The life of the young boy Serge, from a small, secluded fishing village, takes an exciting turn for the worse when he is mysteriously transported to a parallel universe. While exploring his new surroundings, he is attacked by unknown assailants, but rescued by a beautiful girl. Seeking to make sense of what is going on, Serge agrees to join the young woman, Kid, on her quest to find a hidden artifact. Little did he know that an adventure of cosmic proportions awaits him on his journey. With agents from a parallel universe searching for him, his life has been anything but dull. Even more unsettling is his encounter with the mysterious demi-human, Lynx, who claims a familiarity that Serge does not feel. Hunted on all sides with nowhere to run, he must puzzle out the motives of his pursuers, all the while trying to understand his own role in this similar, yet vastly different world from his own.

It's amazing how Square Soft can still manage to impress me after all these years, making the best-looking games for the PlayStation. From the intro CG movie to the end credits, everything looks amazing. The characters use 3D models that both look and animate well. The have nice textures, and don't look too blocky. This is probably because every background is CG rendered, like those found in Resident Evil. Backgrounds are rendered to perfection, with plenty of color and detail. You'll see ancient cities, beautiful waterfalls, sunny beaches, creepy castles, moody forests, active volcanoes, and much more. CG cinemas are few and far between, but are well-done and fun to watch.

Just like Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX, battles are done in 3D. These battles look amazing, no matter which enemy you're fighting. The environments look very much alive, and the character animations are great. Every spell looks fantastic, especially the summons found later in the game. Your party members, as well as your opponents animate well and have lots of detail.

The music was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, who's work can be found in Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. As a huge fan or Chrono Trigger's soundtrack, I'm pleased to say that Chrono Cross' is just as impressive, if not better. Every single track is memorable. Most of the tunes are new, but you'll still find a couple of old favorites from Chrono Trigger, like Crono and Lucca's themes. If you listen carefully, you might recognize more classic music from the first game. There's even a song with lyrics that plays during the end credits, and it's beautiful. If you're into video game music there's no reason why you shouldn't buy this soundtrack. I already have mine. The sound effects sound cool, and are not recycled from past games.

The controls are simple, so there's nothing wrong with them. Moving your characters around with the analog stick feels fine and combat menus are easy to understand. You mostly travel by foot, but as you progress in the game you'll earn different boats, and even travel on the back of a huge insect. Battles are not random. Can you believe that? As you move through the world map, you'll see enemies walking around. You can go fight them, or simply avoid them by walk around them. I recommend you fight them if you want to earn some spoils. Once you're in a battle, you'll take turns with your opponents. You can attack with your weapons, use items or use magic spells. Spells, or Elements as they're called in the game, are acquired after you've won a battle, and every party member can use any Element. But, each character is sensitive to different Elements, so it's best that you trade spells to fit each character's strengths. Enemies are also sensitive to certain Elements, so you have to cast the right spells during battle, or you might end up healing your enemies instead of killing them.

In traditional RPGs you only get to have about 8 party members, and that's fine, but Chrono Cross gives you 45. That's right, 45 different characters to recruit and use in your fight to save the world. You don't have to recruit them all to beat the game, but it makes traveling more fun. Every party member has different personalities, Tech Skills, and even accents. That's something nice about this game. Characters react differently to certain events, so you should have multiple saves with different party members.

Besides lots of playable characters, there are also 11 endings to unlock. Some people might die, or turn evil, depending on your actions. All the endings are fun to watch, but there's only 1 "real" ending, and to see it you'll need sharp combat and puzzle-solving skills. And just like in Chrono Trigger, one of the endings lets you meet the development team, and listen to a sound test.

You can't deny it, Chrono Cross has plenty of variety. With 45 different characters to play as, two worlds to explore, and 11 freakin' endings to find, you'll spend weeks doing it all. There are also tons of items to collect and weapons to forge. No other game comes close when it comes to variety. Did I mention the game takes about 50 hours to complete? This game is beyond fun. Every single battle is exciting and the high number of possible party configurations makes things even more enjoyable.

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