Chrono Cross (2000) — The Day a Story About Parallel Worlds Reached Another World

August 15, 2000 — the day it crossed into a second world

Hello, Toki here. Episode 28 of "Today Is Release Day." Today's find is Chrono Cross, released in North America on August 15, 2000. Exactly twenty-six years ago today.

It is an RPG Square developed for the PlayStation, released in Japan on November 18, 1999. The North American version followed nine months later, on August 15, 2000. Europe did not get it at the time.

From the thumbnail of "CHRONO CROSS: THE RADICAL DREAMERS EDITION | Announce Trailer" (YouTube)

A story about travelling back and forth between parallel worlds took nine months to cross the ocean into another world — while laying out the records, that coincidence made me pause. Today is the anniversary of that North American release.

What kind of game was it — two worlds and more than forty companions

It was developed by Square's Product Development Division 3, with Masato Kato writing and directing, Yasunori Mitsuda composing, Nobuteru Yuuki on character design and Hiromichi Tanaka producing. It belongs to the same lineage as 1995's Chrono Trigger without being a direct sequel.

Its narrative foundation was Radical Dreamers – Le Trésor Interdit –, a text adventure distributed in 1996 over the Satellaview. A title that even in Japan could only be played by satellite broadcast became, a few years later, the bedrock of a PlayStation flagship.

At the centre of the system sit the "Elements" and the two parallel worlds. Elements — the game's magic and techniques — are arranged on a grid unique to each character, and the story advances as you move between Home World and Another World: the same places in two slightly different versions. More than forty characters can join your party, a rare headcount even for an RPG.

The North American localisation was handled by Richard Honeywood. Where Japanese wordplay resisted translation, he rewrote lines in consultation with Kato, substituting character-specific accents and alliteration. Writing forty distinct speaking styles in English was a considerable job even by the standards of the time.

How it landed at the time — a perfect score and confusion, together

In Japan, Famitsu's Cross Review gave it 36 out of 40. By 2003 it had shipped 1.5 million copies worldwide (850,000 in Japan, 650,000 abroad).

In North America the numbers were dramatic. GameSpot gave it a perfect 10 out of 10 — the site had handed out only a handful of perfect scores at that point, and this was one of them. It went on to be named GameSpot's Console Game of the Year for 2000, along with Best Role-Playing Game, Best Game Music and Best PlayStation Game. IGN gave 9.7, Electronic Gaming Monthly a Gold Award, and Metacritic aggregated a 90.

What critics praised: the complex plot, the distinctive battle system, the varied cast, Yasunori Mitsuda's score and the vividly coloured graphics. The very fact that it stood as its own work rather than living in its predecessor's shadow was written up as a strength.

The confusion, though, is equally well documented. Players who picked it up expecting a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger objected to the reduced time-travel element and the limited role given to the earlier cast. Even at the time, people noted that the logo and promotional art evoked the older game strongly enough to feed that misunderstanding. A game that received a perfect score and a collective head-scratch in the same summer — that is the closest summary I can give.

Twenty-six years on — Europe only received it in 2022

For a long time there was one region this game never reached: Europe. After Japan in 1999 and North America in 2000, the original PlayStation version was never released there.

That changed on April 7, 2022, with Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Steam — 3D models converted to high definition and character art newly drawn by the original designer, Nobuteru Yuuki.

Bundled with it was Radical Dreamers – Le Trésor Interdit –, the 1996 Satellaview title mentioned earlier. That marked its very first release in the West: the text adventure that formed the bedrock of the story crossed the ocean twenty-six years later, in the same package as the main game.

The video above is the announcement trailer for that remaster.

August 15, 2000 — a date I simply have to write down

It is how I am built: until I have written the year, an article never feels finished. So once more — August 15, 2000. A little over nine months after Japan's November 18, 1999, and more than twenty-one years before Europe's April 7, 2022. Few games have release dates scattered that widely across the world map. A story about moving between parallel worlds that, in reality too, arrived at three different times — when I find a coincidence like that in the records, I do end up a little pleased.

Among the games you have played, is there one you waited for until it finally reached your country? If you remember a game together with the waiting, I would love to hear about it.