"There is no Destiny" but yet Crono was doomed to suffer no matter what happened.

Still waiting faithfully for Chrono Break...

One of my prime motivations of studying physics at Universities, was to deeper understand the nature of time ... after graduation and 8 years of study - I am still clueless.

I like how the beef jerky thing is so important, and then Dalton canonically goes and messes it all up.

So, Serge's timeline is a split timeline of a split timeline. I love Chrono Cross so much, I still sit down and play it every year or two. My understanding is the game describes Serges ability to switch between the two timelines as he belongs in both timelines. It was the interference of a time altering being (FATE) that created a weakness in the time space, along with "Kid's" need of him (her necklace also has mild time traveling abilities.) allowing Serge to slip through. It's been a while, but I believe that he only regains the ability to travel between worlds again after destroying Chronopolis because it destabilizes that timeline. I was actually going to start another playthrough, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

Time travel and parallel dimensions is always a sticky subject when it comes to basing your entire storyline on those two concepts alone. It takes an incredible storyteller with a great attention to detail to take those two concepts and put them in a story that not only works but gives us deep emotional connections to the characters in the story. Chrono trigger is often referred to as the greatest jrpg ever made and chrono cross is often referred to as having one of the most beautiful soundtracks of all of gaming. You can always expect excellent pedigree when it comes to the chrono series in one shape or another. I thank you for the time and dedication you put into this and I am beyond excited for the timeline and lore of Xenogears. It is my favorite game of all time and you have tens of thousands of year to cover in this game. I know you'll do this game justice, just remember to take your time with it and we'll be waiting to see it anxiously once it is finished in a way that you are satisfied with.

God I can just lose myself within the lore and theory of the Chrono Series.... I love it so much. Great Video!

I have now watched all 3 and I enjoyed them immensely. I think you did the series greatly! Thumbs up!

Well done. After 22 years I've finally gotten to order an original Playstation and Chrono Cross. Your videos have helped me understand deepthings I missed back then. Perhaps I'll be able to play Trigger as well. I heard there was a port version for PS. I want it. Thanks again! Brilliant work. I hope you're well and happy.

Had a thought. The gate key is what gives time travelers immunity. We only see the grandfather paradox before the gate key is a thing.

That music box song gets me in the"soft"spot, everytime

You did a fantastic job on these Chrono videos! I finished both games multiple times and have looked at many articles on Chrono Compendium, and even I learned information that I didn't realize (such as the Ruby Knife being the previous form of Masamune, Belthasar being the one instructing Kid to save Serge, Fate being more or less the Mother Brain, etc) I think it's incredible that such a large and complex universe was created by 2 games alone. That's why I think the Chrono series is one of the best in gaming history.

As someone who by and large doesn't comment on youtube videos out of principle, Keep up the great work. Just finished the whole of your chrono trigger videos and it was refreshing to hear such a concise and well put together explanation of the lore. i've been working on running a D&D session based off the Chrono trigger universe and I think i'll be sending my players to view the videos as a primer to the game. So keep on keeping on with the amazing work!~

Would love to hear more theories sometime about the series. I'm really hoping that with Tokyo RPG Factory and Project Setsuna, there will be a resurgence in Square and console RPGS. I still hold hope for Chrono Break someday.

Thank you. You gave me a new respect for Cross. Looking at it with your videos and these ideal makes it a much more fitting sequel then I thought before. And maybe one day we will see another sequel to this series. Maybe something that brings Crono, Serge, Kid, Marle, and our other characters all together. Or a whole new set of amazing characters.

Aww, a bit too short. I'd love to see more videos based on Chrono Compendium articles!

I'd like to see a game called "Chrono Core", that details the true origin of Lavos. What planet did it come from? Is it a creature of natural evolution, or was it created by some sentient race? And most importantly, how did the primitive magic of the Reptites actually make contact and summon Lavos?

As a fan of the Chrono series, I REALLY enjoyed this 3-part series, fam. Very good!!!

"In 2004 mathematical modeling and computer simulations by a group of statisticians led by Douglas Rohde, then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, indicated that our most recent common ancestor probably lived no earlier than 1400 B.C.and possibly as recently as A.D. 55. In the time of Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti, someone from whom we are all descended was likely alive somewhere in the world." So Ayla is not only an ancestor of Nadia, but of everyone alive in the present.

Its crazy how you just happened to start these vids this year because I am just now playing chrono cross for the first time. My Xbox 360 got burnt up in a house fire and I don't feel like buying a ps4 or Xbox one right now, so I started playing Chrono Cross on my phone as an emulator. God damn this story is complex. So yea I thank you for this vid and you have a new subscriber.

Man this makes me so nostalgic. I'm going to play through Cross right now. Great video btw. Can't wait to see the next one.

When they rescue Crono I thought about the time travel theory that suggests you cannot truly ever travel in time in YOUR world, instead each time you travel you enter a separate, identical world to yours. In this case that'd mean that the original Crono did indeed die and never came back while the one they saved was simply *a* Crono. After-all, the very same characters that I fought Lavos with were the ones I brought to save Crono. But they don't just save him, they take him to the future. So if you go by this theory then Crono's friends unknowingly started a time loop which all in all changes nothing. What do I mean by this? They STEAL the Crono of that world and switches him out for that doll-duplicate which ends up getting destroyed instead. However, how are his friends of that world supposed to know that which was destroyed was NOT the real Crono? This means that his friends thinks he's dead and eventually concocts their plan to save Crono from ever dying by getting his doll, going back in time to when Crono's just about to be killed, switches him out with the doll and takes him back to their world. This idea suggests that an endless time-loop gets created where every single universe that has Crono dying will end up getting another Crono from another universe back to their world... I feel like I could improve that last sentence but my brain hasn't properly woken up yet so take that combined with this deeply complicated stuff and my brain just goes poof.

So remember how Trigger had two main endings (ignoring all the new game+ endings), one where you revived Chrono and one where he remained dead? My personal theory is that there's another timeline split, where Chrono Cross follows the Chrono revived ending, while Radical Dreamers follows the Chrono dead ending.

These videos are GREAT man. I've just watched the Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and now this one all back to back to back and I can't wait for more! These are my favorite games and I love that someone is taking the time to do them justice in both explaining and analyzing them. Much thanks man and look forward to XG Part II and what lies beyond :) -Cord

I watched all 3 videos twice! Great work man. I really enjoyed them!!

I just have to say thank you for your work. These are some epic videos! I don't really comment on videos but thought I would give you a shout out!

The big questions revolve, not only around time/dimension travel, but around Schala and Lavos. What the actual fudge are they and what they do.

Great videos! I played Chrono Cross last year and I was looking for a review like yours. Good job!

These videos are fantastic! Thanks so much for making them.

This series blew me away. Great work!

9:24 I see you have the same endgame party as me. Serge, Kid and Glenn. X-Strike with the Mastermune and Dario's sword is easily the best duo combo in the game. Lights out!

I keep coming back to rewatch this series.

I have a question... why do I love your videos so much?

I know I'm late, and I hope you see this. But your breakdown of these games lore is amazing, and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

The Planet's Will interfering in Trigger makes sense considering that it 'did' interfere in Cross like when it pulled Dinopolis.

Its a damn shame this video series doesnt have more views! D: I've been EDUCATED on the chrono series thanks to you man! I've always been interested in the series but never could hunker down and play chrono trigger as extensively as you need to get the best ending and i only ever made it just slightly past the johnny bike race before my attention wondered to other games. i only half suspected that chrono cross was a direct squeal to trigger but it looked vastly different, so i wrote it off. Thank you for this series! :D

Wow - absolutely fantastic videos! Thank you so much for dedicating the time to put all of these together. I was 11 the first time I played through Chrono Trigger, and played through Chrono Cross as soon as it came out (had to buy a Play Station to do so), and they have both been in my head with me ever since. These are definitely games that I revisit from time to time and will continue revisiting. So, as you can imagine, these videos were especially amazing to come across. On a side note: Ive been been hoping someone could do something similar for the Ogre Battle franchise - it would be a lot less complex and what you have here, but still interesting to layout how all of the games and places relate to one another. Well, .. maybe something i will have to do myself at some point.

Big up man. Best thing I've seen on the net in a long time. Cheers.

Radical Dreamers getting a re-release bundled with Chrono Cross!

When people ask me what one of my favorite games is and I respond with Chrono Cross, they usually end up asking me to tell them about it. I find it impossible. I'm glad that you were able to organize all of these events into a logical timeline!

I personally think that Serge living and being the Arbiter of the Frozen Flame causes FATE to no longer have control of what's going on in the world, which somehow causes Crono to not be able to stop Lavos. Remember, FATE was intentionally in control of everyone so they wouldn't mess with Crono's Adventure. But when he loses control to Serge, then FATE can't stop anyone from messing with Crono's Adventure. FATE losing control was due to a power greater than his own, something that would eventually destroy Space-Time. Though Belthesar planned it, I don't think time itself planned for FATE losing control, thus causing time itself to change (AKA Crono not stopping Lagos) I think SE will eventually remake Chrono Cross and add in some of these answers, just like Trigger did for the DS. Great video as usual!

Serge is the missing link, on top of that, the time line didnt die because in a way a greater power asides Balthasar has given a grace to the of timeline of serge to fix itself. We are a universe within.

Yeah dude, the grandfather Paradox totally fits! Consider that in Chrono cross, there is surges home Dimension and then there's an alternate Dimension where different things played out. It's the same thing in Chrono Trigger. When they all died, they wound up going on a different path in terms of the timeline, but they were still able to return to their home timeline, their home dimension.

Someone once said they wished that the Chrono Series had been a collection of games that detailed how civilizations on different planets dealt with the threat of their own Lavos. Even though these two games were a wild, crazy, amazing ride I do kinda wish they *had* done something like that.

Such a complex story and wonderful mystery that surrounds it, playing through both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross is like playing through endless episodes of the Android sagas in Dragon Ball Z where it took forever to finally reach Cell.

I always figured the world was doomed because the Frozen Flame still existed. During its first awakening in the Kingdom of Zeal, Lavos could sense his presence from across time, and pulled the "Frozen Flame," a shard of himself, from Chronopolis back in time. So even if Chrono killed the main body, a second body was already ready to carry out its final plan. Of course, my question to all of you is... what was Lavos' plan? Was it just an eldritch abomination descending on to the world? Or was it an astronaut, if the inside of Lavos can be believed?

Awesome to see a real gaming channel =D. You deserve more subs Terracorrupt.

FINALLY I understand the links between these games! THANK YOU!!

Great work on this. I really really enjoyed it

Gr8 videos, sir. They have peaked my Chrono nostalgia. Recently beat CT all endings via rom, and still enjoyed every bit of the Chrono series videos.

great videos, I am enjoying them a lot!

And i thought that Xenogears was complicated. Anyways, great videos on two of my favourite videogames of all time (namely Xenogears and Chrono Cross), hope to see more (what about NGE btw?).

Thanks buddy i've played both of theses games so many times and there were things i didnt understand but now i know.. i would love if they would remake it

I'd reeeeally like to see more Chrono videos! Compendium is super dense, but I'd absolutely watch more specialized videos like ethics of time travel, self-aware lavos, el nido history, etc. What I'm saying is: any Chrono video you make, I will watch.

about marle sudden disappear, rather than grandfather theory, another possibility that actually could fit in is she gone cause of the effect of time crash on chrono cross, well, I know the game isn't made yet back than but it could be great theory 😉

I think you should take a look at the quantum multiverse theory, it would improve this discussion in a lot of ways.

Bro i was lenient about getting this game then i saw yours and another video and i had to get this game, i played it a bit as a kid but dont remember much about it. i looked on local listings and bam i found it. thanks for making these videos! New subscriber here haha

I think one explanation as to why Ayla jumping around in time not affecting Marle's existence is sort of why Marle disappeared back in 600AD, in that the POSSIBILITY of Ayla going back is what allows time to stay on course for Marle and only Ayla's death outside of her normal timeline would upset that balance for Marle causing a domino effect. After all, Queen Leene wasn't actually killed and yet Marle still disappeared, and I don't think it was the entity that caused the flickering but rather when the King decided to stop the search because Leene was 'found', that left only Frog/Glenn to continue looking which slowed the process and thus would have led to the queen's death, so without factoring in time travelers time started the process to correct itself. Chrono viewing Marle's disappearance causes him to start looking which lets him save the Queen and thus all is still good. If Ayla dies prior to giving birth then Marle would disappear all the same, but since we can assume Ayla lives past that point, there's no reason for time to correct itself to wipe out Marle when Ayla travels through time.

Great Scott!

It just occurred to me that Nadia and Chrono witness essentially each other's deaths.

My favorite theory is that the Entity is just another... Whatever Lavos is, that wants to see its kin fail since it becoming the devourer wouldn't be conducive to propagating it's strange alien designs.

didn't know he was doing legend of legacy, going to have to check it out now!

very gooddamn analysis bruh. subscribed

Subscribed! Loved this series. I hope the ending was a teaser for Xeno-series lore. Even after a lot of reading and replaying the games, I have a hard time understanding the whole thing :)

thx a lot for explaning the story.

This was amazing 👍👍

I know this video is some 4 years old, but still its wonderful to watch and see the theories and intricacies behind what is chrono trigger. I like the understanding behind the grandfather paradox and the time travelers immunity, and how its possible that Kato didnt have full control or maybe and entire understanding of which rule set to follow and started with one but then changed shortly after. I had a weird theory to this paradox... Lets assume for a moment that Kato didn't make a mistake and intended to show an example of the grandfather paradox while also giving the heroes time travel immunity. So, when Marle goes into the portal the first time she is subject to the grandfather paradox, and my theory is that Lucca crafted the gate key she had a full understanding of what she was getting into (after noticing the pendant + her teleportation device opened the time gate). She designed the Gate key to somehow get around the grandfather paradox and apply the time travelers immunity (how she does would be unknown but I wouldnt even begin to understand how to avoid the grandfather paradox in the first place). Since Crono didn't actually get to use the gate key he would have also been applied to the grandfather paradox until he met up with Lucca and travelled back, but Crono isnt really part of this timeline his familial ancestors are moot, possibly because they are not anywhere near the kingdom of Guardia. Great video, enjoyed this game. These theories are so much fun

"We may another Chrono game again. But if there's even the slightest chance that Square noticess this amazing community of fans, then who knows what could happen?" > Chrono Trigger: Definitive Edition for PC.

Woah the explanation of trigger and cross are now clearer than ever to me! If you can, please play and explain the Legacy of Kain series! That one is full of time bastards too!

Look!! Its Trunks Super Saiyan God!!

the beef jerky thing alters the upbringing of the Porre mayor's family, she teaches her children the value of sharing and caring rather than fend for yourself

Wouldn't it just be easier to say that there are contradictions in the rules of time travel in the Chrono universe, and that the writers of the game are just human beings?

Awesome job!

Thank you, these videos helped me gather all my curiosities and put them into perspective. Strange though, I've played and beaten Trigger multiple times; I always had the notion that Marle was descended from Kino, not Ayla. It had to do with an item he had, I thought. Maybe I'm mistaken?

My idea was, and will always be, that The Entity, the one guiding you and creating these Time Gates to help you, is Schala. It makes sense. It explains away paradoxes (as Schala being a fusion of herself and Lavos would give her unimaginable power over Time and Space) and it's the only entity in the games with the knowhow, the power, and the desire to have Chrono succeed.

I think that we aren't meant to think that time travel is like a strict science, so much as a dynamic thing that simply shifts how it works sometimes. The portals themselves were made by the planet, so fluctuations in the planet could easily be used to explain away seeming plot holes. Some things seem to be closed time loops even though others are changed. This could simply show the fact that -both- of those things are somehow possible, albeit in a way that isn't meant to be easy to follow.

Here's my point to be made about Ayla phasing out of time and then somehow that not affecting Marle. You just explained Time Traveler Immunity lol The reason Ayla even travels through time to begin with, is that she meets Crono's team, so then when she goes along with them, Marle would already be under the protection of Time Traveler Immunity.

You have a new subscriber and a like!! 👍

I also wanted to say, that I absolutely love your videos, they are amazing! I really appreciate the work you've done in your explanation, the Chrono Cross video was amazing and really changed my perspective on the games and how time works in the games, amazing job!

It's always hard for me to fully appreciate stories that use time traveling as the main plot. Mainly because I usually catch plot holes based on how I believe time traveling should work if ever it is indeed possible. Most notable rule for me is that the effect, to events and people, of you travelling to the past exponentially increases as the time goes far from your present time. So if you travel back to yesterday, the effect is very minimal. But if you travel back to a year ago, a lot of things may have changed. Kind and place of interactions can also affect the degree of consequences. So if you travel to a year ago and ended up in a forest where there's no human around, the consequence would still be minimal. With this rule, Crono travelling to 65M BC would basically change the whole history of humanity after that time and they will no longer exist in the future. And there's also the traveling back to present like in Back to the Future, if you changed the future by going back to the past, which timeline are you going back to? and if things has changed, even if you exist in that timeline, you may not have gone back to the past so you'll have a double in that time? Time traveling topic is really mind boggling LOL To me, if it'll ever become possible, it'll be a read-only time travelling. So it's like we discover that past events are recorded in some form (maybe the wind? LOL) which we can view ourselves.

Great and helpful videos, thank you (even if I have already read most of this in the Chrono Compendium) I... don't accept the b.s. reasonings for the Time Travel paradoxes however... 'Time Travel Immunity' is the same as 'Main Character Immunity' A.. terribly cheap writing contrivance that I detest. Good videos regardless!

Time is one crazy thing.

I've played chrono trigger dozens of times but I've never been able to get through chrono cross.

Well, it's time for me to say .... THANK YOU, i really enjoy the videos, yes there was so much dedication and effort in these games that even today here we are, trying to tide all together. Okey i'll bring one of my theories now... As you stated here there are no such thing as "fate" or things that happen allways, but, there are one particular thing that brothers me and makes me think, for the sake of the time line chrono and c.o, must to kill lavos in 1999, and i'm okey with that, but before chrono even being resurected there is one twist, i'm mention the masamune, see that Magus ( as a major character he is) it's optional to have him in your team, this means that in north cape you can kill him, or let him live, but here's the trick, in the DS vertion, when you face the Dream Devourer there is a Magus there (even if you have him in your party in that moment or no), Magus Himselft says that " it's a future vertion of me" ... but could it be?, i think that this "time devourer magus" is a copy of the magus you save in middle ages... to prove it i will take the freedom to mention the masamune... the masamune it's frog's best weapon and it was cyrus best weapon, but the masamune has a special property, it reflects the heart of it's wilder, so for someone good, it will be a holy sword... but for someone evel, it will be a demonic sword, in north cape, if frog do not kills magus he says "killing you will not bring back crono or cyrus" so with this and with the travelers inmunity i can more or less pice all together, first frog kills magus in north cape... this makes the masamune evil and in the flow of the ages, in 1005 this demonic masamune once used to protect the kindom of guardia, it's now used for it's doom, after the battle this sword is sealed, pretty much as we later found it in chrono cross, and why it's magus still apering in the scene od the dream devourer, well, lets say that after we save magus from lavos in middle ages another copy of him is created, so in simple terms janus and magus have their owns copies of thier self, in the end of time, thats why killing him in north cape does not prevent him from appering in the last battle, and that's why the masamune it's evil ... well i hope i have made this clear, have a good day

while the chrono series has a good time travel story I still think The Legacy of Kain games are better. "You must understand, our presence here doesn't alter history. You and I meet here because we are compelled to - we have always met here. History is _irredeemable._ Drop a stone into a rushing river - the current simply courses around it and flows on as if the obstruction were never there. You and I are pebbles, Raziel, and have even less hope of disrupting the timestream. The continuum of history is simply too strong, too resilient."

About the Home World question, I think Home World doesn't fade into the Darkness Beyond Time 'cause it's a different dimension, not a different timeline. Both Home and Another Worlds are in the same timeline, happening simultaneously.

Why Serge's survival creates Day of Lavos: 1) Fate cannot stop the Porre invasion. 2) Porre invasion disrupts Eden, and thus the creation of the future metropolis 3) The promethius circuit cannot prevent time travelers from CAUSING the day of lavos. (The 3 ghost kids in cross reveal that just as they changed the past, someone else may be able to- that's what FATE was designed to prevent, with her shut down, time travelers are able to disrupt Chrono's influence). Question: Why doesn't FROG turn human in the eras of 1000-End of Time (When Magus would be dead anyway)

If you love Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross then you should try Radiant Historia too, that game is a masterpiece of itself and had a similar time traveling storyline.

Loved these videos! Just wondering: did you ever end up playing the Legend of Legacy and if so did you like it?

This was my favorite game series growing up. Makes me super sad that another one was never made. They are also fully aware that we want more Chrono games. They just don't care.

Great Videos!!! If you ever get inspired to make more videos on these games, please don't hesitate

You're going to attempt that mammoth of a storyline that is Xenogears?! Subscribed good sir, but I wont expect you to be finished with that video any time soon :P

Do a review on " Another Eden : The Cat Beyond Time And Space " It's made by the same person and involves time travel, and is very close to what Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are. Going to places like 1100 AD and other places. Please give this game a try.

I appreciate all the work that's been done to reconcile the way time travel was handled in these two games, but I just have to say that it seems to me that the developers couldn't decide on whether they wanted to be linearists or splitists. During chrono trigger time was handled linearly. Then when cross comes out they throw it all out the window and wanted to have split time lines causing parallel universes. It's really frustrating because the story of chrono trigger was all wrapped up in a nice little bow.

I'm hoping for for true Chrono sequel on the PS5 paralleled with FFVII Part II. But one can only dream!!

If you want some good time travel games, play Legacy of Kain series... Even the one not work by the writer got worked in

who is up for another chrono sequel where crono from the home world(chrono cross) is taking a part in the chrono series.

subbed!

I really truly appreciate your enthusiasm, as a huge Chrono fan, but I'm afraid for me this just called more and more attention to all the plot holes in the Chrono series. :( I know it's almost impossible to create a “let's change the future!” time travel story without breaking a few eggs (if the eggs are the laws of the universe), but I suspect the answer to some of these questions is simply “because we wouldn't have a story if we didn't do it this way.” :/

This is a good videos series but in all honesty, all you did was point out how much of a mess the story is as a whole. It’s full of conveniences to excuse constant time travel rules being violated. If it had actually stuck to things like the grandfather paradox in the first place, the story may have had some consequence, but considering it has stuff like “time travellers immunity” and various different universes to excuse constant changes in the timeline, means it ends up having no consequence. I haven’t played Chrono Cross, but considering there’s a multiverse, it means there can be no true closure to anything. What is done can constantly be undone and there will always be some other version of the characters going through different motions, some that get happy endings and others that don’t. I enjoyed Chrono Trigger when I played it, and while it seems to handle its time travel better than Cross, it’s still just hokey stuff that we’re meant to have fun with and not take too seriously. Time travel stories are at their best when they deal more with fate and how we don’t really have free will. It means there’s a lot of consequence. In those, something can indeed come from nothing too. They’re called causal loops, symbolized by the ouroboros. The Legacy of Kain series has those things, and is an example of a game series that does time travel very well. Far far better than any Chrono game.