Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Reviews
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.
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.
I'm not sure what I thought I was going to get with Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. I thought I would be swept away in the story and taken on an adventure I wouldn't forget. What I got was a game that feels like it is trapped in 1995. Some of that is good, solid combat, old-school CG cutscenes, excellent music. If you are new to Chrono Cross this edition is the one you want. It is beyond welcoming to new players. But there was too much holding the game back for me to make it a great game. A cast list so massive I felt bothered by it, and a story that is a bit bonkers was too much for me. Chrono Cross had to crawl so modern JRPGs could run, but it doesn't fit in with JRPGs of today.
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.
The Radical Dreamers Edition brings back two classics for the first time since their debut, but the Switch version leaves a lot to be desired.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers edition brings a classic JRPG to the PAL region for the first time. The port may not be exceptional, but the game itself deserves to be experienced.
Radical Dreamers is as good as it possibly could be, but the remastering of Chrono Cross leaves a lot to be desired. The latter especially is a 10/10 RPG, but in our Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition review, it disappoints due to the lack of care. The technical limitations were excusable on the first PlayStation, but on PlayStation 5, it is embarrassing that it runs worse.
Shedding light on one of the legends of Japanese RPG games is a successful step and a good opportunity for RPG fans to give the game a chance, whether for the first time or re-visit its beautiful world, even though it did not do enough to attract the attention of a larger segment of the audience due to minor improvements and technical problems. This is the first step in the revival of the Chrono series.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Here we enter a particularly difficult case to judge: is it worth playing Chrono Cross these days? Absolutely. Is this faulty port worth buying at its launch price? It depends. It's a shame the remaster turned out this way, but Chrono Cross is still a gem even after all these years.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Chrono Cross was and remains a great JRPG that has its place in the pantheon of great classics. It's well worth playing especially for fans of the Chrono series who maybe had only ever experienced Chrono Trigger before. This is perhaps not quite as cohesive an experience as its predecessor was, because it plays in a way that's more experimental and not quite as refined, and its plot is a bit harder to follow. However, because of its plot ties to the great original and how it connects to it, it is essential to play for fans of the latter, and despite minor shortcomings that hold it back from being as big a classic, it's still well worth experiencing today. With that in mind, Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition, as a new release of this classic, is not all that it could or should have been on any platforms, including Nintendo Switch, due to a poor level of performance that's just inexcusable, given that other PS1 games just as demanding as this one made the transition so much better, at least performance-wise.
It remains for me to write about Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition something that I have already written many times in relation to similar projects - the average remaster of a great game.
Review in Polish | Read full review
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.
If you've never played Chrono Cross, you should, and there's little reason not to take advantage of the upgrades available in The Radical Dreamers Edition. If you already have access to the original edition, whether it's worth the double-dip comes down to how determined you are to play Radical Dreamers; I'd wager it isn't worth the price of admission. But regardless, however you do it, you should play Chrono Cross. It's just a shame this remaster isn't all it could have been.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, while far from a flawless remaster, delivers one of the most adored games to current platforms, but it is at best a monkey paw type of wish fulfillment. Even the game's poor performance cannot disguise this brilliance.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a collection of two unmissable titles for fans of RPGs and good storytelling. Unfortunately, the edition has a number of technical issues, making it difficult to recommend it to general players. Even with its problems, however, it is a worthwhile experience. I hope the company corrects the current situation so that Chrono Cross can shine.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.
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.
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.
I had a lot of fun playing Chrono Cross again; the unique spin on turn-based combat, colourful locales, and dimension-hopping narrative was a joy to re-experience all these years later. However, through a critical eye, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition leaves a lot to be desired. Glaring issues with performance, improvements, and graphical inconsistencies take away from the truly great source material. This lack of care and attention to detail flies in the face of some of Square Enix’s other remaster works, and is a disappointing black-eye on what could have been a truly great remaster package of a still phenomenal classic JRPG.
Enjoy the timeless adventure of Chrono Cross but with only a slight amount of upgrades to the game and with an AI upscaler that makes the game play like your PlayStation is on Death's row. Great game but a sad remaster.