Out of all recent Nintendo Direct game announcements, the game I'm excited to play the most is CHRONO CROSS: The Radical Dreamers Edition.
This game is one of my childhood favorite games. The story of my introduction to the game is pretty funny, since I looked for guides for this game for my cousins before I even got to play it. I also used to pronounce the title "Shrono Cross" for some reason. It's one of the earliest games I beat more than once in my life.
The Switch version of the game was announced in the Nintendo Direct, but it's also coming to XBOX ONE, PS4 & PC via Steam.
Two Worlds Cross
CHRONO CROSS is a story about Serge, a silent protagonist who finds himself one day in another world similar to his own, but one of the key differences is the fact the version of him in the other world, died as a child. While trying to understand what happened to him, he meets a thief girl named Kid & their fates eventually cross and affect the fate of the two worlds.
This game is a sequel to CHRONO TRIGGER and offers many nods to the game before it, but it can be played standalone. CHRONO CROSS feels more like a thoughtful coming-of-age story in comparison to Trigger's exciting adventure.
The main appeal of the game for me is the dimension travel mechanics. The story allows you to go back and forth between the worlds & see how the timeline was affected. Throughout the game, you'll see how the lives of various characters changed since the timeline split.
This remaster will also come with Radical Dreamers: A text adventure by the scenario writer that he desperately wanted to turn into a full-fledged RPG which later became Chrono Cross. While Radical Dreamers features Serge and Kid, the story is not canon to Chrono Cross, but it's an interesting story on its own.
Remaster Imperfections?
Radical Dreamers Edition offers many changes I didn't expect, but I'm happy to have: The ability to turn off enemy encounters is perfect because there's no need to grind in Chrono Cross in the first place! The ability to auto-battle is also important in the modern age. The 3D Models have been updated too, and the new ones, remind me of FFVIII Remaster.
For purists who like the original look, there's also the ability to turn off all the remaster changes, from the font to the new 3D models, but it also seems that you can't turn them off selectively. I'll wait until the game comes out to see what reviews say about this...
From the trailer(s,) Chrono Cross Remaster seems to suffer from the same upscaling problems all the other remasters PS1-era Final Fantasy did. The upscaling doesn't look good. This wouldn't be a problem for me if fans didn't actually manage to fix this issue in both FFVII and FFIX for free! Square-enix could do better.~
The new font used doesn't seem to fit well with some of the scenes, but the fact that we could turn all these remaster changes off is a good thing in my book!
I'm Extremely Excited!
Despite these problems, I'm very happy that we got the game at all. I never wanted more than a chance to play it without piracy/emulation. (I know it's on the Vita, but I don't have a Vita.) I don't think the graphics will look so bad on Nintendo Switch's Handheld mode, and I'm sure the PC versions will get the graphic mods it deserves.
So, What do you think?
- All images are taken from Square Enix's Press Kit: CHRONO CROSS™: THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION.
- This article is crossposted here on Hive & also on Read.cash.