Wonderfully Disturbing

The most interesting thing about Chrono Cross is that many of it’s finer elements are still being deconstructed today. Some would maintain that this is because the game is masterfully written, but I would attribute it more to a few plot details not being tremendously well executed in-game. That said, there are explanations for everything that occurs if you dig deep enough, but it requires time and effort to discern all of the hidden meanings.

With that in mind, I’m going to tackle one of the game’s bigger points of contention: understanding exactly what’s going on in Chrono Cross and how it relates to the events and aftermath of Chrono Trigger.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to explain most of the connections between the games while saving you the trouble of looking them up for yourself. For the sake of avoiding long diatribes, I’m going to work under the assumption that you understand what happened in Chrono Trigger or at least have a vague understanding.

So, what is going on in Chrono Cross?

Based on the premise of Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki (a Japan-only, text-based adventure game initially meant to be a complimentary side story to Chrono Trigger), Chrono Cross is primarily centred on the life/lives of a young blue-hair man from the small fishing village of Arni, named Serge (our protagonist).

There are other central characters (FATE, Kid, Lynx, Schala, Time Devourer, Dragon God, etc.), but their relevance to the plot is tied almost solely to the ripple effects of Serge’s existence.

Why Serge?

Serge’s existence is a contradiction between the dimensions and sets into motion the primary conflict of Chrono Cross. When he was three years of age, Serge was mauled by a panther demon and in his father’s desperation to heal him, was exposed to the Frozen Flame - a piece of Lavos (the “world destroyer” that served as the parasitic antagonist of Chrono Trigger) that separated from the organism and still serves as a communicator with the creature.

This contact not only healed Serge, but also designated him as the ultimate controller of this powerful relic, making the Frozen Flame unusable by the supercomputer FATE due to the Prometheus Circuit. Unable to draw power from the Flame, FATE’s control over El Nido was effectively severed. As a result, the supercomputer set out to kill Serge, thus unlocking access to the Frozen Flame.

While Serge and his father Wazuki manage to escape the Sea of Eden, where the Frozen Flame was being kept, Wazuki did not return the same man. FATE had used the opportunity of his exposure to the Frozen Flame to start corrupting his body. Four years after their return to Arni village, Wazuki (whose mind was completely forfeit to FATE by this point) was instructed to drown Serge at Opassa Beach (Where Angels Lose Their Way), but Kid travelled back in time to stop him and save Serge’s life.

This event split history into two distinct dimensions: (1) ‘Homeworld’ where Serge survives the drowning attempt and moves on with his life, and (2) ‘Another World’ which is the “real” history of what happened (where Serge died).

Who is Kid and how the hell did she travel back in time?

This is where things get really complicated.

Kid is Schala’s daughter-clone sent into the modern world. Astute gamers will remember Schala as Magus’ sister from Chrono Trigger. In the Ocean Palace, Schala was consumed in a dimensional vortex that took her to the Darkness Beyond Time with the ruined Mammon Machine. There, where Lavos lay defeated by Crono, she was absorbed by the monster, resulting in the creation of an entity known as the Time Devourer. The pure hatred of Lavos filled her mind, and she became split in wanting to destroy all existence and save the world. As Schala remained bound to Lavos, she heard Serge crying from being wounded by a panther demon and struggled to make contact with that time period. This caused the magnetic storm that nullified the power systems of Chronopolis (the complex that housed FATE and the Frozen Flame) and allowed Serge and his father to find the Frozen Flame, thus healing him and turning him into the Frozen Flame’s Arbiter.

Before the hatred of Lavos took her mind over, she also cloned herself in the form of Kid and sent the baby to Lucca. After surviving the events of Chrono Trigger, Lucca had converted her old house into an orphanage. Kid, now adorned with Schala’s ancient pendant, lived a happy life at the orphanage as Lucca continued her research on Time Eggs. At one point, Lucca gave a Time Egg prototype to Kid along with an Astral Amulet (allowing the travel between parallel worlds at Opassa Beach). Tragedy struck the orphanage when Lynx and Harle burned it to the ground and kidnapped Lucca in an attempt to disarm the Prometheous Circuit (her friend Robo) that was keeping the Frozen Flame sealed.

Kid managed to survive the orphanage and swore revenge on Lynx. She also took up thievery and lived the life of a ‘Radical Dreamer’ until being contacted by Belthasar (The Guru of Reason, formerly of Chrono Trigger’s Kingdom of Zeal) and given instructions to go back in time and save a young boy (Serge) from drowning. This act of saving Serge’s life split the world into two dimensions and rewrote Kid’s history - leading her to forget how to accomplish time travel and about Serge. She only happened to meet with Serge again after catching wind of the order given to the Dragoons by Lynx to apprehend a “Ghost-boy” at Cape Howl (where the player meets her for the first time).

So who is Lynx?

Upon attempting to drown his own son, Serge’s father Wazuki was fully corrupted by FATE. After being halted by Kid, he was recalled back to Chronopolis and reshaped by FATE as Lynx - to resemble the panther demon that attacked Serge as a child.

In Another World, FATE reasoned that Serge would eventually cross dimensions sometime in the future, and Lynx set out to orchestrate events that would take advantage of this fact. He was sent abroad to Porre and to Viper Manor in order to play the two parties against each other, using his knowledge of the Frozen Flame to pique their interest.

When Porre stood ready to invade Another World’s Termina, the Acacia Dragoons and Lynx moved to Fort Dragonia in bid to lure Serge and undertake a ritual to switch bodies. This body swap would fool the Chronopolis systems into thinking Lynx was Serge, thus allowing the supercomputer to regain God-like power and dominance over El Nido (and possibly using the Frozen Flame’s power to reincarnate itself into a new, living species). He completed the swap and headed back to Chronopolis to unlock the Frozen Flame.

What’s up with Chronopolis and the FATE supercomputer? How did such advanced technology just show up during this time period?

Chronopolis was founded after the Balthasar and his Time Research Lab came to the future from the Ocean Palace. Belthasar sought to create a new temporal institute located in El Nido due to the strange gravitational field there (probably caused by the Frozen Flame).

The Frozen Flame was housed in the basement of Chronopolis and a somewhat sentient supercomputer known as FATE was constructed out of existing Mother Brain (a Chrono Trigger boss that initiated war between robots and humans) circuitry in order to regulate this power source and control the facility’s operations.

Once the systems were up and running, Belthasar assessed the ebb and flow of time - learning that Schala had been bound to Lavos and that the resulting being would consume all space-time. Balthasar drew up an elaborate plan to use Chronopolis to create a device known as the Chrono Cross that could free Schala from the parasitic creature. The institution would travel back through time, create and populate islands, and indirectly allocate the necessary factors needed to create the Chrono Cross.

While first initiating this plan, Balthasar installed Robo as the Prometheus Circuit - a device intended to lock access to the Flame out if anyone were to touch it and become its Arbiter. FATE was not privy to this plan’s full scope. Once ready, Belthasar announced the Counter-Time Experiment - an effort to use the power of the Frozen Flame to master control of time.

The resulting catastrophe phased Chronopolis far into the past of 12000 BC. Dinopolis, the land of the Dragonians (an evolution of Chrono Trigger’s Reptites), was shifted in to the Keystone Dimension by the planet to counter Chronopolis’s introduction into the past. Once the staff of Chronopolis became aware of their surroundings, they dispatched a force to deal with the Dragonians.

Upon the defeat of the Dragonians, FATE divided the Dragon God into six components and engineered Elements - derivate relics that could produce a natural effect when activated. FATE then terraformed the archipelago of El Nido and selected several staff members to populate the islands. FATE also devised a system of manipulation over the island’s future inhabitants, called the Records of FATE (which the player uses as save points). These machines could rewrite personality and memory when accessed, ensuring that FATE would dominate the lives of its people. The population it had selected was then wiped clean of its memory and dispersed throughout the islands. Content with its God-like work, FATE allowed the new civilization to flourish for the next few thousand years.

Chronopolis enjoyed peace until a boy named Serge was wounded in Arni. His father, Wazuki, aimed to take him to Marbule to be healed, but as planned by Belthasar, Schala heard Serge’s cries across time and caused a magnetic storm that shut down all Chronopolis’s defenses and blew the father and Serge to land at Chronopolis. There, the Frozen Flame called to the boy and subsequently healed his injuries. By contacting it, Serge engaged the Prometheus Circuit, effectively locking FATE out from accessing its power source and forcing it’s hand to either kill Serge or try to take his body.

Wait. Dragons are in this game too?

Yes - to compound on top of the already convoluted narrative about time travel, dimensional shifts, and artificial intelligence, Dragons and elements are heavily featured as well.

Dinopolis and the Dragon God were both pulled into the Keystone Dimension in to counterbalance the introduction of Chronopolis. In the ensuing battle between the Dragonians and Chonopolis, the actual Dragon God was defeated.

When Chronopolis prevailed, FATE seized control and divided the Dragon God into six entities to better exert control over El Nido. As the Dragon God was able to control nature as a whole, these Dragons each represented individual facets of nature and were assigned colours. Though under the thumb of FATE, the Dragons still conversed with one another, waiting for a chance to strike back at the supercomputer.

The Dragons were also equipped with six special relics that were destined by Belthasar to allow Serge access to the Sea of Eden. For thousands of years, the Dragons slept dormant. When Serge made contact with the Frozen Flame in Chronopolis after being taken there by Wazuki, the magnetic storm that allowed him passage also shut down Chronopolis’s systems and defenses. The Dragons temporarily united to create a seventh Dragon, who was given the imperative to steal the Frozen Flame for the Dragon God’s use. They then went back into dormancy until the time came to enable the Frozen Flame’s Arbiter and hopeful disable FATE, becoming whole again.

There was a seventh Dragon?

Lynx’s companion Harle is actually the enigmatic seventh Dragon. Controlled by the will of the Dragon God, she was created to act as an agent in El Nido.

From her inception, Harle is ordered to retrieve the Frozen Flame and return it to the Dragon God. To this end, she befriends Lynx, feigning obedience to his cause when her loyalties lay elsewhere.

When at last Serge reachs Chronopolis, Harle reappears to prevent Kid from obtaining the Flame and allow the Dragon God enough time to fuse with the other Dragons and claim it.

What was the Dragon God going to do with the Frozen Flame?

It’s hard to know really.

Originally, the Dragons sought the Frozen Flame because it represented the power source of a dominate party, but realistically, once FATE was dealt with, they may have just wanted it for its great power. The Frozen Flame could have gone a long way in their vengeance against the humanity of El Nido.

So, how does it all end?

I suppose that matter is still up for debate. Much like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross features multiple endings.

In the best available scenario, Serge separates Schala from Lavos using the Chrono Cross and restores the dimensions to one. Schala returns Serge to his home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure. She then seemingly records the experience in her diary, set upon a desk on which a wedding photo of Kid and Serge appears.

I will dance for you no more. [video]