God, but these are tough choices. I'd best run through them all, just to make sure I can still type a lot.
Eliminate all the funny accents.
Actually, I LIKE all the funny accents. I think it's one of the few things that adds real character to most of the characters, as many of them have underdeveloped plots or at least plots that you have to join this site to get a full idea of.
Increase the game's difficulty.
Not high on my list, but simply because I think that there are a lot of other problems to solve first. A game has to be fun in the first place before difficulty (over much or lack thereof) can be considered a factor in its value. The general rule is that a game that is not fun to play should not be hard, because you want to get through it as quickly as possible. Some games can get away with this if they have other things going for them, such as story or immersion. And if a game is fun and exciting to play, you usually want it to be more difficult, thus extending this play and the amount a player has to invest to really master the system. I don't think Chrono Cross was all that fun to play, so I think making it harder would kind've suck.
Give Zoah some clothes.
Usually I'm not the kind to complain about this sort of thing, but CHRIST MAN PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!!! Combined with his Capitalized speech, Zoah becomes my nightmarish visions of every forum troll. I never play with Zoah on my party.
Totally different battle system -- return to ye olde Active Time Battle System days!
Well, I don't know about the ATB part of this statement, but certainly Chrono Cross' system needed work. I do like the whole "small hits are easier to pull off" and the "build up your magic gauge" system, but two things were glorious about the CT system: no new battle screen (still a rarity, for unknown reasons, in games) and the tech system. I love the tactical nature of the tech system, where you hold off on issuing an attack because in just a few seconds the enemies will be lined up perfectly for a line strike. This really should've been expanded on. I'm hoping the DS, with its stylus capabilities, incorporates some "draw your own lines" attacks or something similar.
Fewer playable characters altogether -- a Final Fantasy VI-size roster can produce just the right balance between variety and character development.
This was defenitely a big one for me. One of my most enduring complaints about Chrono Cross is its ridiculous character roster, especially in a game that allows you, what? Three party members at a time? It copies my frustrations from pokemon. You feel entitled to "get em all" but you don't really "want em all" and you'll never "use em all." Then of course, too, comes the problem of miniscule development for many of the character, though I do tip the hat to the team for managing to develop any of them with the butter spread over such a large piece of toast.
MORE cute comic relief characters -- the story's too depressing as it is!
God no... all you have to do is read my fan fic to see what I think of comic relief. What I find funny is when a serious character gets put in a situation where they are forced to laugh at themselves. Or, you know... when something truly funny happens. I think comic relief is a cheap way to get laughs that aren't really funny. You just get used to one character being really stupid, and it encourages bad writing. Which is something we defenitely have enough of in video games.
Greater involvement from the CT crew -- especially Crono, Marle, Lucca, Magus, and Robo.
Well, of course, this was probably my biggest complaint when I first played the game. In later years, I've come to appreciate it that a sequel should be allowed its own story seperate from the original. Plus, the CT crew (I've come to decide) is somewhat sacred. A second game could never do them justice, we'd constantly be comparing them to what they were like in the first game. Much better, actually, was the disturbing hints that they were all dead by various horrible means (though it did upset me at the time, it's probably been a creative influence on me since). Two things though... first, what is up with ghost Marle's dress? I thought she had more fashion sense than that. And two... yeah, Magus really should've been in the game, no matter what excuses the writer had to offer. I mean, he was built in. Go the extra step. I wouldn't have minded Glenn, either, though he'd be tougher. I could even make a case for Robo and Ayla... okay I'm destroying my original point. I'm stopping.
Make one or more of the following characters playable: Dario, Belthasar, Miguel, Garai, the small Fire Dragon, other (please specify).
Hmm... no, we had enough characters, thank you very much.
Better explain the underlying story using Compendium theory, and in a way that isn't so esoteric and cramped into the last minutes of the game.
This is the big one. Get ready.
1) Yes, the battle system bugged me. But it wouldn't have bothered me so much had I felt that I was going to be rewarded at the end of a dungeon by a coherent plot piece or character development. Instead, I knew that figuring out WHY I was supposed to be surprised by an event was going to be as painful and long a process as making it through the dungeon had been.
2) Yes, I was highly dissapointed by the lack of CT connection. But the truth is, there's a lot of connection. The entire plot is one big wrap up of loose ends from Chrono Trigger. It's just so buried under information that I didn't notice it until I'd beaten the game three times.
3) The huge roster list was annoying, yes, but it wouldn't have been so if more attention was given to character development. As it was, I kept wondering the whole game why they were introducing me to new characters when they still hadn't given Kidd a proper storyline. And how they dared to come up with that many new names when they'd had the gall to name the main character Serge. Of course, again, many of these characters DID have compelling back histories, but they were buried in poor presentation.
In short, I think that all of my issues with the game stem from the way the story was presented. Focus is the key word here. And thus, my real vote for the issue with Chrono Cross is as thus:
Lack of focus
Although Chrono Trigger could be said to cover just as much ground as Chrono Cross (a detailed history from the start of the human race to its fall, for god's sake), it did it in a much more focused way. You were always very aware of the current status of events and what your current quest was. The trick was that they kept things very much in the present (ironically). When you were trying to get your gate opener back from Azala, you weren't wondering how it was all going to tie into the Lavos plotline or what connection Azala was going to have to one of the characters... no, you simply were beating up a lizard who stole from you. Now, later, you discovered that Lavos was directly tied into the fall of Reptites and the rise of Humanity, and it brought up a lot of interesting side points for players to sink their teeth into. But the game didn't really point them out. It stayed focused and moved you along to the next event (now you're in an ice age and there's a kingdom of paradise floating above the planet... isn't the music cool?). And whenever things were in danger of becoming complex, the game spelled it out for you (see, Magus was summoning Lavos to FIGHT him, not to use him).
Chrono Cross was so pleased of all the twists and turns it could take that it didn't stop to consider that a couple good twists are more decisive than sixteen convoluted ones. Of course, Belthaser was running the show, and he's been proven by his journal in CT to be clinically insane. I don't trust that man.