I feel like it's a love it or hate it kind of game. It's also a really difficult game to criticize. If you have a problem with how long the game is, how most of its quests feel like generic, disconnected busywork, or how its sense of constant progression is too manipulative to be considered well designed, then that's fair. But if you were to say that any of these things were faults, someone else could just as easily argue that you're missing the point and they actually succeed in their true purpose of characterizing the MMO that the game takes place in, which is exactly the side of the fence that I'm on. CrossCode is the rare indie game that establishes a unique concept and actually ends up delivering on it. The game takes advantage of nearly everything that it establishes. The emphasis on convenience that evolves naturally from its MMO influence fits like a glove around its action RPG gameplay. Its mechanics are absolutely rock-solid from the very get-go, and there's never a single second where they aren't being expanded on in every direction. I wasn't crazy about the story- I thought it was pretty predictable and I never really found myself liking any of the characters all that much, but it's hard to deny how ambitious it is. It's got a really unique tone to it that I couldn't really see being pulled off without its particular setting, and it does reach towards some potentially interesting themes, although it doesn't flesh them out as much as I'd like it to.
I know I said that it's a difficult game to criticize, but I'm gonna try to do it anyway. The game's emphasis on convenience starts becoming a con most notably when your party members never end up feeling like real people. They respond to you instantly even when they're in the middle of something that requires a decent amount of focus, they hardly ever die, and they accept you as their leader no matter the circumstances- why would this ever happen in an MMO if I'm at a lower level than you and can't even talk? Aside from that, the game decides to absolutely neuter its pacing about 85% of the way through, which is a decision that doubly goes against what makes CrossCode a great game in the first place- it doesn't make sense contextualized either in its MMO world or outside of it.
I know I said that it's a difficult game to criticize, but I'm gonna try to do it anyway. The game's emphasis on convenience starts becoming a con most notably when your party members never end up feeling like real people. They respond to you instantly even when they're in the middle of something that requires a decent amount of focus, they hardly ever die, and they accept you as their leader no matter the circumstances- why would this ever happen in an MMO if I'm at a lower level than you and can't even talk? Aside from that, the game decides to absolutely neuter its pacing about 85% of the way through, which is a decision that doubly goes against what makes CrossCode a great game in the first place- it doesn't make sense contextualized either in its MMO world or outside of it.