Chrono Cross

Synopsis

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 into crucial plot events. Since it is impossible to obtain all forty-five in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything. Through the use of the New Game+ feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save the 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.