Cris Tales

This game has one of the best implementations of time travel mechanics in an RPG I've ever seen. On the execution of that idea alone the game is very interesting for those just interested in trying out a game that does something different. The general execution of the rest of the game leaves a lot to be desired. The game has a weird herky-jerky, clumsy feeling where you'll often find yourself starting lengthy stretches of dialogue, stop, then start lengthy stretches again, then stop to run somewhere, then run back just to start more dialogue, rinse and repeat. Once the game gets going this lessens a bit but there is always this flow of stop, go, stop, go that gets really irritating over time. This style of play would probably be more tolerable if there were more interesting things you were doing between each portion of "Go" but, for the most part, you're just running to some NPC to talk with them, then running back to report what you learned, only to be sent to talk to someone else. Again, once the game advances this lessens but it's really tough to sit through for the first 5 hours or so, and it never really goes away. Combat is still pretty cool, though.

I really enjoyed most of my time with this game, but it is a huge mess. Localization is terrible, Text doesn't match audio, buggy, some bad boss design in particular 2 where you can be almost screwed by just blindly having the wrong team members. I really hoped this game was good, and I'm glad I at least enjoyed it. There's a lot of cool ideas, one of the better implementations of Time Nonsense, which I usually hate. A lot of the NPC's actually look cooler than main characters which is interesting. Unfortunately there's not enough reason and skills to justify making use of a lot of the cooler ideas. Really, this game needed 6 months more of QA fixing and like a year more of fleshing out the systems. I'd be interested if they did a remake at some point or something, but considering how many good RPG's there are its kind of hard to recommend this one.

This is up there with Yume Nikki as one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen; the screenshots really don't do it justice. The character designs are all lovely and charming, with their own unique look that isn't part of the usual anime/gritty/pixel trinity that just about everything else adopts. The real star of the show, though, would be the environments; there is such incredible detail to them that your eyes could get lost for days. The palettes, the line work, the art direction; it all comes together to create a world unlike any other. The gameplay isn't going to really blow your mind, but it's solid; combat has timed elements, but nothing super complicated. There is a time shifting mechanic that seems super complicated at the beginning, but you don't really have to do much with it if you don't want. Some of the characters can be a little gimmicky, but they all have escape hatches, so to speak, so they can be used like normal if you prefer. Dungeons have some light puzzles; nothing brain-melting, but enough to be engaging. It can be a little oldschool - not too many free heals, and items are expensive in the beginning - but after the early-game difficulty spike flattens, it doesn't require much grinding. The story and characters are mostly charming, even if Willhelm is unnecessarily a jerk most of the time. Crisbell is warm and caring, but also surprisingly mature, which keeps her from becoming sickeningly sweet. Most of the other characters have interesting growth to them, too, though all manner of journeys of self-discovery. The story takes some interesting turns, and doesn't treat its characters like complete idiots that have to have everything spelled out for them, which is refreshing. The tone has brief moments of inconsistency, but not enough to make it an incoherent mess. Highly recommended to Paper Mario fans and art lovers alike.

Not a full review of the game but got about halfway thru, I dropped it because I was legitimately bored, beautiful artsyle and an interesting concept for gameplay, but it's just not enough, combat it's ok and characters aren't particularly engaging nor is the story, I really wanted to love this game but couldn't. I'm definitely keeping an eye on the developer tho, they might be releasing a banger in the future (I hope)

This isn't quite a JRPG, but it has heavy influences from the genre. The devs are I believe a Colombian studio and this was their first project, I'm not sure if they released anything else. I'm told the cities in this game have references to real Colombian cities, but I haven't been to them, so I can't confirm that. The art style is unique, I prefer it over modern 3D renders, but at the same time I don't love it in terms of traditional 2D style. Still, it's nice, and I consider it a positive. Music is quite good, it's composed in the classical orchestral style. Nothing overly stands out to me so far, but it's enjoyable. Now the gameplay part is a little clunky. It's RTE style times button presses for combat. There is a time travel feature but it kind of just slows gameplay down and feels pointless, but there are some gimmicks used both in and out of combat that will require you to utilize it. I thought this could have been made more streamlined and efficient. Walking around in town and some dungeons gives you a triple split screen, with the middle being the present, and I really didn't like that much. It's not that it's unplayable, it's just distracting and didn't add anything for me. Story is okay, characters are okay, voice acting is good. I haven't finished the game yet, I do suspect I'm roughly halfway through or more however. Demo portion was pretty short but that's essentially what the game has been so far. So it will give you a good idea. Currently, the OST version is $2.50. I didn't get the OST version and paid a bit more than that, but not the full price either, I think somewhere $10 or under. At under $5, most of the complaints about price really do not apply. Honestly this would be a great giveaway game to get this dev some attention down the line, especially if they're releasing a new game. For me this will probably be a one and done, but I don't regret my purchase or time used for it either.