CHRONO CROSS: THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

CHRONO CROSS: THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP Free Download Romslab Whenever a developer resurrects a decades-old game, the same question arises along with it: does the remaster maintain the integrity of the original while changing enough to warrant a purchase for both newcomers and longtime fans alike? For Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, that’s tough to answer. A sequel to Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross’s first re-release in two decades isn’t feature-filled or resplendent with next-gen graphics to make the game more palatable for a modern audience. No, it’s a remaster in the basest sense of the term: a lick of paint and a handful of bells and whistles for good measure. ROMSLAB.COM Best Switch Games

CHRONO CROSS THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

The Radical Dreamers Edition does however come paired with another game: the elusive visual-novel – titled Radical Dreamers – originally released in 1996 for the Satellaview, a peripheral attachment for the Super Famicom in Japan. Until now there was no way to play Radical Dreamers in the West outside of a fan-translated ROM hack. For fans of the Chrono series, this is more than just a bonus tacked onto a remaster of a beloved game. It’s half the reason to buy the package. Intrigued by this unearthed relic, we jumped into Radical Dreamers first. We noticed immediately that other than adding a clearer font, little else has been done to the game visually.

That did not stop the text-based adventure from engrossing us, however.

Series composer Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtrack pulls more than its share of weight. There isn’t a lot of music to accompany the short narrative, but what music there is tugs on the ol’ nostalgic heartstrings as it resembles both Trigger and Cross’s soundtracks. So too does the return of familiar characters, as the events of Radical Dreamers exist as an alternate timeline to Chrono Cross and laid the foundation for its plot. Radical Dreamers takes place in Lynx’s Manor, with the protagonists Serge, Kid, and Magil infiltrating it to steal the Frozen Flame. What the Frozen Flame is comes to light as the player, taking on the role of Serge, selects text-based choices to navigate the manor, find items, and circle back to unlock other areas. Pokémon HOME Switch

CHRONO CROSS THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

Events play out quite differently based on the choices you make; Kid might admonish Serge rather than praise him, while a battle with a skeleton may dramatically change in a subsequent playthrough. Going in, we didn’t expect a visual novel from 1996 to hold up too well, and unfortunately it doesn’t — Radical Dreamers just isn’t that fun. But Chrono fans with interest in its esoteric lore will enjoy the hour-and-a-half it takes to unravel its mysteries. For those who really like selecting ‘continue down the corridor’ again and again, there are six alternate endings and scenarios to unlock – a couple of which resemble absurd fever dreams – to eke out a half-dozen more hours.

Chrono Cross itself, however, is a delight, will always be a delight,

We’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Serge and Kid’s dimension-hopping adventure remains unchanged at its core; there are no extra boss battles or reworked story beats here. Within a few hours, you’ll be collecting dozens of party members like Pokémon – including a skeletal clown, a mushroom man, and a luchador – on a jaunt across two versions of the lush archipelago of El Nido to learn the truth behind the Frozen Flame, all the while battling a myriad of polygonal enemies in a turn-based system. To this day, few adventures match the level of whimsy and mystique of Chrono Cross; all corners of El Nido are filled with morsels of lore, dramatic scenarios, and colourful characters. Pokémon Legends: Arceus Switch

CHRONO CROSS THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

I’ve come around quite a lot since first playing Chrono Cross. What was once one of my most disliked games of all time has become one I hold dear, all thanks to a second playthrough after almost a decade. I’d go as far to say that now I like Cross a tad bit more than Trigger, so I was primed for this new remaster. Proper AI upscaling on backgrounds, new character art, and a full localization of the Radical Dreamers sound novel? I was giddy to jump back in, and I’m thankful that from an artistic perspective, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a home run. I adore Chrono Cross, and no matter how you play it I really recommend it. However, just don’t expect Chrono Trigger 2.

Gameplay

That’s not meant to brush aside criticism, but you can certainly go in with your expectations out of line and come across hating it. It fundamentally has less wide-spread appeal, but the eccentricities might just be the reason you could fall in love with it. It’s far more open-ended, covers more mature themes, and in my opinion is a more poignant experience. From story to gameplay, it’s rather ahead of its time even if it doesn’t always land. It’s a more flawed game than Trigger, but far more interesting to think about. Each time I return, I find something new to appreciate. This time was no exception. Those turn-based battles take up most of Chrono Cross’s 40 hours. Pokemon Lets Go Eevee Switch

CHRONO CROSS THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

They’re still fully steeped in 1999 with sluggish camera pans, repetitive attack animations, and unnecessary victory screens. It’s a blessing, then, that with the click of a thumbstick you can now avoid enemy encounters entirely, or speed up battles (and exploration) with a press of ‘ZR’. That’s not to say these turn-based battles aren’t enjoyable. Chrono Cross features a complex elemental battle system that takes a bit of getting used to but becomes a pleasure to strategize with. Still, our patience for outdated turn-based tropes wore thin quickly enough for us to make liberal use of these mod-con additions. Not included are any options to alleviate the pain of navigating menus from the last century. Nor do the full-motion video cutscenes receive an update.

Add-ons (DLC): CHRONO CROSS: THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION Switch NSP