I wasnt very fond of Chrono cross sadly, didnt live up to the hype i had, Chrono trigger was a masterpiece, and its sequel didnt live up to it in my opinion.
Its not a bad game, my expectations kinda ruined it
Just don't try to play it via gPSP, it crashes while you're still in the first village + the 2nd game causes the emulated GBA to reset during the first in-game conversation.
You should definitely play the Ys series (although Ys 3 is not that great), especially if you dislike the random battles.
There is a nice article on the Ys games here: http://hardcoregaming101.net/ys/ys.htm