Chrono Cross was remastered due to fears the original would be ‘unplayable’

Chrono Cross The Radical Dreamers Edition was originally developed over fears the original game would become unplayable.

According to a newly published Square Enix YouTube interview with the development team (spotted by GamesRadar) the game originally started as a project to recognize the game’s 20th anniversary, which would have been in 2019. Chrono Cross The Radical Dreamers Edition was eventually released in 2022.

“Back when the project was launched, Chrono Cross was possibly going to become unplayable,” remaster producer Koichiro Sakamoto explained during the interview.

“There was a Game Archive service on PlayStation 3 that allowed you to play PlayStation 1 games. But PlayStation 4 was already on the market.

“We didn’t know at the time if PlayStation 4 would also have a Game Archive service. It looked like Chrono Cross could become unplayable. So, a remaster project was set up. That’s the backstory.”

The PS4 was released in 2013, suggesting the project took almost ten years to complete, despite being more of an HD remaster than a full remake.

The game was released in 2022 to a middling reception due to performance issues on all platforms.

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition also included Radical Dreamers – Le Trésor Interdit, an “audio novel” that was originally released for the SNES Satellaview add-on in Japan only.

Radical Dreamers Edition made several changes to the original, such as the ability to avoid random battles. Character models were also updated and the game’s soundtrack was also remastered.

Chrono Cross, which was released for the original PlayStation in 1999, was one of many unannounced titles listed in an Nvidia database leak in September 2021 – a list the company subsequently admitted was real, even if it said the games didn’t necessarily exist.