One of the best RPGs of all time, in my book.
Chrono Cross' protagonist is Serge (although you can change his name to anything you want, like in similar Square PS1 games) who lives on the tropical island of El Nido. One day he goes into another dimension in which he was supposed to have died ten years ago. So 'his journey begins...' It's a great story and there is a huge cast of characters to meet along the way.
One of the things to appreciate is that Chrono Cross has a completely different cast and setting from its predecessor Chrono Trigger, which means that people like myself who didn't play Chrono Trigger before this game, don't get confused - although having played both games now, I think playing Chrono Trigger as well certainly helps.
The gameplay is brilliant; it's extremely fun and although it's similar to battle systems in other Square PS1 RPGs, random encounters which would be frustrating in other games are well done in this game.
The graphics are doubtless the best on the PS1 - colourful, vibrant, extremely detailed and unlike most games on the PS1 in which textures sometimes move in and out of characters, there isn't a single flaw in the graphics here. It's even comparable to some games in the generations after it.
The music is outstanding as well; give the tropical setting of the game I really enjoyed the main battle theme, and Yasunori Mitsuda (the same guy who did Chrono Trigger's music) has really outdone himself on this soundtrack.
Chrono Cross is one of the few games you could play a hundred times through and it will be completely different each time. There are 45 characters in total, all of which can only be obtained by going through the game repeatedly many, many times.
Chrono Cross has aged remarkably well and is my favourite game of the fifth generation. Sad that the Chrono series wasn't continued, but at least Chrono Cross ended it in style.