By an accident of history, Serge wound up DNA locked to the security system of the time-displaced supercity of Chronopolis as part of a chess match between the rival AI overlords of the city, FATE and the Prometheus Circuit. Unfortunately, he only discovered this after he’d been bodyswapped with Lynx, an agent of FATE seeking to get his body back into Chronopolis to unlock the security system and access the full power of the legendary artifact known as the Frozen Flame. Miguel, who agreed to be FATE’s guardian of the Dead Sea in exchange for safeguarding the life of his daughter Leena, had successfully killed the Acacia Dragoons who brought the Astral Amulet with them to the Dead Sea, but failed to kill cat!Serge and his allies, who retrieved the Astral Amulet. Without Miguel, the Dead Sea becomes unstable and collapses into a time vortex leaving nothing but still water behind. Cat!Serge and his allies escape the collapse when the Sky Dragon, one of the six dragon gods of El Nido, rescues him.
The Sky Dragon gives some bullshit alibi about how he’s been watching Serge’s struggle with FATE and wants to see how this plays out and what his destiny is and stuff, using the mysticism built up around him by the El Nido people to play it off as a sort of “gods work in mysterious ways” thing. Cat!Serge now knows how Team FATE works and what they’re after, but he doesn’t know anything about Team Dragon (including the fact that Harle works for them), and Team Dragon likes it that way, because their endgame is the eradication of humanity and cat!Serge probably wouldn’t be so eager to help them out if he knew that.
Astral Amulet in hand, cat!Serge can now return to Another World. When last Serge checked, Lynx had swapped into his body, and since all of FATE’s defenses will just open up for him, that means Dark Serge can just sail on into the Sea of Eden (the Another World timeline’s equivalent of the Dead Sea), unlock the Frozen Flame, and FATE will once again be in total control of El Nido Archipelago. Since then, cat!Serge has investigated a rigged casino, gone on expedition to a haunted island, ventured into the Dead Sea, and probably completed some character side quests along the way – Dark Serge has had days if not weeks to accomplish this very simple task. In the game as it is, there is no explanation for why he hasn’t done this (especially since he has instead gone around terrorizing El Nido).
In this version, it’s because the Acacia Dragoons aren’t taking this shit lying down. Another Radius, sensing a disturbance in the Force, has come out of retirement to help rally the dragoons against Dark Serge. As far as the dragoons know, Dark Serge is regular Serge, some kind of criminal or terrorist or something. Radius convinces his old friend Fargo to maintain a pirate blockade on the Sea of Eden to keep Dark Serge from getting in. Fargo doesn’t have a ton of resources, but it’s enough to keep one kid on a stolen fishing boat out, so he goes to Plan B: get in touch with his contacts in the Porre Military, claim to be working on behalf of Lynx (technically true), and bring them in as muscle to break the blockade.
General Viper, leader of the Dragoons, never particularly disliked Serge and had tried to have him arrested and brought in for questioning largely as a favor to Lynx, but never had any intention of holding him long term or doing him any harm. Lynx just wanted to talk to the kid and Viper promised to bend the rules a little make it happen – but then Serge resisted arrest, raided Viper Manor for answers, stormed Fort Dragonia, and (as Dark Serge) is now in league with the Porre Military leading a fullscale invasion of the entire archipelago.
Cat!Serge is, as far as the Dragoons know, Lynx, their mysterious and entirely non-treacherous advisor from Zenan who has some unknown vendetta with the Porre Military and had been helping them prepare to fend off the invasion before he disappeared during Serge’s attack on Fort Dragonia. Lynx had been written off as a loss of the sack, but now cat!Serge is back in Lynx’s body, he becomes the presumptive leader of the Acacia Dragoons’ resistance against the Porre Military, as General Viper is still unconscious from the grievous injuries he suffered at Serge’s hands in Fort Dragonia (that wasn’t even Dark Serge, that was original flavor Serge – sorry). There’s just one problem: When the Porre Military captured Termina and Viper Manor, they took Lady Riddel hostage. Fargo doesn’t give a damn, but without the Dragoons’ backup, he isn’t able to hold out against Porre long – they’ve captured and imprisoned him in the Viper Manor dungeons and while his crew got away with the Invincible, they won’t last long as Porre brings in more reinforcements. So the first order of business is to rescue Lady Riddel and Fargo from Viper Manor, then to defeat the Porre Military and keep Dark Serge out of the Sea of Eden indefinitely.
Orcha is a Guldovan who was sent to Viper Manor as a chef but also to safeguard the Dragon Tear when they had it on loan from the village of Guldove at the request of Lynx. Lynx used it to bodyswap with Serge and then immediately shattered it, so Orcha kind of dropped the ball, there. The Porre Military has recruited him after their takeover of Viper Manor, and have figured out how to unlock his demonic dark chef side, who they use as a torturer. Cat!Serge bursts in on the Viper Manor dungeon just as dark!Orcha’s about to get to work and saves Riddel. Orcha joins the party afterwards in gratitude for keeping him from crossing any moral event horizons. He’s a chef, so his side quest is a combination of collecting recipes and then perfecting those recipes in a minigame that is basically Cooking Mama.
Grobyc is a cyborg of dubious loyalty to the Porre Military. He follows them because of their apparent strength and remains on their side because they’re defeating the Acacia Dragoons. As such, he attempts to thwart cat!Serge’s rescue of Lady Riddel, but is defeated. In the aftermath, he defects to cat!Serge’s team. In the game as it is, Grobyc’s ultimate technique is found in a secret location in Chronopolis – this is as good a place for it as any, honestly. Grobyc looks cool but has a paper-thin character.
Having successfully saved Riddel, cat!Serge escapes to Fargo’s pirate allies. Fargo’s minigame is piracy against the Porre Military, which is basically Sid Meier’s pirates. Pillage enough gold from Porre ships and you get his ultimate weapon/technique.
You can also use the booty from Fargo’s piracy to equip military units, used for General Viper and Zoah’s side quest. General Viper awakens from his wounds and joins the party along with Zoah and a bunch of other dragoons who we’ll get to later after Lady Riddel is rescued. General Viper and Zoah’s side quests are carried by a tactical combat minigame against the Porre Military, something similar to the land battles in Sid Meier’s Pirates. I’m thinking three sets of battles: First at the very fringes in Hydra Marsh, Mount Pyre, the Isle of the Damned, and Earth Dragon Isle, fringe locations where the Porre Military is setting up outposts. Then smaller villages Sky Dragon Isle, Marbule, Guldove, and Fossil Valley (which connects Termina to Arni Village). Finally, a half-size set of final battles for Termina and Viper Manor. There might also be a tutorial battle with the Porre Military assaulting the Dragoons’ final stronghold in Fort Dragonia. You only have to finish two of each set to unlock the next, you get General Viper’s ultimate weapon/technique for retaking Viper Manor specifically, and you get Zoah’s for completing every single battle.
Karsh, Glenn, and Riddel have a multi-part side quest from the original game about finding Dario, Karsh’s rival, Glenn’s older brother, and Riddel’s fiance. Karsh’s side quest involves being confronted by Solt and Peppor at the Isle of the Damned where it is revealed that he and Dario found the Masamune and Einlanzer here where Radius and Garai had left it (Radius and Garai’s conflict happened before the timeline split and is common to both worlds, but the retrieval of the Masamune by Lynx happened only in Home World – in Another World, Karsh and Dario went after it instead). Karsh was nearly overpowered by Masamune just like Radius was, but ultimately rejected it, refusing to pursue his rivalry with Dario to the point of murder. Dario, however, succumbed to the Masamune’s paranoia and tried to kill Karsh. Karsh’s ultimate technique is unlocked after this all gets revealed on the Isle of the Damned – the Masamune isn’t here not because Karsh still has it, but because Dario fell off a cliff into the sea with it, and Karsh presumes they’re both at the bottom of the ocean.
Turns out that surprise! Dario is on a hidden island and if you bring Lady Riddel to him, it cures his amnesia and then, unfortunately, he is immediately re-possessed by Masamune. If you beat the tar out of him, though, the curse breaks. The evil power of Masamune is destroyed, or else Einlanzer triumphs over it, or something, and Glenn ends up with a cool new sword and Riddel gets her ultimate technique.
Our final dragoon is Marcy. Marcy is an eleven-year old child who somehow became a Dragoon deva. You fight her in Viper Manor and she’s one of the only boss fights there that can potentially give you trouble, particularly if you’re not keeping up with equipment upgrades (which can be tricky if you don’t know where to find the materials). Her personality gimmick is that she’s a spoiled brat. She’s also the secret younger sister to Nikki, the rock star, which means she’s the secret daughter of Fargo the pirate captain and the secret niece of Irenes the mermaid. The only purpose of the family connection is to give Nikki an excuse to want to break into Viper Manor, so that plot point is dead and buried by the time we’re recruiting the Dragoons.
Luckily I have an ace in the hole, a totally generic but technically unique side quest that can be applied to almost any character: The pure gold sink. Marcy impudently demands you buy her a lollipop and a pony and stuff, and if you check off all the items on her wishlist, she gets her ultimate technique.
There is another option, but I don’t want to flesh out the details. See, Nikki’s whole subplot is in part about reconciliation between humans and demihumans. Fargo and Irenes’ sister whose name I’ve forgotten crossed that boundary to start a family together, but then the mermaid died and Fargo abandoned his kids to run either a pirate ship or a luxury cruise ship. Nikki, especially Home Nikki, hopes to complete the task his parents began, being half-human and half-demihuman (semidemihuman?). Marcy could play off that by being performatively racist against demihumans to conceal her own demihuman heritage, and unlocking her ultimate technique could involve a side quest about making peace with her parentage. I have no idea what to do with that besides the premise, though.
Also now you’ve got a boat and unlimited access to Another World so you can gather up all the different parts of Skelly. Skelly’s side quest is just that you have to gather up all his bones scattered across Another World to reassemble him, because he is a skeleton. And also a clown. If I could think of mechanics for it, I’d also give him, Janice, and Guile a circus minigame – a clown, an animal trainer, and a magician. I’d do a circus tycoon kind of thing, but I already did tycoon gameplay with Van, whose premise needs that much more than Skelly or Janice do (and Guile’s got other things going for him), so making another one means it would be incumbent upon me to differentiate them.
Orlha is the kung fu bartender from Guldove, because Chrono Cross got tired of copying Chrono Trigger characters and decided to copy a Final Fantasy VII character instead. In the game as it is, you recruit her by helping her fight off some Porre troops trying to seize her bar. In this version, this vignette happens after recapturing Guldove in the battle minigame for General Viper and Zoah. In the game as it is, you get Orlha’s ultimate technique by traveling to Home World (the Orlha you recruit is Another Orlha). Orlha and her sister Tia’s parents split up, and in Home World, it was Orlha who accompanied the departing parent (I forget which) to the Zenan mainland while Tia stayed in Guldove. Tia’s fallen into a coma in Home World, and when Orlha visits her, she dies, but her spirit says she’ll always be with her and Orlha gets a special kung fu/ghost tag-team attack.
Orlha also talks to Doc about how he can’t cure anyone when he comes to her bar to drink after he realizes he can’t heal Kid because there’s no hydra humour left in El Nido Archipelago and the currents prevent travel to the mainland this time of year.
There’s interesting ideas in there, but this post has been in limbo for over a month while I try to figure out something to do with them, so instead I’m rewriting it in two ways: First, Orlha’s sister didn’t move away in Another World, she died because they got sick, there was only enough medicine for one of them, and somehow Serge’s survival on Opassa Beach affected the outcome of this Sophian choice.
And second I’m giving Orlha a bartending minigame that works like Diner Dash. Chrono Cross already has a minigame kinda like this except that it’s about feeding dragon-horses in a stable, and only reaches the very minimum amount of gameplay. Diner Dash gets considerably more complex and that’s what we’d want for a character mini-game, although as usual this would be a terrible investment of resources justified in this case only because this is a thought experiment with no meaningful production costs.