Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Reviews
A serviceable restoration of one of the best and strangest games in Squaresoft's back catalogue.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a remaster that should have happened years ago, and I’m so glad that the JRPG classic has finally received the respect it deserves in the modern landscape. You seldom see it discussed alongside other genre greats in the mainstream zeitgeist, but perhaps that perception will change now Serge’s iconic adventure is available on a selection of platforms with myriad improvements. Not all of its changes are for the best, but are easy enough to accept when the underlying game is still so masterful.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition takes one of the great PlayStation RPGs and makes it available to new and returning fans on modern hardware.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers brings a daring and unusual JRPG back into the spotlight, but doesn’t smooth over many of its rough patches.
It's a shame that, with the release of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, we likely won't see a comprehensive remaster or even a full remake of this underrated gem for a long while, leaving us with a somewhat underwhelming version on Switch that isn't much beyond a port. Regardless, the portability of the Nintendo's console and the inclusion of Radical Dreamers still makes this the best and most convenient way for fans and newcomers alike to play the 22-year-old classic and its pseudo-prequel. It's a good game and having easy access to it is a boon - just don't go in with more than modest expectations when it comes to the remaster effort.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition brings possibly the best PS1 JRPG to Europe for the first time, and it simply must be played.
Chrono Cross is an incredible game that has been deserving a remaster for far too long. It's a shame that, after all these years, it had to arrive in such a sorry state. The Radical Dreamers Edition does some minor work in improving and upgrading the experience, but with such poor optimisation, it's a headache to enjoy the experience. Longtime fans might be able to forgive the issues and savour the incredible visual novel side-story Radical Dreamers, but a game as iconic as this deserves better.
A classic JRPG well remastered and that deserves to be relived, or experienced for the first time.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As a remastering it has aspects that can be improved, but being able to feel the warm sea breeze again and listen to the evocative soundtrack, finally with a Spanish translation, makes Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition a gift for any JRPG fan.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It hasn't aged particularly well, and there are serious technical issues with the remaster, but the sequel to Chrono Trigger is still one of the original PlayStation's best Japanese role-players.
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.
Since there’s no way to get Chrono Cross legally on any platform introduced in the last decade other than The Radical Dreamers Edition, you’ve just got to deal with it. I played it on PS5, and I imagine it’s a similar experience on PS4 and PS4 Pro. However, as much as I love PlayStation, I would buy it for PC. We’ll likely see mods on that platform that will fix the issues with the backgrounds and FMVs. I really hope the poor quality of this remake isn’t indicative of what we can expect from Square Enix in the future.
I wouldn’t place Chrono Cross in the rare tier of games I’d recommend to positively anyone, but if you’re someone with a deep affinity for the RPG genre, it’s a risk-taking riff on a classic that’s still got surprises to spare.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a great remaster that retains all the glory from the original. The updated visuals are great, really elevating the entire experience.
Actually deciding whether or not Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is worth it varies wildly depending on what a given consumer is looking for. As a remaster, it falls short of the high bar some other projects over the last few years have managed to meet. As a gaming experience absent its new bells and whistles, Chrono Cross remains a stunning title that still captivates as a JRPG over two decades since its release, while The Radical Dreamers remains an oddball text adventure that few but the most dedicated lore enthusiasts will find appealing. As a preservation project, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is all but necessary. What players choose to do with that information is up to them.
The rating takes into account the absolute and undeniable value of Chrono Cross, an excellent role-playing game that everyone should experience. Unfortunately the operation of "rebirth" is not entirely successful due to some questionable choices, but the inclusion of the elusive Radical Dreamers contributes to a package that – especially at this price – must be a part of the cultural baggage of any fan of JRPG worthy of the name.
Review in Italian | Read full review
For all the flaws I’ve dragged out, I still love this game. The powerful music, the ethereal visuals, and the fascinating plot all deserve special attention. And yes, there’s a lot of weird, dense mechanics to wade through. But this just requires some patience and planning. To that end, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition isn’t for everybody. But if you’re looking for a unique 32-bit RPG that will stick with you for years to come? You’ll want to check out Chrono Cross.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition brings a beloved classic to the PlayStation 4, complete with its old pros and cons. Some of the limitations of the first game get washed away with the enhancements and features that come with this release, but they also create a couple of their own. Like a true classic, this edition is not without its issues, but classics have a way of outlasting their criticisms through the eyes of those who experience them.
Parts of Chrono Cross really haven't aged well, but it's still a charming, characterful JRPG that evokes feelings of the genre's golden age on PS1. It's a game that deserves better than The Radical Dreamers Edition, which, at least at launch, is a dreadfully poor remaster. Crippled by frame rate issues, it beggars belief that a title from 1999 could run this badly on modern hardware. Unless you're desperate for the nostalgia, we strongly recommend waiting to see whether Square Enix releases a patch to improve the package on PS4 and PS5 before buying.
Despite being a masterpiece of split universes and the often futile attempts to fight fate, we're living in the timeline where the original source code for Chrono Cross was lost to the scars of time and the remaster that exists in this age wasn't given the focus that one of the greatest JRPGs of all time deserves.