IMO.

I like Chrono Cross, as it has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time and it does have a great story (even if it's confusing) and some great characters, as well as good gameplay. While it has some great characters, it also has A LOT of forgettable/bleh characters, thanks in part to the huge number of playable characters. The story is confusing as hell, too, but it's not a bad story.

As a standalone game, it's fantastic, but as a sequel to one of the best RPGs of all time in Chrono Trigger, it doesn't quite stand up to it.

I've only played trigger, so that's not my opinion, I'm just saying what others who have played both have said.

I'm not sure if you misspelled "LMAO" or "NO".  Either way, you should slow down when you type.

In my opinion I think Chrono Cross better in every way ... so YES for almost all your questions.

Chrono Cross had better story, gameplay, characters (some exceptions), places, music, villain (Magus is not a villain), etc.

Look, OP. I know you think you're having fun now. It's only because you don't know any better. Chrono Cross is like crack cocaine. You'll see lots of crazy, trippy stuff, and you'll meet a lot of strange people that you probably wouldn't meet otherwise (like a guy made out of straw, for example). It may be years before you finally realize the damage that Chrono Cross did to you. There's a pretty good chance you'll have AIDS, too.

Never played and it makes me sad that I never have..

if thats the price to pay for playing such an excelent piece of gaming cherry pie, it's worth it

I remember being really confused the first time I played the game but then I read a bunch of fan sites that broke down the story for me and then I replayed it and loved it. I agree that the game is overly convoluted but it's still a pretty good story with a pretty good battle system and has a great soundtrack.

In my opinion, it is hard to compare Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross because they felt like completely different games. Chrono Trigger seemed more light-hearted with serious elements and Chrono Cross was more serious with light-hearted moments.

The only flaw with the game is that they never actually finished it (Will leave sentence ambiguous as to not spoil OP). Other than that it was the best RPG I've played in the past 5 years. Everything about the game I loved. The music track is possibly the best track I have heard in a game. The art is fantastic, very colorful and provides a very nice atmosphere. The story is good, but it's quite big and changes depending on what you do(which is why the story's so big). The world is very detailed too; conversations between npcs change depending on who's in your party. I'll add one last thing, sinnce "chrono trigger vs chrono cross" has come up, I can't break them down and say one is better than the other due to the fact that both games are turn based and you're comparing stories at this point, but for myself Chrono Cross gave me such an amazing experience and atmosphere. Between the settings, characters, story and music I can't say Chrono Trigger is better, but I'll say Chrono Cross gave me an experience no game actually has.