Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition

A serviceable restoration of one of the best and strangest games in Squaresoft's back catalogue.

Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.

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.

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.

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.

This forgotten piece of Chrono history is a valuable addition to the series and a great bonus for purchasers of Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition.

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.

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.

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 Edition is a decent way to play an often overlooked PS1 RPG along with its accompanying SNES text adventure, but it doesn't do a whole lot to justify a purchase if you already own the original. In fact, it actually performs worse in some cases. Still, the new options like fast forward and disabling encounters are convenient, and finally having a way to play Radical Dreamers is awesome.