Chrono Cross Remaster on PS5 performs worse than the original PlayStation version, at least in the game's "new graphics mode", an odd feat considering the 28-year gap between PlayStation 5 and PS One.
The Chrono Cross remaster, which was released on PS One in 1999 in Japan but never made it to Europe, struggled to hit its target frame rate of 30fps, performing significantly lower than the original PlayStation running on. hardware of almost three decades. .
As revealed by Digital Foundry (opens in a new tab), Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition fluctuates wildly from 30fps to 10fps during battles, resulting in a blistering frame rate that is anything but stable. This is the case for both the PS4 version and when the game is played on PS5 via backwards compatibility, which is surprising to say the least.
The original PS One version manages to outperform Square Enix's remastered JRPG classic in almost every way except for the title screen, which obviously shouldn't be the case.
Thankfully, the remaster's "Classic" mode matches the performance of the PS One original, although you'd like to think the PS4 and PS5 could run the game at a locked frame rate in that mode.
With a frame rate barely reaching 30fps and incredibly basic visuals by today's standards, Chrono Cross Remaster is easily one of the worst performing games on PS5 and PS4.
However, this issue is not limited to the PS4 or PS5 versions of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. The same poor performance is present on Nintendo Switch and even PC. Even a Titan RTX can't beat the game's choppy framerate.
An unacceptable port
It's hard to make a case for Chrono Cross Remaster's performance, because there's no reason why a frankly old game by today's standards couldn't run much better on modern hardware. The remaster, even in the new graphics mode, is spared its visual improvements: the game runs from 900p to 936p with a 1080p HUD according to Digital Foundry, so it's not like we're looking at a new engine, 4K resolution or elegant visual. effect loads that could affect the frame rate here.
State of the Game will be a disappointment to European JRPG fans who have waited so long to play Chrono Cross and may have been eagerly waiting to play a higher version. Sadly, that's clearly not the case, but we can only hope that Square Enix can significantly improve the game's performance with future updates.