Yasunori Mitsuda -- Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack

10/10

I bought Chrono Cross before I ever even owned a Playstation. A Nintendo fanboy for life, I was extremely saddened when legendary SNES RPG makers, Square, announced they were going exclusive with Sony. Still, I felt like I could live with this...until I realized that the sequel to my favorite video game of all time was going to be a Playstation exclusive. One day in the Spring of 2001, flush with cash from helping my old man crawfish, I went shopping for Skies of Arcadia for the Sega Dreamcast (a system I did and do actually own) at my closest Toys 'R Us. I also noticed a copy of Chrono Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger, my favorite all-time game, and bought Skies of Arcadia and Chrono Cross on the same trip--to this day, the best total video game purchase I've ever made. I played through Skies immediately, but Chrono Cross had to wait a minute...or...two years. At the end of the spring of 2003, when my friend, Daniel, picked up a PS2, he passed his PS1 down to me. I started Chrono Cross that very day.
With all that said, Chrono Cross is a great game, but not as good as Chrono Trigger. The story is needlessly convoluted, and rather perplexedly avoids the easiest and best connections it could have made with its predecessor. It is also, quite unlike the hopeful and steadfast Chrono Trigger, a huge bummer. You are continuously presented with non-choices that result in sadness after sadness, culminating in the saddest end credits sequence of maybe anything ever made that has an end credits sequence. Still, Chrono Cross does everything else so well, I unabashedly love it, and it even does one thing, quite miraculously, better than its predecessor (two if you prefer its 32-bit graphics): its soundtrack. Chrono Trigger has one of the greatest musical scores ever made for anything, and for Chrono Cross to top it, there's only one option--be the best video game soundtrack ever composed.
Chrono Trigger's Yasunori Mitsuda returns for the sequel. Mitsuda had never scored a major game before, and worked himself so hard with Chrono Trigger, he started suffering health problems, and needed backup to help complete it. This more wizened Mitsuda needs no such assistance here, as he composed all 67(!) of Chrono Cross' tracks on his own. It's stunning work. 

For Trigger, Mitsuda was able to invoke the mysteries of time with atmospheric textures, the passage of eons with a bedrock of bass and diverse tones. That score also has a swashbuckling aspect, as Chrono Trigger is, at its heart, an upbeat adventure game. However, Chrono Trigger, along with many of video game soundtracks greatest works, contains a weight and heaviness, no matter if there is an overwhelmingly optimistic tone (think a game like Donkey Kong Country). Chrono Trigger's soundtrack is heavy. Chrono Cross' is somehow heavier.

Cross focuses on parallel worlds instead of time-traveling, so we're in the same time period the whole game. The characters hop back and forth from a version of the world where the main player character, Serge, drowned as a child, and one where he was rescued. Thus, the player visits the same locations in these seaside, archipelago worlds, but each world's counterpart locations are just a bit, or sometimes a lot different. Mitsuda opts to utilize a world music style here, repeating some themes from Chrono Trigger, but also creating an avalanche of new ones. This is a tough score to describe, though.

The opening theme begins with sad, nostalgic tones, a keyboard, an acoustic guitar, bell, chimes, bass and a flute playing a wistful melody. Then, big tribal drums come in, along with an aggressive fiddle, playing a determined pattern, as the song builds and builds to a stunning, strings-only breakdown, before an explosive, triumphant finale. Immediately, Mitsuda has set the tone, sadder, but with that same determination from Chrono Trigger, real instruments now at the fore. 

The remainder of the soundtrack follows this sound, with the acoustic guitar often prominent, particularly in some of the more quiet town themes, though with the world music styles Mitsuda utilizes here, percussion is never underutilized...nor is the star of Chrono Trigger's soundtrack, the bass guitar (which often sounds like an upright here). I can't stress it enough, but there's a pervading melancholy and nostalgia in this music that never quite overwhelms, but just brings so much building weight. Mitsuda at times utilizes female vocals, as well, at their fullest effect in the beautiful, soul-crushing end theme, "Radical Dreamers."

As usual, though, every moment is scored perfectly. The battle and boss themes are rousing and adrenaline-pumping, the game's emotional moments are more than suitably contemplative, the mysterious moments are full of grace and beauty. The breadth of work here is astonishing.

With that said, I've only played through Chrono Cross once. I started an aborted second run at one point that I might one day finish. I've listened to the soundtrack probably 1000 times, though. It's amazing. It is the greatest video game soundtrack of all time. Even though Chrono Cross as a game doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor, Mitsuda's work here ensures Chrono Cross will be remembered forever...or at least as long as people remember video games.

If Square ever, finally, finally decides to make a third console game in the Chrono Trigger series (maybe even for a Nintendo console!), and Mitsuda isn't scoring, it isn't a Chrono Trigger game. But even if it never happens, these two games and their soundtracks will stand the test of time. I think this paragraph might be the "Other World" version of the previous one.


2003 DigiCube
Disc One
1. Chrono Cross ~ Scars of Time ~ (CHRONO CROSS ~時の傷痕~) 2:29
2. Between Life and Death (死線) 2:38
3. Arni Village - Home World (アルニ村 ホーム) 3:23
4. Fields of Time - Home World (時の草原 ホーム・ワールド) 3:26
5. Lizard Dance (トカゲと踊れ) 2:41
6. Reminiscing ~ Uneraseable Memory ~ (回想 〜消せない想い〜) 3:25
7. On the Beach of Dreams - Another World" (夢の岸辺に アナザー・ワールド) 2:22
8. Arni Village - Another World (アルニ村 アナザー) 3:32
9. Ephemeral Memory (うたかたの想い) 2:51
10. Lost Fragment (失われた欠片) 3:12
11. Drowned Valley (溺れ谷) 2:00
12. Termina - Another World (テルミナ アナザー) 2:43
13. Departed Souls (去りにし者ども) 3:43
14. Forest of Illusion (影切りの森) 3:25
15. Viper Manor (蛇骨館) 2:54
16. Victory ~ A Gift of Spring ~ (勝利 ~春の贈り物~) 0:56
17. A Child Lost in Time (時の迷い子) 3:24
18. Guldove - Another World (ガルドーブ アナザー) 3:26
19. Hydra's Swamp (ヒドラの沼) 3:10
20. Fragment of a Dream (夢のかけら) 1:35
21. Voyage - Another World (航海 アナザー・ワールド) 2:32
22. Ghost Ship (幽霊船) 2:00
23. Death Volcano (死炎山) 3:39
24. Fortress of Ancient Dragons (古龍の砦) 3:54
25. Grief (悲愴) 0:20

Disc Two
1. Beginning of a Dream" (夢のはじまり) 0:42
2. A Narrow Space Between Dimensions (次元の狭間) 2:47
3. Termina - Home World (テルミナ ホーム) 3:38
4. Dragon Knight (龍の騎士) 3:01
5. Voyage - Home World (航海 ホーム・ワールド) 3:22
6. Guldove - Home World (ガルドーブ ホーム) 3:58
7. Marbule - Home World (マブーレ ホーム) 2:55
8. Zelbess (ゼルベス) 2:42
9. The Splendidly Grand Magic Troupe (天晴驚愕大奇術団) 1:31
10. Nap (まどろみ) 0:13
11. Chronomantique (クロノマンティーク) 3:18
12. Dilemma (窮地) 2:47
13. Optimism (楽天) 2:19
14. Isle of the Dead (亡者の島) 3:11
15. Dead Sea/Tower of Destruction (死海・滅びの塔) 3:10
16. Prisoners of Fate (運命に囚われし者たち) 3:26
17. A Light for Lost Hopes (あらかじめ失われし、ともしび) 0:32
18. Island of the Earth Dragon (土龍の島) 3:16
19. Navel of the World (世界のへそ) 2:59
20. Gale (疾風) 2:00
21. Victory ~ A Cry in Summer ~ (勝利 ~夏の呼び声~) 0:53
22. Marbule - Another World (マブーレ アナザー) 3:00
23. Magic from the Fairies (妖精のくれた魔法) 0:13
24. Etude 1 (エチュード1) 0:12
25. Etude 2 (エチュード2) 0:14
26. Magical Dreamers ~ The Wind, Stars, and Waves ~ (MAGICAL DREAMERS ~風と星と波と~) 2:02

Disc Three
1. Garden of God (神の庭) 2:45
2. Chronopolis (クロノポリス) 4:12
3. Fate ~ The God of Destiny ~ (FATES ~運命の神~) 3:10
4. Jellyfish Sea (海月海) 2:55
5. Burning Orphanage (炎の孤児院) 2:44
6. The Girl Who Stole the Stars (星を盗んだ少女) 3:48
7. The Dream that Time Dreams (時のみる夢) 4:01
8. Dragon's Prayer (龍の祈り) 5:37
9. Terra Tower (星の塔) 2:26
10. Frozen Flame (凍てついた炎) 2:54
11. Dragon God (龍神) 3:21
12. Dark Realms of Time (時の闇にて) 0:42
13. Life ~ A Distant Promise ~ (生命 ~遠い約束~) 6:32
14. Reminiscing ~ Uneraseable Memory ~ (回想 ~消せない想い~) 1:39
15. Radical Dreamers ~ Unstolen Jewel ~ (RADICAL DREAMERS ~盗めない宝石~) 4:25
16. Fragment of a Dream (夢のかけら) 2:00