Ever since Chrono Cross was released, there have been embittered fans of Chrono Trigger who felt that the game was not very good, and not a worthy sequel to such a masterpiece. At the same time, people who liked Chrono Cross were quick to defend it for its tone, artistry, and music.

In fact, I think that whether you like or dislike CC is determined (FATEd if you will) by how much you care about these six things: logic, lore, plot depth, tone, art, and music. If you weigh more heavily toward the first three, you're gonna hate it. If you lean more toward the latter three, you're probably a huge CC fan. That's just how the cookie crumbles, compadre.

But this week I opened up the Compendium and saw something about Chrono Cross plotholes and I thought, you know what, let's do a retrospective on every bad review of Chrono Cross throughout the Eras. So strap on your goggles, grab your Wondershot, and let's travel through time...

Right out of the gate we had A truly regretable disappointment for Chrono fans in 2000, later reuploaded as The Chrono Cross Hate Page in 2003. Later in 2009 this was discussed on the Compendium in a thread. It was also parodied with The Chrono Trigger Hate Page.

Things were quiet for awhile. The Chrono scene died down for awhile. A few threads would appear on forums with titles like Chrono Cross is sucking. The original ChronoShock.com imploded in spectacular fashion. Days and nights passed. The war in Afghanistan ramped up, then down, then up, then down. Hurricane Katrine caused crisis and disaster in the USA. Pluto was downgraded from planet to Kuiper belt object. Britney Spears shaved her head. Barack Obama became US President. While doing the 30 Days of Gaming challenge, Red Robot named Chrono Cross the Most Disappointing Sequel. FaceBook.com came online. Someone posted (to Venture Beat of all places) a negative review of Chrono Cross titles Chrono Cross: a mess of unimpressive gameplay and laughably bad storytelling. The Hunger Games movies came out. Lady Gaga wore a dress made from-

Then, suddenly, in 2015 a new name burst onto the scene: Jarin Jove. This author became one of the most prolific CC-haters starting off with Negative Review: The Worst Game Ever, Chrono Cross! followed by List the Plot Holes: The Narrative Failures of The Worst Game Ever, Chrono Cross and many videos.

Post-2016ish, the world started to remember the Chrono series again. People continued to discuss the plot holes in random forum threads like
Let's be honest, this game doesn't deserve a sequel because it's bad (spoilers). We got Chrono Cross is still one of the worst games ever, Chrono Cross’ ending is…uhhhh…, I REALLY don't like Chrono Cross. Am I missing something?, Why was Chrono Cross panned by gamers?,

Most ironically, we have both Chrono Cross Was A Bad Sequel, But A Brilliant Game AND Chrono Cross is a bad game, but an awesome sequel.

Finally, some of the best video (balanced, unbiased) reviews, made in the context of this ongoing discussion over the last 20+ years, are A Big 'Ol Review of Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition and Chrono Cross | An Atmospheric Masterpiece or Disappointing Sequel? (Retrospective).

And with that, hopefully we're finally done. I know I'm done with this topic for a veery long time!