Chrono Cross is one of my favorite games from my childhood. After playing through Chrono Trigger, I was elated to find out that a sequel was produced. Of course, like every other CT fan, I was let down due to the fact that it wasn’t so much a sequel, but more of a sequel to the CT universe than the original cast themselves. To those who have actually played it, this is a sequel believe it or not. You find out what happened to most if not all of the characters one way or another, and it ties in Lavos, the Kingdom of Zeal, the Reptites, Lucca, Robo (Prometheous), Schala and the future of Guardia.

This isn’t a review of the game, so let me state a disclaimer up front.

Some of what I am about to say are spoilers.

If you haven’t played either game, that’s ok, because I know that you will be encouraged by this post.

Ghost Children

One of the most depressing, creepy, and still to this day not completely explained are the ghost children of Chrono Cross. Basically, there’s a part in the game where you go back in time to a forgotten future that “never happened”. In this future, the world was destroyed by the antagonist of the original Chrono Trigger game, Lavos. There’s nothing left but death and destruction. Yet, at the very end of the area you find three children who are pretty upset with the main character.

They blame Serge (protagonist) for destroying their future, their lives and world. Serge has no clue who or what they are talking about, and right on cue another character (Miguel) who is watching over this world steps in and says they are “just illusions”.

These three children though, are the main characters from the first game, yet it seems they are dead in this future because they failed to complete their mission. Their life’s purpose was to stop Lavos in the year 1999 A.D. before he ended all of humanity with one mighty blow. Because of various time shifts throughout Chrono Cross, this future ended up in the Dead Sea (an area of the game) as a left over future, one that never occurred. Since we are stepping into a future that is bleak and without hope, the children yell at Serge, telling him that their lives were meaningless. You can feel the sadness and hopelessness in their words, on top of the melancholy music in the background.

The game doesn’t ever explain why we encounter them, what’s their purpose in the game or anything like that. To this day, players are still left baffled, even Chrono Compendium has various explanations, but no real answer

Purpose Unfulfilled

There are people around the world who live without purpose, just like these ghost children did. They felt that their mission was ruined, it never came to fruition because of unforeseen circumstances. A great man of God who just recently passed away said that a life without purpose is true death. This is true, because as human beings we are always seeking our purpose. Why are we here? What am I here to do? Am all I here to do is to eat, sleep, work and die?

Finding out our purpose isn’t easy. Many times we have to go through trials, mistakes and long years to find out why we are here. Why do some find out what they are called to do unlike others? In my personal experience, I believe that many have dreams and projects they want to do, but they come up with excuses. Many people continue doing meaningless jobs or activities when they should be, little by little, doing what they really want to do.

Purpose is a journey, it’s not a one day event. I encourage you, just like Serge in Chrono Cross, to overcome obstacles one at a time to reach your goal. Whether it’s to graduate from school, open a business, be an artist or film maker, whatever it is, start taking steps every day. Don’t wait for tomorrow, start today. Time is the only thing we can’t get back, so use it wisely.

Have you ever played Chrono Cross? What did you think of it? Was it as confusing the first time around for you as it was for me? Let me know below! God bless.