Forum - View topicGAME: Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition
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b-dragon
Posts: 500 |
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I love Cross. More so even than Trigger, owing a lot to presentation and a much more somber tone that I connect to better. It definitely has its issues- way too many characters, weird character speech patterns, and an honestly good narrative that falls apart in the final stretch. I think calling the narrative shallow is incorrect, personally- but the plot and characters certainly aren't good at expressing themselves. So I see why the game could be divisive. But I adore its ambition- the absolute defiance of complacency that would have been so easy to succumb to, narratively and mechanically.
Its not a game for everyone. It is, to some extent, an rpg for those that find the blind optimism of a bunch of kids with a time machine to be alarming. Its a game about ugly consequences that can't be undone, and picking up those pieces to move forward. It's about confronting "what could have been" to make peace with "what is". At its best, it could be uncharitably described as "Mid-Life Crisis: the Game". And the extent to which any individual finds these concepts appealing is going to vary. But there isn't anything quite like it, so I do want to recommend fans of the genre to at least try it. Which makes its poor remaster quality a crying shame. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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B for music, dammmmmn! CC music is imo one of the best soundtrack in video game land.
Cross is definitely interesting but saying it never really gel together into a satisfying game is spot on. There's a large cast but it just feel like they took the standard 5-8 interesting character cast of a JRPG and split their personality/quirk and backstory across 45 so the game strangely feel like it's lacking characters. Combat system never really work, giving the player a ton of magic doesn't make it interesting, at best it feel like a dumb down version of FF7 materia, at worse its just annoying to sort trough all those. The two world system just makes everything confusing, neither world has a real identity to latch onto, there just slightly different version of the same world so you constantly wonder if you were supposed to go to regular world or alternate world to continue the quest. So while I'm glad SE is continuing to port older game on PC (since I had to mothball all my retro console/game) CC feel a bit like a waste and I'll be skipping it and hoping they do more interesting stuff next (I can't complain much, they did seiken densetsu 3 not too long ago and are doing live-a-live soon). |
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wolf10
 Posts: 931 |
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 I feel the same way about Mitsuda's Xenosaga: Episode 1 soundtrack, and that even had the perfect track for boss fights relegated to cutscene use only (with a remix of said track used for the final boss just for spite points). His Inazuma Eleven OST is an underrated classic, though.
Really a shame about the port quality, though. I do feel that everyone deserves to play this after Chrono Trigger so they, too, can be mad about it (one way or the other), but not like this. |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 656 |
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What a disappointment that the port has so many technical issues. I hope they're ironed out.
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Covnam
 Posts: 3854 |
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I enjoyed CC when I played it, but like to think of it as a stand alone title and just ignore any of those CT bits.
Too bad this release has so many technical issues. Hopefully they get patched so I can pick it up. |
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vampiyan
 Posts: 64 |
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The Chrono Trigger bits do feel pretty forced and I feel the game overall would benefit more from it not trying to pretend it's a sequel to it. It is sad to hear about the censorship and performance issues in the remaster. It seems to be a common trend with these things. It's so sad companies with such iconic and legendary games give them such half-baked low-effort remasters. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2359 |
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That's...completely wrong; Kato was the main writer for Trigger as well. In fact, Kato might as well have been the director considering that Tokita and Kitase were late-development additions to the team. Horii came up with a basic outline, but Kato was the one who fleshed out most of the story. Hell, Kato made the original designs for the characters before Toriyama was brought on! https://twitter.com/Dreamboum/status/1496693999045943297 So yeah. the whole "dream team" label was mostly just marketing. Supposedly Horii and Sakaguchi had a falling out over the game and it wouldn't surprise me considering how much of a mess Trigger's development was. So yeah, Kato is pretty much the Chrono architect whether people like it or not. Anyway, having finished the game I can attest that it definitely has issues. The new character models are good (though Doc looks a bit off) and Nobuteru Yuuki's new portraits are welcome. Frame rate can chug, especially during combat, and it's clear the FMV's are in their late 90s resolution glory. Bit of a shame, especially considering how unique Cross is and how it really had the guts to do a deconstruction of time travel itself and the repercussions it entails, about how choices have ripple effects, and that things could go drastically different at the drop of a hat. There's an argument to be made about trimming the roster, but I'm not gonna complain about having a skeleton clown, an alien, a fairy, and a luchador in the selection. Hopefully they patch it in the coming months because I'm definitely going to go through to get more of the endings |
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wolf10
Posts: 931 |
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Thanks for the clarifying link! It was great... until it devolved into the usual "you just don't get it" that always pops up in Chrono Cross discussions. I have a screenwriting degree, I quite literally do get "it," and there's no narrative justification for certain developments except as some kind of mean-spirited attack on the preceding work, whoever wrote it first. (As it happens, it was also a hook for a sequel that was never developed, so at least Kato didn't intend it as spoiler[the end of Chrono, Lucca, and Marle's story].) For what it's worth, Kato has mellowed out considerably in the years since, and has even acknowledged he could have shown more empathy to players of the original. He's even put out another Chrono game! (Which is to say, Another Eden, and it even got a Chrono Cross-over.)
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ThrowMeOut
Posts: 268 |
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I tried to play this game about five times before I gave up. I just got too overwhelmed by all the characters and kept worrying I was making the wrong choices and missing out on the good characters or building up the "wrong" ones. I guess I'm just not built for deciding between too many options.
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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There's not really any wrong choice, the difference between character is insignificant and once you've recruited them they essentially stop existing for the most part. |
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SenpaiDuckie
ANN Community Manager
 Posts: 531 Location: PH |
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I played it on PS1 and currently have it on my Switch. Of course when it comes to music, it's definitely an A+ right there, but we are talking about the graphics and I will have to say, I will have to agree with FinalVentCard and everyone else. I feel like it's actually rushed and just didn't bother to review if everything is working. Honestly, I got hyped up with the extra Radical Dreamers part... but it's just...
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AiddonValentine
Posts: 2359 |
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Yeah, definitely a rough job there and it's a damn shame too considering they did add little improvements like turning encounters off, adding an option to make fights easier, that sort of thing. Another thing I wonder is the frame rate hits when at normal speed, but not when in turbo mode so I wonder if they didn't properly optimize it for normal speed. |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1334 |
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What was censored? It sucks that it seems like there just wasn't a certain level of care put into this release. Overall it's a game I really love, just not so much as a CT sequel. The music will always be A+ for me. |
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ThrowMeOut
Posts: 268 |
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I think that's even worse. |
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vampiyan
Posts: 64 |
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-Some dialog was changed to be more PC like references to sexism, gender, and a male crossdresser enemy was changed to be a woman. -Some of the new character models had bloomers added to them over their underwear. You can remove this by switching to the original graphics mode though since it's only the new models that were changed. -Most strange is Mojo's accent being removed for his initial appearance but strangely shows up later on in the game during character-specific dialog. Which seems like an oversight and an sign the release was a rushed product that didn't go through much testing. |
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