Proto:Chrono Cross

A playable demo of Chrono Cross was released on Square's Preview 5, which was included with the Japanese version of Legend of Mana alongside video previews of Vagrant Story and Threads of Fate and an interactive demo of Front Mission 3.

Many things changed between the demo and final game, as can be seen by peering into the preview's assets.

The Demo
As you leave for Opassa Beach, Kid and Glenn have some parting words, and run off.

Ending Slides
After the meeting with Leena at Opassa Beach, a series of non-interactive scenes play, and the demo is concluded.

Undocumented differences in the demo:
 * Running from battle simply fades the screen out; there is no running animation.
 * The effect field of black element is purple instead of black.
 * Screen transitions are much slower.
 * Casting animations for elements are longer.
 * Healing elements always default to Serge, rather than the user.

Elements
Using a hex editor to modify the party's element grids reveals a few things about the demo's elements: Most of them were changed, and a lot were deleted.

Graphical Differences
Several of the elements in the demo are slightly altered or entirely different graphically.

PhotonBeam



Iceberg

Evidence of Cut Character
In the demo, the level 3, 5, and 7 techniques of every character except Serge and Glenn('s level 3s) are named in the format [character name] 00, 01, or 02. While this isn't particularly enlightening for the characters who did make it in the final, it does reveal a character who didn't make the cut.

Elements 0601, 0701, and 0801 are named ククル00 (Kukuru) through ククル02. Using them yields the standard element placeholder effect of a low-damaging AquaRay on a single target, but with Kukuru's green innate. She is placed between Mel and Leah in the roster, which would explain the presence of a demo character portrait between the two where there are no members in the final.

Since the only evidence that this character ever existed are a few placeholders, it's safe to say that she probably didn't make it very far into development before getting axed.

Enemy Stats
Though their assets were stripped away, coding for several monsters remains in altered form within the game's data.

Debug Room


The Chrono Cross debug room managed to survive the conversion to the demo. While it's not entirely functional due to most of the game's data being shaved off for the demo, most of the options are fairly explicit in their descriptions (assuming you understand Japanese)...unlike the debug room from, say, Final Fantasy VII.

CusCus


Option 1: Cancel Option 2: Member composition (Does nothing)



(Dialog: Already done)

Option 3: Party composition (only members in bold will not crash the game)




 * 0: Serge
 * 1: Kid
 * 2: Guile
 * 3: Norris
 * 4. Nikki
 * 5. Viper
 * 6. Riddel
 * 7. Karsh
 * 8. Zoah
 * 9. Marcy
 * 10. Korcha
 * 49. Lynx
 * Next Page
 * Cancel

(Note that Guile's name here is listed as Magil, an artifact from when he was Magus from Chrono Trigger. His character data was overwritten with Glenn's, so you will get a Glenn clone if added to the party).




 * 11. Luccia
 * 12. Poshul
 * 13. Razzly
 * 14. Zappa
 * 15. Orcha
 * 16. Radius
 * 17. Fargo
 * 18. Macha
 * 19. Glenn
 * 20. Leena
 * 21. Miki
 * Next Page
 * Previous Page




 * 22. Harle
 * 23. Janice
 * 24. Draggy
 * 25. Starky
 * 26. Sprigg
 * 27. Mojo
 * 28. Turnip
 * 29. NeoFio
 * 30. Greco
 * 31. Skelly
 * 32. Funguy
 * Next Page
 * Previous Page




 * 33. Irenes
 * 34. Mel
 * 35. Leah
 * 36. Van
 * 37. Sneff
 * 38. Steena
 * 39. Doc
 * 40. Grobyc
 * 41. Pierre
 * 42. Orlha
 * 43. C13???base (Pip)
 * Next Page
 * Previous Page




 * 44. C13???a (Devil Pip)
 * 45. C13???b (Angel Pip)
 * 46. C13???aa (Archdevil Pip)
 * 47. C13???ab (Holy Beast Pip)
 * 48. C13???bb (Archangel Pip)
 * 49. Lynx
 * 50. Glenn 2
 * Previous Page

(Lynx will not function as Lynx, instead giving a Serge clone and causing graphical glitches.)

BeachBum


"Jump maps?"
 * Cross yer fingers
 * By number
 * By name
 * Go to every sub-room



"Map number"



"Map parameter" Option 3: Map select menu. Only maps included in the demo can be visited, and the exits don't seem to function. The only location normally inaccessible with any sort of functionality is Termina B.




 * Cancel
 * Village, block A
 * Village, block B
 * Dungeon A
 * Dungeon B
 * World Map A
 * World Map B



The rest of the menu consists of "go to (someone's surname)'s place" -- i.e., it's a list of stuff divided by name of the staffer who was in charge of putting it together.
 * Cancel

Wraith


Same as BeachBum's 4th option.

Gerridae


Music test
 * Song
 * Permanent sound effects
 * Cancel

Option 1

"Number entry"
 * Stop music
 * Return
 * Cancel

Option 2

"Number entry"
 * One more time
 * Stop permanent sound effects
 * Return
 * Cancel

Using the Debug Room
Although the data was stripped to the bone for the preview, there are a few things that can be done with the debug room normally not possible in the demo.

Viper, Poshul, and Leena are fully playable in the demo using the party select, as their graphical data was not deleted. Despite having models in the demo, Zoah, Karsh, Marcy, Radius, Razzly, and Riddel are not playable and will crash the game if added to the party. All three valid party members have a placeholder element grid full of some very preliminary elements, which is identical except for their Level 3 and 5 techs:

Viper is essentially the same as he is in the final. When added to the party, he's very weak compared to the demo version of Serge, Kid and Glenn, who were powered up along with the demo's critters. He's equipped with a Bone Sword and bone Armor.

His Level 3 tech is partially functional, unlike Poshul and Leena's. He will jump in the air, spin around and slash his target, inflicting heavy damage. His model will stay in the air above the enemy for the rest of the battle after performing the attack. His level 5 tech fires a powerful yellow-elemental AquaRay at the target.

Poshul is similarly weak, and equipped with Bone Armor and a Bone Fang (in the final, he uses Glove weapons, and 'Fang' weapons don't exist). Attacking results in a placeholder sound effect of a woman's voice, saying "Zero", "One" through at least "Five" depending on which effect is supposed to play. Neither of Poshul's personal elements are complete, and both function as yellow-elemental AquaRays.

Leena is equipped with Bone Armor and a Bone Pan, which is untextured (likely because the texture was cut for the demo). However, it still clips through her head partially. Like Poshul her level 3 and 5 techs are AquaRays, though blue element in her case. Unlike the other playable characters she doesn't have a proper casting animation for AquaRay and will bend over backwards when using it.

Music Differences
As a rule, music in the demo sounds slightly crappier that what was used in the final, mainly due to the addition of superior mixing and reverb during development. Tracks from the demo all have an annoying fade-in which is unavoidable both in gameplay and the soundtest. The samples here from the final version are taken from the game and not the soundtrack, as the soundtrack versions sound a little 'remastered'.

This is played on the demo's title screen as the audio component of an FMV that isn't present in the final at all. An updated version appeared on the game's official soundtrack.

This one can only be heard through the sound test in the debug room. It doesn't loop.

The demo version is missing the tambourine and chanting right before the loop.

The crash at 0:42 and the echoing percussion right before the loop are different.

Also accessible only through the music test. Sounds like there's another note to the bagpipes chords in the final, but it might just be the mixing.

Accessible only through the debug room music test. The guitar sounds a lot crappier in the demo.

The sitar was changed (for the better) between demo and final.

The instrumentation is completely different. The demo version uses samples that sound like they came from an SNES game.

Playing anything in the music test past track 11 will result in a sequence (usually the game over theme) being played with the instrument data of the most recently heard track, or possibly crash the game.

Debug Functions
There are some hidden debug functions which can be activated with GameShark. Known codes are unstable, barely functional, and buggy at this point.





top window: "ansan, kore yori mae wa arimahende"

bottom window: Current value Blue entry 000
 * R : 0
 * G : 0
 * B : 0



bottom window: Current value Green entry 000
 * R : 0
 * G : 0
 * B : 0



top window: Blue entry 000
 * mode : 0
 * R : 0
 * G : 0
 * B : 0

bottom window: Current value Blue entry 000
 * R : 0
 * G : 0
 * B : 0



bottom window: Current value rotx 0000
 * X : 0
 * Y : 0
 * Z : 0



Top window:
 * Before jump
 * Go to individual sub-rooms
 * Special

Bottom window: 0 Exception to your current space, yannow.




 * Mess with the screen RGB
 * Mess with the underwater RGB
 * Mess with the character RGB
 * Mess with the character rotation
 * Mess with the scale
 * 'Recto'(?) set
 * Return
 * Cancel



Top:

Tokage region - south

Center: Where would you like to restart from?
 * X coordinates : 0
 * Y coordinates : 0
 * current map : 0
 * current height(?) : 0
 * initiate test
 * cancel test

Bottom: Alny Village