A new Nintendo Direct aired yesterday, this time with good tidings for Chrono Cross fans.
A lot of viewers were expecting the gaming giants to showcase Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 or perhaps a small preview of the rumored generation 9 of Pokémon, but neither one of those was shown. Don’t be disappointed, though. Nintendo showed some exciting new games and remakes of old classics. There was one particular announcement that had a very specific group of fans losing their minds – including myself.
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During the live showcase, Nintendo announced that a remaster of Chrono Cross is coming to Switch. This is not a drill. I repeat, a Chrono Cross remaster is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Originally released in 1999, the PlayStation exclusive was developed and published by Square. This new franchise is set in the same world as Chrono Trigger, which is arguably one of the best games of all time.
The game development was aided by former Chrono Trigger designers, including composer Yasunori Mitsuda. If you’ve played Chrono Cross, then you know how good the in-game music and soundtrack were.
CHRONO CROSS SYNOPSIS
Chrono Cross tells the story of Serge and highlights the idea of a parallel world. In this new world, Serge learns that he died as a child. The secrets of this strange place and of the Frozen Flame are now part of his obsession as he seeks out answers about the past and about this mysterious world.
Chrono Cross received a perfect 10.0 score from GameSpot in 2000 when it was finally released in North America. After 1.5 million copies and the greatest hit re-release, the franchise solidified itself as one of the greatest RPGs of the era. The game was once again re-released in 2011 for the PlayStation Network. This new re-release of the game will launch on April 7th (happy birthday to me. Thanks, Nintendo!) and it’ll be a complete remaster that will also include The Radical Dreamers game, which is a side story of Chrono Trigger.
The game added many new features to the RPG style of gameplay. Enemies were visible in the world, leaving it up to the players to battle them or run away (which you could do in all encounters, including boss fights). The battle system included six elements that, much like in other franchises such as Pokémon, had an advantage over its opposing counterpart. Another innovative feature of the game was the stamina bar, which allowed players to carefully choose their next move as any attack depletes it.
One of my absolute features of this game, which absolutely ruined other RPGs for that did not have it, is the vast and diverse cast of party members. There are a total of 45 recruitable party members. You are unable to recruit them all in your first play-through, but you can unlock all 45 characters with a New Game+ file. I had so much fun recruiting all of the available members which will react to their parallel world counterparts if they are with you.
Chrono Cross is, in my opinion, one of the greatest RPGs of all time. The Chrono franchise is ranked 14th out of 50 of “most-wanted sequels” by Famitsu readers. A sequel, titled Chrono Break, was planned but never saw the light of day. The name remains trademarked, so perhaps this remaster is the first step in releasing this much-wanted sequel.
What are your thoughts? Have you played this masterpiece of a game? What did you think of it? Leave us a comment, share this article with your friends, and let us know how excited you are about this remaster! Make sure to follow our pages as we have this (really good) habit of dropping exclusives! Until next time.
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Source: IGN
