Chrono (Series)

[Hotspot]

The Chrono series is a set of JRPG games involving time travel, and dimension crossing. They also released a Japan only game, called Radical dreamers, which was text based game, which lead to the creation of Chrono Cross. 

Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger takes place in a fictitious alternate timeline of Earth. The characters have to travel through time to battle enemies, make friends, gain allies, gather equipment, and obtain magic for their quest. The time periods the characters travel range from 65,000,000 B.C. at the dawn of civilization to 2300 A.D., a post-apocalyptic time period. The party gains access to the period known as the End of Time (represented as year ∞), which allows them to travel to other time periods. The party eventually acquires a machine capable of time travel, known as the 'Wings of Time', renamed 'Epoch' by the party. This craft is able to warp between time periods without the party having to go through the portals located at the End of Time.

Story
In 1000 A.D., Crono and Marle watch Lucca and her father demonstrate her new teleportation device at the Millennial Fair. When Marle volunteers to be teleported, her pendant interferes with the device and creates a time portal that she is drawn into. Crono and Lucca separately recreate the portal and find themselves in 600 A.D. They learn that Marle's presence has created a grandfather paradox by preventing the recovery of Marle's kidnapped ancestor. Crono and Lucca, with the help of Frog, restore history to normal by recovering the kidnapped woman. After returning to the present, Crono is arrested on charges of kidnapping the princess and is sentenced to death by the king's dubious adviser, The Chancellor. Lucca and Marle help Crono flee, haphazardly using another time portal to escape their pursuers. Upon arriving in the year 2300 A.D., they eventually learn that an advanced civilization has been wiped out by a giant creature known as Lavos that appeared in 1999 A.D. The three vow to find a way to prevent the destruction of their world.

https://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Chrono_Trigger

Chrono Trigger has been re-released on several platforms over the years, such as Nintendo DS. 

Radical Dreamers

Gameplay of Radical Dreamers consists of text-based scenarios presented to the player through the narration of the main character, Serge. As the narrative progresses, the game presents a list of possible actions and the player must choose his or her course. Depending on the choices made, the player may enter a new area, be presented with a new situation or character, or have to choose again if the previous selection was incorrect. In combat with enemies, the player must select from options such as "Fight", "Magic", "Run", and often more complex situational commands like "Run my knife into the goblin's chest!" or "Quickly slash at its hand!". Some decisions must be made before an invisible timer runs out; in combat, hesitation results in injury or death. Serge's health is tracked by an invisible point count, restored by various events such as finding a potion.

Story

Radical Dreamers features three protagonists, Serge, Kid, and Gil, who seek out treasure as venturesome, reputable thieves. The young adult narrator, Serge, is a drifting musician who met Kid by chance three years ago in a remote town. Serge enjoys adventure with a carefree attitude. Kid, only sixteen years old, is a renowned professional thief with a reputation for boisterous behavior. Possessing a turbulent history, Kid dubiously fancies herself as a kind of Robin Hood. Gil is an enigmatic, handsome masked man skilled in magic who rarely speaks and can fade into shadow at will. Crowned by flowing, blue hair, Gil accompanied Kid well before Serge joined the group. They seek the Frozen Flame, a mythic artifact capable of granting any wish. It is hidden in Viper Manor, the home of a terrible and powerful aristocrat named Lynx, who gained control of the estate after usurping power from and killing the Acacia Dragoons, a familial unit of warriors.

I'm not going to get into Radical Dreamers, since it was no released in English, and I've never played it. 

https://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Radical_Dr...nai_Hōseki

Chrono Cross

Chrono Cross features a diverse cast of forty-five party members. To create characters, developers brainstormed traits and archetypes. Originally, sixty-four were planned. Each character is outfitted with an innate Element affinity and three unique special abilities. The presence of six elements is a departure from Chrono Trigger 's limit at four, and Chrono Cross does provide an explanation for the change, that Chrono Trigger 's magic involved manipulating four basic universal properties, and that Chrono Cross 's magic employs manufactured tools to effect changes in nature. If taken to the world opposite their own, characters react to their counterparts (if available). Many characters tie in to crucial plot events. Since it is impossible to obtain all forty-five in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything. Through use of the New Game+ feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save file. Several characters speak with unique accents. Done manually in the Japanese release, implementing accents the same way in the English version would have been impossible due to size restraints. As a result, developers coded a system for the North American release that produces accents by modifying basic text. The system changes the text template based on the character speaking.

Story

Serge, the game's protagonist, is a seventeen year old boy with blue hair who lives in the fishing village of Arni. One day, he slips into an alternate world in which he drowned ten years before. Determined to find the truth behind the incident, he follows a predestined course that leads him to save the world. He is assisted by Kid, a feisty, skilled thief who seeks the mythical Frozen Flame. Portrayed as willful and tomboyish due to her rough, thieving past, she helps Serge sneak into Viper Manor. Raised by Lucca as a child, she vows to find and defeat Lynx, an anthropomorphic panther who burned down Lucca's orphanage.

https://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Chrono_Cross

What is everyone's thoughts on the Chrono series?

I played Chrono Cross about 10 years before I got to play Chrono Trigger. So I naturally like Chrono Cross a million times better. (Usually the first game you play in a series, tends to be your favorite.)

I like both Cross and Trigger.

Trigger is fun, and old timey. But I don't like the lack of various characters (Which is a personal issue I have with games, because I tend to only like 1 or 2 characters, and not like the rest.)
Trigger has a vibe of mystery and adventure, and I especially love it when you go into the prehistoric era.
Lucca is my favorite character, I also like Marle and Magus. 

Chrono Cross, I absolutely LOVE! It's one of three of my favorite games of all time! (The others being Suikoden and Kya Dark Lineage) 
When I first played CC, I actually hated it, because I was young and didn't know what to do.. but my dad helped me.. and after that, I loved it! 
The music is amazing, and just resonates within my soul it's just so powerful, especially the intro song! It's so powerful. I love that the graphics are very colorful, and I love the amount of characters, as well as the characters. Poshul and Van are my favorites, but I love many others as well! CC has an interesting, and quirky cast! The world is just so beautiful, and magical. I love it!

[Nemomon]

After reading Your topic I almost want to make mine too: "If you want to commit suicide, and are looking for a reason why to do that, play Golden Sun. Or at least Boktai" .

I played a little Chrono Trigger on my NDS, and... forgot about it. I might play it again, but maybe at another time.

[queenzelda]

I friggen love the Chrono series. My favorite is Trigger of course. But there is a special place in my heart for Cross. I think both games need to be remade in HD, like seriously.

[ShiraNoMai]

I remember seeing the box art as a young kid and thinking it reminded me of DBZ (which it obviously had ties to through Mr. Toriyama), I wasn't keen on getting it. Now that I'm older and see how revered the game is, I really want to go back and play it. Like queen, I hope they re-release it for modern platforms (without using the mobile port, which I heard was awful).

[Dragon Lord]

Each game has its own strengths, but neither are overall amazing. Chrono Trigger is extremely overrated, while Cross is underrated.

Trigger has the better story, characters, and character development. Gameplay wise, I think both are good, but Trigger probably gets a very slight advantage. The time traveling aspect of the game is pretty bad. Many games have done time traveling much better, which is one of the reasons why Trigger is vastly overrated.

Cross is the clear winner in music. The gameplay is also good. The story is decent, but has some glaring weaknesses overall. The characters are a mess. There is a thing as too many characters, and CC is a prime example of that. 90% of the characters don't get any development and the player has zero reason to give a shit about them. This is one of the game's biggest weaknesses. Trigger has a much smaller cast that lets you get to know them better and see much better development. But the music in Cross is definitely top-notch. Especially songs like "Prisoners of Fate," which is an amazing battle theme and adds a great emotional layer to certain battles in the game.

Overall I personally like Cross slightly more (mainly thanks to the godly OST), but both games are enjoyable.

[Hotspot]

Nemomon: I have no idea what you're talking about in the first paragraph, lol.

Queen: They do need to remake them both! Especially Cross, not because I prefer it, but because CT has like 2 remakes, and Cross never got one. I think you can buy it on the psn network though, that's nice atleast.

Shira: The person who made DBZ made the artwork for CT, and like their artwork is something different. .but it's a bit too clunky for my taste.. and yes, it just makes me think of DBZ instead! lol

Dragonlord I've always preferred games with a large amount of playable characters, because I tend to get bored when there's only 7 characters to choose from ( I sometimes don't find many of the characters interesting, in small party games) . Which is another reason why I love Cross, and the Suikoden games. Although, Final Fantasy XII would be an exception, I like all the characters except Basche.