Announced during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, the rumours are finally confirmed, and Chrono Cross will finally get a remaster. Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition will release for the Nintendo Switch on 7 April 2022.
Chrono Cross is an RPG that surpasses time and space, spreading across two interlinked parallel worlds. With over 40 party members to meet, people and dimensions will intertwine in this epic drama about the planet itself. ) First released in 1999 on the PlayStation, the role-playing game developed and published by Square is set in the same world as Chrono Trigger, which was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and also came out on PC in 2018.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition will realise the masterful design of Masato Kato, the art of Yasuyuki Honne, and the music of Yasunori Mitsuda in high definition for diehards to enjoy. New updates and additions to the remaster include:
- refined character illustrations
- 3D models converted to HD
- higher-quality background music
- ability to switch enemy encounters on or off
- a background filter feature
- battle enhancement features to make combat easier
- an auto-battle function
- ability to switch between imitation pixel font and HD font
- changing the screen resolution.
Switching between the new and old versions of the 3D models and illustrations is common practice in some remasters and a very welcome feature for fans who loved the old-school visuals. However, Nintendo indicates that the 3D models, illustrations, font and background filter cannot be toggled separately. They will all be switched together.
You may be asking, what’s the “Radical Dreamers” stuff then? Chrono Cross employs story arcs, characters, and themes from Radical Dreamers, an illustrated text adventure that was created to wrap up an unresolved plotline of Chrono Trigger. Though it borrows from Radical Dreamers in its exposition, Chrono Cross is not a remake of Radical Dreamers, but a larger effort to fulfil that game’s purpose. It’s unknown whether there will be more changes to the narrative and continuity in this Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, but the likely scenario will be the game’s story stays as it always has been.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition launches on 7 April 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.
