CrossCode (PC, 2018)
Graphics-8 Sound-8.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-7.5 Story-6.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5/8.5* Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
*Some quests and bosses
+
Unusual and fairly detailed difficulty options (damage received, enemy attack frequency, timing puzzle speed/duration - there could've been an optional hint system for the latter as well (I didn't look anything up but some really killed the pacing); can be tweaked on the fly)
Message log (pause menu, lets you review dialogue for the current area)+quest log with multiple sorting types
Pretty fast movement and combat
Skill grid (circuit) with four branches letting you choose how to build you char in some ways when leveling up with circuit points (kinda similar to FF10 and Diablo though you can also find these points like in Deus Ex, upgradeable cooldown after dodging or blocking+can speed up the special attack energy (SP) recharging). Can also respect at info centers though it's fairly expensive (but you do get one reset item per finished dungeon it seems), plus you can swap between two paths on a cardinal direction of the main grid (can't activate both however so there's a bit of strategy to picking the best paths for the situation)
Good puzzles overall (platforming and action puzzles as well as some spatial awareness puzzles and a couple of text clues (poems), ricochet path puzzles (similar to light beam puzzles in Beyond Good & Evil and Wind Waker+the ones in D/Generation) sliding blocks - Alundra & Zelda: TP, elemental ricochet puzzles, elemental+slow motion ricochet puzzles - the one at the end of the desert dungeon is really cool, electric current+block+magnet puzzles (with timing elements thrown in, incorporated into some combat), phasing/teleporter puzzles in the wave dungeon (also incorporated into most combat here, timing element, some where you teleport blocks by ricocheting off of them and into a teleporter sphere with the same shot), timing+platforming puzzle for the broken gear in sapphire ridge, new twist to the elemental puzzles in the final dungeon and it combines various previous puzzles). Occasional alternate solutions
Charged shots can ricochet as well as cause status conditions - used for puzzles
Good at making you feel vulnerable in certain segments (chase sequence near beginning, escape from vermillion, pre-final dungeon segment)
Very detailed HUD and misc settings options
Party members auto-teleport to you if you move about a screen's length away
Fight alongside CPU allies/NPC party members (can control their behavior indirectly in a few ways - three ways to focus on enemies, offensive or defensive during combat, two settings for ability usage frequency; like in Secret of Mana and pretty basic). At some points the game switches members for you and there's no inventory or gear management for them besides visiting shops to make them automatically restock/upgrade
Mostly avoidable regular encounters - can move past most enemies without triggering combat (similar to Chrono Trigger or Romancing Saga)
Can place map markers as well as see how many chests are left to find in an area (however since you can't see your exact location it can be tricky to place one exactly such as for a specific shop in the marketplace that sells a certain rarer material or item)
Combat training room
Decent-good bosses (2+ phases but some of the fights are a bit long and it can sometimes be hard to read bosses and/or their lackeys while attacking them; Good: pinzo/antlion (puzzle element w/ the bubbles), giant moth, giant snail, wave dungeon boss (phasing puzzle element), cloud monkey+cloud monkey and whale, parts of the final boss fight). More than one mini-boss per dungeon usually
Pretty frequent teleporters in each area (for fast travel via the map screen, there could've also been one at each faction HQ though)
Good overall art direction, Dialogue portraits with minor animation
Feels pretty lively at times with NPCs moving around or in a few cases traveling alongside you such as near the beginning (they tend to have a single scripted activity each though, no day/night cycle and no NPC schedules)
Party member comments during exploration don't interrupt gameplay (the lack of VA makes it fairly easy to miss them but you can pause and review their comments with l/r)
Encyclopedia and bestiary features. Pretty detailed lore which is updated as you go (the game world is not that interesting compared to the characters and "real" story however)
Some decent-good side quests (defend a tree while it's healing, the bombing one in the mine where you try to keep a swarm of enemies at bay with bombs from the high ground+there's the barrier which takes some time to open and close, wet work/gun boat - enemy waves while on a small boat+can change the element of the turret which makes it better at AoE or single targets)
Item drop magnet - Sonic 3, Item that tells you if there's a chest in the current room/sub area (Link's Awakening?, get it pretty late however)
Some interesting level design gimmicks (the bombs used to break obstacles and against enemies in the mines in that they glide on ice and can be hurled further with fire attacks+hit twice if neutral and fire attacks are combined, the fire converting symbols - used to melt ice blocks in the mines before getting the element and becomes an environmental asset to use against certain enemies, the freezing machines near the snow man boss in the gardens that you have to teleport an explosion/melting machine towards to weaken the boss, the rescue mission before the last dungeon - have to juggle protecting yourself from laser beams from above by standing in safe zones+hitting KO'd enemies into NPCs then making the lasers hit them)
Some sequence breaking opportunities here and there (via a longer jump performed by attacking then dashing right after jumping)
Interesting twist to the player char's amnesia (kinda similar to FF8 but better executed)
Can dash in-between melee combos to be able to do another one more quickly
Some hints given for optional hidden items via the NPC parties you can listen in on after dungeons
Memorable escape sequence from vermillion wasteland
Skippable in-game cutscenes (boss and sidequest intros for example) and staff roll
Some interesting gear modifiers (block from the sides+from above if stacked, knockback increase, invincibility during dashing duration upgrade, knockback resistance to weak attacks, Leaf Bracer - using Items cannot be stopped by any attacks, momentum - dashes increase damage and it stacks with more dashes (rare), once more - don't die from 1 lethal attack, pin body - counter hit when hit (Diablo), increase perfect guard (for counters) time window, X Counter - increases damage on attacking charging enemies, disable exp gain)
Decent stealth segment in the vermillion area (last bit is kind of tedious)
Battle arena (unlocked towards the end of the main game, can unlock new cups by completing side quests)
Two different endings (for the good one, Lea must befriend an Instatainment stockholder in the game right before the Vermillion Wasteland raid). Can save after beating the game and then go back to before the final dungeon to get the other ending
Can buy booster items in the late game to upgrade the enemies of each previous area but it requires some tedious ingredient grinding (some of them can only be find via certain plants that are too rare and respawn too slowly) and they're introduced a bit too late
Some decent humour (the patience trial, apollo)
New game+ with various modifiers however it's bad that you have to spend earned trophy points to "buy" them (https://crosscode.fandom.com/wiki/New_Game_Plus)
+/-
Mostly linear structure (various optional side quests including some mini-dungeons and mini-bosses - get introduced to 4 factions early on and you can choose the order in which you do their quests (can only do one per faction before you have to move on to the next dungeon though), can take a couple of different paths in hostile areas like autumn's rise but the alternate one is sometimes pretty harshly level gated (the desert area seems more linear until reaching the town there), partially non-linear dungeons at times, optional broken gear quests which take you through various mini-dungeons/instances, can choose the order in which to do two dungeons in the gardens area; can't go into the temple mine dungeon without joining lukas' guild (same in the desert area regarding joining C'tron?), get stopped by your party if you try to go to gaia's garden before a raid mission at one point, no player control over who you'll travel with, before going to the final area you can explore northern sapphire ridge or rhombus square (which has the battle arena) however you are supposed to do a quest in the former or the story won't progress)
Some ability gating via the elemental attacks (each tends to be multi-use; fire to melt ice blocks+temporarily remove water blocks and splash water spheres onto fans, ice to freeze water blocks and turn water spheres into sliding ice blocks used for certain switches+temporary platforms on lava, shock/electricity for electric currents and magnet activation, wave for phasing puzzles+teleporter puzzles and using the teleporter spheres)
Frequent checkpoints in hostile areas - respawn where you entered the room/sub area but lose the progress you made there
HP regen outside of combat
Jumping works kind of like in Zelda: OoT in that the game jumps for you as you move up against ledges and towards platform edges (snappier though and you don't need to pull yourself over ledges when climbing platforms. There's also more platforming than in most Zeldas and you retain some mid-air control which is used for various jumps so it's a bit more involved
Collectathon element to the side quests and trading for better equipment, items and materials or ingredients (many materials and ingredients; kinda similar to parts of Secret of Evermore (which it also shares some world building concepts with) as well as some later games). Minor collectathon element to the skill grid (blue ice shades).
Combat has to end before you'll level up after getting enough exp - if you're underleveled for the area it means you'll want to go out of combat once in a while to check if you're about to level up meaning your combat rank goes down
Can't aim up/down on the z-plane (would've made various combat situations too easy though)
The combat rank feature potentially encourages more aggressive play in hostile areas by increasing enemy drop rates and drop rank while the counter is ticking, however it goes down a bit too fast which doesn't gel with exploring a sub area the first time you get there+not being able to access the map while in combat leads to more memorization of enemy locations. Also can't enter the secondary menu (select - circuit/equipment/status) as it has the same effect as ending combat when it comes to the rank)
Can't use the d-pad to move (would be too limited for ranged combat aiming though)
Non-interactive dialogue. Some real-time dialogue while moving around (similar to Fallout) which you can also "engage"/interject with when prompted by the game - kinda weird how you can't manually initiate dialogue with both NPCs in some of these situations though. This interjection idea is basically abandoned after the early game but it's used well for one side quest in the late game (clues)
Avatar (the movie)-, The Matrix-, Blade Runner- and MMO-inspired theme (the PC moves around in the game world via a physical avatar, characters talk about leveling as if its part of their actual lives; some similarities thematically and aesthetically to Phantasy Star Online)
Semi-silent protagonist early on - due to a bug with your avatar body you can't talk at first but soon you'll gain a few words. Kinda funny but also contrived in that she never thinks to communicate in text
Automatic stat distribution on level up
Slower movement while aiming and the stronger aimed shots take a second or too to active (latter is similar to Deus Ex; both your movement and the timer on these can be shortened with the legwork+scope skills and gear that boosts them) but easier to aim than in Hyper Light Drifter for example
Can't move while blocking
Secret of Mana-style "quick" menu (pauses gameplay)
The open mouth expressions are pretty funny looking
Can examine some items and NPCs via the looking glass/examine feature but this is very underdeveloped and a bit slow to use - doesn't tell you anything about an NPC you're examining besides their name for example
Some modern slang (moreso for some NPCs)
Can only have two food buffs active at a time+there's a 10 second timer between each use
Some tutorials are just plain text explanations relayed by NPCs (could've put you in a simulated fight instead)
An initiated special attack is canceled if you're hit
Enemies will generally keep focusing on you even if you run pretty far away while your allies attack them
Can't change the equipment and skills of party members
Can skip a puzzle in one of the forest area caves by jumping on the stalactites instead
Dash dodge works kinda like in Hyper Light Drifter (3 times at a time then there's a cooldown, can attack during one here however and after the first dungeon you get a super dash via the fire element which doubles as an attack). Can increase them by one temporarily via a late game consumable item
Party members never come along for side/instance dungeons
A few breakable walls in the overworld but they are easy to spot and require not special attack or tool
Elemental overload mechanic (have to switch back to neutral attacks now and then to avoid it, can get tedious during longer fights where you have to stick to one element because of the cooldown period on consumables (which slow it down) and no quick cure if you do get overloaded)
Some timing puzzles are easier w/ M&KB controls because you can aim quicker (on the other hand movement seems harder in certain situations)
Can't use guard to cancel the fourth slash in a combo
Static difficulty (sometimes leads to either grinding or spongy enemies/bosses - you get a recommended level per quest and dungeon but that's it)
No rivalry between the factions and it takes a long time before you raise your rank or gain access to something new within a faction's HQ? Harbor questlines become inactive while in the bergen and desert areas, then activate again
Can't swim
Can't influence the makeup of the three teams the party splits up into for the final quest in vermillion
Post-game reunion (and maybe some exposition about the company making the game in the game?) is DLC locked
Unskippable tutorial during intro gameplay?
Some dynamic difficulty balancing (gain more exp if underleveled) - good on paper but I still ended up having to grind a couple of times and do some side quests I didn't really care for (tbf I could've lowered the difficulty but 20% less damage taken per step on the slider is a lot)
-
Some control/interface issues (no full control config for gamepad on PC - only for keyboard (would've been better to map blocking to L2/R2 as the game now has 3 separate buttons for menu access), can't change directions and dodge at the same time - makes it a little clunky to dodge backwards during a melee combo, fall off of ledges and into water/pits if standing near them and attacking towards them, little to no invincibility time after taking a hit (makes the later duels against apollo/green-haired guy and certain boss attacks pretty frustrating), can't see your avatar when behind certain buildings/trees/other objects outdoors so they can get in the way visually during combat or platforming - the game has a system for making foreground objects transparent so why not use it consistently?, no mini-map+no direct hotkey to it on a controller, can't place text notes on the map and some of the icons you can place are too non-descriptive (what an icon represents isn't shown until it's placed), map doesn't show any topology within rooms/sub areas+can't see your exact current location in a room/sub area so placing a map marker properly can get tedious (if you could it would help with mapping out enemy locations for keeping a high rank and more specific routes towards high ground locations), sometimes lacking item or feature descriptions - green leaf tea/direct link that schneider mentions, can't dash into a ledge and have your avatar jump like in OoT - not sure why as it's more conducive to good flow, changed party member behavior goes back to your previous setting after dying unless you saved in-between, can't review what was said about a quest - have to revisit the questgiver, the camera occasionally pans to a dying enemy or to a boss performing an attack while you're trying to dodge an attack (during the rooftop crate loading quest it tends to focus on the magnets which is unnecessary as the game already shows their location at the edge of the screen - makes combat harder here), sometimes have to press triangle to speed up/skip dialogue while normally you press x, pointless yes/no prompt when pressing triangle to skip a repeated dialogue scene, can't double check a tutorial later? either that or they're hard to find, some hit box isses at the northern part of walls - pretty rare, can't open locked chests in combat mode - rare, can't switch element while being hit - leads to accidentally overloading when overwhelmed by enemies, pretty easy to get stuck on corners in some of the tight grassy paths in sapphire ridge, occasionally lacking info in the quest log - trials quest locations for example, the grid/circuit could've been more clear about where the lvl 2-3 special attacks/arts are placed at a glance+it could've let you scroll a bit faster)
Some trial & error (unexplained perfect guard move - block right as you're about to get hit (causes a guard counter which breaks the enemy's guard leaving them vulnerable to attack), you're not told that you can also block by holding down dodge - kinda awkward to block with circle while aiming+switch between shooting and blocking (can't shoot while blocking), sometimes hard to read an enemy while a party member is attacking them - for example when lea is doing a "beatdown" an enemy can still be charging up an attack, sometimes hard to see where you can and can't jump/climb in some areas, the combat rank going down quickly can lead to some overleveling when going for drops requiring an A or S rank - kinda have to memorize a route through an area that will keep your rank up for long enough since you can't simply move between two rooms/sub areas and have enemies respawn at the transition point, occasionally hard to tell if a platform is higher than the one you're on, several of the ricochet puzzles in the desert area make you throw at switches that are off screen (one of the desert dungeon puzzles as well, part of the gardens area as well) - should've let you view a bit further around you with the right stick, only an aimed shot interrupts billston's eating while fighting him - not melee attacks, bad directions for the traders kontor - new metal quest, unwinnable mountaintop fight in the mid-late game - lose used consumables, dealing with the virus/anti-virus robots in vermillion wasteland, can't trade back a piece of gear for the ingredients it took to buy it so it's possible to waste resources on something you'll find later in a quest, last phase of the Henry fight - no good hint that you're supposed to make the enemies hit the device, sometimes not having a good overview of a room makes it much harder to figure out or execute on a puzzle)
10 second timer after using any buff or healing item - can't use a healing item right after a buff item (potentially good for balance but the first healing items don't heal you enough and the first regen ones kinda suck). A bit much considering there's also a delay where you have to stand still and not get hit to heal/buff with better items taking longer to use as well. There are shoes that let you continue eating something even if you get hit but you can only get them in the late-game (Lead boots (leaf bracer modifier), Sapphire Ridge). The shock special attacks that slow down enemies is also acquired pretty late
Sometimes uneven difficulty curve (Spikes: final boss' last phases, kinda steep in the first hostile area after the intro (forest/autumn's rise) - pretty much have to grind a couple of levels here and if trying to take out the blue hedgehog mini-boss in the SW that's not even enough as it can still take you out in about 3 hits, the crate defense mission in the desert area (you're supposed to pick up both party members before trying it), billston 2nd fight after the desert dungeon unless you bring the other party members, turret boat/wet work quest (have to do it alone), bull on fire boss - my lvl 2 ice guard attack sometimes wouldn't work (good boss up until the last phase), blob boss in shock temple, rooftop crate loading quest (particularly at the end where you can't use crates as cover), optional "don't use this" boss, steamy challenge mini-game; Dips: cat quest before the garden dungeons, pole quest in the gardens, most of the trials quest)
Various tedious aspects (lvl 2-3 special attacks can be interrupted/overriden by various enemies and you still waste the special points, have to grind to be at the recommended level for the garden temple dungeons (the game says your average stats should be 180+), some grinding for ingredients to trade for gear (which is more significant than the grid upgrades here in terms of stats), various instances of longer backtracking from missing a single jump and falling down during platforming segments - could've made you take some damage from something and put you back where you were or let you buy an item that let you go back to the previous platform (or it could've let you open up shortcuts here and there such as at the one-way paths between some sub areas/rooms, or you could've gained a movement ability in the late game), overly wordy dialogue early on, the early side quests are generally of a pretty lame MMO/Diablo-like variety (fetch x items, kill x enemies; the tree healing one could've been both more mechanically and visually interesting - see Okami), can't simply ask some NPC about recently talked about areas or features nor a random NPC in the same area if they've seen an NPC you're looking for (some don't show up in the encyclopedia, the wireless comm system could've also been used), you'll sometimes knock enemies down to a lower platform when you don't want to - leads to going down and then backtracking to get back up if you want to keep rank, overly expensive items in rookie's harbor and later on in terms of materials considering most of them also aren't that good, sometimes unnecessary "stand on the key-marked pad and shoot the door" aspect to opening locked dungeon doors early on (later it's used for minor puzzles), drop rates tied to higher rank+short rank timers that can't be extended+infrequent enemy placements, some puzzles are more time consuming than challenging/engaging and there are a few too many of them in the dungeons, unnecessary backtracking for chests that you've found and found the way to because you have to beat an area's dungeon to get a universal key for that area (chests might also be a higher tier in an earlier area so you'll have to remember the chest way later on - can't place a specific map icon for each chest type), the bomb dispenser droid sometimes switches to your other side just as you're about to hit it with a charged shot, the "fall to the floor below" puzzle in the desert dungeon leads to some backtracking and so does 1-2 other puzzles in that dungeon - a couple of warp points would've solved this, the interactive flashback scene after the desert dungeon feels pointless - you just walk into a bunch of dead ends in a cave, sometimes feels like a detour simulator in how you can never find a straightforward path to a destination placed on higher ground, being able to knock the probe out of its beacon placement during that side quest in autumn's fall+being able to hit it while it's behind you so it get knocked the wrong way, sometimes spongy/drawn out bosses (cursed sharkster, new metal quest, first phase of the final boss fight and to a lesser extent the second), if you did the western/shock dungeon in the gardens first then you have to do two dungeons in a row as there's not much else you can do in-between (need wave element) - after that there's yet another dungeon and then no dungeon in the next area, conclusion of waves room puzzle is basically just memorization+some execution, symmetry room puzzles in the last garden dungeon - annoying timing, mandatory tracking segment in the waterfall backyard where you have to take a specific memorized path through several rooms to get to a duel with Shizuka, overly slow exp gain in the final area+dungeon, kinda slow quadruple version of the elemental mini-bosses in the final dungeon - long downtime when trying to avoid overloading)
Can't play as the other party members (SoM/Evermore, Tales of Eternia, FF12, etc) and there's no 2-player mode
Generally can't fight one enemy at a time so as to maintain a more dynamic mix of exploration, platforming and fighting (and most take a decent number of hits to kill until you've leveled up a few times in an area). In dungeons this can hurt the pacing as you'll solve 3+ puzzles in a row, fight some enemies in a separate room, then go back to puzzles (you're also hit with a bit of a lore dump after beating each dungeon instead of finding some at a time during exploration, in some dungeons you also walk into combat gauntlets in-between puzzles which makes the experience feel even more artificially segmented). It also feels more gamey than for example a Zelda or Metroid game
Some plot/world building oddities (can't actually order anything at the bar in rookie harbor, can jump over counters in shops etc. without a reaction) and immersion-breaking aspects (exclamation marks above quest giving NPCs, quest tables popping up where the quest is explained before an NPC even told you the quest in the actual conversation, kinda weird how generic NPCs have greyed out portraits, various NPCs in the first town can't be talked to including even some shopkeepers/receptions, weird how the animal incident in the rookie village keeps getting investigated for so long, sergey says he tried to minimize contact with lea during the wasteland segment to avoid tracking but really he contacted you with about the same frequency as before)
Mostly non-interactive town environments (doodads)
Can't heal a party member - they heal themselves and have their own item inventory (would be fine if they did it properly or you could set their behavior to escape and heal when near death) - seemed like more of an issue earlier on in the game though
Game keeps going and auto-saves after failing against Apollo (green-haired rival guy) - you only lose some exp and an achievement however
Sometimes kinda weak rewards for side quests (crap reward for the extra frosty platforming challenge (gotta do the timed one), no reward for doing the battle arena challenges in nesting grounds and it's pretty meh (only one enemy type and it doesn't get challenging until the end of it, no changing of the arena layout while fighting - see HK))
The vermillion wasteland area's gimmicks aren't that interesting
Backgrounds sometimes look a bit amateurish (too much of a color differentiation between plants and other objects compared to the ground and they sometimes don't look grounded in the environment but more like placed assets on a grid; becomes most obvious in the desert area with the more dynamic outlook point showing the dungeon when compared to most of the rest of the area)
Not enough useful gear to buy in the vermillion and basin keep areas (would've been good if some of the gear here either had more modifiers or you could buy or craft (with previous gear) upgrades for them)
Enemies/wildlife don't appear to be doing anything natural in the environments as you see them and some like the birds in the desert just hover in place (a bit immersion-breaking). Somewhat countered by the fact that it's supposed to be an early access game inside a game though
Sapphire ridge is a bit too similar to previous areas
One quest log issue near the end of chapter 9 - says you can go to either of two areas when you should go to northern sapphire ridge
One of the villains' suiciding could've been more impactful if you didn't know so little about him and the way the other guy nonchalantly walks away is kind of anticlimactic
The story takes quite a while to really get going
Notes:
-Apparently on PC you can edit an enemy's .json file to lower the rank needed and/or the probability for it to drop a certain item though you'll also have to look up which number represents the item you want
-Beat it at lvl 59
Bugs:
-Inconsistent physics during one of the bomb puzzles on b4 of the mines dungeon where you can't perform a second push of the bomb unless at the exact right angle and bouncing it in the right way with the first hit (otherwise it just blows up as if you hit it in melee)
-The mines aren't completely reliable - sometimes they don't trigger or take too long to trigger when near an enemy (and the enemy can be literally pushing against them)
-Encountered a bug in the western garden dungeon where after beating the enemy gauntlet I couldn't proceed because the laser barrier in front of the locked door wouldn't open (had to reload from title and fight the orcas one more time)
-In the same dungeon the game auto-saved in my latest manual slot after using a teleporter in a dungeon+when passing through certain doors (should've used the auto-save slot instead
-In the conclusion of waves room (wave dungeon) you can't use the triangle wall while the projectile is moving in slow motion (have to use the room's wall instead) - starts working again after it dissipates
-During the rooftop crate loading quest I had an issue with the green crate sometimes not teleporting as well as birds sometimes positioning themselves on top of crates when entering the arena so I couldn't reach them with attacks
-Not sure if bug or oversight but the game didn't acknowledge me using and activating a booster for the first area during the ending
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5/8.5* Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
*Some quests and bosses
+
Unusual and fairly detailed difficulty options (damage received, enemy attack frequency, timing puzzle speed/duration - there could've been an optional hint system for the latter as well (I didn't look anything up but some really killed the pacing); can be tweaked on the fly)
Message log (pause menu, lets you review dialogue for the current area)+quest log with multiple sorting types
Pretty fast movement and combat
Skill grid (circuit) with four branches letting you choose how to build you char in some ways when leveling up with circuit points (kinda similar to FF10 and Diablo though you can also find these points like in Deus Ex, upgradeable cooldown after dodging or blocking+can speed up the special attack energy (SP) recharging). Can also respect at info centers though it's fairly expensive (but you do get one reset item per finished dungeon it seems), plus you can swap between two paths on a cardinal direction of the main grid (can't activate both however so there's a bit of strategy to picking the best paths for the situation)
Good puzzles overall (platforming and action puzzles as well as some spatial awareness puzzles and a couple of text clues (poems), ricochet path puzzles (similar to light beam puzzles in Beyond Good & Evil and Wind Waker+the ones in D/Generation) sliding blocks - Alundra & Zelda: TP, elemental ricochet puzzles, elemental+slow motion ricochet puzzles - the one at the end of the desert dungeon is really cool, electric current+block+magnet puzzles (with timing elements thrown in, incorporated into some combat), phasing/teleporter puzzles in the wave dungeon (also incorporated into most combat here, timing element, some where you teleport blocks by ricocheting off of them and into a teleporter sphere with the same shot), timing+platforming puzzle for the broken gear in sapphire ridge, new twist to the elemental puzzles in the final dungeon and it combines various previous puzzles). Occasional alternate solutions
Charged shots can ricochet as well as cause status conditions - used for puzzles
Good at making you feel vulnerable in certain segments (chase sequence near beginning, escape from vermillion, pre-final dungeon segment)
Very detailed HUD and misc settings options
Party members auto-teleport to you if you move about a screen's length away
Fight alongside CPU allies/NPC party members (can control their behavior indirectly in a few ways - three ways to focus on enemies, offensive or defensive during combat, two settings for ability usage frequency; like in Secret of Mana and pretty basic). At some points the game switches members for you and there's no inventory or gear management for them besides visiting shops to make them automatically restock/upgrade
Mostly avoidable regular encounters - can move past most enemies without triggering combat (similar to Chrono Trigger or Romancing Saga)
Can place map markers as well as see how many chests are left to find in an area (however since you can't see your exact location it can be tricky to place one exactly such as for a specific shop in the marketplace that sells a certain rarer material or item)
Combat training room
Decent-good bosses (2+ phases but some of the fights are a bit long and it can sometimes be hard to read bosses and/or their lackeys while attacking them; Good: pinzo/antlion (puzzle element w/ the bubbles), giant moth, giant snail, wave dungeon boss (phasing puzzle element), cloud monkey+cloud monkey and whale, parts of the final boss fight). More than one mini-boss per dungeon usually
Pretty frequent teleporters in each area (for fast travel via the map screen, there could've also been one at each faction HQ though)
Good overall art direction, Dialogue portraits with minor animation
Feels pretty lively at times with NPCs moving around or in a few cases traveling alongside you such as near the beginning (they tend to have a single scripted activity each though, no day/night cycle and no NPC schedules)
Party member comments during exploration don't interrupt gameplay (the lack of VA makes it fairly easy to miss them but you can pause and review their comments with l/r)
Encyclopedia and bestiary features. Pretty detailed lore which is updated as you go (the game world is not that interesting compared to the characters and "real" story however)
Some decent-good side quests (defend a tree while it's healing, the bombing one in the mine where you try to keep a swarm of enemies at bay with bombs from the high ground+there's the barrier which takes some time to open and close, wet work/gun boat - enemy waves while on a small boat+can change the element of the turret which makes it better at AoE or single targets)
Item drop magnet - Sonic 3, Item that tells you if there's a chest in the current room/sub area (Link's Awakening?, get it pretty late however)
Some interesting level design gimmicks (the bombs used to break obstacles and against enemies in the mines in that they glide on ice and can be hurled further with fire attacks+hit twice if neutral and fire attacks are combined, the fire converting symbols - used to melt ice blocks in the mines before getting the element and becomes an environmental asset to use against certain enemies, the freezing machines near the snow man boss in the gardens that you have to teleport an explosion/melting machine towards to weaken the boss, the rescue mission before the last dungeon - have to juggle protecting yourself from laser beams from above by standing in safe zones+hitting KO'd enemies into NPCs then making the lasers hit them)
Some sequence breaking opportunities here and there (via a longer jump performed by attacking then dashing right after jumping)
Interesting twist to the player char's amnesia (kinda similar to FF8 but better executed)
Can dash in-between melee combos to be able to do another one more quickly
Some hints given for optional hidden items via the NPC parties you can listen in on after dungeons
Memorable escape sequence from vermillion wasteland
Skippable in-game cutscenes (boss and sidequest intros for example) and staff roll
Some interesting gear modifiers (block from the sides+from above if stacked, knockback increase, invincibility during dashing duration upgrade, knockback resistance to weak attacks, Leaf Bracer - using Items cannot be stopped by any attacks, momentum - dashes increase damage and it stacks with more dashes (rare), once more - don't die from 1 lethal attack, pin body - counter hit when hit (Diablo), increase perfect guard (for counters) time window, X Counter - increases damage on attacking charging enemies, disable exp gain)
Decent stealth segment in the vermillion area (last bit is kind of tedious)
Battle arena (unlocked towards the end of the main game, can unlock new cups by completing side quests)
Two different endings (for the good one, Lea must befriend an Instatainment stockholder in the game right before the Vermillion Wasteland raid). Can save after beating the game and then go back to before the final dungeon to get the other ending
Can buy booster items in the late game to upgrade the enemies of each previous area but it requires some tedious ingredient grinding (some of them can only be find via certain plants that are too rare and respawn too slowly) and they're introduced a bit too late
Some decent humour (the patience trial, apollo)
New game+ with various modifiers however it's bad that you have to spend earned trophy points to "buy" them (https://crosscode.fandom.com/wiki/New_Game_Plus)
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Mostly linear structure (various optional side quests including some mini-dungeons and mini-bosses - get introduced to 4 factions early on and you can choose the order in which you do their quests (can only do one per faction before you have to move on to the next dungeon though), can take a couple of different paths in hostile areas like autumn's rise but the alternate one is sometimes pretty harshly level gated (the desert area seems more linear until reaching the town there), partially non-linear dungeons at times, optional broken gear quests which take you through various mini-dungeons/instances, can choose the order in which to do two dungeons in the gardens area; can't go into the temple mine dungeon without joining lukas' guild (same in the desert area regarding joining C'tron?), get stopped by your party if you try to go to gaia's garden before a raid mission at one point, no player control over who you'll travel with, before going to the final area you can explore northern sapphire ridge or rhombus square (which has the battle arena) however you are supposed to do a quest in the former or the story won't progress)
Some ability gating via the elemental attacks (each tends to be multi-use; fire to melt ice blocks+temporarily remove water blocks and splash water spheres onto fans, ice to freeze water blocks and turn water spheres into sliding ice blocks used for certain switches+temporary platforms on lava, shock/electricity for electric currents and magnet activation, wave for phasing puzzles+teleporter puzzles and using the teleporter spheres)
Frequent checkpoints in hostile areas - respawn where you entered the room/sub area but lose the progress you made there
HP regen outside of combat
Jumping works kind of like in Zelda: OoT in that the game jumps for you as you move up against ledges and towards platform edges (snappier though and you don't need to pull yourself over ledges when climbing platforms. There's also more platforming than in most Zeldas and you retain some mid-air control which is used for various jumps so it's a bit more involved
Collectathon element to the side quests and trading for better equipment, items and materials or ingredients (many materials and ingredients; kinda similar to parts of Secret of Evermore (which it also shares some world building concepts with) as well as some later games). Minor collectathon element to the skill grid (blue ice shades).
Combat has to end before you'll level up after getting enough exp - if you're underleveled for the area it means you'll want to go out of combat once in a while to check if you're about to level up meaning your combat rank goes down
Can't aim up/down on the z-plane (would've made various combat situations too easy though)
The combat rank feature potentially encourages more aggressive play in hostile areas by increasing enemy drop rates and drop rank while the counter is ticking, however it goes down a bit too fast which doesn't gel with exploring a sub area the first time you get there+not being able to access the map while in combat leads to more memorization of enemy locations. Also can't enter the secondary menu (select - circuit/equipment/status) as it has the same effect as ending combat when it comes to the rank)
Can't use the d-pad to move (would be too limited for ranged combat aiming though)
Non-interactive dialogue. Some real-time dialogue while moving around (similar to Fallout) which you can also "engage"/interject with when prompted by the game - kinda weird how you can't manually initiate dialogue with both NPCs in some of these situations though. This interjection idea is basically abandoned after the early game but it's used well for one side quest in the late game (clues)
Avatar (the movie)-, The Matrix-, Blade Runner- and MMO-inspired theme (the PC moves around in the game world via a physical avatar, characters talk about leveling as if its part of their actual lives; some similarities thematically and aesthetically to Phantasy Star Online)
Semi-silent protagonist early on - due to a bug with your avatar body you can't talk at first but soon you'll gain a few words. Kinda funny but also contrived in that she never thinks to communicate in text
Automatic stat distribution on level up
Slower movement while aiming and the stronger aimed shots take a second or too to active (latter is similar to Deus Ex; both your movement and the timer on these can be shortened with the legwork+scope skills and gear that boosts them) but easier to aim than in Hyper Light Drifter for example
Can't move while blocking
Secret of Mana-style "quick" menu (pauses gameplay)
The open mouth expressions are pretty funny looking
Can examine some items and NPCs via the looking glass/examine feature but this is very underdeveloped and a bit slow to use - doesn't tell you anything about an NPC you're examining besides their name for example
Some modern slang (moreso for some NPCs)
Can only have two food buffs active at a time+there's a 10 second timer between each use
Some tutorials are just plain text explanations relayed by NPCs (could've put you in a simulated fight instead)
An initiated special attack is canceled if you're hit
Enemies will generally keep focusing on you even if you run pretty far away while your allies attack them
Can't change the equipment and skills of party members
Can skip a puzzle in one of the forest area caves by jumping on the stalactites instead
Dash dodge works kinda like in Hyper Light Drifter (3 times at a time then there's a cooldown, can attack during one here however and after the first dungeon you get a super dash via the fire element which doubles as an attack). Can increase them by one temporarily via a late game consumable item
Party members never come along for side/instance dungeons
A few breakable walls in the overworld but they are easy to spot and require not special attack or tool
Elemental overload mechanic (have to switch back to neutral attacks now and then to avoid it, can get tedious during longer fights where you have to stick to one element because of the cooldown period on consumables (which slow it down) and no quick cure if you do get overloaded)
Some timing puzzles are easier w/ M&KB controls because you can aim quicker (on the other hand movement seems harder in certain situations)
Can't use guard to cancel the fourth slash in a combo
Static difficulty (sometimes leads to either grinding or spongy enemies/bosses - you get a recommended level per quest and dungeon but that's it)
No rivalry between the factions and it takes a long time before you raise your rank or gain access to something new within a faction's HQ? Harbor questlines become inactive while in the bergen and desert areas, then activate again
Can't swim
Can't influence the makeup of the three teams the party splits up into for the final quest in vermillion
Post-game reunion (and maybe some exposition about the company making the game in the game?) is DLC locked
Unskippable tutorial during intro gameplay?
Some dynamic difficulty balancing (gain more exp if underleveled) - good on paper but I still ended up having to grind a couple of times and do some side quests I didn't really care for (tbf I could've lowered the difficulty but 20% less damage taken per step on the slider is a lot)
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Some control/interface issues (no full control config for gamepad on PC - only for keyboard (would've been better to map blocking to L2/R2 as the game now has 3 separate buttons for menu access), can't change directions and dodge at the same time - makes it a little clunky to dodge backwards during a melee combo, fall off of ledges and into water/pits if standing near them and attacking towards them, little to no invincibility time after taking a hit (makes the later duels against apollo/green-haired guy and certain boss attacks pretty frustrating), can't see your avatar when behind certain buildings/trees/other objects outdoors so they can get in the way visually during combat or platforming - the game has a system for making foreground objects transparent so why not use it consistently?, no mini-map+no direct hotkey to it on a controller, can't place text notes on the map and some of the icons you can place are too non-descriptive (what an icon represents isn't shown until it's placed), map doesn't show any topology within rooms/sub areas+can't see your exact current location in a room/sub area so placing a map marker properly can get tedious (if you could it would help with mapping out enemy locations for keeping a high rank and more specific routes towards high ground locations), sometimes lacking item or feature descriptions - green leaf tea/direct link that schneider mentions, can't dash into a ledge and have your avatar jump like in OoT - not sure why as it's more conducive to good flow, changed party member behavior goes back to your previous setting after dying unless you saved in-between, can't review what was said about a quest - have to revisit the questgiver, the camera occasionally pans to a dying enemy or to a boss performing an attack while you're trying to dodge an attack (during the rooftop crate loading quest it tends to focus on the magnets which is unnecessary as the game already shows their location at the edge of the screen - makes combat harder here), sometimes have to press triangle to speed up/skip dialogue while normally you press x, pointless yes/no prompt when pressing triangle to skip a repeated dialogue scene, can't double check a tutorial later? either that or they're hard to find, some hit box isses at the northern part of walls - pretty rare, can't open locked chests in combat mode - rare, can't switch element while being hit - leads to accidentally overloading when overwhelmed by enemies, pretty easy to get stuck on corners in some of the tight grassy paths in sapphire ridge, occasionally lacking info in the quest log - trials quest locations for example, the grid/circuit could've been more clear about where the lvl 2-3 special attacks/arts are placed at a glance+it could've let you scroll a bit faster)
Some trial & error (unexplained perfect guard move - block right as you're about to get hit (causes a guard counter which breaks the enemy's guard leaving them vulnerable to attack), you're not told that you can also block by holding down dodge - kinda awkward to block with circle while aiming+switch between shooting and blocking (can't shoot while blocking), sometimes hard to read an enemy while a party member is attacking them - for example when lea is doing a "beatdown" an enemy can still be charging up an attack, sometimes hard to see where you can and can't jump/climb in some areas, the combat rank going down quickly can lead to some overleveling when going for drops requiring an A or S rank - kinda have to memorize a route through an area that will keep your rank up for long enough since you can't simply move between two rooms/sub areas and have enemies respawn at the transition point, occasionally hard to tell if a platform is higher than the one you're on, several of the ricochet puzzles in the desert area make you throw at switches that are off screen (one of the desert dungeon puzzles as well, part of the gardens area as well) - should've let you view a bit further around you with the right stick, only an aimed shot interrupts billston's eating while fighting him - not melee attacks, bad directions for the traders kontor - new metal quest, unwinnable mountaintop fight in the mid-late game - lose used consumables, dealing with the virus/anti-virus robots in vermillion wasteland, can't trade back a piece of gear for the ingredients it took to buy it so it's possible to waste resources on something you'll find later in a quest, last phase of the Henry fight - no good hint that you're supposed to make the enemies hit the device, sometimes not having a good overview of a room makes it much harder to figure out or execute on a puzzle)
10 second timer after using any buff or healing item - can't use a healing item right after a buff item (potentially good for balance but the first healing items don't heal you enough and the first regen ones kinda suck). A bit much considering there's also a delay where you have to stand still and not get hit to heal/buff with better items taking longer to use as well. There are shoes that let you continue eating something even if you get hit but you can only get them in the late-game (Lead boots (leaf bracer modifier), Sapphire Ridge). The shock special attacks that slow down enemies is also acquired pretty late
Sometimes uneven difficulty curve (Spikes: final boss' last phases, kinda steep in the first hostile area after the intro (forest/autumn's rise) - pretty much have to grind a couple of levels here and if trying to take out the blue hedgehog mini-boss in the SW that's not even enough as it can still take you out in about 3 hits, the crate defense mission in the desert area (you're supposed to pick up both party members before trying it), billston 2nd fight after the desert dungeon unless you bring the other party members, turret boat/wet work quest (have to do it alone), bull on fire boss - my lvl 2 ice guard attack sometimes wouldn't work (good boss up until the last phase), blob boss in shock temple, rooftop crate loading quest (particularly at the end where you can't use crates as cover), optional "don't use this" boss, steamy challenge mini-game; Dips: cat quest before the garden dungeons, pole quest in the gardens, most of the trials quest)
Various tedious aspects (lvl 2-3 special attacks can be interrupted/overriden by various enemies and you still waste the special points, have to grind to be at the recommended level for the garden temple dungeons (the game says your average stats should be 180+), some grinding for ingredients to trade for gear (which is more significant than the grid upgrades here in terms of stats), various instances of longer backtracking from missing a single jump and falling down during platforming segments - could've made you take some damage from something and put you back where you were or let you buy an item that let you go back to the previous platform (or it could've let you open up shortcuts here and there such as at the one-way paths between some sub areas/rooms, or you could've gained a movement ability in the late game), overly wordy dialogue early on, the early side quests are generally of a pretty lame MMO/Diablo-like variety (fetch x items, kill x enemies; the tree healing one could've been both more mechanically and visually interesting - see Okami), can't simply ask some NPC about recently talked about areas or features nor a random NPC in the same area if they've seen an NPC you're looking for (some don't show up in the encyclopedia, the wireless comm system could've also been used), you'll sometimes knock enemies down to a lower platform when you don't want to - leads to going down and then backtracking to get back up if you want to keep rank, overly expensive items in rookie's harbor and later on in terms of materials considering most of them also aren't that good, sometimes unnecessary "stand on the key-marked pad and shoot the door" aspect to opening locked dungeon doors early on (later it's used for minor puzzles), drop rates tied to higher rank+short rank timers that can't be extended+infrequent enemy placements, some puzzles are more time consuming than challenging/engaging and there are a few too many of them in the dungeons, unnecessary backtracking for chests that you've found and found the way to because you have to beat an area's dungeon to get a universal key for that area (chests might also be a higher tier in an earlier area so you'll have to remember the chest way later on - can't place a specific map icon for each chest type), the bomb dispenser droid sometimes switches to your other side just as you're about to hit it with a charged shot, the "fall to the floor below" puzzle in the desert dungeon leads to some backtracking and so does 1-2 other puzzles in that dungeon - a couple of warp points would've solved this, the interactive flashback scene after the desert dungeon feels pointless - you just walk into a bunch of dead ends in a cave, sometimes feels like a detour simulator in how you can never find a straightforward path to a destination placed on higher ground, being able to knock the probe out of its beacon placement during that side quest in autumn's fall+being able to hit it while it's behind you so it get knocked the wrong way, sometimes spongy/drawn out bosses (cursed sharkster, new metal quest, first phase of the final boss fight and to a lesser extent the second), if you did the western/shock dungeon in the gardens first then you have to do two dungeons in a row as there's not much else you can do in-between (need wave element) - after that there's yet another dungeon and then no dungeon in the next area, conclusion of waves room puzzle is basically just memorization+some execution, symmetry room puzzles in the last garden dungeon - annoying timing, mandatory tracking segment in the waterfall backyard where you have to take a specific memorized path through several rooms to get to a duel with Shizuka, overly slow exp gain in the final area+dungeon, kinda slow quadruple version of the elemental mini-bosses in the final dungeon - long downtime when trying to avoid overloading)
Can't play as the other party members (SoM/Evermore, Tales of Eternia, FF12, etc) and there's no 2-player mode
Generally can't fight one enemy at a time so as to maintain a more dynamic mix of exploration, platforming and fighting (and most take a decent number of hits to kill until you've leveled up a few times in an area). In dungeons this can hurt the pacing as you'll solve 3+ puzzles in a row, fight some enemies in a separate room, then go back to puzzles (you're also hit with a bit of a lore dump after beating each dungeon instead of finding some at a time during exploration, in some dungeons you also walk into combat gauntlets in-between puzzles which makes the experience feel even more artificially segmented). It also feels more gamey than for example a Zelda or Metroid game
Some plot/world building oddities (can't actually order anything at the bar in rookie harbor, can jump over counters in shops etc. without a reaction) and immersion-breaking aspects (exclamation marks above quest giving NPCs, quest tables popping up where the quest is explained before an NPC even told you the quest in the actual conversation, kinda weird how generic NPCs have greyed out portraits, various NPCs in the first town can't be talked to including even some shopkeepers/receptions, weird how the animal incident in the rookie village keeps getting investigated for so long, sergey says he tried to minimize contact with lea during the wasteland segment to avoid tracking but really he contacted you with about the same frequency as before)
Mostly non-interactive town environments (doodads)
Can't heal a party member - they heal themselves and have their own item inventory (would be fine if they did it properly or you could set their behavior to escape and heal when near death) - seemed like more of an issue earlier on in the game though
Game keeps going and auto-saves after failing against Apollo (green-haired rival guy) - you only lose some exp and an achievement however
Sometimes kinda weak rewards for side quests (crap reward for the extra frosty platforming challenge (gotta do the timed one), no reward for doing the battle arena challenges in nesting grounds and it's pretty meh (only one enemy type and it doesn't get challenging until the end of it, no changing of the arena layout while fighting - see HK))
The vermillion wasteland area's gimmicks aren't that interesting
Backgrounds sometimes look a bit amateurish (too much of a color differentiation between plants and other objects compared to the ground and they sometimes don't look grounded in the environment but more like placed assets on a grid; becomes most obvious in the desert area with the more dynamic outlook point showing the dungeon when compared to most of the rest of the area)
Not enough useful gear to buy in the vermillion and basin keep areas (would've been good if some of the gear here either had more modifiers or you could buy or craft (with previous gear) upgrades for them)
Enemies/wildlife don't appear to be doing anything natural in the environments as you see them and some like the birds in the desert just hover in place (a bit immersion-breaking). Somewhat countered by the fact that it's supposed to be an early access game inside a game though
Sapphire ridge is a bit too similar to previous areas
One quest log issue near the end of chapter 9 - says you can go to either of two areas when you should go to northern sapphire ridge
One of the villains' suiciding could've been more impactful if you didn't know so little about him and the way the other guy nonchalantly walks away is kind of anticlimactic
The story takes quite a while to really get going
Notes:
-Apparently on PC you can edit an enemy's .json file to lower the rank needed and/or the probability for it to drop a certain item though you'll also have to look up which number represents the item you want
-Beat it at lvl 59
Bugs:
-Inconsistent physics during one of the bomb puzzles on b4 of the mines dungeon where you can't perform a second push of the bomb unless at the exact right angle and bouncing it in the right way with the first hit (otherwise it just blows up as if you hit it in melee)
-The mines aren't completely reliable - sometimes they don't trigger or take too long to trigger when near an enemy (and the enemy can be literally pushing against them)
-Encountered a bug in the western garden dungeon where after beating the enemy gauntlet I couldn't proceed because the laser barrier in front of the locked door wouldn't open (had to reload from title and fight the orcas one more time)
-In the same dungeon the game auto-saved in my latest manual slot after using a teleporter in a dungeon+when passing through certain doors (should've used the auto-save slot instead
-In the conclusion of waves room (wave dungeon) you can't use the triangle wall while the projectile is moving in slow motion (have to use the room's wall instead) - starts working again after it dissipates
-During the rooftop crate loading quest I had an issue with the green crate sometimes not teleporting as well as birds sometimes positioning themselves on top of crates when entering the arena so I couldn't reach them with attacks
-Not sure if bug or oversight but the game didn't acknowledge me using and activating a booster for the first area during the ending