Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Is An RPG Time Capsule

gamespot.com:

To put my cards on the table, Chrono Cross has not lived well in my memory. Though I enjoyed it well enough in my youth, when I was a voracious devourer of Japanese RPGs, it has since faded into a hazy blend of other PlayStation-era games. The unflattering impression isn't helped by being a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger, one of my favorite games of all time. But even on its own, I've struggled to find any parts of it especially memorable. I was curious to check out Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition primarily to give it a fair shake and find what I'd lost in my recollection of it. And what I've found is a fascinating, uneven time capsule of late-'90s RPG design.

The Radical Dreamers Edition is mostly the original Chrono Cross, albeit with a nice visual touch-up. The PlayStation signified awkward first steps into 3D games with jutting character designs and vibrant colors, and the remaster doesn't dramatically overhaul the original game's sharp, angular look. Squaresoft (pre-Enix merger) was particularly skilled at creating expressive characters within these limitations, but they were still certainly limitations at heart. The HD remaster doesn't fundamentally change that, so the irregular jutting spires of the character designs may look unusual to modern eyes.

Within that framework, though, this is a very nice-looking remaster. The characters are crisp and expressive, and their animations hold up nicely. The Switch OLED screen is especially great at capturing Chrono Cross' extremely bright color palette. To that end, the tropical setting that composes the game's first few hours helps put its best foot forward to make the OLED screen impressive from the very start.

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