Chrono Cross was remastered due to PS4’s lack of backwards compatibility

Chrono Cross is a classic PlayStation One JRPG released all the way back in 1999. As with many games from that era, fears began to arise at the fact that these classic titles may no longer become playable as the generations proceed. This is why Square Enix opted to release ‘The Radical Dreamers Edition’ remaster – with the team now fully explaining the mentality behind this release.

As reported by GamesRadar, the Chrono Cross remaster team recently sat down to discuss the development and history of the classic game via a YouTube stream, in which they revealed that the Radical Dreamers Edition was greenlit due to fears that the original game would be entirely unplayable – with producer of this remaster, Koichiro Sakamoto, explaining:

“Back when the project was launched, Chrono Cross was possibly going to become unplayable. 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.”

Speaking on the text-based Radical Dreamers spin-off (which was previously only available in Japan), Chrono Cross’s original director Masato Kato revealed that he had in the past prevented the spin-off from getting a global release due to it being unfinished and as such was “a bit ashamed” of the project. Fortunately, minds were changed when according to Kato, “the game started selling at an incredible premium, which was a strange and unpleasant situation. So, I thought ‘why not?’”

Despite its early hiccups, the Chrono Cross Radical Dreamers Edition is now in a solid state and means that hopefully both the main game and its spin-off do not end up being lost to time – though fan preservation would have likely kept the game alive regardless.

Discuss on our Fcebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the Radical Dreamers Edition? Despite its initial issues, are you glad to see the game having been remastered? Let us know down below.

Become a Patron!