Whereas Chrono Trigger is often considered a genre-defining JRPG, the game's successor is rarely looked at by fans in the same light. Though developed by a similar development staff at Squaresoft, Chrono Cross was purposefully designed as a vastly different game in a similar world. Though the game was contentious at launch for largely steering away from Chrono Trigger's design, the 1999 JRPG on PlayStation gained a cult following among JRPG fans that continued to grow, as fans came to appreciate it as a standalone Chrono game. The Chrono Cross remaster reveal excited many fans this week, but the addition of Radical Dreamers did confuse some fans.
While North America did receive Chrono Cross almost a year later in 2000, Radical Dreamers was not a known quantity outside of Japan, but it was a formative story that helped shape Chrono Cross' narrative and world into the JRPG it would become. The game's general narrative progression, themes of parallel worlds/altered dimensions, and interwoven character development stemmed from the foundation that Radical Dreamers had laid back in 1996 on the SNES. However, Radical Dreamers was not another Squaresoft JRPG developed in between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. Rather, it was a standalone title that would directly inspire Chrono Cross.
Radical Dreamers: A Japan-Exclusive Chrono Trigger Spin-Off
Exclusive to Japan, and released for the SNES (via the Japan-exclusive Satellaview modem peripheral), Radical Dreamers was a visual novel published as a spin-off from Chrono Trigger. Players take on the role of Serge, just like in Chrono Cross, and team up with Kid and Magil (an alternate version of Guile that was actually Magus in disguise) to become thieves. Kid had already become a legendary and confident thief, alongside the enigmatic Magil, and Serge joined them a few years prior in search of the "Frozen Flame," an item of legend that can supposedly make any wishes come true. The three set out on a quest to steal the Frozen Flame from the Viper Manor.
Lynx, the antagonist of Chrono Cross, takes up a similar position in Radical Dreamers as the usurper of Viper Manor. Serge, Kid, and Magil venture through the manor, fighting all sorts of mythical monsters as players read on about the mysteries of Viper Manor's inhabitants. Magil explains that the Frozen Flame is a fragment of Lavos, the calamity from Chrono Trigger, and that Kid has an ulterior motive. Kid is after Lynx himself for killing her adoptive mother (Lucca from Chrono Trigger), and was accompanied by Magil after an encounter with Lynx almost killed Kid.
The trio encounter Lynx at the end of the story, and are nearly defeated, before something unexpected happens. Lucca gave Kid a Time Egg (a Chrono Trigger) when she was younger, and Lynx sought the Time Egg alongside the Frozen Flame in an attempt to reign control over time itself. However, during the battle, the Chrono Trigger is shattered, causing a disruption of time itself that ends the battle very quickly. Serge glimpses throughout time, witnessing several of the events from Chrono Trigger as well as new scenes, before players return to present day. Kid, Serge, and Magil all escape the castle, as Kid realizes her origins and intrinsic ties to the original Chrono game.
Bridging The Gap Between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross
Radical Dreamers is fascinating because there's so many details throughout the visual novel that would become pivotal pillars of narrative and character development in Chrono Cross. Much of the interdimensional travel that takes place throughout Chrono Cross' complex story is based around the same time-bending design that was so ambitious for Chrono Trigger just a few years earlier. Granted, game director Masato Kato has mentioned in interviews that melding the two universes' narratives together was not in service to making Chrono Cross interpreted as a sequel to Chrono Trigger. Kato wanted Cross to be "another, different Chrono that interlaces with Trigger."
In execution, it's place in a theoretical Chrono timeline is a bit perplexing, considering the game focuses more in parallel dimensions more so than the manipulation of time in Chrono Trigger. Radical Dreamers actually ran with the theme of unwavering time to strengthen its connection to Chrono Trigger as a spin-off. Chrono Cross is pretty clearly acting as a distant sequel to Chrono Trigger, especially with all the references to the first game, but Radical Dreamers was deliberately connected to the first Chrono game. It's a bit confusing, and the complexity of Chrono Cross' narrative connection to Chrono Trigger was largely the source of fans' frustrations at the time.
However, in a way, Radical Dreamers almost serves as a way to bridge the gap between the two games and harken back to the events of Chrono Trigger. Bundling that substory together with the second Chrono entry as Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition helps fill in the gaps for the worldwide audience. Players can understand more clearly the inherent connections between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross with Radical Dreamers in a more straight-forward fashion, side-stepping Chrono Cross' gray approach as a sequel.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition releases on April 7, 2022, for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.