Rating of
3.5/5
Frozen Ephemera
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/25/17
Just shy of a year after the release of “Chrono Trigger,” one of the Golden Age’s greatest RPGs, the same Squaresoft team that worked on the time-travelling classic produced a follow-up. Published only on the SNES Satellaview digital distribution service in Japan, “Radical Dreamers” (“RD”) followed one of the many endings available in “Chrono Trigger,” but instead of an RPG, took the form of an incredibly basic Text Adventure. Unhappy with the end result of “RD,” the Squaresoft team behind the first true sequel to “Chrono Trigger” took much of the story, characters, and music, then rehashed them into a more proper, long-form RPG for the PlayStation, “Chrono Cross.” Thanks to the preservation efforts of so-called ‘pirates’ and the friendly hackers of Neo Demiforce, the ephemeral Satellaview sequel to “Chrono Trigger” was preserved and translated into English between 2003 and 2005.
Presentation
Oof… “RD” kind of suffers in its presentation due to being a Text Adventure. However, “RD” isn’t a 100% pure Text Adventure, like one might think of on a Western PC gamer’s DOS machine, with nothing but white or green text on a black background. While text does make-up roughly 90%+ of the stuff on-screen at any given time, “RD” also features a few simple images that serve the same purpose as an illustration might in a text-heavy novel. These digital illustrations are minimally animated and look rather low-fi and chunky, even for SNES-era standards, which almost makes me think the game would have been better off without them. Almost.
The soundtrack, however, redeems the game’s presentation significantly. Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, who later went on to do the sound tracks in epic RPGs like “Xenogears” and, indeed, “Chrono Cross,” the background music in “RD” is absolutely fantastic, and hearkens back to a time when videogame composers really put their all into their work. Mitsuda is probably my favorite videogame composer, slightly edging out Nobuo Uematsu (of ‘Final Fantasy’ fame) due to his consistency.
Story
“RD” sits in kind of an odd place in the “Chrono Trigger” continuity. Gamers who have played both “Chrono Trigger” and “Chrono Cross” will recognize many characters and a portion of “RD’s” main scenario, but nothing works out quite like it does in the remixed story of “Chrono Cross.” Even pretending “Chrono Cross” hasn’t happened yet and taking the story of “RD” as it comes doesn’t quite work, as it ties into only a tiny bit of minutia in “Chrono Trigger,” with only a handful of important named present to connect it to its predecessor.
Really, it’s best to look at “RD” as a stand-alone game. The development team has even said in interviews that it is best to consider the events of “RD” as taking place in a parallel universe to the events of “Chrono Cross.”
“RD” opens with a group of three thieves approaching a foreboding mansion in the middle of the night. These thieves, Serge (the main character/narrator), Kid, and Magil, are after a gemstone known as the Frozen Flame, which is hidden in Viper Manor in the custody of Lord Lynx. As this group searches the manor, they come across a number of hints and clues as to the Frozen Flame’s nature, as well as Kid’s reasons for obsessively pursuing it and obsessively wanting to kill Lynx. The ‘main’ story in “RD” wraps up about the same way as the story in “Chrono Cross” just in about 60 fewer hours, with 30 fewer characters, and 99% fewer locations. Indeed, “RD’s” main story can be completed in roughly 2-3 hours in a blind initial run, and the entire thing takes place inside Viper Manor. That said, it’s still a well written, thought provoking story, and the team at Neo Demiforce did a fantastic job on the fanslation.
However, the ‘main’ story isn’t all there is to “RD.” There are actually 7 different alternate scenarios within the game, with 6 diverging paths unlocking after completing the main story once. These alternate stories are mostly easy to find, with obvious triggers that weren’t present during the first playthrough; but a couple of them are FAQ-worthy for the sake of not wasting dozens of hours in a 3-hour game. Personally, I could have lived without most of these branching stories, and many of them are incredibly weird and/or stupid. Most of these extra scenarios are, however, significantly shorter than the main storyline, taking about 30 minutes each. Overall, “RD” lasts about 8-10 hours, depending on how much excess wandering around the player does, which seems pretty good for a game that is essentially a short story dressed-up as an Adventure game.
Gameplay
“RD” does a very good job of presenting a traditional-style Text Adventure in a format that doesn’t require the player to connect a typewriter to their SNES/Satellaview/Emulator. In each scene (i.e., each room of the mansion), the player is presented with a blob of text to read. This text describes the environment and the things the player can do or interact with. Then, instead of the old-school DOS method of forcing the player to type a string of words and hope they had the right keywords in there to trigger a reaction, “RD” just presents the player with all of their options as menu items. Up, Down, and A are the only buttons the player needs to play the game, but X brings up the save menu, so that’s handy too.
As a sequel to an RPG, “RD” tries to look and act a bit RPG-ish at times. While exploring the environments and solving text-based puzzles (which all just involve going to the right room after activating the right circumstance flags), the player can be beset by random encounters with a variety of enemies. These encounters all play out via text, and it’s a matter of trial-and-error to figure out which text options will get Serge through each battle unscathed. Serge does have a hidden health meter, and his condition is described in vague terminology after each battle. Performing well in battle also increases Kid’s affinity for Serge, which is somewhat important to the game’s narrative. It is possible to get a Game Over screen if Serge takes too much damage and dies. There are opportunities for Serge to be healed as well.
In general, though, the ‘gameplay’ in “RD” isn’t really… anything. It’s a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. The puzzles are extremely limited and not very interesting. The random encounters can either be non-existent or annoyingly persistent (they are *random* after all). If you’re after a well-designed Adventure game, “RD” will come across as severely lacking.
Overall
“Radical Dreamers” is a curious piece of nearly-lost history in the ‘Chrono’ franchise. As a Text Adventure, it’s kind of a weird and lacking follow-up to one of the most beloved RPGs of all-time. Yet, still, the writing is interesting enough (when it isn’t intentionally stupid and weird) to carry the sub-par gameplay, which is devoid of most things gamers want in an Adventure title. Of course, the fact that it’s available for play at all is a testament to the good works performed by ROM hackers and fanslators in opposition to IP holders and corporate interests.
Presentation: 3.5/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
