A look back at: Radical Dreamers

You thought I was done with look backs? I still got several games under my belt, which I didn't really consider to be RPGs in the first place. Radical Dreamers is one of them. Nestled deep between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross was an apparent visual novel game with a few RPG mechanics.

For whatever reason though, this seems to explain Kid's entire plot in Chrono Cross better than the game itself, all while including a completely different Serge, a completely different Kid, and Magil, who's basically implied to be Magus. The whole plot involving Viper Manor is here, although with a few different changes. For one, Riddel is someone completely different, Viper himself is nowhere to be found (perhaps presumed dead), and someone implied to be Radius because of the way he looks is inside a prison cell lamenting. Kid of course has her backstory with Lucca and her vengeance against Lynx intact, as well as her connection with Schala.

It's all entirely text-driven, almost akin to reading an e-book line after line. Almost. The kicker of course is that this has some semi-RPG moments. Viper Manor is a complex location, so it's not fully linear. There just so happens to be a random battle mechanic, which is a lot slower and actually not all reliable and somewhat annoying. Plus there are affection points, typical for the visual novel genre, so these actually may change the endings you find in the game. Oh yes, multiple endings. If I recall, you get to try them out after the main ending of the game finishes. The endings honestly may not be worth it. Some are interesting side stories, such as Shea's Light and the Sunflower. While others are just super silly like the mecha battle with mecha Lynx and the space cop rock guitar scenario. It looks like Square was trying to go all out humorous with some of these, even for a short-lived series known for some humor. It's certainly a weird outtake to look at, but going through the text and knowing what you need to do ends up much more boring than the RPGs overall.