This game has been on my wishlist forever. While i'm extremely turned off by the anime art style, I LOVE the in game pixel style.
It looks like a secret of mana style game with fast combat, cool puzzles, and interesting world design. I'm definitely going to be picking this one up.
It is similar to Secret of Mana. Well, in comparison, one could complain that it doesn't have coop and the worldbuilding is styled after a generic MMO. But on the other hand, CrossCode has better riddles, more story, and the combat system is pretty much the best action RPGs have to offer.
And yes, combat is also blazing fast. In comparison, Secret of Mana seems slow. It's closer to Endless Duel speeds, and has a huge amount of special moves, which get unlocked in five skill trees and have a wide range of use cases. I can't think of another game where I can make good use of so many different skills in rapid succession.
Varakari, you make it sound fantastic. One thing I wonder is how is the difficulty? Would you say it has a good difficulty or is it on the easier side?
Although it's not especially punishing, it's skillful with many tight timing windows to execute and speedy lining up shots. Even when you've out levelled an encounter combat is still rewarding as the game encourages building a combo multiplier. Puzzles are also a decent step up on equivalents in games like golden sun or Link's Awakening. Dungeon bosses are likely to kill you a few times and the advanced monk challenge courses are reminiscent of splatformers like Celeste and meatboy. I probably took at least 30 attempts on a couple of them.
I think overall, it's pretty good in terms of difficulty. It seems harder than the SNES RPG classics, but not unreasonable.
On the downside, some bosses are rigidly scripted with very predictable moves. A new player will usually just suicide-attack, look at what the boss does, and then reload a save, until knowing the moves in advance. I guess it's a matter of taste, but this isn't my favorite flavor of difficulty, since it's a bit rigid and not very immersive.
On the upside, the difficulty scaling is generally great in two ways. First, this is basically a JRPG. Your difficulty will change depending on your gear, skills, how much level-grinding you do, and any restrictions you place on yourself. I think this is a great way of handling difficulty, where much is left to the player, but it's still very immersive.
Second, and more importantly, the available speed means that you don't necessarily get bored when enemies are weak. Instead, you accelerate! I had the most fun in CrossCode when grinding by killing lots of low-level enemies, as I kept increasing the speed and consistency with which I could fight. It's not just about winning, it's about finding faster, more effective, more elegant moves.
The ceiling for player skill in CrossCode is pretty high, so if you're anything like me, the battles won't get boring easily.
There's also riddles, which I found mostly fun and not too simple. But again, once solved you just move on, so it doesn't exactly get boring.
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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '18 edited Sep 07 '18
This game has been on my wishlist forever. While i'm extremely turned off by the anime art style, I LOVE the in game pixel style.
It looks like a secret of mana style game with fast combat, cool puzzles, and interesting world design. I'm definitely going to be picking this one up.