Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition would be a timeless JRPG, if it weren't for its shonky performance

Chrono Cross was one of those Square Enix JRPGs that never made its way to Europe at its original time of release. Heck, the first time I got to play time-travel classic Chrono Trigger was when the Nintendo DS version came out in 2009, almost 15 years after it first came out on the SNES. Chrono Cross, its semi-related but not direct sequel, has taken even longer to get here. First releasing on the original PlayStation in 1999 in Japan (and 2000 in the US), it's finally arriving on PC and modern consoles on March 7th as Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, which bundles the original game with its accompanying text-based side story Radical Dreamers that only ever released on the ill-fated Satellaview. The latter's original 4:3 pixel art looks mildly ropey blown up on today's screens, but the main game has received all the modern conveniences you've come to expect from Square Enix's recent run of retro PC ports: new HD character models, re-orchestrated music, multiple font options, and the holy grail: a fast-forward button.

I'm nowhere near the end yet, but from what I've played so far, Chrono Cross is a rollicking good time. There are dozens of characters to meet and recruit to your party that can tangibly change your path through the story, the turn-based battle system offers oodles of depth and variety, and Yasunori Mitsuda's revamped score is right up there with the Final Fantasy greats. For all its buff and polish, though, Chrono Cross has, sadly, also been struck by the same curse as other Square Enix PC ports. The lack of settings options makes it hard to pin down exactly what the problem is, but there's something about the performance and inconsistent frame rate of my review build that's so fundamentally borked that it's like those 22 years haven't even happened. If you, too, have been looking forward to Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, I'd strongly advise waiting for a few patches to arrive before dipping your toes in.

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