Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Update Now Available, Here Are The Patch Notes

Thank the Gods. The drops in frame rate was a real irritation.

I wonder why the final battle couldn't run at 60 fps on Switch.

I might actually consider picking this up on Switch now.

A shame that there won't be a physical copy with this patch preinstalled though.

It took them almost a year to fix framerate in a remaster of a PS1 game.......

Maybe is a good time to make a new game+ after a year i beat it.

@Itachi2099 Maybe GameFreak should take notes for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet.

Battles are really smooth now, but I wish they added an option to toggle between the new font and the "retro" one in the classic mode. Other than that, the port is working great. Better late than never!

Still a masterpiece today! Played through the game last year when I went down with COVID and it was like reliving an old story that has never left me! Just a marvelous game! Glad they are releasing performance improvements as some of those frame stutters and dips are inexcusable for a PSOne game on Switch.

@Bomberman64
The background in that fight is definitely visually flashier than other fights in the game, maybe they had trouble keeping it at a stable 60 so decided to cap it at 30 to keep it consistent.
(since often a fixed 30fps can feel smoother than one that hovers in the 40s or 50s from what i gather)

@Wexter
Agreed about the framerate, as i mentioned in the other topic i find it harder to go back to some of the more visually impressive games of that era since they often suffered when it came to framerate (Banjo Tooie is another similar case which is why i found the Xbox one was such an improvement) so was disappointed when hearing the remaster didn't have at least a stable 30fps.

Is a fantastic game and has one of my favourite soundtracks on any psone game.

I have never played this or Chrono Trigger.
Do I need to play Chrono Trigger first?
I've been hoping for it to be added to NSO SNES as I know both games are meant to be good.

@JonEnumber5 Very loosely connected to Chrono Trigger. But you won't miss much having not played CT.

@JonEnumber5
Chrono Cross is mostly a completely separate story from Chrono Trigger. Separate story, separate battle system, separate everything... But it does have a few callbacks and mentions to Trigger, mostly toward the end. They take place in the same canon, but maybe not the same "world" (since Chrono Cross is all about alternate dimensions, it's hard to tell)

A nice excuse to replay one of my top 5 games again this year. Not sure when given the backlog, but there's always a reason to go back to this gem.

Waiting on the inevitable physical release for Switch.

@AlexanderDaniels there already is. Just not released in North America. But you can get a fully English version (box and everything) off PlayAsia

Well at least it runs half decent now. I still wish you could toggle the new models, portraits and backgrounds/maps individually.

Holy crap it's so freaking smooth now oO

They could had just list what all the minor bugs fixes are, instead we had to guess. In the meantime I'm impressed the framerates on the Steam and Switch versions actually runs very smooth now (during battles anyways) making the game actually feels like an actual remastered.

I dont know a damn thing about the Japanese language so why frikkin bother going to that stupid Japanese website for Chrono Cross?

Got this on the backlog since Ive already played the original back in the day, but the rendition of Scars of time that plays on the menu was worth the price of the game.

@MarioLazor it's a bit harder than you think. Sometimes taking a game coded to be 30fps and forcing it to 60fps can cause oddities in the code. For example because FFIX is running over 20fps some of the timing in the mini games are way more difficult now because the timing is off. So they have to hard lock some of these games at 30fps even though they can run at 60 and even 120fps.

@XandertheWise who hurt you?

@XandertheWise Just go there, then once there go to your browser's settings and click on Translate and had it translate to whatever language you know. It's not that complicated.

You know what would be a great way to commemorate this major patch? A sale!

I’ll definitely get it when it gets to the right price, but it has never been on sale yet.

@Serpenterror No

@Serpenterror It doesnt work like that anyway.

@XandertheWise Chrome is hard coded to translate a page if it is in Google Translates database.

at least they patched it some games never get the patches it needs..

@rushiosan Very noticeable, even on PS5 👍

It DOES, though, seem to introduce a few new hiccups- I've noticed at times it will randomly hang for a moment at times after selecting an element in battle.

@Erigen Those drops were in the PSOne version as well, but now? The remaster runs better than the original for sure.

@OldManLav Lol, that was something that they fixed in the remaster that happened in the PSOne version, so yay they brought back an old performance issue lol. 😹

puts on wishlist

@XandertheWise It works like that, nice and easy:

@Serpenterror this is the kind of snark I approve of! Nice!

Haven't played it yet, so it's a bit hard to understand what the text is talking about, but incase it helps, here's a summary of the Pip parts. From looking up info about how Pip worked, it seems to be mostly fixing weirdnesses/glitches that could leave the character with problems.

After evolving into a different form, when Pip receives a level star, the growth rate of the evolved form will be applied (The very first level star after evolving will still apply the pre-evolved growth rate.)

When you Continue+, if the Pip in the cleared save has better stats than the receiving save, the values will be carried over as they are and not reduced.

When you Continue+, if the Pip in the cleared save has more grids open than the one in the receiving save, the grids will be carried over as they are and not reduced. If you then evolve Pip into a different form, extra grids will be unlocked as well.

If Pip evolves when at level star 99, its status and grids will be adjusted to the ones of the evolved form after battle.

If Pip has already been evolved when at level star 99 prior to applying the update, its status and grids will be adjusted to the ones of the evolved form when loading your save.

I've never once had an issue with FPS or frame rate while playing this, and I play on switch Lite. I absolutely love this game and definitely plan on trying to get every character in the game.

@Serpenterror Excuse me but I use Google chrome on my laptop.

it doesnt have settings to translate frikkin japanese to english.

I should know since i i checked. That and Ive had my laptop for about 3 or 4 years already

@XandertheWise here is a How-To article by Google. If this does not work update your Chrome browser. Enjoy https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/173424?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

@bluesun Outside of battle the game still runs decent like before, just that the battles are now 60fps. For Switch owners, the final battle with the Time Devourer will be a smooth 30fps instead of 60fps. Not sure why that is but I guess by the end whoever patch the Switch version probably left home early.

Can anyone tell if it performs better than emulating the original?

Now I will play it

@JonEnumber5 You don't need to play Chrono Trigger first, though Chrono Trigger is almost universally considered a much better game.

Chrono Trigger will never be added to NSO. It's pretty clear by this point that Square-Enix is doing their own eShop releases for retro titles. With the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters coming this spring, Chrono Trigger will be one of the last Square SNES games not on Switch. And I mean they might eventually release it on the eShop, but even that is far from guaranteed.

@JonEnumber5 It is possible to play Chrono Cross without playing Chrono Trigger. But honestly, it would be a shame, because you wouldn't have the optimal condition to discover Chrono Cross which is definitely Chrono Trigger's sequel. A part of the emotion comes from the fact you already know Chrono Trigger and the links between both games.

In fact, the best thing to do might be playing Radical Dreamers after Chrono Trigger and before Chrono Cross.

Anyway, there ls absolutely no Square-Enix game on NSO, so I'm afraid there is no chance to play Chrono Trigger on NSO. Perhaps it might be released at eShop though, but when? They should have included Chrono Trigger in that Switch version of Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross.

@Purgatorium This is how the game runs like right now, battles are now 60fps.

@Purgatorium not sure about performance with an emulator (PSOne emulation is not one I do often), but the quantity of life improvements make this the way to play the game. You can fast forward gameplay on the overworld and combat. This mean you can get through backtracking and battles far quicker than the original. PSOne JRPGs are notorious for slow combat due to the desire to bombard the player with long magic/summoning cutscenes and just running poorly due to the PSOne just not being able to push those kinds of polys at above 10fps. This was a feature in the original too, but you only got it in NG+, so having access to it on a standard playthrough is a godsend during the game.

I'd say the Remaster stomps emulation for that feature alone!!! Makes playing through the game that much more enjoyable due to how backtrack heavy the game is.

I still didn't get the game after hearing the botched release. I am glad that they did fix the major issues with the game so I am going to wait for a steam sale to pick it up.

@Wexter @Serpenterror

Awesome! Thanks for the reply.

@Itachi2099 In a late ear PS1 game, which are notoriously hard to modify/reverse engineer. Chrono Cross is one of the games to test your emulator for accuracy and performance. It was a very demanding game from emulators, and has been notoriously hard to emulate. Not to mention the team who made this remaster, was small and I'm sure had zero budget almost.