Which Version of Chrono Cross & Radical Dreamers Should You Play IN 2023? - All Ports Reviewed!

[@Jamesssssssssssssss]

I don't even plan playing some of the games you cover. I just really enjoy your videos on them

[@AustinSV]

Addendum: Relevant to this video, the UI isn't a separate resolution & the whole game is just 960p The update from 2.22.23 effectively removed 3 minutes off of this video, and I felt that warranted a reupload. To best emphasize the difference made, I re-recorded almost all of the remaster footage in the video. Here are the changes due to the patch: 1. Minor bug fixes; as far as I can tell, this included achievements on Xbox and being able to buffer 2 attacks really fast to skip enemy turns 2. Pip's stat and grid growth are now identical to the PS1 version if they had worked like intended. 3. The framerate. In the field, all platforms hold 30 FPS 99% of the time, with only the Switch being the only platform I saw even a moment of dropping due to an effect. Field FPS is nothing to worry about in any version. Now, in battles & menus, things go up to 60 FPS. PC, Xbox Series, PS5/PS4 Pro, and Steamdeck rarely dip from that. Weaker hardware like the Xbox One S and Switch are inconsistent. Regardless, these versions still outperform the launch version of the remaster as well as the original PS1 version.

[@damianserah]

and censorship?

[@AGZhark]

I really admire the dedication and depth taken for this.

[@SuperHandi]

just as a heads up. you can still buffer two attacks together to skip enemy turns after the patch. Although, its never really been skipping it, but rather giving you extra turns before they go. I've been speedrunning the remaster even after the patch and the strats are exactly like ps1 in that we Stam Pushing everywhere (Stam pushing being the name of the buffering 2 attacks together thing). The way it works if an enemy has 6 Ap as an example, if you get to 5 AP (like a 2/3 with 1 character), then that enemy is going to go next no matter what move you do; a 1, 2, 3, defend or element. so thats usually where the speedrun uses 3s. Right before an enemy is about to get we stam push 2 attacks (usually 3/3) to max out how much dmg, and stam refresh other allies get.

[@JavaBum]

@@SuperHandi I've seen some awkwardly explained guides online on speed running. Do you have a recommendation on the best, or most in-depth one?

[@JacobJohnson-lh4gx]

Wow the patch looks great, wish someone made an alternate skin/outfit mod for Guile where they make him look like Magus as stated in Radical Dreamers. Awesome video as always Austin, keep it up the great content.

[@cozyursa9459]

You should look into a hack for the original PSX release called "Magus Unmasked" which does just that! Actually, it goes a few steps further and straight up changes him to Magus, as well as changing his weapon/fighting style and element to match. I don't remember it changing the story in any way, but it was a cool proof of concept.

[@33GLOCK]

​@@cozyursa9459mmmm

[@Kiyuja]

so happy that you made this follow up. Heard of this patch on monday or so on Digital Foundry and my jaw dropped. Thought its gonna stay in its original way forever but they actually improved the game, especially the framerate. The launch was some time ago so it really suprised me

[@33GLOCK]

Mmmm

[@AndersOHMoberg]

Very nice to see patches sorted out some of these problems.

[@theandyplan]

One of my favorite games, just replayed it on switch last month and enjoyed it as always other than the frame rate which was very distracting, although I was playing in fast forward mode the whole time so it wasn't as bad. Nice to see they actually updated it.

[@ohcharlie428]

If its any consolation, i think the frame rate in the original was garbage sometimes as well. Game was processing too much code simultaniously. Probably inefficiant code built into the game. Still a solid game though :)

[@robotortoise]

Thank you! This was a SUPER in-depth overview! I especially appreciate the mention of depth correction.

[@jarathen1625]

I remember trying to play this again on my first HDTV and the constant black screens as it adjusted resolution. New version is imperfect but at least it’s playable. Thanks for covering a classic!

[@Scerttle]

Damn, OK. I'm glad to see Square isn't just leaving this to be forgotten to time.

[@adams3560]

Yep, it’s so much better now

[@Scerttle]

@@adams3560 sounds like a similar situation to Chrono Trigger. Bad port that needed a lot of fixes… then got them and turned out great.

[@adams3560]

@@Scerttle Yes, similar situation.

[@alexmorpheus6762]

But they forgot about Xenogears.

[@Scerttle]

@@alexmorpheus6762 Right? They've released like 4 or 5 Xenogears figures in the past couple of years but nothing on the remaster news. My hope is that they're in talks with Monolith Soft about making it canon to Xenosaga and Xenoblade.

[@RetroSonya]

I loved the game back in 1999 and I love the 2023 remaster. It’s just the way I remember it and it brings me back to my teenage nostalgia! I can’t wait to check out the radical dreamers edition!

[@CiccioImberlicchio]

One selling point for the remaster is the Italian localization added to the game, it never came out in europe back in the day and there was a fan patch avaiable for it. Now the game has been officially translated making the game more accessable to an italian audience. i think it's the same for other non english speaking countries like france and germany

[@shawnheatherly]

I appreciate the updated version of the video.

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

The frame rate wasn't too good on the original too... but it not being an action game I don't think it is such a big of a deal, but I'm glad it is better know. The only thing I don't like about the remaster is the upscaling background, fans did a better job. At least there is an option to switch it to the classic graphics. All in all I think it's a good ps1 remaster. Despite I thinking it deserves a remake, the remaster is better than a remake with action combat and corridor maps.

[@wolvensoul9147]

The recent port definitely had worse fps than the original. While the original wasn't great, the port would chug

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

@@wolvensoul9147 my point was it doesn't affect the gameplay. It's worse? Yes, but it wasn't great before either and it doesn't affect anything, the gameplay doesn't demand any precision.

[@TropicalTendencies]

I just got it yesterday cause I heard about a patch and it's perfectly fine, another nice HD remaster from Square!

[@EvilCronos13]

I appreciate the work you put into this! Thanks :)

[@AbuOmar]

Thanks for the video. Tells me more than i needed to know, going to pick it up and bask in the nostalgia.

[@heyjeySigma]

Chrono cross is a beaaautiful gem of a game. i loved it for like 22 years now... shame that square didnt care enough to give this a Trial of Mana type of full remake.... what a crappy timeline we live in

[@33GLOCK]

IKR

[@ryanbrenkert440]

The new patch looks good, glad they fixed the framerate issues from the launch date, as the combat just seemed super slow and sluggish when it came out last year, but odd timing as its a year later and they just decided to do a patch now? lol. Well at least they heard the fans complaints. Also still not super pleased that they didn't do more with the backgrounds. Seems they just put a cheap smoothing filter over them. No AI upscaling on the backgrounds or FMV cutscenes. But i guess the programmers just did that rather than re-do or re-draw the backgrounds and re-do all of the assets as that would have been a big undertaking. Still, for a Square Enix flagship title and series beloved by millions of fans, this one felt like it could have used a little more TLC. Im not asking for FF7 remake quality, but ya know, a little more effort.

[@33GLOCK]

Lol indeed

[@esk8jaimes]

Thank you for the updated review!

[@NinjaxShadowXx]

Honestly I will just stick with the PS1 version I don't like how they smoothed all the pre rendered backgrounds in the remasters.

[@ShadyPlatinum777]

Original on a CRT is best

[@americasteam2112]

Well you don’t have to get the new one, but more people buying the new remasters could lead to a third game being made and maybe Chrono Trigger coming to modern systems.

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

I agree square's upscaling isn't the best, there are fan made upscaling that are much better, but you can switch graphics on the remaster and it's cheaper than an original ps1 copy. With the fps fixes it probably runs smoothly too. It's not perfect but it's the best alternative for everyone else that doesn't have the original and wants to play on a console. For people on a PC probably it's still better to use an emulator...

[@ryanbrenkert440]

@@itsasecrettoeverybody Yea seems to me rather than remaking the backgrounds and such from the ground up and redoing the assets it looks like they just put a filter on the background, but it still looks almost the same as the original imo

[@33GLOCK]

​@@americasteam2112nah I'll stick to the original one

[@DragonQuarter]

I didn't know there was already a background touchup mod for the Steam version. Project Kid or w/e. I'll have to check it out!

[@kiros2032]

Quick, concise, very good video!

[@M.sami12]

I just want a remaster like this one for legend of dragoon. How hard is it sony?

[@TheCldmstrsn]

I just replayed the switch version after the patch and a huge upgrade but it did dip a bit too much in a lot of boss battles, still enjoyable but I'll also purchase it on PS5 cause its only 13 bucks right now.

[@FireMrshlBill]

I'm really debating which to get. Can get Switch version for the OLED screen (also have $7+ in gold points, so would be

[@33GLOCK]

​@@FireMrshlBillthe dips on all systems lol

[@FireMrshlBill]

@@33GLOCK Oh well, I ended up just grabbing it on the Switch for convenience

[@GamerNxUSN]

I absolutely loved this game, I preordered from my local Babbages and got that little clock, wish I had taken better care of it. Just found out that this new version is out, guess I don't keep up with gaming news like I used to

[@PenumbralBehemoth]

There's just something about thhe sharp pixels of the low resolution characters and backgrounds, the way the models warp, ect, that appeals to me for the old version. I play it emulated, though there's some sound glitches and a few of the cutscenes are bugged. I really feel like the uprezzing done for the remaster killed a lot of the charm and personality. It just feels lifeless, but I think I'm in the minority in that regard.

[@MK-miranda]

this really helps thank you for making videos like these

[@adams3560]

The new patch from Square really made a big difference. It runs so much better now, better than the original version.

[@ryanbrenkert440]

Wait, is this a recent patch? Bc the game came out almost a year ago now? Surprised Square Enix released a patch almost a year later, but i know at launch there were a lot of complaints abou the framerate as well as other things (backgrounds werent AI upscaled and didn't look much diff than the original, the combat seemed super slow bc of the framerate issues, etc) interesting, ill have to give this new patch a try

[@crystalwater505]

@@ryanbrenkert440 Yup. It took them awhile.

[@Rooftopaccessorizer]

damn i was gonna say the remaster didnt look worth it but i guess it really is. im glad i have the original too but now i can just store it away safely

[@GimmeTOKYO]

Cheers for the updated review!

[@rudidellama3718]

I just beat the game for the first time last week through emulation, using retroarch with beetle HW core, reduced 3D wooble, and stable framerate via overclock (about 150/160% did the trick without any problems he mentioned) plus I used CRT royale Kurozumi shader (need to toggle Overscan, use inteler scaling and keep the original resolution to look right), I think using the shader or a real CRT is the way to make it look the best. The AI upscaled mods availables both on emulation or PC dont look quite right, I would say to keep a eye on SilverLimit Hand-Edited HD Background Upscale Project because is by far the best looking one, that actually look really fathtful to the original game, for the remaster but is not finished yet

[@crestofhonor2349]

Yes I absolutely agree. 5th gen games and before really shine with a good high quality CRT shader or on an actual CRT. It’s hard to describe how much better it looks with the shader. Makes a lot of the techniques they used make far more sense and makes many of the early 3D games look far better, especially ones with pre rendered backgrounds

[@crestofhonor2349]

When they do these ports I really wish they had a version that runs at 240p with a nice high quality CRT shader. This gives it more of that retro look people want and really makes the game look far less dated

[@wrathpsp]

This!!!

[@Landonio]

10:26 WTF? How do you do that? I've never even heard of that glitch before.

[@bonnerjung3326]

I am playing the switch version of radical dreamers Edition. Have the physical Asian Version. The backgrounds look awfull and it was hard for me to find into the game. Its not good looking. But the game itself is quite awesome.

[@dobrystyle]

Thanks man! This game is legendary, deserves more than this. :)

[@Turbo_Waitress]

Thank you for this video! It was very helpful. You mentioned the opening of the Satellaview version of RD - what is the difference or what is the missing part? The new version still has the pre-title screen part about the diary, right?

[@swede7581]

Missed all these classic games during growing up(didnt play games at all between ps1´s FF7 and up to the VIRUS Covid appeared and was locked in at how due to that+sickness) But i have played alt of games n tried even moore during the last few years now and i start to notice that games from before are made in a better way when it comes to the story and pure feelings it comes with them during gameplay VS new games from the 2000´s latest 15 years and to mention the games released after 2017-2019 that seems to be just alot of bad ones released to get a quick buck for the ones making them(might just be me though) But oldr games has a special feeling when i play them...dont know why newer releases miss a special feeling that these have(I cant really explaine it better unfortunatly i dont have the vocabulary in english due to its my 2nd language in Sweden where im borne) But games like this is somehow better made w less vs new games that uses graphics more then story and alot of other things compared to older ones might be the case? Thanks 4 this video (been trying alot of older games lately and alot of them are still great when it comes to story telling and gameplay and even if some are geting a bit old and that shows they are still worth playing...I rather play THIS game VS The latest Assassins creed mirage that i got during a discount on ubisoft....So if that doesent tell people something i dont know what does..

[@MrGencyExit64]

This game doesn't run at 1080p. It's locked to 960p internally on all systems, Special K can fix this, but it's wrong to say it runs at 1080p.

[@Detective_L]

This game (original) never came out in the Pal regions and that will always make me sad

[@ripp3rjak934]

What a time to alive be. I remember next to nothing abkut tbis game excet using green element against some boss to get the mastermune. Thats sbout it.. Meaning ill get to experience the magic again

[@Kriae]

The Metal Gear series could be a good one to tackle next

[@chadwolf3840]

Great summary.

[@alexpazzi9795]

Had this also included Chrono Trigger and it would have been a bomb!

[@panterxbeats]

9:50 remaster audio sounds so much worse :'(

[@Saul117]

OMG this needs a true remake.... like they did to final fantasy 7

[@otaking3582]

Even if they did "fix" the frame rate and some bugs, it's still only a maximum of 30 fps, the backgrounds still look like they've been hit with an off-the-shelf smoothing filter, and there's no major benefits to gameplay. You're better off saving your money and emulating the original PS1 game.

[@manicpixiedreambuoy]

The work put into the remasters is solid (except for the awful AI "enhancements" and the new text), particularly the new 3D models--those look great; kudos to the team. That being said, I'm gonna stick to the OG version! I love those old graphics, bugs and all.

[@VOAN]

While these fix are nice, kinda wish they did these fix first before giving us the physical edition.

[@bes5164]

Great review! Could you tell me/us the game stutters when the view moves together with characters? I do not know what it causes. It´s fine when characters runs around in the statis view but when the view moves then it stutters a lot.

[@FarmerSlideJoeBob]

Austin you're my comparison man😃😃

[@PP-ok2xt]

Thank you for this video, I was considering buying this game and stronlgy hesitated because of the performance issues. I'll probably just play the original with CRT royale on retroarch now that I know even the script was altered

[@vent3942]

Hey, I want to start Valkyrie Profile but I don't know which one must I play is psp one or in mobile one can you make video about this?

[@xBlitzerx]

Glad it finally got patched so I can play!

[@issaciams]

So it seems people are having massive issues with the performance of this port on all platforms. Does it run better in emulation? I was playing it on an emulator over a decade ago but I didnt get as far as I did while playing on the PS1. Wondering what platform I should be playing this old classic on. 🤔

[@thommccarthy1139]

Still prefer the original look and feel but glad they are giving it love as having a PSX isn't practical for many.

[@33GLOCK]

Having a ps2 with ps1 games is though 😁

[@ivanalexeev6505]

Glad to see that at least they fix games over time.

[@alinepiroutek8932]

I love this channel

[@kevinlee1927]

Love pip. It has many form like pokemon.😮

[@civic952]

They could have made this game from scratch 🆕, but all we have is pidbited resolutions, and slightly better graphics plus bug fixes

[@BigSchim]

6:59-7:01 Good to see Japan knows what's up.

[@PikaLink91]

Out of one of my many attempts to like this game (and I mean that in the best sense possible), my most recent save file has clocked in at 20 hours where I play as Lynx in the demi-human village, and since I feel I owe it to myself to hunk up and finish it, but don't fully remember what I even did for those 20 hours, I am not sure whether I should just continue that save (albeit with a guide as I have no clue what to do next), or if I should start fresh, and if so with the original and remastered version. I ask mostly because, as with many J-RPG, it is my estimate that the game doesn't really get story heavy until later, so will I really miss that much story if I don't remember the last 20 hours of content?

[@33GLOCK]

Nah just continue i still have the original chrono cross and played it over atleast 80 times the good story is after you get Serge body back

[@Pelendralaar94]

Honestly, I would only play the new version because of the ability to toggle enemy encounters on and off, everything else looks a lot better in the original version...

[@ShadowMokujin]

4:13 ya I like it le fast

[@levnix1835]

No mention of the broken launcher on Steam Deck and the constant crashing of the Steam port in general? Trying to play that version was utter hell.

[@dakotastein9499]

so if i follow correctly... without poeple emulating chrono cross,the remasters would have never happened because the devs no longer had the original game?

[@33GLOCK]

EXACTLY a bunch of clumsy devs

[@artemis1993]

@@33GLOCK It's not clumsyness, just lack of foresight. Game preservation wasn't even in the minds of game devs back in the 90's. They didn't expect people to be playing these games 20+ years in the future. It was a different time back then

[@geoffkohoutek5267]

why would they change the dialogue of the characters in the game just cause they can or what, i was gonna buy remaster on steam sale coming up but now i just want to get a ps1

[@fishingmule3266]

Yeah, seriously. This stopped me from buying it. I wonder if there’s some way to turn off the “updated” text. I wouldn’t mind a new take on a translation if it wasn’t written so poorly.

[@tothebone4613]

on mobile yet ? damn this game make me remember the old time lol

[@jezztheterror]

I know this is kind of weird comment but if someone read this comment and it’s intending to play the game in spanish, know that the translation it’s horrible, the accents were exaggerated to the point that Harle's accent it’s almost impossible to understand. Additionally to this it’s the fact they took the freedom to rename almost all of the places, characters and even the names that are mentioned from chrono trigger. If you are a purist and give a thought in playing it at least in spanish, you will be really disappointed.

[@jay_eyeiii1521]

Is it worth getting on the switch?

[@YukeWeiss]

I finished this in December but I'm glad they patched it.

[@WheeledHamster]

Ah Jesus melted trees

[@Have4NiceDay]

00:11 That is one dusty ass PS3.

[@Jinnnnnnnnn]

ahhh, ignore Kid and get Glenn 😂

[@Gluurak]

Never use Emulators to say how the Performance is. NO Emulator is perfect and has always performance hacks or bugs that can increase or lower performance against real hardware. The Best emulator Duckstation and Madnafen are both really different in performance in this game that shows that this is not a good use for that sadly :)

[@loki.odinson]

Retroarch overclocking consistently crashes the game.

[@daylightsilence1]

what is this project kid?

[@AlexKarel-bh3yy]

💚💚💚💜💚

[@at0micl0bster]

That new kid portrait looks so bad

[@seeess925]

What about the game? No info on of it's a good game.

[@พชรตัญตระกูล]

Chrono still silent

[@omargonzalezortiz320]

Clean your Switch man 😩

[@akiradkcn]

The og is the best

[@thunderdraco]

note that the 2022 port's localization is heavily censored and butchered to cater to "political correctness"

[@mikej2020]

Odd timing really…why would I go back to playing this turd of a game when Octopath 2 just came out?

[@ryanbrenkert440]

Same, i just asked this myself....i mean im glad SE came out with a patch bc there was a lot of complaints about this game at the launch but it's almost a year ago now lol.

[@mikej2020]

@@ryanbrenkert440 and better games by SE have released since then.

[@true_gamer39]

​@@mikej2020 there is no better game then chrono cross....maybe skies of arcadia but that's it

[@mikej2020]

@@true_gamer39 you have such a sad life. Never played Chrono Trigger apparently? I feel sorry for you

[@artemis1993]

Speak for yourself mate. A lot of people love this game, myself included

[@Incrediblewash]

wtf didn't they do this for Legend of Dragoon lol??