One of the best action puzzle RPG with simple mechanics I have ever played. What hooked me initially is how good the combat feel is specially how smooth and responsive it is. The combat really shines with elemental swapping to use different skills or to exploit weaknesses which feels really good. The skill, level and equipment progressions are refreshingly simple and not obtrusive. Rather, the game still values mechanical skill over stats.

The other hook is the mute main character herself who is quite expressive and endearing despite her limited vocabulary. Her story is quite nice as well as how the game uses its MMORPG setting wisely which is thankfully not too meta and more sincere. Side quests are strangely non-trivial which is a nice surprise. Overall, the game is well rounded exceeding my expectation for an indie game.

While I can shower this with more praise, I do have some gripes. This game has SO MANY PUZZLES that can turnoff players, but the quantity and quality kinda make this special in this genre although it is a valid pacing concern at times. The only puzzles I do not like are timed and precision based since analog aiming may not be the most accurate specially with the added pressure of enemies or bosses. Still, it is impressive the game choose its mechanics wisely and crafted so much synergy from it.

The camera with the art style can be quite unclear in terms of the Z-axis or vertical plane where it is hard to determine if a two edges are on the same level. I do wish for an accessibility option to display walkable edges and their height (perhaps with color) to mitigate this. Without some hint, platforming jumps can feel like trial-and-error and unnecessary knowledge checks.

I do like the aspect of trading instead of merely buying outright; however, it kinda feels artificial in the late game where many merchants are bundled together each with only 4 trading item limit. It does add some flavor and intentionality, I do think it can be better streamlined if the interface allowed for more. Some trades as well require an unusual large amount of craftable items bordering on unnecessary which can be an issue.

I do have some other gripes such as aim sensitivity, but overall this delivers such a great amount of value and content as well as heart which I really appreciate. Very much recommend this game and is a new personal favorite.

Cross Code is a charming VN with boring overworld combat punctuated by stellar dungeons and FANTASTIC bossfights.
The game wildly oscillates between "enemies are pushovers" to "this is one of the hardest and best bossfights I've ever experienced holy shit". The reason I remember CrossCode so fondly mostly comes down to the two bouts against Ganesh and the Garuda. I was grinning through the spectacle and intensity of the DLC penultimate encounter.
The OST was sadly hit or miss for me. BTW this game is pretty looong.
(Shoutouts to that fucker, who practically hogs the shmups.system11 forum review-subforum to himself through sheer barrage of reviewing, who kept shilling Lea.)

CrossCode has an excellent foundation for its gameplay, but is plagued by issues both big and small that prevent the game from ever taking full advantage of its strengths.

The combat is, at its core, both simple in terms of its basic functions while still delivering a very satisfying experience when pitched against the right enemies. Many of the boss fights are a genuine 10/10 in my book (almost all of them revolving around just the basic combat mechanics) but these only make up a small portion of the total game. Most of your time will be spent on the game's weaker aspects.

Navigation throughout the world is frustrated by the game's terrible depth perception, unnecessarily large size, and deliberately unhelpful map (which intentionally obscures information to force more interaction with the game's awful platforming). But just blazing through the world to get straight to the bosses is a terrible strategy because of how heavily the game relies on stats (derived from character level and equipment) rather than player skill alone, meaning even an excellent player will have to engage with a good deal of non-required content lest they wish to get bogged down in fights against enemies that can kill in one hit while barely receiving any damage in return. And once the exploration is dealt with and you're ready to take on the next boss with all your newfound gear, the temples leading up to them drag on for so long that it physically exhausted me to do them in one sitting.

Broadly speaking, while CrossCode has an excellent foundation and many isolated moments where it reaches 10/10 territory, there is some awful stuff in between those points that make the overall experience a very rough one at times. It feels like the game could have been cut down significantly and come out better as a result, but the game's systems just aren't built in a way where skipping the non-essential content is a viable path forward. CrossCode's flaws are too deeply embedded within the game for avoiding them to be a realistic option.

While I still enjoyed my time with the game overall and I'd still recommend it to most people, I can't bring myself to ignore the game's many flaws either. CrossCode can be a rough experience at times, but its still one worth getting through for the fantastic things it achieves along the way.

This game is legitimately so perfect that it actually becomes a flaw since pretty much no part of this game is underwhelming (Aside from maybe the endings), making me feel exhausted by even just singular dungeons, let alone the whole game. It was a good kind of exhaustion though, one akin to that of going on a run around the block in the morning. I respect the “Everything and the kitchen sink” approach the devs took here, because Crosscode constantly impressed me every single hour I played it. Of course, we all know that this game is a 10/10 just for Lea’s existence alone, so why should I ramble on about the perfect combat, great story, beautiful pixel graphics and charming characters. Lea is the perfect representation of all of this game’s greatness. It’s incredible how they really dropped one of the greatest gaming protagonists of all time like it was nothing.

Table Girl is one of my favorite characters in fiction.

The first several hours of this game are strong. The programmers have a very good understanding of motion/timing and know how to implement their art assets well.

I just wish the dungeons were just 30-40 percent shorter; they tend to introduce a puzzle mechanic and then just put you through a relentless barrage of increasingly annoying situations using it, until it's wrung totally dry. Also iirc lot of annoying timing based puzzles around where I gave up.

Still, interested to play their next title.