ik y'all don't follow me for this specifically but i think one of my favorite things about chrono cross' whole "45 recruitable characters" is that. sure. some are not as developed as others. but it's so important to me that they all EXIST connected to each other. red-string-like situations put them all together like peas in a pod. they sure as hell didn't need to make as many as they did. they sure managed to make them all have something interesting going on. they are leaders they are warriors they are adults and parents and children and creatures. they have needs, and they are scared. they have specific ways in which they CAN be recruited. you HAVE to make sacrifices to get some of them. you HAVE to learn more about them to get special techs. you bring families back together, you break families apart, you give others the space to grieve their losses. you must grapple with their grief their love and their terrible coping mechanisms. you cross a few of them and you know MORE about them than they know about themselves. you connect the dots. your protagonist is silent.