CrossCode

For me, a large part of an RPG is the story. The game should be a vehicle for the story. In Crosscode, there is almost no story. It's driven by side quests, and this to me is terribly boring. It's the reason I don't play MMOs. Most are very dull.

The devs have poured their hearts and souls out into making a game with really satisfying controls, a combat system which I've found to be a nice healthy level of challenge and depth, as well as music and pixel art that really sucked me into the world. If the early access notice put you off, have no fear. The game is styled as an mmorpg with new areas and quests being added with each update. And the current game (0.9.2 at time of writing) has a looooot of content. In my opinion, you'd be getting your money's worth of game time as is. It's not the perfect game of course, you might find some of the fetch quests a bit disappointing, or the start of the game feeling a bit slow. But I didn't have any problems with that really. If you're having trouble, try stop and think for a sec, and use the tools available to you! This is definitely one of my favorite games. Don't miss out if you like rpgs!

So I got this game on Steam in some bundle while game was in alpha phase. I din't know which bundle but I suspect it was 20 games for 5€. Honestly, I still have no idea which 19 games I got with Lichdom Battlemage. This one might be but I really don't know. Anyway, I'm 100% I got in some bundle like this. Some way or another I saw it, checked it out and downloaded it. IIRC, I installed it on my Linux machine because this one is one of few that run on Linux back then. AND I LOVED IT. I don't rack 60h on a game which resets your progress after every patch (it was alpha). I replayed same same sections of a game a dozen times and I liked it every time. After I saw it on GOG I decided to buy it. It was on discount at the time so I thought a second and went with waiting for it to be off the discount to buy it full-price, that's how much I like the game. Now, or at least after I'm done with final assignment, I'm going to replay it again on Steam to get all the achievements there are which were off when I played it in alpha. Then I'm going to replay the game on GOG just because why not. IIRC it'll get NewGame+ (or it already has it) so I'll play it some more because I f****** like it. It's a shitty opinionated review of a fanboi (as fanboish as Wervyn) but what's there to write from technical standpoint and what isn't already said in other reviews? Game works, is fun, I suck at reviewing, I love the game. Now, if I only had free time. A lot of free time. I'd dump all of it on this.

Good controls, well streamlined game design, and fun twist on the ideas from the xenoblade series, more specifically X and 3. Any more information about how it's related would go into spoiler territory. This game isn't recommended for those who have trouble with hand-eye coordination since the combat and puzzles require decent reflexes and pattern recognition to pull off at a moment's notice. But if you feel like you can handle it, totally go for it. Other real downside is that controller support for this version isn't as flexible (ie- there's no switch controller support, and trying to play the game with one makes the game act all weird). Once you get used to it though, it's pretty smooth sailing.

This review is from ver. 0.8.5-4 BETA XMAS.- I first saw the demo on Steam Early access, played it (only the intro) and fell in love with it! Then I found it on GOG! screw that DRM BS I immediately bought it @ GOG. So far 3 areas are available, but they are HUGE. I spent nearly TEN hours on the FIRST ONE! so many side quests! challenges, traps, sub bosses to beat! then I realized I should move on.. went to the second area and turning back to the first was still useful and fun! from the start you get the ability to teleport between landmarks so you never have to walk if you don't want to. You can grind yourself to buff your stats or simply to buy better equipment! Your constant companion would be Emilinator for the most time, but you can separate and do things alone if you wish.. also tweak her general behavior in combat :) Then There's the ability unlock mechanic, it looks like the ability tree you find on Path of Exile. Some branches are not enabled yet so you can't unlock maximum abilities on this build. But it's super fun to tweak around.. The story part of the game is currently being developed but looks very interesting, the animations on Lea are Superb during the dialog with other NPC's and seen her react to everything around is awesome! Can't wait to see the end of this! My critics: Sometimes navigating the terrain is a bit confusing... specially when jumping cliffs sometimes is hard to understand what parts are actually accessible until you make the jump.. at least the first time you visit an area. Great Potential on this one! go ahead and try it!