Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Is Getting Some Interesting Reviews So Far

If you're a fan of the 1999 PlayStation 1 classic Chrono Cross, you'll undoubtedly be keeping a close eye on the upcoming remaster Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition which arrives this Thursday, and the first reviews have been going live for it today, revealing some interesting opinions about whether it's a worthy HD upgrade.

The vast majority of reviews seem to be for the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch versions so far (we tried, but couldn't get our hands on an Xbox copy), and if you look at Metacritic, the scores are definitely impressive, sitting on a 77 for PlayStation 4 and an 82 for Nintendo Switch at the time of writing, with some outlets full of praise for it.

Here's a couple of reviews that have praised the game quite substantially:

Siliconera (Nintendo Switch) - 10/10

"Chrono Cross has always been an essential JRPG, and this The Radical Dreamers Edition remaster makes it feel even more important. The story, the design direction, the way it handles its parallel worlds and characters, its battle system, and its precursor game that shows how it grew? They’re all extraordinary. Like Chrono Trigger before it, it is historically important and an example of exemplary game design."

TheGamer (PlayStation 4) - 4/5

"Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a remaster that should have happened years ago, and I’m so glad that the JRPG classic has finally received the respect it deserves in the modern landscape. You seldom see it discussed alongside other genre greats in the mainstream zeitgeist, but perhaps that perception will change now Serge’s iconic adventure is available on a selection of platforms with myriad improvements. Not all of its changes are for the best, but are easy enough to accept when the underlying game is still so masterful."

If you go a little further down the list, however, you'll find some outlets that are significantly less impressed with Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, and specifically its performance. The Switch version doesn't seem to be affected as badly, but most of the PlayStation 4 reviews we've seen point out the poor performance in general.

Our sister site Push Square has been critical of the performance on PS4, calling it a "shockingly poor remaster of a divisive PS1 RPG," and stating "it beggars belief that a title from 1999 could run this badly on modern hardware."

Here are a couple of less positive reviews about the game that we've found:

Wccftech (PlayStation 4) - 4.5/10

"The crippled frame rates, which remain a constantly fluctuating 15-20 FPS in battles, are only exacerbated by providing players with the ability to slow down and fast forward gameplay without having to finish the game first. In another time, another place, perhaps Chrono Cross The Radical Dreamers Edition would be more critically revered this second time around but I can find little reason to recommend this particular bundle over the PlayStation 1 release based on the core game alone."

Push Square (PlayStation 4) - 4/10

"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 remains to be seen how Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition performs on Xbox One (along with Series X and S), although we're assuming it has a lot in common with the PlayStation 4 version, as is usually the case.

Is it worth a purchase? The Metacritic score says yes, but a couple of those reviews have left us second-guessing...

Are you picking up Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition on Xbox this week? Tell us down below.