Squeenix Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition remaster

[LESS T_T]

They updated their website,original music is gone:
https://square-enix-games.com/en_GB/news/chrono-cross-the-radical-dreamers-edition
"UPDATE: This article originally incorrectly stated that users can switch between the original and remastered soundtracks. Please note that this was in error and only the refined music can be played."

This is now literally worse then emulation.

Well, actually by "refined" they did not mean "arranged". It's actually refined. https://www.rpgsite.net/feature/126...adical-dreamers-edition-heres-how-music-works

The remastered game itself - Chrono Cross - uses a "refined" soundtrack. These tracks are not new arrangements, but instead, these are simply cleaned-up versions of the original music with small adjustments to noise compression, equalization, etc - as described by composer Yasunori Mitsuda. This is the only soundtrack found when actually playing the game, and you cannot toggle it.

The 7 rearranged tracks and 1 new track (shown in the YouTube video above) are not found during gameplay. Instead, they only play in the main menu of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition - this is the menu where you choose to play Chrono Cross or the text-based Radical Dreamers. These tracks are also found on the new vinyl that can be purchased from Square Enix's store. But otherwise, you will not find these tracks during gameplay.

That's it. In brief, the game uses a "refined" soundtrack. The main menu will loop through the new arrangements. Hope that clears things up for those considering a purchase of this remaster.

Another great example of Squnix PR.

 

[deuxhero]

So the OST is actually just remastered?

 

[Nifft Batuff]

QED.

 

[Abu Antar]

Game is released.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

For some reason I thought Chrono Cross was Xenogears for a brief second. I remember I sold that piece of shit for $200 USED! It's hilarious what kind of money weebs are willing to spend for their weeb shit. All jap turn based games look and play exactly alike.

 

[JDR13]

It looks awful by today's standards. I don't why they even bothered to release this.

 

[Derringer]

It looks awful by today's standards. I don't why they even bothered to release this.

I thought the usual excuse was keeping the license active but they could just shit out a mobile game nobody would care about or a tie-in to another one if they wanted to, beyond just being really fucking lazy, not that Cross is a good game.

 

[CyberModuled]

Time really is a flat circle sometimes, huh?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

0 days since last square enix remaster failure released

 

[Tigranes]

Typical. But most complaints seem to be about frame rate. Other than that, is this fine? Or it goes far deeper than that? Never played original.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Chrono Cross was never a great game. It had a huge cast of joinable companions who had various speaking dialects that would filter all dialog since they wouldn't know beforehand who would be with you. This was more cringey than anything and the companions, with the exception of one or two are basically all interchangeable and forgettable as a result.
The storyline was fine, as far as that goes, but there was only one cool and memorable moment/environment in the game, if you ask me. I thought it was more bizarre than anything that they would bother to remaster this because it wasn't even making fanboys jizz themselves on the original release date almost 25 years ago.

EDIT: If they want to remaster random products, they should bring back Parasite Eve (was awesome, bet it aged like shit though).

 

[Kruno]

Chrono Cross was never a great game. It had a huge cast of joinable companions who had various speaking dialects that would filter all dialog since they wouldn't know beforehand who would be with you. This was more cringey than anything and the companions, with the exception of one or two are basically all interchangeable and forgettable as a result.
The storyline was fine, as far as that goes, but there was only one cool and memorable moment/environment in the game, if you ask me. I thought it was more bizarre than anything that they would bother to remaster this because it wasn't even making fanboys jizz themselves on the original release date almost 25 years ago.

EDIT: If they want to remaster random products, they should bring back Parasite Eve (was awesome, bet it aged like shit though).

Don't forget the lazy way they tried to link CT with the game.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Upscaled models smushed against atrocious AI-upscaled low res bitmaps in 2022. Smells like Squeenix.

Chrono Cross was never a great game, and it ran like shit on the PS1 (first battle in the game was in the low 20s). I played through it on release mostly because of the glorious soundtrack.

 

[flyingjohn]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

https://chrono.fandom.com/wiki/Marcy

Age 9

why can't weebs go 5 seconds without being pedophiles

 

[flyingjohn]

https://chrono.fandom.com/wiki/Marcy

Age 9

why can't weebs go 5 seconds without being pedophiles

The game has performance issues.Also this has been given more priority then any other model change.
See the problem when most of your time and budget is going toward something that was never a issue.

Imagine somebody makes a older dnd game remaster and spends most of the time on fixing "problematic" female portraits while the game crashes and runs like shit.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

https://chrono.fandom.com/wiki/Marcy

Age 9

why can't weebs go 5 seconds without being pedophiles

The game has performance issues.Also this has been given more priority then any other model change.
See the problem when most of your time and budget is going toward something that was never a issue.

Imagine somebody makes a older dnd game remaster and spends most of the time on fixing "problematic" female portraits while the game crashes and runs like shit.

maybe if weebs weren't pedophiles the devs wouldn't have to waste time on this shit to begin with

 

[Late Bloomer]

The loudest one is the most guilty. And ole rusty is getting pretty loud.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The loudest one is the most guilty. And ole rusty is getting pretty loud.

 

[Falksi]

It's getting a lot of flack on various Facebook RPG groups.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The only things that I despise more than modern remasters are people that complain about low fps.

 

[JDR13]

if you ask me. I thought it was more bizarre than anything that they would bother to remaster this because it wasn't even making fanboys jizz themselves on the original release date almost 25 years ago.

Yeah, there are multiple Square games I can think of that I'd have rather seen re-released.

Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve 1 & 2, Xenogears... that's just off the top of my head.

 

[Great Deceiver]

The best we can hope for is for S-E to keep their greedy, incompetent paws off of Vagrant Story, as much as that (brilliant) game would benefit from an interface overhaul (especially quickswap weapons)

In fact, the last thing these games need is a graphical overhaul. The late 90s/early aughts had some really great looking 2d/3d games, you just need to understand the display technology of the time and how developers harnessed the flaws of CRTs and used them to their advantage.

If S-E had an atom of integrity they would pay some weeb who develops one of those brilliant (and free) Retroarch slang shaders to include one instead of running every background through a bogstandard AI upscaler script and vomiting upscaled polygons on top. These issues (2d/3d blending issues) were solved long ago by emulation enthusiasts. You can play your old copy of Chrono Cross right now in any competent PSX emulator and downscale uprezzed polygons to mesh perfectly with native-resolution backgrounds rendered on a 4k screen to approximate what the audience would have experienced at the time on a CRT quite adequately.

These are some quickies I took using the bogstandard settings for crt-royale. You can't notice the details because I had to downsample them to manageable size, but this is already infinitely superior to whatever shit is in this new edition.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

These issues (2d/3d blending issues) were solved long ago by emulation enthusiasts. You can play your old copy of Chrono Cross right now in any competent PSX emulator and downscale uprezzed polygons to mesh perfectly with native-resolution backgrounds rendered on a 4k screen to approximate what the audience would have experienced at the time on a CRT quite adequately.

Yeah, although the choice of filters is a matter of taste, I think the best way to experience these old PS1 mixed 2D/3D games is with some downscaling. The best thing with modern emulators is that you have all these options available (even AI-upscaled background and textures, if you want).

 

[Duraframe300]

I think CRT filters for 3D elements and pre-rendered backgrounds (love them for a lot of 2D games (non-pre-rendered) however) look like dogshit, but you guys do you.

I also disagree fundamentally with Great Deceiver 's premise. I don't think PS1 games look good (For me t's the worst aged console of them all and I don't get the nostalgia), even on CRT and can proudly declare that I prefer modded PC versions in most cases.