare the lizard into running up through the tunnel, allowing you to roll the rock to block the hole. Then walk back around topside and approach the lizard again; it will run into the blocked tunnel, making it an easy prey. I suppose you should feel bad for killing a defenseless beast like this, but remember that God's on your side. He rolls the rock back to its starting point if you screw up and leave the section. Now, on to the lower right area, where a lizard is wandering back and forth at the base of a rock ridge. It will run away if you approach it, but returns whenever you leave the section. Use this to your advantage by walking to the downed tree to the left of the ridge and climbing it to the next screen; then turn around and come back down to the right, walking out on the the ridge. You should find yourself overlooking the poor, hapless, innocent, carefree, lovable lizard. You can jump down by pressing the Circle button; by timing your jump so that you land on the lizard, you'll crush its tender skull beneath your vicious feet. OK, not really - you just enter combat with it. Which isn't too much of a challenge. The third and final lizard lives in the left area, and it can be a little tough to catch. There are no tricks here - just chase after the little beast. Run, fool! When you catch you can rob it of its life as well. So now you've fulfilled your slaying quota for the day; not suprisingly, momma lizard is angry to have lost its whole brood to nasty poachers. It attacks you as you head left to the beach (so in case you're wondering, head left, to the beach.) You'll be ambushed by a large ugly lizard and some small ugly cohorts. Sadly, momma lizard doesn't put up much of a fight to avenge its murdered children. Besides its tough Cold Breath attack, it's a bit of a pushover. Use your usual attacks here; or, if you really want to be a jerk, wipe it out with your strong attacks to mock its efforts at just retribution. You can try to use Salamander here, but it will be tough: the enemies don't use Fire effect magic, so it will take some careful timing to build the Field Effect meter up to Red/Red/Red. But give it a shot if you're up for the practice or just want to blow through the entire group of enemies like a knife through hot buttah. Once that's taken care of, Kidd and Glen ditch Serge (although he doesn't fantasize about murdering Kidd this time) who moseys on alone to the beach. There's he's met by Lena, who pressures him about their relationship and drops a real bombshell: she's pregnant. OK, I made that up, but why else would Serge ditch her to be swallowed by some freakish warp phenomenon? It's a classic case of running away from responsibility. Sad indeed. Well, that's the demo. After Lena starts to chat with Serge, he gets bored and starts to daydream about playing a really interesting video game. It just so happens that his daydream involves all sorts of future scenes from Chrono Cross (and it should be noted that his daydream is heavily centered around himself and Kidd bopping about with a purple dog - how rude is that, to ignore a girl and daydream about another?). The demo includes some really impressive scenes - a lush, peaceful forest in which Serge and co. are confronted by a knight named Zoa and a large water-borne caterpillar; a royal audience in which the king refers to Guardia and is accompanied by a young girl named Marcella (echoes of Marle); a library where a beastwoman named Riddle mentions her anticipation of the end of the world of humans; a bustling town connected by waterways; a large oar-driven boat which Serge passes on a small raft; and most interestingly, Lucca's house set ablaze, in which Serge discovers drawings of the Chrono Trigger cast and meets his rival Yamaneko near a pair of cracked glasses on the floor.... At the end of the demo, Serge looks into the ocean, hallucinates some more, and gets sucked into a thingeemajig that looks like a Chrono Trigger gate but sounds like the opening screen to Secret of Mana. But I'm pretty sure that the closest we'll get to a Chrono/Seiken Densetsu crossover will be having this demo packed in with Legend of Mana, so don't go starting any stupid rumors, OK? ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ PART II: GAMEPLAY MECHANICS "Yes, yes," you say. "All this walkthrough information is well and fine, but what is the gameplay like?" As much as I'd like to come up with a clever retort for that question, I honestly can't think of one. So instead, I put this info together. -------------------- A. THE BATTLE ENGINE OK, first things first. Chrono Cross' battle system is not exactly like Chrono Trigger's. Battles don't happen directly onscreen but instead transpire after a transition to a separate 3D system where the characters line up in timeless RPG style. There appear to be no specific "Combo attack" functions like the clearly-marked skill divisions in Trigger. And location and proximity are no longer a consideration. However, this doesn't mean the battle system is inherently bad, just different (unless you're a staunch reactionary and think everything new and different is automatically evil). The easiest way to describe Chrono Cross' battle system would be as a mix of Final Fantasy Tactics' AT Points combined with Xenogears' 3-level multiple attack turns. Like in Xenogears, Chrono Cross characters are allowed to make several attacks per turn and can choose from light, medium and hard attacks; the stronger the attack, the more damage it does, but the lower the likelihood it will actually connect (hopefully there are no Rico Banderas-like characters - I sort of like to hit my enemies when I attack them). But a few things set Chrono Cross apart from other games. First and foremost, there are no set turns as in traditional RPGs. Anyone is free to attack at any time, provided they have sufficient stamina to make an attack. In this way (for those of you keeping score at home), the system could be compared to FFTactics' AT system - every character has a Stamina meter that builds as each player character and enemy makes a move. When a character lauches his or her own attack, the stamina meter decreases depending on how strong an attack move they use. For instance, a strong attack will knock the meter down by 3 points, whereas a weak attack only uses one point (can anyone guess how much Stamina a medium attack uses? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?). Additionally, magic does not use the ol' standard magic points; rather, somewhat like Final Fantasy VIII you can equip and swap a certain number of spells (Elements) and items. When your Element meter rises high enough to use a particular spell (they're regimented into a hierarchy, much like in the original Final Fantasy or Suikoden), you may use an Element attack. Your Element meter rises with each successful attack you make. It mirrors the Stamina meter in that the strength of the attack you make determines how high it rises with each turn. For your viewing pleasure, please refer to the images at www.toastyfrog.simplenet.com/docs/vg/chrono-cross/ for a fully-illustrated discussion of how the battle system works. Something important to note is that at any time during an attack sequence, Serge could stop his attack and another character could take over. While this lowers success percentages and allows the enemy more of a chance to get in a few moves (enemies also have attack meters, and frequently retaliate when you miss with an attack), cancelling attacks is the key to combinations. -------------------- B. ELEMENTAL ATTACKS Magic by any other name is still magic. At least in RPGs. Parasite Power, Elements, Techs, whatever. It's magic, ya rubes, and no clever name changes will disguise the fact that RPGs are still using the same ol' paradigms that they used 20 years ago when Lord British was but a 2-color 8x8 gleam in Richard Garriot's mind. Oh crap, I just said paradigm. Someone shoot me. ------ 1. SPELL TYPES ------ Chrono Cross' magic Element system seems to be like Chrono Trigger's in that it's broken into several different categories. The divisions I've interpolated are as follows: WHITE: Light/Cosmic Examples: Holy, Shooting Star GREY: Shadow Examples: Hellraiser RED: Fire Examples: Burning, Heat BLUE: Water/Ice Examples: Iceburg GREEN: Wind Examples: Leaf, Tornado However, Chrono Cross' magic system is very different than Chrono Trigger's in several ways. First and foremost, each character can have more than 8 spells, which should offer much more diverse strategies (I'm not making any promises, though! Since I'm not working on the game and all). Secondly, magic points have been discarded altogether. The best way to describe the Element system would be to visualize the magic hierarchies of Final Fantasy I or Suikoden where magic is ranked by level. Now add to that the ability to swap spells (mostly) freely between characters and among levels and slots, and you have a system that could end up being even more flexible than Final Fantasy VIII's junctioning - especially depending on how the Power Elements menu develops in the final game. At this point it appears to be a means by which certain items can be combined with magic, although it may just pan out to be a pointless menu they added to annoy everyone. Don't you hate those? ------ 2. THE ELEMENT METER ------ So - no magic points. So how do you use a spell? Well, unlike Final Fantasy VIII, spells are not stocked and limited; once you have acquired and equipped an Element, you may always use it - but only once per battle. As you attack an enemy with physical strikes, your Element meter will increase in power; for each level of power you acquire on your Element meter, you can use a more advanced/powerful spell. It's much like the Super Meters in Street Fighter Alpha 2/3, except that Sakura never shows her skivvies in Chrono Cross. ------ 3. ELEMENTS & THE STAMINA METER ------ Using an Element attack apparently requires 7 Stamina points - if you cast a spell with 7 points on your meter, your Stamina drops to 0. (Thanks to tennin for pointing this out.) If you cast a spell with 3 points on your meter, it drops to "Out 4" meaning you have a 4-point deficit, giving the enemy more opportunity to attack. This adds yet another strategic consideration to the combat system. Careful, now... try to take all this info too fast and your head might explode like in Max Headroom. ------ 4. DEM OL' FIELD EFFECT BLUES ------ Every attack you make is accompanied by a Field Effect indicator at the top left-hand corner of the screen. Frankly, I'm still not entirely certain how these relate to the battle, but the three concentric circles seem to correlate to the damage radius of an attack (single enemy, enemy-centered area, all enemies), while the colors symbolize the elements involved in an attack. But I could be mistaken. It's probably going to end up being one of those insignificant aspects of combat that you'll probably end up ignoring, like Zodaic signs in FF Tactics. Update: Thanks to several people on this. Nokusu has explained it best, so I'll just rip his comments wholesale: "Ok, The field effect seems to work that way : every time someone (friend or foe) launches an elemental attack, the small part of the field gets the elemental color (red for fire, purple for shadow, etc....) Some attacks (like salamander) work with a full field effect of the same color (Red for Salamander). So it seems that the field effect is a part of the battle strategy, because if you use two fire spells (the easiest way to launch salamander is to wait for a bat to launch a "burning" attack, then have Glen and Serge use a tablet and then the field is all red, so Kidd can use Salamander !) and the enemy places a non-fire attack, you have to start again to build a full redÊfield effect !!! that works kind of a chess match, on a smaller scale, though.... Of course, depending on which kind of level you are, the field effect start with different colors andÊI think (how pretentious of me, considering my uncle DOESN'T work at Square...), that in dungeons of Fire, you'll have to use kind of Ice/Water spells (like in Chrono, or FFs), which will be harder, because every time an enemy will use a spell, it will turn a part of the field red, hence you can't use the enemy spell as an aid (which is what you can do in the demo, however...) Hope I lighted a bit of that "field effect" thing." Why is this important? Well, as Zane says: "I noticed something while playing the Chrono Cross demo. In order to use the Salamander element, the field effect bubble has to be all red. Just thought I'd let you know, since you said you didn't exactly know what the field effect meter does." Thus I retract my previous comments. This will be far more annoying than the Zodiac signs and may even border on the complexity of using FFT's Calculator class. So to everyone who thinks using Guardians in FFVIII is too easy, hopefully this will make you happy. ------ 5. SUMMONS ------ Thanks to Game Cat for help with the following info. As mentioned above, the Field Effect meter is important in enabling your party to Summon big freakin' monsters... but it seems that the number of Summons you can generate is rather limited by the number of stars you possess as well. The demo starts you out with 20 stars, and you earn one apiece after the battles with Sidestep and the mother Kodomo lizard. But each time you use a Summon, the number of stars you possess will decrease by one. While your maximum rises with your major victories, the demo seems to offer no way to regenerate the stars you expend in battle. The mechanism for regenerating stars in the final game will probably be something elusive and challenging (hopefully it won't involve racing Chocobos, though), adding yet another consideration to the game's required strategy. Sorry, kids... looks like this one's going to require brain power. ------ 6. CUSTOMIZED SPELLS ------ As a final note, the hierarchy level in which you place a spell affects its power. A Level One spell like Cure can be boosted by placing it in a Level Five slot, yielding Cure(+4) which will be much more effective than Cure alone. Conversely, you can weaken a spell by placing it in a weaker slot - a Level Five spell like Tornado becomes Tornado(-3) when placed in a Level Two slot. Yes, Barbie, math is hard, but even you can handle this! Finally, you can equip items in Element slots as well. Equipping a healing Tablet or Capsule item will allow you to use those items 5 times per slot per battle. And a single character can equip multiple instances of a single spell in different slots, enabling him or her to use the same spell several times per battle. -------------------- C. COMBINATION ATTACKS Combos - the family game for 2-3 players! Just like in its venerable predecessor, Chrono Cross adds a little spice to battles with the inclusion of a combination attack system. This is not to be mistaken for Xenogears' misleadingly-named "combo" system in which a single character could launch combinations of punches; rather, it is a true combined-attack system that allows multiple characters to attack an enemy simultaneously. However, it should be noted that unlike in Chrono Trigger, the combo techniques are not plainly marked. Instead, through certain permutations of Elemental arrangement and equipment, single techniques can unlock combos... the system seems to work much like the "secret" Triple Techs Magus could discover. Get ready to shell out for a strategy guide! But at least you have a basic guide to creating combos here. Big thanks to BWA and Brian Glick for helping me figure this stuff out. As with the rest of this guide, you may refer to a fully-illustrated version of this information at www.toastyfrog.simplenet.com/docs/vg/chrono-cross/ 1. First of all, to create a combo, you need to have two (or more) characters with Elements that can be combined. In the demo, you can see both Glen's and Serge's Element status screens have a greyed-out Level 3 Element attack (Hard Hit for Glen, Dash Attack for Serge) which means they have a combinable magic set. This is a Good Thing. So now that you've discovered you have the means, let's explore the way. 2. Step one. In our example, Serge is out preparing for an attack, but his Stamina meter is down to 1. His Element meter, on the other hand, is up to five. So, rather than finishing off this round with a feeble little weak hit or an Element attack, cancel Serge's turn and switch over to Glen to begin the Combo process. 3. Glen leaps into the fray. His Element meter is at zero, but you have 7 stamina points in which to bring it to 3 (the Element level necessary to use Hard Hit). When Glen takes over, Serge pivots to face him. This means either Serge has a crush on the studly knight, or else he's getting ready to kick some bad guy butt with a crushing combo attack. You decide. 4. With a WHAM! CRACK! POW! reminscent of the best of Adam West, Glen pumps his Element meter up a few notches so that he too can use Level 3 attacks. Open the Element menu and select the Hard Hit attack which was greyed out on the status screen. But what's this? No longer is the move called Hard Hit but rather X-Slash! And the color tab is now red, not green. Perhaps this is significant... 5. The signifance starts to show up when Glen selects his nifty new move and the camera suddenly switches over to show Serge powering up a magic attack. This is a sure sign that you are about to kick booty. 6. And the booty-kickin' commences in a manner reminiscent of Frog's X-Slash Double Tech. And that's all I have to say about that. Mainly because I haven't found any other combos in the demo. But still, this should be enough to assuage the awful fears of those who were afraid CC would lack CT's combo system. So quitcher gripin'. -------------------- D. OTHER DETAILS You could be generous and call this the repository for miscellanea. Or you could blunt and call this the dumping ground for all the information I couldn't shoehorn into another section. Whatever works for you. ------ 1. AFTER THE BATTLE ------ Upon winning a battle, a victory screen appears, much like in Final Fantasy VII or VIII. It displays your spoils and the Gold you've won. However, it does not display Experience Points earned in battle, because there are no Experience Points. Rather, characters' statistics increase incrementally, as in SaGa Frontier. HP, Attack Power, Defense, Magic Defense, etc. - these things all grow as you battle, quite likely based on each character's performance in battle. Pretty straightforward, eh? Additionally, at the end of a battle you can choose to have your characters' HP restored, or not. Update: Thanks to GameCat on this. Here are the options after battle: Restore completely. Restore without using consumable items. Do not restore. So golly gee, there's actually some caution to be exercised in restoring HP after every battle. ------ 2. SQUARE BUTTON MENU ------ As you play the demo, you may notice that pressing the Square button brings up a small menu on the field screen. Once you've spoken with the fishmonger in Serge's village, you will notice the SamŽ Scales he gave you as an item in that menu. Thanks to the ever-sexy Game Cat, now the truth can be told (but what is 'truth'?): When you receive certain items in the game, they will be put into your Sepcial Items menu (the demo has two of these: Lizard Scales, and a Shark's Tooth). By walking up to people and pressing the Square button, you can offer these items to them, much like the old RPGs of yore. If you try giving the Lizard Scales (given by the fish monger) to Lena, she'll realize you didn't find them yourself and refuse. However, you can give the scales to a certain young man whose girlfriend would ALSO like a necklace of lizard scales, and he'll happily take them from you. This is bound to have numerous repercussions in the finished game - expect to have lots of fetch mini-quests and acquire all sorts of bonus goodies this way. Consider yourself forewarned. ------ 3. MAGIC CHART ------ This list includes all spells in the demo by Element and their power level. Some of these names are "best guesses" as far as the translation. Don't blame me, I'm just a dumb American. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPELL NAME ELEMENT POWER LEVEL EFFECT --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Air Sousa Wind 2 Attack-Single Aqua Ball Water 3 Attack-Single Aqua Beam Water 1 Attack-Single Bomber Fire 2 Attack-Single Burning Fire 3 Attack-All Comet Light 4 Attack-All Cure Water 1 Heal-Single Cure-ra Water 3 Heal-Single Dash Attack (1) Light 3 Attack-Single Fear Arrow Earth ??? Boost Power-Single Fireball Fire 1 Attack-Single Flood (2) Water 4 Attack-All Freeze Water 4 Attack-Single Hard Hit (3) Water 3 Attack-Single Heat Fire 5 Attack-All Heavy Earth ??? Slow-Single Hell Laser Shadow ??? Attack-Single Holy Light 5 Attack-All Iceburg Water 6 Attack-All Ice Lance Water 2 Attack-Single Laser Light 1 Attack-Single Leaf Wind 1 Attack-Single Meltstone Fire 4 Attack-Single Photon Light 3 Attack-Single Revive Light 1 Heal-Single Shooting Star Light 2 Attack-Single Tornado Wind 6 Attack-All Uplift Earth 1 Attack-Single Volcano Fire 6 Attack-All --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES: 1. Physical attack, possessed exclusively by Serge. 2. Acquired from Sidestep boss in the dungeon 3. Physical attack, possessed exclusively by Glen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ 3A. SUMMONS CHART ------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMON NAME ELEMENT POWER LEVEL FIELD EFFECT --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Salamander (4) Fire 8 Red/Red/Red ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES: 4. Used only by Kidd ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ 4. COMBO CHART ------ There's only one combo attack to be found in the demo, but the complete game will undoubtedly have more. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMBO NAME ATTACKS LINKED CHARACTERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------- X-Strike Dash Attack Serge Hard Hit Glen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ 5. ITEM CHART ------ This should be pretty self-explanatory, right? Pardon my inability to translate all the kanji for some of the items. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEM NAME TYPE EFFECT -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tablet Curative Heals HP while in battle Capsule Curative Heals a teensy bit more HP than Tablets Lizard Scales Special Given by fishmonger in Serge's village Sharks' Tooth Special Given by villager --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ 6. WEAPON CHART ------ Anyone care to translate the names of the character status categories? 1: Attack power - 2: ??? - 3: ??? - 4: ??? - 5: ??? - 6: ??? WEAPON CHARACTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Silver Swallow Serge TBD Silver Knife Kidd TBD Silver Sword Glen TBD ------ 7. ARMOR CHART ------ And so forth. 1: Attack power - 2: ??? - 3: ??? - 4: ??? - 5: ??? - 6: ??? ARMOR CHARACTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Silver Plate All TBD Double Plate All TBD Illusion Cape Kidd TBD ------ 8. ACCESSORY CHART ------ Today's modern warrior knows that armor should make a statement in addition to providing protection. That's why the fashionable fighter accessorizes carefully! Unlike in Chrono Trigger, characters can equip up to 3 accessories at once. 1: Attack power - 2: ??? - 3: ??? - 4: ??? - 5: ??? - 6: ??? ARMOR CHARACTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Barrier Ring All TBD Power Shell All TBD Magic Scarf All TBD That's about it. If anyone notes anything else in the demo that I've missed, please feel free to drop me a line. Muy bien! ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ PART III: ACKNOWELDGEMENTS, ETC. -------------------- A. REVISION HISTORY - 1.3 September 21, 1999: Added Summons section Added Square Button Menu section Corrected some names (i.e., the "Icebug" is now "Sidestep") Added a bit more info to the walkthrough New magic spell added: Volcano "Other Characters" info added - 1.2 August 18, 1999: Added Links Added details on the Field Effect Meter More details added to the charts - 1.1 August 1, 1999: Added all information under "Other Details": - After the battle - Magic Chart - Combo Chart - Item Chart - Weapon Chart - Armor Chart - Accessory Chart - Some minor format revisions - 1.0 July 30, 1999: First Edition. Arranged all copy for text-only format -------------------- B. LINKS Chrono Cross coverage at GIA http://www.gaming-intelligence.com/psx/cc/cc.html Comprehensive information, featuring screen shots and movies wrangled by yours truly. Go and click their banners a few times - they deserve your love. Square Soft http://www.squaresoft.com/ Makers of Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy, and the most absolutely annoying webpages to try and navigate. Chrono Cross Translation at The Litterbox http://home.sprynet.com/~fland/chrono.htm The coolest human being on earth, GameCat, is in the process of translating the Chrono Cross demo. As if that weren't enough to make him truly k-rad, he also has a rare picture of a wild ToastyFrog. Go, learn, be edified. The high-contrast background is a bit eye-blistering, but the content is all good. The Chrono Cross Interview at Core Magazine http://www.coremagazine.com/news/475.php3 Some interesting general information straight from the developers' mouths about the direction and expectations of the game. Courtesy of those lovable rapscallions at the GIA. Chrono Trigger Thumbnail Theatre http://www.redrival.com/froborr/videogames/snes/chronotrigger/cttt1.html A thumbnailing by Froborr D'Wiggy of the first Chrono game. - it's a quick and easy way to get up to speed on the series! A terribly clever idea that I wish I had thought of first... oh, wait. I did >:-) Chrono Trigger Zeal Archive http://www.gamewar.com/zealarchive A nicely solid and comprehensive page on the original Chrono. Normally I ignore link solicitations, but this is a good page... The font doesn't really say "Chrono Trigger!" to me, but hey. Never mind that - have a look. Game Music Online http://www.gamemusic.com They'll be selling the Chrono Cross soundtrack when it's available - in the meantime, I recommend the Xenogears OST, also composed by Mitsuda-san. Banpresto's DragonBall-Z RPG http://www.nationalgamereview.com/99.6.28/dragonball.html Akira Toriyama will not be returning as the character designer for Chrono Cross, which many people find saddening. After all, we all know he's a great designer, as this story so clearly displays. -------------------- C. MAD PROPZ!!! Chrono Cross is the property of Squaresoft, Inc. and will be licensed by Square Electronic Arts LLC in the USA. Everything detailed and described here is theirs. The names and logos and suchlike described in this FAQ (c) and (tm) 1995-1999, Squaresoft, Inc. Big thanks to Tronix (www.tronixweb.com) for getting this demo (and that game that went with it, Legend of something-or-another) to me quickly and at a fair price. Credits: - BWA for help deciphering the combo system. - Brian Glick of Gaming Intelligence (www.thegia.com) for help deciphering the combo system. - tennin for pointing out the Stamina drain caused by Element attacks. - Zane and Nokusu for help with the Field Effect System - GameCat for translation advice. A winner is he! Visit his page! If you have any information that I've missed or written up incorrectly, please drop me a line at tfrog@camalott.com. You can ask me any questions you might have about the demo as well, but I can't promise I know the answers (I read Japanese verrrry poorly beyond the basic game menus). Please do not inquire about Legend of Mana - much as I love Seiken Densetsu, I haven't had much opportunity to play the latest installment in the series. This FAQ is written by Jeremy Parish, who holds the copyright for this text. It may not be distributed for profit, although you're welcome to distribute it freely so long as the entire FAQ remains intact and I receive my due props. Please do not modify or edit this FAQ in any way, even if you think the lame asides are really annoying. Tiresome as they may be, it makes plagiarism a bit easier to spot. And again, for posterity: a clearly-illustrated (and fully up-to-date) version of this FAQ is avilable for perusal at toastyfrog.simplenet.com. Pictures can make a big difference, since my words sometimes fail. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy the game as much as I have.