CrossCode

she's real to me goddamnit

yeah this game is too stellar and full of love for me to care about its imperfections

CrossCode bills itself as a successor to classic top down SNES action adventures, merging puzzle platforming with RPG combat both in a large vaguely fantasy themed overworld and a series of unique dungeons with their own themes, gimmicks, unlockables, and bosses. As a throwback, the game represents one of the best in the genre since its heyday on the SNES, genuinely comparable in quality to classic Zelda, while innovating in its own right and using its mechanics to explore the genre in a unique way.

The highlight of CrossCode is without a doubt the exploration and puzzles. The game is centered around VPRs, or balls, projectiles you can shoot at will at enemies which can be charged up to deal more damage and ricochet off walls. This ricochet mechanic is the core of the puzzles in CrossCode, and it's genuinely impressive how well the balls work in both contexts: in combat they're one half of your arsenal and can be shot out fast enough to feel adaptable, but they're precise enough to allow for excellent puzzles too.

What's especially impressive to me is how CrossCode uses verticality and levels in maps and for exploration. Almost every screen in CrossCode outside (and often inside) of the dungeons has two to four levels that can be hopped up onto at specific ledges, and in conjunction with balls they allow for an incredibly diverse array of puzzles and areas. Aim the projectile and hit the switch usually isn't the most interesting task, but because your balls also live on certain levels just like you, finding the right position and managing the platforming, the timing, and the correct aim needed to get your ball on the perfect path to its target turns a very simple concept into an extremely flexible one, and despite introducing relatively few new items or ways of interacting with the game world as it goes on compared to, say, a Zelda title, the world of CrossCode is always fun to explore.

Builds are fairly flexible and centered mostly around spending points gained at level up to unlock new or more powerful special attacks: there are eight each, two attached to your melee, your dash, your balls, and your guard, and they can all be upgraded from level 1 up to level 3, and you can switch between the special attached to each action at will. There are also four elements, each unlocked by completing a dungeon, which in addition to providing some extra possibilities when solving puzzles add some variety to combat have their own unique specials. By the end of the game, while it's not particularly customizable or unique, you do feel a very genuine sense of progression beyond your stats going up.

Speaking of the combat, it's also great! It's tight and fast paced without being unmanageable, and while it certainly isn't very hard it isn't a walk in the park either: there are a decent number of encounters that are genuinely pretty challenging.

Unfortunately, while the core gameplay loop is excellent, as a narrative and an RPG, CrossCode begins to stumble. The characters themselves are, while pretty shallow, at least fun and pleasant to watch interact. But even in the first half of the game, the quests are... engaging, but not particularly interesting as quests. Exploring the game and fighting and solving puzzles is fun, but as quests it's just kind of meh. They effectively just provide exp rewards and usually uninteresting narrative justification for the exploration and fighting I wanted to do anyway! Fittingly, they're basically generic MMO quests, and since part of the game is a parody/love letter to MMOs that feels fitting. The problem is that as a parody they're not funny or unique enough to actually feel all that different from logging into an MMO and plowing through fetch quests or "kill x of y."

By the second half of the game, as the narrative gets more serious, it also definitely gets weaker. Without providing any spoilers, once the mystery of who Lea is is unveiled the game revs up the stakes of its story, but without having any actual depth to it. As justification for the path I take through the world its about as good as the first half, but its a whole lot less fun once you're expected to start taking the game seriously.

All in all, while CrossCode may stumble as a story, its still an excellent action adventure that skillfully meshes innovative approaches to level and puzzle design, and a combat system thats fast and frenetic and consistently fun.

Recommend to: Anyone who loves classic SNES adventure games, Zelda fans, people looking for some genuinely engaging puzzles and exploration

Not Recommended To: People who get turned off by hammy storytelling, or who can't overlook a generic plot

While branded as a retro action RPG, I really don't think this description does the game justice. Yes it's inspired by games like Illusion of Gaia and Secret of Mana, but the game takes that core and really goes above and beyond what those games did. CrossCode has a little bit of everything. Hack n slash, shooting, looting, exploring, puzzles, challenging combat and even more tougher bosses.

The game takes place in CrossWorlds which is a MMO video game your character is sent to. In this world you have all players (NPC's) playing the game and progressing throughout the various acts, the same that you are doing. So it's a single player RPG, but in a MMO World, a rather weird concept that the devs managed to pull off. As the story progresses it all starts to make sense, but without spoiling anything I thought that the story was quite good until the very end. You get to meet a few other players that you can team up (up to 3 at a time) and do the quests with, and eventually joining a guild.

The game is a little slow to start, but as the features unlock it really becomes amazing at the amount of things you are able to do. There's the main storyline of course, but there's all these side quests that are available to do and I would recommend doing them all as they are really great and comparable to the quality of the side quests of The Witcher 3. There's a strong collecting aspect to the game, and there's lots of backtracking to do at places you've already discovered if you want to acquire the finest items. The battle system is amazing, really inspired by action RPGs of the 16-bit era but combining both melee and ranged attacks in the process. You'll have to use your dashing, shield and correct elemental attacks at a near flawless level to progress in the game, as the game gets insanely hard as you get to later chapters.

The dungeons in the game are also inspired by games of the past (I'd definitely throw Link to the Past as another influence), but they take those concepts and just expand on them so much. The dungeons are long and with endless amount of puzzles, and they really get harder and harder and will definitely get you frustrated on a few of them. The game is really challenging and didn't go soft on the challenge, this is like the ultimate experience when it comes to that specific genre. In between puzzles you also have some fighting to do, and those too can get really rough. The game doesn't really allow you to over level as eventually the enemies will only give 1 xp each (it takes 1000 to level up). The gear is much important here and there's also this sort of Path of Exile-like ability tree where you get to choose what your upgrades are going to be, one tree for your neutral ability and 4 more for each element you will get to unlock.

CrossCode is a game that I feel went above the call of duty. It could have been just a nice flashback to the games of the past, but instead they took that genre and improved it in all possible ways. This is not just another retro game, it's a game that perfects the genre that its paying tribute to. There were so many moments where I was blown away by the level of complexity of the puzzles, or just how much fun I was having doing the battles. There is a lot of trial and error to do, but thankfully dying just makes you respawn to the beginning of the room so you have to practice until you really master it. Really amazing game that is sadly overlooked by the all the major gaming websites, hopefully this gets a new life when it releases on consoles as I can definitely see Switch users loving the hell out of this one. I really do think it's one of the all-time bests.

(as a sidenote I almost completed the game, but did not manage to beat the final boss with its 12-part battle and insane difficulty. I roughly estimate 80 hours spent into the game at this point, which is definitely worth the asking price)