If you want to try some good RPGs, i suggest Live a Live and Tales of Phantasia, 2 games that were never released here but were fully translated by dedicated fan groups.
Also try the Lunar: silver Story game on the PS1. A great game with a decent battle system (everyone fights!) , and some great humor (where else can u find references to IU's?). True the plot was cheesy at times but the funny parts hold it all together.
As for Crono Cross, I fucking hate the battle system!! Not only did it keep kick ass double and triple techs to a minimum (to many characters
) but it had it that magic can be allocated to any one, thus making the characters interchangable and unneccesary. It's kinda like the materia system in FF7, as you throw any character into the mix without any thought to strategy. Kinda makes me wish i had a chainsaw right now...