Radical Dreamers (English Translated) is a spin-off of Square's SNES mega hit Chrono Trigger. The main scenario was penned by Masato Kato, who also wrote the story to Chrono Trigger, and the game regularly alludes to both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross's plots.
The game opens with a ragtag trio of "treasure hunters," Serge, Kit, and Magil, sneaking into Viper Manor in search of the frozen flame that is said to grant wishes.
It plays out as a "choose your own adventure" style visual novel with RPG elements. Everything, from basic movement to battle, is handled through branching dialog trees, and the action is conveyed through big chunks of text laid over top of prerendered CG animations and backdrops.
Once you've played through the first scenario, the rest of the game opens up. The choices you make take on much more meaning the second time through, and some of the alternative paths go to some truly crazy places. Some of them are funny and others are deadly serious, but they all tend to reflect on some aspect of the characters from the Chrono games. The stories are short, but there is a lot of replay value here for anyone that's interested in the lore of the series.
Or for anyone that loves a good SNES soundtrack. It was scored by Yasunori Mitsuda (composer for Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and many other famous games - look him up!), and the music is beautiful. It's more subdued and atmospheric than either of the Chrono soundtracks were but its just as memorable, and the sound quality is impressive, even measured against Square's own lofty standards.
One interesting bit of trivia: Radical Dreamers was a Super Famicom title that didn't receive a physical release. It was created for Nintendo and St. Giga's Satellaview (satellite modem) subscription service, and players could download the game to the system memory or a memory cart.
Radical Dreamers finally gets an official English release today as part of "Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition," so I thought it would be fitting to highlight this oft-forgotten bit of the series' history.
