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Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is out right now for modern consoles and PCs. Square Enix's latest remaster of their PS1 1999 cult classic allows modern gamers to experience this 23-year-old JRPG with enhanced visuals. However, the reality is not as clear-cut.
YouTube channel Digital Foundry conducted an in-depth analysis of the remaster and the conclusion was less than flattering for developer Square Enix. Simply put, there are a myriad of issues with the game, involving both visuals and overall performance. Worst of all, it's not even a true remaster at all. This article will provide more details about this comparison.
Chrono Cross "remaster" disappoints in more ways than one
The visuals of the game will be looked at for starters. Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition employs an AI to reconstruct the textures to upscale them, and unfortunately, the end result is rather lacking. The PS1's original pre-rendered assets are of very low resolution. Thus, there are various visual artifacts where the AI tries and fails to conjure up enhanced textures.
With Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, Square Enix offers two visual modes: Classic and New. The former disables these AI upscaled textures and the original pixelated assets take their place. However, the sharper player character models contrast rather strangely with this raw, pixelated look. The latter uses newer textures, which end up looking very blurry. Ideally, the Classic Mode is the go-to option here, and not just for better and more authentic visuals.
The updated character models (and certain 3D assets) for the New mode look much better than the blockier PS1 renditions. One can clearly see the added detail and new textures, as shown in the image above. However, they seem to be rendered at 900p as a whole and once again don't fit in well with the blurry upscaled backgrounds. Speaking of resolution, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is 900p-936p on both the PS4 and Switch. The HUD and menu elements is rendered at 1080p. The FMVs (Full Motion Videos) are also hit-or-miss, with some scenes having no improvement over the PS1 version.
Embarassing performance
The absolute worst part about the game is, by far, the performance. To sum it up, the remaster targets 30 FPS on all consoles. It even runs at the same frame rate as the original game, with drops in the same scenarios. This behavior seems to suggest an emulation technique in the background, implying that it is not a native port.
If that wasn't bad already, the game runs even worse on the PS1 at times when using the New Mode. Regardless, it’s not pretty to see battles against foes and bosses chug along at 15 FPS, with an odd stutter at the end of every battle. In general, the game performs the same on every system, from the Switch to the PS5.
Not the end of the world
Fortunately, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is not all doom and gloom. The amazing soundtrack is maintained with a few new recomposed tracks (like for the main menu). Additionally, the character portraits have also been redesigned.
As mentioned, some of the FMVs now look much sharper with improved text. There are enhanced features like fast forwarding and no encounter modes. The previously Japan-exclusive SNES visual novel Radical Dreamers is also included. Although these seem trivial in the face of the remaster's more pressing issues, it could have definitely been far worse.
What about PC?
The PC port of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is fairly minimal. There are options for resolution (maxing at a little over 4K), screen types (Windowed/Borderless/Fullscreen), Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) and Anti-Aliasing post filter (FXAA/Off). Additionally, there are several options for Key Bindings, but with no mouse support, only the keyboard is usable.
Also, as was true with the consoles, the game runs better in Classic Mode than New. Battle animations seem to run the same as the original. Even when running around the world, the poor frame pacing makes for a juddery experience, even though the game renders at 60 FPS.
At the end of the day, there's only one word to describe Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition: "lazy". The game is available on PC, PS4, XB1 and Switch. Thanks to its backwards compatibility, it is also playable on the PS5 and XSX|S.
This article reflects the personal views of the author.
