One of the most storied and respected JRPG’s of all time is finally making its way to a modern console. Chrono Cross was announced for the Nintendo Switch today during the Nintendo Direct and will receive visual upgrade, an enhanced soundtrack, and some other quality of life features. However, the biggest surprise to come out of this was the inclusion of another title, the text-based Radical Dreamers – Le Trésor Interdit -, which is a side story to the Chrono franchise. Both entries are being bundled together as The Radical Dreamers Edition, and will officially launch on April 7.
The main title featured here, Chrono Cross, is a sequel to one of the greatest titles in history, Chrono Trigger. While its pacing and radical battle mechanics made it a divisive entry in 2000 for the PlayStation, it’s gained a massive cult following in the past 20 years mostly thanks to its excellent storytelling and beautiful musical score. Perhaps one of the bigger aspects of this announcement is that this will be the first time that the game will be available in the European region, as it was originally released in only Japan and North America back in 1999 and 2000.
The text-based title, Radical Dreamers, was only ever available on a rather unknown modem peripheral for the Super Famicom dubbed the Satellaview. It originally launched in 1996 only in Japan serving as a small side story for Chrono Trigger, and quite frankly it’s insane to see its inclusion here as part of this package deal. Some of the other upgrades that we can expect for Chrono Cross include an auto-battle function, a background filter feature, switching enemy encounters on and off, and being given the choice to play with the original graphics from its original release.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition will officially launch on April 7 for the Nintendo Switch. It will also release for the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC through Steam.