Also! I have a personal request for people to be cool!
This game has been hotly debated for over twenty years now, and people have had time to develop strong feelings about it in different ways. Not everyone likes it, but some people do! This thread doesn't have to exclusively be a celebration, but please refrain from just doing drive-bys about how much you don't like this game.
Similarly, while there's plenty of room to talk about the decisions made, for better or worse, with how this specific remaster was handled, it is something that people clearly cared about and effort was made within reasonable considerations of budget, resources, and time. This thread can be used to discuss and criticize the choices made in the remaster, but it should not be used to call it low effort.
here's my list of shops that aren't PA (PA is bad) from the news thread again:
If you're also not interested in supporting play-asia but feel you have no other choice, these releases are actually quite often available on several other platforms as well. Just gotta have some patience and be on the lookout (since PA is usually simply the first to put them up and openly advertises them).
Below I'm listing shops that sell these Asian imports, not just random shops. To double checked I specifically looked for other Square Enix releases like this one (Legend of Mana, Romancing Saga 2/3, etc).
WW:
videogamesplus.ca (use paypal, don't use CC)
365games.co.uk / shop4world.com / shop4de.com (all the same thing, targeting different regions [UK/ww/Germany specifically])
ozgameshop.com is also the same shop as above (based out of the UK), this storefront is specifically for Australia, Canada and the US
Chrono Cross - The Radical Dreamers Edition Switch
www.gamingreplay.com
South Africa:
raru.co.za
Philippines:
gameone.ph
lazada.com.ph
Thailand:
powerbuy.co.th
is what I found. if someone knows of more shops that actually stock and sell these, please let me know. we can collect them here.
amazon and eBay also have these available, usually shortly after release. since they're not officially distributed worldwide, it might take a bit until you can find new releases such as Chrono Cross on these storefronts (maybe only post actual release). So patience is key here (or asking your smaller local shop directly if they'll get stock).
Since I saw some questions about it, I went ahead and wrote a primer to the combat system and added it to the OT. I'm also posting it here so it can be threadmarked for easy access for anyone who needs it!
How Combat Works
There's a few core mechanics that have to be kept in mind for how combat works: The stamina, physical attack combo system, character/enemy innate color elements, the elemental phases, and the equippable elemental slot grid
To break these down-
Stamina- These are what you spend to take actions in combat and you always start with the max amount of 7 points of stamina at the start of combat. Physical attacks take different levels of stamina and any usage of your equipped elements will always cost 7 points of stamina. Once used, a character's stamina will begin to restore as the rest of your party and enemies take their actions. You do not have to wait until your character has restored back to max stamina to act again, but the less stamina they have, the fewer actions they can take. It is also possible to only use some of your stamina and then pass on to another character (though you can't bank more than 7 stamina at a time). It is possible to go into negative stamina by using an element at the end of a chain of attacks or using an element while your character is still in the process of recovering their stamina. A character that is out of stamina will be unable to be selected (and thus can't be set to defend themselves) while they are recovering.
Physical Attack Combos: Rather than giving you one basic physical attack action, you have three attacks that do varying levels of damage (Weak, Medium, and Strong) and cost varying levels of Stamina (1, 2, and 3 stamina respectively). Weaker attacks are also more accurate while stronger attacks are less accurate. Additionally, successive successful attacks boost the accuracy of the remaining actions that character can take with their stamina that turn. By default, the game pushes you to a basic three hit combo of Weak->Medium->Strong Attacks where you are more likely to connect the medium attack and much more likely to connect the strong attack (and still have a point of stamina left over to take one more weak attack, use an element, or defend and bank it). Alternatively, if you feel confident and have boosted your character's accuracy, you could go for a Weak->Strong->-Strong combo or just jump right into Strong->Strong. You can also just go with seven weak attacks, or a combination of weak and medium attacks, forgoing any strong attacks. It's a very freeform system that allows you to take advantage of character's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to direct fighting (as some characters are more accurate than others at the expense of not being as strong, while others are very strong but have lower accuracy and need to rely more on building up to their powerful attacks).
Innate Elements: All characters and enemies have one of six innate color elements (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, and Black). Each color has a paired opposing element (Red and Blue, White and Black, Yellow and Green) where characters/abilities will deal more damage to targets their opposing element and less to those of the same. While it is smart to equip your team (since you only have three active members) with a variety of elements, characters will do better with spells of their innate color. As such, a Red Character using a Red element against a Blue enemy will do even more damage than if a Green character with the same stats used the same Red element against the same Blue enemy. Knowing your the color elements of your characters and (more importantly) your enemies is a big part of the game. Since Cross is very forgiving when it comes to staging encounters, you often have plenty of room to course correct your party setup to deal with difficult encounters based around the color system. There are also elemental spells in the game to temporarily change the innate typing of a target for the duration of the battle (which is actually demonstrated in a very early tutorial battle you can't miss). These elemental spells don't do any damage, but are a big part of the tactical nature of the combat system.
Color Field: As an extension of the above, the battle system in Chrono Cross keeps track of the elements used by way of a three step color field system where the most recent three elements used (by your team and the enemies) are represented. As more elements are used, previous elements are pushed off the field. The more of a color is on the field, the more effective elements of its type are and the less effective the elements of the opposite type are. Picking up on our prior example of the Red character using a Red ability on a Blue enemy, the more Red the field is, the more Red spells will do. Having an all red field will lead to all red elemental abilities having a massive multiplier (and this stacks with the innate bonus provided by Red characters). The presence of any blue on the field will mean red spells are less effective, unless you also have some red on the field, at which point they would cancel each other out if it is the same amount (where as two red and one blue will mean you'd still get the benefit of one red, and two blue and one red means you'd still get the hinderance of one blue). There are also some abilities (summons, namely) that rely on having the field be entirely of one color. While this is possible to do with just your characters throwing out abilities, it runs a chance of being disrupted by enemy attacks. As such, there are elemental spells that can switch the entire color field to a single color. As with the elemental spells that can change a target's innate color, these don't do damage, but are a major part of the strategic side of the combat system.
This system is also a part of how you get the best ending
Elemental Slot Grid (Outside of Combat): This is where character customization comes into play for combat. In a system that works similarly to FF7's materia system, rather than character permanently learning spells, they can equip Elements and Consumables to a character's Element Grid slots. Consumables are single use items that basically serve as the game's potions/ethers/status items and can be equipped in bulk to a character. Elements are your main spells and hold a single charge per equipped element per battle but refresh after each battle. Multiples of an element can be equipped. Each element has an assigned color and a level. Characters each have a unique elemental grid layout that determines how many elements of a given level your character get and this grid expands with more slots as your party accumulates Star levels through fighting bosses. Some characters will generally get more slots than other, which leads into a risk/reward system with some characters as there are a lot of powerful characters who deal a lot of damage with elements but only have so many slots and thus run out of options quicker as a trade off. Element levels are not set in stone as a requirement for where a spell is equipped. While slotting an element gets you the base damage for that element, you can slot it into a lower level slot to create a weaker version of that element or a higher level slot to create a stronger version of that element. This is a very good way early on to be able to make use of spells that you might not have enough slots for (or any at all) to assign at the appropriate level and so you put it at a lower level so you can still make use of it, and conversely, as you start developing higher level slots at a time where you might not have a good higher level element to assign to them, you can put a lower level spell there so you have something that does decent damage/healing for that level. It is also worth noting that characters also have special unique techniques that they can learn that will permanently take a slot (similar to how Chrono Trigger characters had both techniques and spells). While most of these are damage related, some of them have other utilities, like stealing.
Elemental Slot Grid (Inside of Combat): In combat, the Elemental Slot Grid not only determines what spells you have to use but also when you can use them. By default, a character does not have the ability to use elements or techniques right at the start of combat. This is where a lot of some of the game's mechanics start to fold in together. As you do regular physical attacks during combat, your character will build up levels on their grid. Successful weak attacks fill up one level, successful medium attacks fill two, and successful strong attacks fill three (as such, this is the benefit to using weaker attacks, since they almost guarantee you can build up level charges, while medium and stronger attacks having a larger chance of whiffing means you might lose out on the ability to use the abilities you want at a given time). Each level you have charged on your grid determines what you have access to at that given moment. Charging up to three levels of the grid (the highest level you have access to at the start of the game) means you can use anything equipped between the first and third level of your grid. Anything you have equipped higher will not be accessible unless you attack more to fill up the grid. Grid charges also save from turn to turn and do not reset. Furthermore, using a lower level element/technique than what you have access to will also still leave you with some of the grid still charged. Meaning, you could just go all out with your highest level ability up front, or you could us a weaker one but then you'd have to build up your levels again or you could use a lower level one and then have charges to use another one on your character's next turn. Finally, having remaining charges left over at the end of combat can actually be used after combat is over to recover your characters if you have any equipped healing elements within the level ranges of those charges that you didn't use in combat. This is the primary way you heal from battle to battle without having to use consumables, though you always have the option of consumables (provided you have them in your inventory) since you won't always have left over elements or charges.
