im known as the crosscode guy now in my friend circles and couldnt be happier. ive sung this games praises enough but why not again on an actual backlog website!!! warning for ranting, it's really a comprehensive-ish list of my thoughts

- absolutely wonderful characters that make the story extremely compelling, lea is my favorite character in anything ever and the way she's written is. So good. So damn good!!!!! she's endearing from the start and the fact she's the most expressive character despite the obvious limitation of her muteness gets you super attached, leading into the reveals and plot twists later on hit that much harder. i will. Hold myself back, but every character is really engaging even besides lea

- to rant more about the story and world in general, i think that the concept of "playing a game inside a game" would've been really silly at first but the way it ties it in naturally through side conversations in the world and even through the main plot itself is wonderful

- specific mention for the dlc story, honestly without it id probably have a lot more gripes but the way it ties everything together is really satisfying and its just reliving to see the characters have a happy ending after like. everything in the base game. i think it goes without saying i primarily play games for their stories with few exceptions, but the dlc dungeon was my favorite in the game and exploring the new area was one of my favorite parts in general

- the gameplay is great! amazing combat that feels satisfying to master and allows for multiple playstyles - i personally didnt bother with going out of my way to grind and get equipment, so the fact there's adjustable difficulty sliders is goddamn
fantastic and i think really Every game should at least follow.

- puzzles are really difficult, i wont lie when i say i used a guide for most of them, but the execution of it still makes it challenging even without the actually Figuring it out aspect. i will say it gets a little over the top, but in addition to combat sliders, there's a setting that lets you set the speed to as low as 50% which is. A real life saver!!!

- personally, the game was pretty exhausting to get through the first time around - this is 100% due to the way i played, but fair warning that this game does have a lot of stuff to do and at base it is really tough

- i'll sing this game's praises all day (obviously), but i do have issue with the depth perception. exploring the overworld is really fun at times, but there's a lot of platforming that feels awkward and wasn't for me entirely. the depth perception mentioned before can make it really disorientating at first, and overall this game gets pretty intense, so it's important to mention

- the ost!!! good lord!!! its so very good, deniz and steel-plus did a fantastic job and there's so many tracks i can highlight. even if you're not interested in the game itself please check out the soundtrack. i think they're all worth a listen, but my personal highlights are "The Path of Justice", "Autumn's Rise", "Raid", "Temple of Thunder", and especially "Shizuka". note that some of these tracks are pretty spoilery, be sure to avoid comments if you're interested in the story!

- i still do have my gripes but the game overall is so good its a crime this game is so unpopular, i suggest anyone who's even read this far (how ??) at least give it a go through the demo or a walkthrough on youtube.