Chrono Cross was genius. The events of Chrono Trigger weren't meaningless. It was the fault of that game itself that caused that timestream to be invalidated. If it hadn't been for Crono and his party saving the future, Chronopolis wouldn't have been created, thus Dinopolis wouldn't have been created thus none of the events of Chrono Cross would have ever occurred. I think it's a hell of a lot more interesting than anything else they could have done with the story. And who knows, if and when Chrono Break ever comes out, the plots may be merged and finally resolved.

Titus, Xenogears is amazing, but it's a giant game. I'm at nearly 70 hours and I'm still a little ways from the end of the first disc. The second disc is apparently only a minor fraction of the game, but I could imagine myself being at 80 hours by the time I finish it.