Well, this is it. Three months of free Game Pass PC, and I've beaten as many games as I could. For now, this shall mark the end. I'll talk more about Game Pass as a service in a separate blog entry. BACKGROUND:
I haven't heard of this game until I saw it on the Game Pass catalog. The art style was sufficient enough to interest me. PLOT: The events of CrossCode are set within a fictional video game (the game within a game, if you will) called CrossWorlds, a super advanced MMORPG players all over the world play. It's so advanced, it uses futuristic augmented reality tech where game elements actually exist in physical space. The game itself is styled like most traditional MMOs, with character classes, party systems, dungeons, raids, and all the usual trappings, but with a more sci-fi flair. CrossCode focuses on a girl named Lea, an avatar within CrossWorlds who has no memory of her real life, and lacks the ability to speak. Aided by a man named Sergey, she plays through the main campaign of CrossWorlds in search of answers. Along the way, she makes some friends, and she gradually uncovers her past, and how it connects to CrossWorlds itself. I found the story super interesting, not only because the entire mystery surrounding Lea was quite intriguing, but how CrossWorlds itself figures into the whole plot. Funny enough, CrossWorlds has its own lore, and while it's a basic RPG plot, it actually has little to do with the main tale of finding out who Lea is. Rather, the more important thing about CrossWorlds are the behind-the-scenes aspects of the game, like the game studio behind it, real-life events that influenced the game's development, and the real-world people involved. The story takes quite a while to get going, and the pacing is quite uneven at points (Chapter 8 in particular was a dead stop, which I found quite glaring), but seeing how all those outside elements relate to Lea's past ended up being a fascinating tale. Despite not being able to communicate verbally, Lea is a solid protagonist, able to fully express her emotions (and communicate her kind, caring personality) nonverbally. Seeing her attempts at communicating with the other players she encounters is both charming and a bit heartbreaking to see. The big reveal about her past (and how she handles regaining her memories) makes Lea all the more compelling, and I really wanted to see what would happen next after I got to that point. The other characters aren't as fleshed out, but they have distinct personalities and serve their function as the foil to Lea's silence (and the source of exposition) well. Some of them are a bit over-the-top, but when you think about how these are real-life players turning up their personality in-game, it kind of makes sense. I enjoyed a lot of the interactions between the supporting cast and Lea; there's a good amount of humor, but there are also more serious emotional moments on occasion. PRESENTATION: CrossCode's visuals feel like they were ripped straight out of the mid-'90s, sporting a 16-bit aesthetic that reminds me of games like Breath of Fire. The game's sprites have significantly more detail and depth than the era the visuals are inspired by, and the polish is quite evident with the character portraits and the fluid animations. A lot of the game's designs are pretty inspired. The characters have a clear sci-fi look to them, there's a good amount of variety to the environments, and a lot of the enemy designs are weird in a good way. The music isn't as much of a nostalgia trip as the graphics, but nonetheless, I thought the soundtrack was great. There's a good mix of more somber tracks for emotional moments, upbeat battle themes, and ambient tracks for the dungeons, and I enjoyed listening to a lot of them. GAMEPLAY: As a whole, CrossCode is top-down action RPG (kinda like classic Zelda), but its gameplay can be split up into a few distinct parts: exploration, combat, and puzzles. Exploration is pretty straightforward. You get to explore a pretty large, interconnected world, where you can encounter enemies in the overworld, find secret chests, and get item drops by chopping down plants. Per usual, you'll find shops and trading areas, talk to NPCs who can give you quests, and even solve mini-puzzles to unlock other sections of the overworld. Though you'll mainly be walking around, there are plenty of opportunities to jump to and fro to explore the world. Unlike most games where jump is a dedicated button, you auto-jump onto low enough ledges and across small gaps. It's quite fun to explore the game this way, and there are plenty of platforming sections that take full advantage of the jumping, as well as areas with a surprising amount of verticality. Plus, a lot of the game's secrets are found by jumping about, so there's incentive to get on top of things. Lea's combat abilities consist of a swift, three-hit melee combo, a projectile that can be aimed with the right stick, a charged version of the projectile that can ricochet off surfaces, a front-facing shield that can block a certain amount of damage, and a quick dash/evade. It's pretty straightforward, but beneath the simple surface of the mechanics hides surprisingly deep combat. There are plenty of enemies to fight within CrossWorlds, and unless you're criminally overleveled, mindlessly mashing buttons isn't gonna cut it. Even the earliest enemies require a bit of thinking to take down, as many have quick attacks that can shred your health, or can only be attacked during brief windows or under certain conditions. Others still require you to inflict Break (basically a brief stun state) on them before you can hurt them. The conditions for inflicting Break also vary from enemy to enemy, giving you more things to think about in the heat of battle. Overall, the combat is the furthest thing from a pushover, and shit only escalates once you encounter gauntlets where you have to clear an entire room of enemies, or the game's assortment of bosses (more on that later). Progression is straightforward as well, with XP earned via battles or through completing side quests. Not only do your stats increase when you level up, but you also earn what's called CP, which you can spend on your skill tree. In the skill tree, you can unlock all sorts of things, like stat increases, passive buffs, and new abilities called Combat Arts. There are four Combat Arts, one for each basic ability (Melee, Guard, Dash, and Throw AKA projectile). These are usually powerful attacks that require SP and a lengthy charge-up to use, and they are quite helpful in fights. There are also multiple levels of Combat Arts, with higher levels requiring more SP to use. Another standard RPG element that exists in this game is gear. Lea has five equipment slots, and you'll be able to buy stuff for all five slots in the game's many shops. Alternatively, you can trade in item drops you get from plants or enemies and get gear that way, but with how the item drop system works, you'll be grinding a lot for the good gear. The game has a mechanic where you are more likely to get rarer drops the more enemies you kill in quick succession, but that obviously requires you to seek out a lot of fights. You can also acquire consumables the same way you get gear. Again, it's mostly standard stuff, like healing and temporary buffs. Given how challenging the combat in this game can be, you definitely want to consider having some of these handy. I say this because I'm a stubborn asshole who usually refrains from using such items, and that mentality only got me so far. As this is an MMO (in-universe), you have opportunities to party up with the supporting characters in the story. This mechanic is largely inconsequential and is only really helpful when exploring (as they can take aggro away from you in fights), but I thought it was a neat touch that you could team up with people. In order to progress the story, you have to take on the game's seven main dungeons. Not only do the dungeons give you the keys to unlock new areas, but they also unlock new sections of your skill tree. More importantly, you acquire what is perhaps the game's most interesting mechanic: elemental abilities. By default, Lea has a "neutral" mode (i.e. no elements), but once you clear dungeons and acquire the elemental modes, you'll be able to switch between the Heat, Cold, Shock, and Wave Modes. Most enemies have elemental weaknesses and resistances, and if you want to be effective in combat, you'll want to take full advantage of this. In addition, staying in one element mode leaves you vulnerable to an opposite element (e.g. you take extra damage from Heat-type attacks when you're in Cold Mode), so that's another thing to worry about during combat. While it sounds appealing to stay in a particular element mode, the game has a mechanic called Element Overload that prevents you from sticking to an element. As you perform attacks while in an element mode, a meter fills up. If it fills all the way, you enter Element Overload, and you are forced back into neutral mode. You won't be able to switch back to another element mode until the cooldown expires. It's an interesting way to balance the elements, but in practice, I found it to be a bit much given how quickly the Overload meter fills up. Each element mode also has its own separate skill tree, each with its own set of Combat Arts and such. There are plenty of unique Arts across all four elements, and the best part is that you can switch up the Arts you want to currently use freely. The elements aren't just used in combat; they're your primary puzzle-solving tool in the game's many dungeons. Each dungeon is absolutely massive and filled with challenging puzzles, and they all feature a ton of mechanics that have all sorts of unique interactions with your elemental powers. You have sliding block puzzles, angling projectile shots into switches, freezing or evaporating water, activating circuits with Shock... there's an impressive amount of variety here, and I am quite delighted by it. I was also astounded by both the amount of and the difficulty level of the puzzles in each dungeon, to the point that I felt overwhelmed at times. I can see this aspect causing a considerable amount of fatigue for many players, especially those who aren't really into puzzles. I feel like they could have paced the dungeons better and cut down on the amount of puzzles in the game, as even I (a person who is all about puzzles) got quite exhausted by the tail end of a lot of the dungeons. It's particularly bad in Chapter 8, which, for some reason, makes you go through three full dungeons pretty much in a row. If the puzzles aren't enough, each dungeon also has a bunch of tough combat-related challenges for you to contend with. Some of the fights are puzzles in themselves, integrating puzzle mechanics you've learned throughout the dungeon and using them as the enemy's kryptonite. I found this aspect both quite engaging and frustrating; on one hand, combat is made super interesting, but on the other, these types of fights really push one's multitasking abilities. Of course, it's not a dungeon without a boss at the end, and holy shit, a lot of these bosses will kick your ass. In true Zelda fashion, many of the fights will require you to use your newly-acquired knowledge and abilities in order to take the bastards down. The fights can get a bit frustrating, but if I learned anything from 120+ hours of playing Hollow Knight, it's how to be patient and learn boss patterns. The bosses are tough, but they're not unbeatable. It definitely helps to have good gear or to have a high level, though. If all my talk of difficulty or challenge has you worried, fret not, as CrossCode has an Assist Mode that allows you to lower certain aspects of the difficulty. In terms of combat, you can lower enemy damage and enemy attack frequency; from what I can tell, these do make a difference, but they don't outright trivialize fights, as you still need to make the effort to damage the enemies. You can also lower the speed of timing-based puzzle elements, and oh boy, it is a godsend. Many of the puzzles in the dungeons are timing-based, and some of the timing windows can be downright cruel. You should definitely lower this at the start; it doesn't make the puzzles easier (you still have to actually figure out the puzzle), but it makes them more lenient. Though I mainly focused on the story, there's some optional stuff you can tackle, like a smorgasbord of side quests, the Arena (a combat-focused challenge mode), finding secrets in the overworld, or just the traditional "minmax the shit out of your gear and stats." And if the main game isn't enough, you can try New Game Plus. VERDICT: While certain aspects of the game like its pacing don't sit well with me, I thought CrossCode was a fantastic experience overall. The story was fascinating, and the combination of the deep combat, fun exploration, and complex puzzles provided a solid amount of variety and a hefty amount of challenge. This game pretty much flew under the radar last year, and given how it excels in many departments, it's kind of a shame that it's not more known. I highly recommend this game for people who want an action RPG experience that both scratches the SNES-era nostalgia itch and the aforementioned challenge and variety in both combat and puzzles. I can see elements like the difficulty of combat and the amount of puzzles being a reasonable point of frustration from some players, however, so take that into consideration if that's a personal concern of yours. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it, as CrossCode has a free demo! Find out for yourself if it's a game for you and download the demo via the Steam store page: CrossCode on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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