Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Staff Discuss Development History & Soundtrack for 1 Hour; English Captions

Square Enix recently uploaded an hour-long video interview with the producer of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, Koichiro Sakamoto, the original game’s director, Masato Kato, and the composer, Yasunori Mitsuda. Additionally, the new edition’s project manager, Mariko Sato, is also present, though only via voice.

Kato remarked that when he was approached about including the Radical Dreamers part of this package, the Satellaview side-story, he initially turned down that idea because it was an old title that broke off midway; it was never fully finished, and he didn’t desire to see contemporary discussion of it. However, as it became rarer to find, Kato resigned to re-selling it in a far more convenient fashion.

Interestingly, every character in the Chrono Cross remaster was fully redrawn because some original illustrations were finished. Regarding the soundtrack, it’s emphasized that the arrangements were made due to how limited the original PlayStation hardware was with audio. Still, they tried to stick with the original game’s ambiance of the songs as closely as possible to retain its identity. Absurdly, there were initial plans to have every character in Serge’s village be playable, which would have been pretty ridiculous.

Aside from those points, the majority of the video comprises compositional discussion regarding specific instrumentation, how the team felt about certain tracks, and much more. It’s all quite fascinating, and I highly recommend giving the full video a watch. In fact, English closed captions are included, so Western fans can also peruse the particulars of these interactions.

You can view the full hour-long Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition staff interview below:

In case you missed it, the game recently received a significant update making battles run at 60 FPS.

Chrono Cross follows Serge, who has just entered another world where he learns about the connection between his existence and the future of his planet. The game transcends time as players head out on an adventure friendship while meeting a massive cast of over 40 potential party members.

Chrono Cross was never released in Europe but now will arrive as a remastered release. This version of the game includes refined illustrations for the original character designer, Nobuteru Yuuki, remastered music from acclaimed composer Yasunori Mitsuda, and a variety of additional features.