While the young Serge is full of semi-gallant appointment with Lena on the beach bordering their native village, he suddenly loses consciousness and then resumes his mind alone, in the same place. At least it believes at first, but the return to the village will quickly raise serious questions. Not only does LENA do not recognize it, but it teaches him more than the Serge he claims to be died ten years earlier at the age of seven. This starting point is that of an adventure worship, who plays with parallel dimensions just as his famous predecessor Chrono Trigger played over time. Chrono Cross is a Japanese role play with a rich scenario, filled with endearing characters (including the many playable heroes), which takes place in a fantastic world (in both directions of the term), and which offers some important choices leading at multiple purposes. All his qualities are of course intact in this remill, which we welcome with all the more pleasure that the adventure had never been released in Europe. It is finally possible to enjoy legally, and in French that is more!
The visual improvements of this remill are pretty shy and disappointing. The character models have been reworked with more detailed textures, certainly, but they still remain as little polygonated. As for the previously pixeled 2D funds, they have obviously been passed to the artificial intelligence reel…
This is not the only asset of this edition which, as its name suggests, also includes Radical Dreamers. Until today, this essentially textual adventure dedicated to the Chrono Universe was available only in Japan on Satellak, a satellite device dedicated to the Super Nes. Suffice to say that not Grand Monde had yet had the opportunity to benefit from us. And we did not know what we were missing! This unpublished section, which resumes (with a twist) of the characters and situations of the main game, has indeed really packaged. Its structure recalls the part games on the table of yesteryear, the system of lifestyles hidden behind simple sentences is very smart, the shelf life extends from four to twelve hours depending on the number of purposes that the purposes. We try to reach, and the French translation is worthy of the greatest praises. She dares the simple past (“I defended myself”, “we arrived”…) and offers phrase turns and a vocabulary much more sought after than the average of current video productions.
REMASTER OLD SCHOOL
But let’s go back to the main adventure, whose fighting system must also be greeted. It consists above all attacks divided into three levels (low, strong, and formidable), whose chances of success are inversely proportional to their power. But the percentage of success, which is clearly displayed on the screen, increases for all levels after each shot worn. The basic technique is therefore starting with a weak attack to increase the chances of successful strokes, but sometimes it can also be paid to try to place a big shot directly. This is not all because the game also offers a system of items, which correspond to both spells that can be used once per fight and consumables whose use is limited only by their quantity. These elements can be of different colors, which is of crucial importance since a gauge called field effect and divided into three sections allows, if we play fine, to increase the power of attacks. Indeed, when an enemy or an ally uses an element, one of the sections takes the corresponding color. And if one happens to fill the gauge of one and the same hue, the efficiency of the group of elements of this color then increases substantially. In addition, each character also has an “innate” color and is more renowned against the attacks of the opposite color. It is therefore important to have elements of each color with oneself, and make it tactical to maximize the efficiency of our blows.
good background, but small shape
And since we are talking about efficiency, it is worth paying tribute to the quality of life improvements made by this remill. With a simple support on a stick, it is possible to disable (and reactivate to envy) random meetings, this typical JRPG concept having quite aged. Better yet, an option just as easily accessible makes it possible to trigger an automation of the fighting. It is obviously to avoid in major clashes, but it makes it easier to pass the simplest or unbalanced battles, from those that are settled by threading without thinking of basic attacks. Especially that this option is compatible with the acceleration function, which also saves time during exploration phases. A “combat bonus” option is even available for players who have trouble with the balancing of yesteryear. It is similar to a cheat code since it allows in particular to avoid all adverse attacks. Purists will not only be able to do without all that, but also launch the game without any modern graphics improvement, a conventional mode being proposed in the main menu.
It is not possible to zap in real time between the visuals of yesteryear and those of today, an option nevertheless often present elsewhere and very practical (whether to compare this or that point, such or such scene., or pay a nostalgic little trip from time to time). The visual improvements of this remill are pretty shy and disappointing. The character models have been reworked with more detailed textures, certainly, but they still remain as little polygonated. As for the previously pixeled 2D funds, they have obviously been passed to the artificial intelligence reel, since we find the “watercolor” effect typical of this automatic upscaling method. From afar that works well, but looking closer to the result does not really seem very natural. This lack of manual overhaul was also betrayed in the image format, which remains confined to 4/3 (even if a zoom option is available). Square Enix is therefore content with the minimum service from the point of view of the renovation of facade. But the worst comes from the framerate, particularly low and unstable. While a game dating from the last century and displaying an extremely simple 3D should turn 120 fps on PC and lounge consoles and 60 fps on switch, it’s only the 30 frames per second and drops regularly below the 20, what whatever the platform used. For the shot, here is a return to the past that we preferred to avoid…