Did you ever had one of those experience when a game falls on your lap that you remember playing and have fond memories of, but when you play it, you are disappointed that it doesn’t live up to your fond memories that you had? I’m so happy to say that with Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was very much not one of those experiences, but fortunately the opposite. Opening up a thick PlayStation one game case that held two discs instead of just the usual single disc immediately made Chrono Cross come off as an epic game that I’m sure I’d divulge countless hours in. Originally released in the US back in August of 2000 by Squaresoft at the time, it’s nice to see over 20 years later Square-Enix decided to give the remastered treatment, to what I believe is up there with one of the most influential JRPG games of that generation.
This specific remastering is a lot more subtle than most of the ones we have been getting these days, it almost seems like a restorative edition. The graphics are not improved upon, just polished to look better in high definition. Primarily with the cut scenes, they still look as primitive as ever, but now they’re as crystal clear as ever. Something I noticed right away was they seemed to have redone the text boxes and the text itself to be a lot clearer and easier to read. Among that there are also some quality-of-life improvements, such as a fast-forward button which makes even exploring maps go by faster, not just the combat themselves. A luxury I surprisingly took advantage of a lot, maybe we are just less patient as gamers now, or maybe just me, but walking around normally did feel surprisingly slow to today’s standards. I could see newcomers of Chrono Cross being turned off by it, so it was a smart feature to add in. This remaster also remains the game’s original 4:3 square aspect ratio and give you options to have the black bars on the sides either be more decorated or you can have the picture zoomed in so it takes up all of your widescreen TV. For me, I kept the original ratio, because, that’s just the way it was meant to be played.
As for the story of the game itself, I don’t really want to spend much time on, because well, this game is over 20 years old and it’s a classic, that’s all you really need to know! Seriously though, it is a very dense story and if I start peeling that onion, it may not sound appealing, so it’s best to experience it going in blind. A big surprise to this release is the addition of the never released spin-off, Radical Dreamers. Released in Japan only back in 1996, as a sequel to the first game in the franchise, Chrono Trigger. But, unlike Chrono Cross, this isn’t a JRPG, but actually more of a visual novel, with gameplay being completely through text.
It’s unclear if Chrono Cross will click with today’s gamers, but its nice to see games that have left their worthy mark on the industry get preserved in nice packages such as this. It would be nice to find out that this release becomes so successful that maybe someday we will get a sequel, but for now, I’m appreciating what was given to us and taking the time to reflect down memory lane of my youth playing this game on PS1 with one of my friends, spending countless hours being absorbed into this world.
9/10
For more information, visit the PlayStation Store.
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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