Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition review – the future agreed to change

metro.co.uk:

Square Enix remasters the largely forgotten sequel to Chrono Trigger, as one of the forgotten gems of the PlayStation 1 era returns.

We will never understand the way Square Enix has treated Chrono Trigger over the last few decades. As far as we’re concerned it’s the greatest Japanese role-player of the 16-bit era, and one of the best of any period, and this seems to be a common opinion amongst fans of the genre. Except we’re never really sure exactly how famous Chrono Trigger is. It took 14 years before it was even released in Europe and since then it’s barely ever been mentioned again officially, apart from smartphone ports and an initially broken PC version.

It should be one of the most revered video games of all time, and in certain circles it is, but for whatever reason Square Enix, for who re-releasing old Final Fantasy games is almost like breathing, have never done anything with it… except the 1999 sequel Chrono Cross, which, up till now, has been even more studiously ignored.

Although it reviewed well when it first came out, on the original PlayStation, Chrono Cross is a much harder sell than Chrono Trigger, even and especially to fans of the original. It has little in common with the original in terms of story or characters and while there is a clear evolutionary link from the celebrated combat system of Chrono Trigger it’s still very different and not obviously better. In short, Chrono Cross was a peculiar sequel and this is a peculiar choice for a remaster.

One of the many things fans were upset about with Chrono Cross is that instead of the original’s tight knit group of characters there’s a total of 45 possible party members in the sequel, with all that implies about how little time you get to spend with some of