5 things to know before playing Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition has launched on a variety of platforms, and like many classic RPGs, there’s a lot to know about the game. Especially for RPGs like this one, with New Game+, there is a lot of possibilities when it comes to a first playthrough and subsequent adventures.

What do new players need to know about Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition though?

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Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a classic RPG brought back to life

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is not a sequel to Chrono Trigger, but it will tease players with familiar faces and moments. It still plays with the same universe, where Time Travel is possible.

It’s a vast game with tons of characters, and like its predecessor, it has multiple endings. There are 12 endings, so there’s going to be a wide variety of things for players to see and do.

What to know before playing Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition

• Players cannot get all party members in one playthrough
• Chrono Cross has a unique magic system
• Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition has several useful boosts to make gameplay easier
• This is the first time Radical Dreamers was released in English
• Players can run away from bosses

The game arrived on April 7, 2022 and here's what fans need to know before diving in.

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5) Players cannot get all party members in one playthrough

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition has 45 total characters, and to unlock the other 44, it’s going to take multiple playthroughs. It should take about three playthroughs to get all 44 characters to join the team at one time.

No matter what, there’s no way to get them all in one playthrough, and this depends on the choices made throughout the game.

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4) Chrono Cross features a unique magic system

Chrono Cross features an elemental system of magic, like Chrono Trigger. Each element has a color: Red (Fire), Blue (Water), Green (Earth), Yellow (Wind), White (Holy), and Black (Unholy/Dark). Each character and monster is linked to one of these elements, and so everything has an element that they are weak to.

Spells are equipped in Chrono Cross and can be acquired in shops or in dungeons. Some of the spells are of limited use though and will have “1X” by them. Spells have a number to determine which slot they can be equipped in.

To cast spells of a particular level, the player has to gain that level first, and that’s done by using Stamina on attacks. Using 3.0 points on an attack gives three levels of Magic, for example. The attack has to be successful though. There are also summons but they are a bit complex.

Players use Stars for these, which are gained by defeating most bosses. They also have to be equipped. In order to cast a summon, the Elemental Field (top left of the screen) has to be completely filled with the element of that summon.

So to cast Salamander, it has to be fully red. Enemy attacks can change the elemental field too, making it more complex.

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3) Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition has several useful gameplay boosts

There are a variety of boosts that players can use in this version of the game if they want to get through fights easier. In Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, these make enemy attacks miss most of the time, or cause players to take no damage, or even use elemental attacks without attacking with physical strikes first.

These can make grinding easier, as well as fighting bosses. They don’t make players instantly win, but make losing significantly harder.

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2) This is the first time Radical Dreamers was released in English

Radical Dreamers was originally released only in Japan, for the Super Famicom’s Satellaview system. It’s a visual novel, and while it’s not a direct canon link with Chrono Cross, it offers an interesting interpretation of events.

For fans of the Chrono series, this is a moment not to miss out on, and will be the first time many fans actually experience this.

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1) Players can run away from bosses in this game

Perhaps one of the most useful things in Chrono Cross, running away from encounters has a 100% success rate, and bosses can also be fled from. In some situations, players will not be able to leave an area before defeating them, but this is still useful.

Players may want to change up gear or spells, to make sure they have a weakness to exploit on the boss in question, so don’t be afraid to run away.

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a complex but classic game, and Square Enix has brought it back for fans after many years of fans requesting it. There are secrets to unlock, tons of possibilities on party members, and plenty of challenges to experience. It’s an unforgettable story and is finally available on modern consoles.

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