Chrono Cross Received A Remaster Because The Studio Thought It Would Become “Unplayable”

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition became a reality because Square Enix thought the existing game would become unplayable. A new interview from the company regarding the project revealed how it feared the original wouldn’t remain accessible. Producer Koichiro Sakamoto explained how the PSone classics collection game archive on PlayStation 3 allowed fans to play Chrono Cross from the 6:37 mark onward.

However, Square Enix wasn’t sure if the PlayStation 4 would retain this service, putting the game’s playability in doubt. The PSone collection constituted original PlayStation games that you could buy on the PSP, Vita, and PS3. Even though these digital games are still available on old devices, they are now showing technical issues. Hence, Sakamoto and Square Enix were right in greenlighting a remaster of the legendary game. In his own words, the producer said:

Back when the project was launched, Chrono Cross was possibly going to become unplayable. There was a Game Archive service on PlayStation 3 that allowed you to play PlayStation 1 games. But PlayStation 4 was already on the market. We didn’t know at the time if PlayStation 4 would also have a Game Archive service. It looked like Chrono Cross could become unplayable. So, a remaster project was set up. That’s the backstory.”

Chrono Cross is one of the greatest JRPGs of all time and was a major commercial hit when it launched in 1999. By 2003, the game shipped 1.5 million worldwide, with over 50% of the sales being in Japan. It was also a part of Sony’s greatest hits titles and got a re-release on PSN Japan and North America in 2011.

Fans and critics alike consider Chrono Cross one of the definitive JRPGs and an essential part of gaming culture. It has made its way onto several “Best Games of All Time” lists and received a perfect 10 out of 10 scores from GameSpot. To preserve this legendary title Square Enix released the remaster in question. Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition was officially announced on February 9, 2022.

It came out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on April 7, 2022. The remaster updates the quality of the original Chrono Cross and included an enhanced OST. A text adventure game called Radical Dreamers was also a part of this remaster. Previously, only Japanese players were able to access this via the Satellaview peripheral for the Super Famicom.

Masato Kato, the director of the 1999 game said he never really finished the Radical Dreamers text game. He said he was a bit ashamed because of that and wanted it to not be a part of re-releases.

But then the game started selling at an incredible premium, which was a strange and unpleasant situation. So, I thought ‘why not?'”

The launch of Chrono Cross got positive reviews from critics but didn’t land that well among fans. Performance was the main bone of contention players had with the remaster. It was unable to cross 30 FPS and was a victim of regular frame rate drops. Every platform had to face these issues.

Square Enix launched a patch to rectify these gameplay bugs present in Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. This patch also updated the game’s framerate to 60 FPS. You can buy this patched version on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC and experience the classic RPG.

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