Like, if they'd managed to turn it all around, and the characters had a few simple arcs where... IDK. They go back in time and help rescue the main cast. Or they get real proper closure on fighting the villains and avenging the heroes. Or basically get to change the world for the better so the original cast had a meaningful sacrifice.
If they used all that to prove that hey, things might get dark, they might get scary, but that's okay and it's possible to pull through and be stronger.
There's just some handwavy bullshit and rushed endpostition about parallel timelines and unifying some WILDLY different timestreams oh and everyone is going to forget about this whole thing anyway.
But hey I guess they saved Schala... Kind of. Somehow. Again. Rushed as hell plot dump at the end of the game. But yeah that was pretty much the only positive.
I played chrono cross... but I can't remember any of it... which probably goes to show how much I liked it. I mean I have a horrible memory which means I can replay games a lot and find them fun.
SInce Chrono Cross's entire existence is because he was dissatsifed with the Kid and Sunflower part of that game and he actually refused to give his opinion or help write it when it was being written
Because... Okay, yes. The visuals and the music are amazing, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise on the side of the street. And they honestly kept me going because I wanted to see what sort of beautiful environments and soundtrack the game was going to throw at me next!
But once we got to the former three main characters as ghost children on the beach dropping 10+ dialogue windows... That's when I got angry. And also going "god but I wish I was playing YOUR game right now."
"HEY remember one of your favorite characters from the original game? Let's bring him back for three or so dialogue boxes and then unceremoniously kill him off."
there are people that liked Chrono Cross's plot, don't get me wrong!