Chrono Cross plot
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Chrono Cross has a large and complex storyline, and cannot be briefly summarized on the game's main page. Here is a more extended version of the plot.
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[edit] Plot Summary
The story of Chrono Cross begins with a boy of seventeen years named Serge who is instructed to collect colorful scales on the beach by his girlfriend. The setting is El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by ancient natives, colonists from other continents, and anthropomorphic, sentient beings called Demi-humans who are often the subject of racial prejudice.[1] While meeting up with his girlfriend after the trip, Serge slips into an alternate dimension in which he drowned ten years before the present at the same spot. Baffled at the existence of this world and desiring to know more, Serge meets up with a famous thief Kid, a teenage girl intent on finding a mysterious artifact known as the Frozen Flame. In search of this item, they recruit help and infiltrate Viper Manor, the home of the Acacia Dragoons—the combative, affluent, and revered self-proclaimed protectors of the island. While there, a mysterious man known as the prophet of time reveals that ten years ago, the universe split into two dimensions—one in which Serge lived (Home world), and one in which he perished (Another world).[2] Due to the shadowy antagonist Lynx, the mission to find the Frozen Flame ends in failure, and Kid is poisoned.
Kid eventually recuperates, and Serge prepares to sojourn to Fort Dragonia, an ancient ruin left by a mysterious race known as the Dragonians who became extinct a hundred years before the game's events. There, the Acacia Dragoons intend to make a stand against an invading continental army from a nation known as Porre. While preparing, Serge gains the ability to travel betwixt the dimensions, securing further assistance and items. After a run-in with a pirate ship, Serge's group makes it to the top of the fort, where Lynx, through the use of a Dragonian artifact, switches bodies with Serge. Unknowing of the switch, Kid confides in Lynx, who appears to be Serge; he stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches. After boasting of his victory, Lynx banishes Serge to a strange realm called the Temporal Vortex and takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe the real Serge was her enemy.
Serge escapes from this realm with help from Harle, an accomplice to Lynx. Discovering that he could no longer travel between dimensions due to his newfound body, Serge seeks a way to obtain his old form and learn more about the universal split ten years earlier. At present, he is stuck in the dimension in which he formerly lived. After speaking with his mother and recruiting new members to his party, he seeks help from a Demi-human sage confined on an entertainment cruise ship. He gains the sage's favor, and is given an artifact that allows him access to the Dead Sea, a mysterious, enclosed body of water. There, he finds a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with ruins coming from far in the future.[3] At the center, he located a man named Miguel and presumably the Frozen Flame of that dimension. Having charged with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE[4], Miguel battled Serge and was defeated. FATE, not wanting Serge to obtain the Flame, destroyed the Dead Sea; the boy (still in Lynx's body) was rescued by a Dragon, one of six mythical entities who inhabited El Nido.
Able to return to Another world, Serge finds the Acacia Dragoons in dire straits due to Porre's invasion, and rescues them. After collecting six relics from the Dragons, he also locates that dimension's copy of the artifact used to exchange bodies, and travels to that world's Fort Dragonia to replicate the ceremony. After a brief encounter with Lynx, he succeeds in obtaining his body, and sets his sights on the Sea of Eden, Another world's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea. He is allowed to enter. There, he finds a temporal research facility called Chronopolis. Inside are Lynx, Kid, and the Frozen Flame. He confronts Lynx, who bonded with the entity FATE (the main computer of the facility) to battle with the boy. He defeats FATE, and as a result, the defense systems of Chronopolis fall. The six Dragons fly over the facility, uniting in the air, and scoop away the Frozen Flame. Kid meanwhile falls into a coma, and Harle, Lynx's assistant, bids the party goodbye and flies with the Dragons. The new villains soar to a massive tower raised from the sea, called Terra Tower.
Serge regroups his party and watches over Kid, who remains comatose. He continues to adventure through El Nido, eventually obtaining and cleansing the evil sword Masamune while using the Dragon relics and shards of the artifacts which exchanged bodies to create a mythic Element called the Chrono Cross. The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid from her coma and prepare for the assault on Terra Tower. After outfitting his boat with an anti-gravity device, Serge goes to the tower to battle the Dragons for the Frozen Flame. There, the prophet of time—revealed to be Belthasar from Chrono Trigger—visits him, revealing much of his history. This is later added on to by apparitions at the beach. Serge learns altogether that El Nido was created thousands of years ago by Chronopolis[5], the time research facility, after a catastrophic experimental failure launched it far into the past. This introduction of a foreign temporal object caused the planet to pull another temporal object from a different dimension[6]; this was Dinopolis, a city of Dragonians—parallel universe descendants of the Reptites of Chrono Trigger. The two institutions fought, and the Dragonians were subjugated, along with their chief creation—the Dragon God, an entity capable of controlling nature.
Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system, allowing localized natural effects to be released by individuals. FATE then terraformed an archipelago, erased the memories of most Chronopolis's staff, and sent them to inhabit and populate the new paradise.[7] Chronopolis remained obscured from view by clouds and its defense system. Thousands of years later, Serge, while three years old, was attacked by a panther. While being taken for help by his father, Serge's boat blew off course by a raging magnetic storm—caused by Schala. Schala — the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal — had been long ago accidentally sent to a place known as the Darkness Beyond Time to merge with the remaining pieces of Lavos, the chief villain of Chrono Trigger.[8] Her storm, a result of pity for Serge, caused Chronopolis's defenses to go down. Serge was taken to the Frozen Flame; it healed him, while corrupting his father.[9] By touching the Flame, Serge was designated its Arbiter by a circuit in Chronopolis, locking out FATE from the artifact. After Serge returned home, FATE used his father's corruption to try and kill the boy.
Though Serge was initially killed and drowned, ten years afterwards the thief Kid, presumably on orders from Belthasar, was able to go back in time ten years, save Serge, and somehow effect the splitting of dimensions into two worlds. FATE, still locked out of the Frozen Flame as a result, knew that Serge would one day cross the dimensions to Another world, and prepared for the event.[10] Lynx's switching bodies with Serge was the result of this preparation, a grand ploy to dupe the biological check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame. However, the Dragons had also learned of this situation, creating a seventh Dragon while the magnetic storm knocked out the power—Harle, who later manipulated Lynx as his accomplice.[11] When Serge finally defeated FATE, the Dragons were able to take up the Frozen Flame (they proved to be the ultimate manipulators). After this explanation, Belthasar then reveals that it was all part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid, and that the final purpose would soon be revealed. Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower and defeats the Dragon God.
Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds three apparitions resembling the original team from Chrono Trigger. There, more about the history of the game is revealed, such as the fact that Belthasar planned the entire event to empower Serge to free Schala from melding with Lavos.[12] The being that would result from their merger—called the Time Devourer—would have the capacity to consume and destroy all spacetime. The apparition of Lucca explains that Kid was a clone of Schala, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid.[13] Finally, the apparition of Crono entreats Serge to use the Chrono Cross to free Schala.[14] With this new knowledge available, Serge uses a Time Egg—a device capable of changing time—to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time Devourer. He successfully separates Schala from Lavos and restores the dimensions. Thankful and happy, Schala returns Serge to the outside world, but at the cost of removing his memory of all that has transpired. Serge is seen back on Opassa beach with his girlfriend as if nothing had happened, suggesting that the seperate worlds have been reunited and chaos has at least been averted. What becomes of Schala, Kid, and the other members of the team is unknown, as little clues are given in favor of an ambiguous ending. [15]
[edit] Timelines
The Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross PlayStation games have a total of 7 distinct timelines.
[edit] Timeline 1 — Reptite Timeline
In this timeline, Lavos never lands. Instead of the Humans winning the war in 65,000,000 B.C., Reptites do. As a result, in the future, Dragonians, the evolved form of Reptites (as Humans are the evolved form of Cro Magnons) are the dominant sentient life on Earth, and Humanity is long since extinct. Reptite civilization expands quite extensively, and they eventually create a giant biological construct they name the Dragon God, which controls natural forces. They also build a very advanced city, named Dinopolis. It is worth mentioning that their technology is far more planet-friendly than man's. In the future, due to the Time Crash, Dinopolis and the Dragon God are pulled into an alternate dimension.
[edit] Timeline 2 — Lavos Timeline
This is the default timeline of Chrono Trigger, the one that would occur without any modifications by the heroes of that game. In this timeline, Lavos lands in 65,000,000 BC, and burrows into the Earth. Later, in 1999 A.D., Lavos awakens, and destroys the planet. Over the course of the next 300 years, the planet slowly dies, until sometime after 2300 AD when it is considered to be completely devoid of all forms of life.
[edit] Timeline 3 — Lavos Timeline Averted
In this timeline, Lavos lands, but is destroyed by the heroes of Chrono Trigger. The nature of the Chrono Trigger game allows this to happen in many points, but in the official storyline (and in Chrono Cross) it is assumed that this happens in 12,000 BC, as the future scientists have no concrete records of Lavos' existence.
Humanity is not destroyed by Lavos, but instead advances to hypertechnology levels. In 2300, they build a great city/research laboratory named Chronopolis. 100 years later during an experiment designed to control time, Chronopolis causes the Time Crash, which damages time and sends Chronopolis and Dinopolis 10,000 years back into time. This causes many repercussions, which are the focal point of Chrono Cross.
[edit] Timeline 4 — After the Time Crash
In this timeline, Chronopolis and Dinopolis have been sent back in time due to the Time Crash, and a war occurs. After Chronopolis wins, it terraforms El Nido and installs the records of fate. This timeline extends up to 1020 A.D., though from 1010-1020 A.D. it is known as Another World.
[edit] Timeline 5 — Home
In this dimension, Serge survives. Chronopolis and FATE are not around because of this, and many of the characters in Chrono Cross: Home's world are different because of the lack of FATE's (behind the shadows) influence.
[edit] Timeline 6 — Another
In this dimension, Serge dies. Because of this, Fate is able to continue exerting its influence and control over the people of El Nido through the Records of Fate.
[edit] Timeline 7 — Ideal timeline
This represents the timeline that occurs after Chrono Cross. The differences between Another and Home are merged together to form this timeline.
[edit] References
- ^ Direa: 'Tis sad...The mainland teachings state that humans and demi-humans are incompatible species. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Prophet: In your home world, you survived to live a happy and prosperous life. That is how you made it to the present point in time. However, here in this '"alternate"' world, you are, in fact, very dead and buried. You died 10 years ago, but this world's time line has flowed on regardless. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Member: The waves are at a standstill...And...What is that dark shadow in the distance...? Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Miguel: Yes... I've been here in this very place...For 14 years... Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Ghost: Originally, El Nido was nothing but ocean. The El Nido Archipelago is purely artificial, created by FATE. It was a remodeling plan that took place 10,000 years ago. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Kid: Perhaps our planet beckoned Dinopolis into the past...maybe as a measure against Chronopolis and humanity. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Ghost: The research center staff, who had their memories of the future erased, left the center, and began a life outside amidst nature. This is how FATE's paradise came into existence. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Lucca: Princess Schala was sucked into a dimensional vortex along with the Lavos Mammon Machine. Schala and Lavos became unified into one even more powerful entity that would evolve into the Devourer of Time. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Lucca: Led by the pitiful crying the young Serge made as the panther demon's poison took hold of him...Princess Schala traveled ten thousand years in time to try and make contact with this dimension! This caused a raging magnetic storm that resulted in FATE's system malfunction, which led Serge to the Frozen Flame. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Crono: You see, FATE calculated that you would one day cross the dimensions and try to make contact with the Flame. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Crono: In the meantime, the six Dragons had sent Harle forth to try and gain possession of the Flame. Harle made contact with FATE's biological incarnation, Lynx, and tricked him into temporarily joining forces. Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Lucca: And now, about '"Project Kid"'...the time control project Belthasar planned out. The whole project existed to lead you to this one, special point in time! The founding of Chronopolis, the Time Crash, and the battle between FATE and the Dragon Gods...It was all coordinated so that you would get your hands on the Chrono Cross and come to this place! Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Lucca: Before the destructive mind-set could become dominant, she cloned herself and sent her copy into this dimension...That's right...Kid is Schala's daughter-clone! Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Crono: The Chrono Cross...It alone can combine the sounds of the planet that the six types of Elements produce! The melody and harmony that brim within all life-forms... Use the '"song of life"' to heal her enmity and suffering...We entreat you, Serge! Please save Schala... Chrono Cross. Square Co., 1999.
- ^ Chrono Cross Resolutions, Chrono Compendium. Retrieved July 1 2006.
[edit] External links
- Complete chronology and summary from the Chrono Compendium, a Chrono Wiki
| Characters |
|---|
| Harle | Kid | Lynx | Serge |
| FATE | Lavos | List of Chrono Cross characters |
| Other information |
| Chrono Cross Plot & Timeline | Frozen Flame | New Game Plus |
