CrossCode

I had heard about CrossCode several years ago, but I try to avoid Early-Access games , even if I am looking forward to them, as I don't want to spoil the final experience. When the game was finally released, I jumped right on it and was not disappointed. The gameplay is a fantastic blend of action, exploration, and puzzles. The combat system is deep and technical, so there's more to do than just mash away at the enemy, but at the same time, it never feels overbearing. It does feel a bit fast at first, but once you get used to the pace, it makes you feel like a badass. But since most of the ordinary enemies you encounter won't attack you first, you don't have to constantly fight, instead choosing to explore. I think it's this balance that keeps the gameplay fresh, as you will be switching between action and exploration/puzzles regularly enough to keep from becoming bored of either. The pixel artwork is very well done, as it looks great, but doesn't become distracting during combat. All the areas are beautifully designed, with tons of little details that make them come alive. But for me the highlight is the character expressions, which do a fantastic job of bringing their emotions alive, and is certainly a highlight. This is especially important for the main character, Lea, as she has such a limited vocabulary. The story is also great. It's one of the few in recent memory that have left me feeling empty after it was all over, and the wonderful character interactions definitely contribute to it. The soundtrack is good. It doesn't have tracks that are quite as instantly memorable as some of the other chiptune tracks of recent games, such as Undertale or Shovel Knight, but they really do a great job of conveying the environments and story. I think in the end it just took longer to grow on me. All in all, great game, my favorite of 2018, and probably one that I'd have to add to my list of top games. Also: Hi! Hi! Lea! Bye!

The game is great, the musics, graphics, and story are all great. But what really stood out to me are a few certain boss fights. Throughout the game you'll fight a guy who has the same abilities as you (he has the same class), and those fights are brutal, but optional. If you lose, you're just a loser- you don't die, and you have to manually reload to try again. Fighting against him actually gave me a breakthrough in learning how to play. He was wiping the floor with me by use of powerful counter-attacks (IIRC), and I had to pick up a new skill (both me, the player, and my character), and then it was amazing. I started using these powerful counter-attacks myself- I would see him start to rush at me, then throw up a guard and do devastating damage. This made the fights even more exciting.

I just started playing Crosscode two weeks ago and entered the 'normal' game after the tutorial. A friend recommended this and I can already see what He meant with refined combat system. The controls and gameplay really feel nice. Maybe it is only me, but I think the 3D visualzation could be better. Or in other words: I cannot distinguish the different heights very well. Maybe it is my clouded memory of actual Snes rpgs, but I think they managed this better by choosing other color palette. Apart from that interesting story which I forward to finish!

And I don't say that lightly. It's rare that I'll openly praise something, since I'm always worried it'll embarrass me later. Technical details first. The Linux version freezes on the initial load screen on but works perfectly on Debian 11. There are a couple bugs on version 1.4.1.2 (don't want to install a later version if the current one is working) which might've been fixed, but they don't break the game. I also ran into the controller bug other people talked about, using a USB xbox controller. The game is actually playable but it'd be too much of a challenge having to hold LT at the halfway point all the time. The solution turned out to be using a Steam Controller and using the SC-Controller appimage in xbox emulation mode, just manually run the suggested commands when it complains about uinput. Okay, so this game is really, really, fun. I bought it after viewing the gameplay videos, and for no other reason. Playing it, it's obvious the devs paid a lot of attention to detail in the gameplay to make it as fun as possible without feeling like you're fighting with the controls. Switching to keyboard and mouse works seamlessly if you want it. If there's one thing I could suggest, it would be to allow LB to just be a dedicated dash button, since using B to guard works fine, and it's hard to pull off Dash Arts when holding the button at any point past a dash makes Lea guard and stop moving. The game is never too easy, and never too hard either. Don't touch the difficulty sliders. I thought the game within a game concept was fun and interesting, but could get played out quick if too many other games started copying it. And I wish they would tone down on the pop culture references more, the game can stand on its original content alone, they're just holding it back. The characters are fun, and it's nice that you can interpret them in a few different ways (hope the DLC didn't screw that up, I liked this game enough to buy that at full price).

Generally yes this is a good game, challenging, and mostly fair. I'd recommend it. Here's the critiques. 1: I prefer to get to play my own role style in a character sense(not class). In a PvE MMORPG i would not PvP. So the forced "PvP" fight story turns me off. But as it does not matter if you win or lose, i just got up and walked away to make a snack while the "cut scene" rolled. And in my mind that story and character did not exist. It would be more satisfying for me, to just ignore such a fool and not give them the satisfaction. of my attention or interaction. 2: Can't make sense of control customization plan. Game pad allows only swapping of l/r buttons, nothing else. Keyboard allows full custom (as i would expect of all controls for a PC game). But then no mouse customization. A seemingly arbitrary situation here, what gives? 3: To the designer of the Penguin boss fight. There is a special place reserved in hell for developers that take away the camera in a fight and you can be killed while unable to see yourself or the enemies that are still attacking you off screen. And the save the cargo shipment fight in the desert feels less player agency and more just luck. With many enemies at once and moving on and off the screen. Preventing them from destroying the shipment seemed more luck and need NPC party members help based, than that my efforts mattered much. All in all great work, put just a smidgen more polish on it, and i'd have thought a high exp dev with a fat bag of money made this.