Triggered to Thinking

Paradise Lost and a Nostalgic Longing

John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost continues to inspire the imagination of many in the current era. For modern readers it inspires a nostalgic longing for a time period that no longer exists. This time period is symbolic of the fall from Eden in the poem. Within the world of gaming, fans of the turn-based role-playing genre have longed for an earlier period in the history of gaming. This period saw a wide range of diverse role-playing games with captivating stories. These games continue to influence fans of role-playing games to this day. Recent advances suggest that the nostalgia for this period in gaming history is a catalyst for new titles in the genre. One specific title, originally released in the year 2000, received a remaster in 2022. This title, Chrono Cross, is the sequel to the widely popular Chrono Trigger. The events in Chrono Cross express fans’ desire to return to an easier idyllic time similar to the garden of Eden in Paradise Lost. 

The perception amongst many video game fans is that turn-based rpgs have become a thing of the past. In this newer generation, many players are turning to action role-playing games, shooting and sports games. What many turn-based fans consider the “golden age” of turn-based rpgs has passed. This golden age spanned the years of 1995-2002 and included many different turn-based titles from SNES and Playstation 1 and 2. Some of these titles included works such as: Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy IV-X,  Breath of Fire, Earthbound and Legend of Dragoon. These earlier titles are considered “classics” by many fans and they retain distinct fan bases online. Square, a large video-game company, responsible for the creation of the Chrono and Final Fantasy series explained that.the shift from turn-based to action-based RPGs is to address the current market . The style of turn-based combat is becoming less common among game-players in the current market. 

At least this is what turn-based rpg fans have believed. However, there is good reason to believe that the nostalgia for the era of turn-based rpgs is making a comeback in recent years. This comeback is evidenced by a number of newer titles that feature turn-based combat with innovative and different structures in place. Child of Light was a turn-based game released in 2014 that featured a young girl and many playable characters set in a fictional land known as “Lemuria”. Another game was announced in 2013 called ‘Edge of Eternity‘ that was sought to crowdfund the project to completion.  Additionally, according to the writer Will Usher, “the game seeks to rekindle the glory days of Playstation  JRPGs”. Edge of Eternity was released in 2018 and the music for the game was composed by Yasuorni Mitsuada, the same composer that made the music for the Chrono series. These new titles seem to echo the nostalgia that players have for the era of turn-based role-playing games

Apart from new and emerging titles, the presence of many niche fan clubs among role-playing games also suggests the presence of nostalgia among gamers. In 2009, Square Enix sent the creators of a fan-made game called Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes a cease and desist letter after nearly five years of development Also in 2013, a fan-made video project about the events of Final Fantasy VI was given a cease and desist letter from Square Enix. In a similar fashion, turn-based fans have continued to show their love for turn-based games with online petitions. The 2000 turn-based role-playing game  Legend of Dragoon has maintained a consistent fan base ever since its release. Many fans were dismayed when the scheduled sequel for the game was canceled and the reasons were never released. An online petition to create another Legend of Dragoon title has amassed over 29,000 signatures and currently remains active .

Going into 2022, the nostalgia for turn-based rpgs remains a constant. 2022 was also a very big year for the video game fans, but it was especially significant for its revival and remastering of older titles. In 2021 there was a leak of the software company Nvidia which contained a number of games purported to be in development. Many of these titles seemed speculative to fans, but titles that gathered the attention of fans of role-playing games were remakes of classic Playstation One titles such as: Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy IX, Chrono Cross and Kingdom Hearts . This leak created a stir in the gaming community while many doubted its validity; others remained optimistic that this leak could be true. In February 2022, Nintendo announced that Chrono Cross would indeed be receiving a remaster for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. 

The Plot of Chrono Cross

Chrono Cross draws on many of the themes in Paradise Lost in the sense that it looks to restore the world to an earlier utopian time. The player takes the main character, Serge, in a quest to restore the world which includes notions of individual, ethnic and personal restoration of the world. Motifs, themes and symbols from religions are displayed in the struggle that Serge undertakes to restore the world to before the rupture in time began in Chrono Cross. Also there are different ruptures that shaped the characters in Chrono Cross. The player has the option to engage in optional quests to restore these characters to a previous more blissful self. Chrono Cross begins with the main protagonist Serge experiencing a  dream about him trying to encounter a feline villain known as “Lynx”in an unknown fort.  Serge is joined by a boisterous young female thief known as “Kid”.Once Serge and Kid reach the top of the mysterious fort they open a large door and what follows is a vision of Serge standing over Kid with a blood-soaked dagger. As the dream concludes, Serge finds himself awake in the peaceful fishing village of Arni. His mother scolds him for sleeping in, and tells him he needs to fulfill his promise to his friend Leena. He had promised Leena earlier that he would find Komodo scales to help her make a necklace. 

At the start of the game the village of Arni represents a utopia. The villagers spend their time fishing and relaxing at the nearby beaches and enjoying the local tavern. There is no threat of foreign invasion , drought, famine or any other calamady that can ruin a peaceful village. The villagers also speak of “The Records of Fate”. This is where the player can save or load their game, but the villagers speak of how their lives are controlled by this force known as “Fate”. Fate will later play a large role in the game, but early in the game it appears that the villagers in Arni are guided and protected by Fate and don’t have freewill. Their lives are protected by a kind of theological determinism that grants them their peaceful lives in Arni.

Serge gathers the required scales to make the necklace and meets his friend Leena in nearby Opassa Beach. In the middle of a serious conversation Serge hears his name being called out to him from beyond the ocean. The unknown voice says, “Serge, Serge”. Serge feels a tidal wave encompass him and then he falls unconscious to awake several hours later. An old lady finds him and tells him he only found him and says nothing about Leena. Serge returns to Arni village to notice that something has gone amiss. The villagers don’t recognize him and someone else lives in the house that he was raised in. Later, he goes to meet up with Leena at the local pier only to find out she doesn’t recognize him either. However, Leena tells Serge that he looks like a boy that passed away at a young age and whose name was Serge. Understandably, Leena won’t believe you if you use the game-generated option to tell her that you are Serge. Here the first rupture in history in the world of chrono cross has occurred. Serge appears to have been teleported to a different world where no one recognizes him and it appears that he died 10 years earlier. The peaceful world that Serge was raised in is not the only world and an existential  quest has begun for Serge.

Serge then proceeds to a nearby cliff named Cape Howl at the request of Leena to visit the grave of Serge in this other world. He does and finds an epitaph that reads “RIP Our beloved Serge died age seven”. Serge has indeed died in this world but he remains alive in the world he came from. Shortly, after reading the tombstone he is approached by a man named Karsh along with two accomplices: Solt and Peppor. Serge is aided by the mysterious female that appeared in his dream before the start of the game and he is able to defeat the men. The mysterious girl identifies herself as “Kid” and then the pair agree to travel to the metropolitan city Termina to the north. Kid is looking to get revenge against the figure known as Lynx mentioned in the dream in the prologue of the game. After talking with the villagers in Termina, the duo decide to investigate the local military base known as Viper Manor. The Viper Manor is named after the general Lord Viper and it houses the soldiers of Termina and the elite group of fighters known as the “Four Devas”.

The player has a choice to select one of three possible guides to help take the trio into the confines of the Viper Manor. Whichever path is chosen the party is able to infiltrate the manor and get past the security. Kid later reveals she is looking for a mysterious item known as “The Frozen Flame”. Once the group has made it to the top of the manor they encounter a figure who calls himself “The Prophet of Time”. This prophet recognizes Serge for who he is and knows that he is not a member of the Acacia dragoons. He explains that the world he is in is evidence of a parallel world. and there is another world with a different range of possibilities.He must continue his quest to find his role in this world. An unknown event that occurred 10 years ago is revealed, but the prophet is unable to tell Serge what this event entails. At the conclusion of the discussion, a female fighter known as “Marcy” asks if she can “kill them” yet. The man replies that this encounter could be a result of “fate” itself, and the party defeats Marcy and gains instructions to enter the top court of Viper Manor to confront Lynx. 

  At the top of the manor the party encounters the mysterious feline figure known as Lynx. Kid sees a jewel on a table that she believes is the Frozen Flame but Lynx assures her that the artifact is in a place known as “The Sea of Eden”. Serge and Kid engage Lynx and defeat him only to discover it was an apparition. After the battle Lynx approaches Serge with some sinister speech. Lynx says, “What do you desire from this world” while talking to Serge. Lynx then continues and exclaims, “The end of the human world is nigh and when that happens there will be a deep enmity between you and the world this is history”. The monologue from Lynx appears to speak of a conflict between Serge and the world that has been predetermined. At the conclusion of Lynx’s cryptic talk Riddel, General Viper’s daughter, enters the room and Kid attempts to take her hostage. Serge and Kid attempt to escape on the roof. Lynx throws a dagger at Kid and knocks her off the roof. Next,  Lynx once again presses Serge, except this time he explains he has been looking for him and he calls him “The Assassin of Time” and “The Chrono Trigger”. Serge then jumps the cliff where he falls into the water.

Serge, Kid and the third party member awake to find themselves in the island town called Guldove. Kid first appears fine but then succumbs and falls asleep. The local doctor tells Serge that Kid has been poisoned and only a hydra humor can revive her, but the issue being that hydras don’t exist in this world anymore. Kid while dealing with the poison tells Serge to remember the place where the prophet of time mentioned the split in the dimensions. Serge then travels with Korcha to Opassa Beach where Kid’s amulet is able to allow Serge to return to his home world. In Serge’s home world hydras are not extinct and he is able to defeat the hydra to obtain its humor which is used to cure Kid of her poison. Once Kid has been cured in the other world, the group decides it’s time to pursue Lynx.

The group heads to Termina to find out that Lynx had headed to Fort Dragonia on the eastern part of the El Nido archipelago. The party encounters obstacles on their way such as the appearance of Acacia dragoons and the warnings of the court-jester Harle, but they reach the fort. Once the party has reached the fort, the player should recognize this fort as the fort from the prequel dream to the game. At the top of the fort, the party encounters Lynx and General Viper. Lynx stabs General Viper and then a battle emerges between Lynx and the party. Lynx again engages Serge with cryptic discussion after the party defeats him. Lynx says “Serge have you ever questioned who you really are, on that ominous day 10 yars ago the boundary of space and time was torn and part of me died”. Kid insists that Serge not take anything he says seriously. At this moment Serge looks into a mysterious blue jewel and an animated scene shows Serge changing into a more sinister form. At this point Lynx takes control of Serge;s body and then stabs Kid, reenacting the dream from before the game with Srge standing over an unconscious Kid with a bloody knife. 

From this moment onward the entire plot of Chrono Cross seeks to restore the world to what it once was and it involves many different scenarios. Serge, now in the body of Lynx, was sent to a mysterious dimension. He will have to find a way to get his body back and convince people that he is indeed Serge not Lynx. Serge will also need to stop Lynx and find out why his own body is needed. Along this quest, several other conflicts from the past will seek to be remedied, some required and some are optional quests for the player. Many of these character stories have the characters longing for a more simpler and peaceful time and the quest to reconcile these draws on themes in anthropology, religion and historical studies.

Restoring the Rupture

Serge, now in the form of Lynx, must first seek to regain his own human form. In order to do this, Serge, with the new characters you can recruit, decide to gain the blessing from the six dragon gods scattered in the two different worlds. The dragons, when being asked about why Serge is there, refer to him as “son of man” before the party has to defeat the dragon in battle. The term “son of man” is one that is found in Jewish and Christian apocalyptic thought and relates to the role of Serge in the story in Chrono Cross. Within biblical scholarship the identification and application of the term “son of man” has a history of discussion and debate. Scholars have proposed that the son of man could refer to a special individual, a collective identity of people or a heavenly individual. While discussions still range among scholars, John Collins, notes that “while the son of man is conceived as a real being, he symbolizes the destiny of the righteous community” . Therefore, the “son of man” has an important task for the future and has an important purpose for God’s people in the future. 

In the gospels, Jesus explains that “Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26). This passage has Jesus quoting from the book of Daniel 7:13-14 in which the prophet Daniel has a vision where he explains “I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven”. Jesus being identified as “the son of man” preserved the apocalyptic beliefs of early christians that Jesus would come back to judge the world, defeat evil and bring about the climax of history (Matt 24:29-32). Jewish apocalyptic literature listed several signs that would precede the end of the world. The end would be accompanied by the return of the apocalyptic son of man figure. The Fourth Book of Ezra refers back to the Danielic view of the Son of Man, when the text says, “And behold a wind arose from the sea and stirred up its waves, and I looked and behold, this wind made something like the figure of a son of man come up out of the heart of the sea”. In contrast to Daniel, this son of man figure doesn’t come on the clouds of heaven but he is sent by God to bring redemption to the people of Israel. 

While discussing Jewish apocalyptic literature, it’s crucial to define the term “apocalyptic” as a genre. Apocalyptic movements can vary in their definitions but scholars believe that several motifs can be deduced from apocalyptic movements. Some of the defining traits of apocalyptic movements included: activity of angels and demons, determinism, urgent expectation of the end of earthly conditions and a meditator with royal functions. In a similar fashion, Bernard Barber, examined the emergence of the Ghost Dance movements among Native Americans in the late 19th century. He found that these Indians believed that one day a “culture hero” would lead them to a form of paradise someday and evil would be destroyed Serge’s quest to regain his form and confront Lynx does resemble many similar traits to that of the apocalyptic son of man in apocalyptic literature. First he must defeat what is perceived to be “evil” in the forces of Lynx. Many characters that you acquire will tell you about their own experience with the evil of Lynx. In the other world, where Serge was never born, Lynx started an uprising and the villagers in Arni fled to avoid him and his minions. He is also an agent in the apocalyptic struggle between good and evil and he is fighting against which is presumed to be the forces of evil. Later in the game it is revealed that Lynx is the human embodiment of the FATE system. The FATE system is a supercomputer that created the islands of El Nido and controls the citizens of the El Nido archipelago. By challenging to fight against the FATE computer, Serge is challenging destiny and fighting against a sense of determinism.

Apart from the role that Serge takes in an apocalyptic sense, the player has several options in the game to restore the world in different ways. A prominent race in the world of Chrono Cross are known as “demi-humans”. These mysterious beings  reside primarily in the town of Marbule. One of the game’s recruitable characters, Fargo, was a human who was married to a demi-human. It had appeared that this marriage could break down the walls between humans and demi-humans. However, after the death of Fargo’s demi-human wife, Zelbess, the wall between humans and demi-humans grew deeper. Many demi-humans are indentured servants and work onboard the S.S Zelbess Cruise Ship in the other world. The player has the option of performing a concert at Marbule in the other world. Marbule, in the other world, is haunted by monsters and only the concert allows the player a chance to defeat them. If the player completes this quest, the demi-humans in the game will reconcile to the humans, and Marbule will become  free. This optional quest is an example of an in-game desire to restore the world to a place where both groups of people could live in harmony. A time when Fargo married Zelbess. 

In a similar sense, the plot of Chrono Cross includes the story of a legendary knight known as Dario. Karsh, a member of the Acacia Dragoons, trained with Dario in his youth. As they grew older the daughter of General Viper, Riddell, fell in love with Dario and they became engaged. Karsh did his best to hide his jealousy and his feelings for Riddell. In order to survey a place for the wedding, Karsh and Dario venture out to an island known as “The Isle of the Damned ”. While inside a cave, Dario encounters a cursed sword known as the Masamune. Unable to control himself under the sword he attacks Karsh, and Karsh tries to defend himself. Ultimately, Karsh ends up striking Dario and knocking him in the water according to Dario’s wishes. After this Lynx approaches Karsh and suggests to tell everyone back in Termina that Dario was killed by demons. He does this and the rest of the Acacia dragoons believe the story. Later in the story you have the option to defeat Dario to release the evil lock on the Masamune and thus Serge will be able to use the weapon. This optional quest has Karsh reflecting on a time from the past when times were tranquil. Completing this quest allows Dario to be reunited with Riddel, his one true love. 

Another very significant tale of restoration comes with the feisty female thief known as Kid. Once you have freed Dario, the power of the Masamune is restored. The party can thus use this power to enter into the past of Kid. Kid lived in an orphanage that was overseen by Lucca Ashtear, a main character in Chrono Trigger. After defeating the monsters, Serge then takes Kid out of the orphanage. Kid has to relieve the sorrow of the day her orphanage was destroyed by Lynx and burned. However, once this quest is complete she becomes a playable character again. Before the battle with the Time Devourer, the party learns of a legendary item known as “The Chrono Cross”. This item allows the party to free princess Schala from Chrono Trigger. Schala was the princess of the magical kingdom of Zeal in Chrono Trigger and she became bound with the being known as Lavos after the events of Chrono Trigger. When the player frees Schala  from the Time Devourer and achieves what is considered the canonical “true ending”. In this ending Schala is giving a monologue and she states, “Eventually all dreams will return to Zurvan to the sea of dreams’ ‘. The title “Zurvan” is related to  the name of a sect of the Persian religion Zoroastrianism. Zurvanism was the name of the sect and it was considered “heretical” or not in accordance with official Zoroastrian thought. Zurvanism is believed to have started in the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian empire but only gained prominence in the Sassanian period. The Avestan word for time is “zurvan” and . Zurvan was a minor divinity of the Younger Avestan period which stipulated that Ahura Mazda the Zoroastrian God was a twin son of Angra Mainyu the Zoroastrian devil . A fourth century Armenian document states, “Zurvan whose name is to be interpreted as fate”

The fate of dreams in Chrono Cross will be for them to return to the sea of dreams in Zurvan. If the Chrono Cross is used the two dimensions are united and Serge will have no memory of the adventure. The ending scene shows Schala trying to find her way in the modern world. Zurvan being mentioned in the story of Chrono Cross also brings an interesting comparison. Mary Boyce notes that, “Zurvanite preoccupation with fate and the inexorable decrees of time obscured the basic Zoroastrian doctrine of free-will and the power of each individual to shape their own destiny through their choice” . The player can achieve several different endings of the game after completing the game using a feature called “New Game Plus”. Also, the player can choose to save or not save Schala, but with Schala being saved using the Chrono Cross the plight of the princess of Zeal is resolved. There are multiple destinies that can be achieved in Chrono Cross and these are the different endings available to the player. 

The events in Chrono Cross allow the player to work towards bringing an earlier more peaceful time back to fruition. This is shown within the story, and the creation of the remaster demonstrates how fans of turn-based role-playing games are longing for this earlier time in gaming history. For fans of turn-based role-playing games, the return of these games is like a symbolic return to the garden of Eden. 

Reference List 

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