CrossCode

Excellent game, the story was incredibly engaging and both the combat and puzzles were very satisfying. I have to say I had a bit of trouble with certain difficulty spikes and the game not completely explaining some of it's mechanics but that didn't subtract from an amazing experience. Combat is some of the BEST that you can experience, it honestly is incredible that the devs managed to create such a big and incredible game with deep mechanics.

Crosscode is pixel art RPG that gets a lot of things right with some major caveats. Firstly, I loved the story. The characters and twists made is so compelling. With the story being something very personal and a life experience instead of 'saving the world' cliché, I really wanted to know more. And Emilie is simply the best character The pixel art and animations is amazing also. I think its more of a 32bit style having such detail and expressions. I appreciate that they removed the major grindy issues of this game as some "MMORPG's" tend to have The combat is engaging. There is a some button mashing enemies but you have to plan and find weak points in attacks. However there was some major downfalls on this game for me: - The dudgeons. They should be a high point but they were just so long. With some puzzles requiring perfect timing and with so many rooms, it just broke me as it because such a chore. - The balancing between zones. For instance, in the first zone you fight enemies at level 11 and could be level 12 by the time to move on. But find the enemies in the next zone to be level 16, why the 5 level gap between zones? - I know you can adjust the difficulty in the game at any moment, as I found the game very difficult but the precision needed to shoot key areas to progress is too tight and became very frustrating. - Being a top-down game and lack of depth perception I wonder if the platforming had to be such a regular occurrence due to the amount of falls - Unlike MMO's the opportunity to find great loot is so sparse and you will end up buying gear from vendors. Anyone that play MMO's know that is not what you want to do. It took me 45 hours to get though but feel it could of been a 30 hour experience and suited me better. It's a great game and expected something different then what I got. Recommended for the gaming enthusiasts out there that love huge dudgeons and a challenge.

Crosscode is a very fun Action RPG game with interesting characters, satisfying combat and good puzzles and environment. I recommend it.

CrossCode is a Retro-style RPG in pixel art. Visually it's ok, rather detailed, but I deplore a lack of personality. For comparison, Sea Of Stars and Chained Echoes are well above that. In terms of gameplay, we are dealing with rather nervous real-time combat with various elements to master which are unlocked throughout the adventure and which are cleverly well used. The originality lies in the possibility of shooting your enemies like a SHMUP. Story-wise, it’s really really slow and not gripping. The story doesn't really progress until +30 hours of play, during which a supposed mystery is created while explaining nothing to the player. Good storytelling isn't about not explaining anything for half the game, then explaining everything at once ! And it’s not the characters that raise the level. Imagine that an enssencial part of the events is based on the fact that the heroine cannot speak... but why doesn't she write ?! How can the relationship and events be defined by something so stupid... The story takes place in an mmo and the game adopts all the bad aspects. The game doesn't give you anything that makes you want to move forward. As I said, it never explains to you why you do things in order to maintain some sort of mystery, so much so that you lack real motivation. I felt **** so many times between continuing the game only because I've already spent a lot of time on it or abandoning it... The soundtrack is exactly the same as the DA. The music is nice and fits well with the environments, but again, nothing that will remain engraved in the memory. The game again gives the impression of wanting to be generic to emphasize its mmo side. And on this subject, let's talk about the side quests... 3/4 of them are FedEx quests which consist of fetching random stuffs and bringing them back for mostly uninteresting rewards. Note that certain difficult quests are repeated in each new area. This is honestly the worst thing dev's can make for an rpg. If the side quests are the big downside of the game, the dungeons and puzzles are on the contrary its very strong point. The puzzles are well designed, the dungeons are substantial and the bosses are very well thought out to make use of the new mechanics and powers. Overall, the game isn't very easy, but it's not difficult either. It is not unpleasant to go through but the fact of wanting to imitate an mmo without being one, makes it uninteresting to go between the dungeons, to the point of giving the impression of wasting your time. Plus, there is a big problem of balancing between the number of uninteresting quests to do for XP, the rewards of these quests, the level necessary to be able to advance in the adventure and the osef items that the numerous merchants offer. My credits are useless. About performance, the game apparently suffered from framerate drops 4 years ago. A patch was supposed to correct this. Well that obviously hasn't been done because the slowdowns are still there. Hard to excuse for a game of this scale... Sloppy porting?... Finally, CrossCode is neither good nor bad. The dungeons, the puzzles and the fights are well thought out, but that's not enough to make you appreciate the dozens of hours of having to go looking for trinkets here and there for uninteresting NPCs or the ABUSED skill tree. This is an overrated game and I'm asking if people who thing the story is brillant already played an Atlus game. Their head will explode.

CrossCode promises a nostalgic return to 16-bit RPGs but fails to deliver. The storyline is convoluted and the gameplay mechanics quickly become a repetitive slog. The puzzles are tedious, designed more to inflate playtime than to challenge players. The graphics and soundtrack, while initially charming, become uninspired and forgettable. In a market full of innovative indie RPGs, CrossCode misses the mark, offering an unsatisfying experience that doesn't respect players' time.