Discussion You Need to Try CrossCode

[NabiscoFelt]

In the great tradition of video game forums everywhere, I have decided to make Famiboard's inaugural giant wall of text post advocating for a single video game. And warning, it is a very giant wall of text. This is actually something I've been thinking of writing up for a while, and the new board gives me an opportunity to do so and not be lost to the third page and beyond.

Because we only have two pages. (Belated Edit: It is now lost to the third page and beyond)

Anyways, let's talk about one of my absolute favorite video games of all time.

This review will be broken up into sections based on each thing I feel like talking about. It will be as spoiler-free as possible but I'll be making general references to mechanics so if you're really adverse to spoilers and feel like taking a random guy on the Internet at his word, just go play the game.

If you're still here, let's start with

A General Overview​

Yes this deserves its own section

CrossCode is an indie action RPG developed by Radical Fish Games. The game takes place in an MMO named CrossWorlds, which means that, yes, this is technically an isekai. Don't hold that against it. CrossWorlds takes place on a physical planet, with the MMO built on top of the planet's existing geography, so the setting also has a sci-fi tinge to it; it's not just an MMO, it's a future MMO. The game features fast paced combat, fun and engaging exploration, plenty of stats, gear, and sidequests, dungeons, and more puzzles than you can shake a weird disc-weapon-thing at. We'll talk more about each of those later on. Firstly though

Story, Characters, and World​

Characters​

You play as Lea, an "Avatar", or player character in the CrossWorlds MMO, who's lost her memory and needs to play through the game to regain it. Due to a technical issue, she's also essentially a silent protagonist, though she can say a handful of words that increase as the story goes on (what?? A silent protagonist with amnesia? This has never been done before! Ok I promise it's better than it sounds). Lea's guide throughout this whole process is a programmer named Sergei, who's back in the real world trying to help Lea regain her memory. He serves as your primary point of contact throughout the story and drives much of the plot development.

Lea's joined throughout her adventure by various other players, eventually joining up with an in-game guild which forms much of the main supporting cast of the game. These players include Emile, a competitive girl who really likes punching things, Toby, a biology nerd who likes critiquing the real-world viability of the level design, and Apollo, a rival character who's an Ace Attorney reference (he's the best).

I'm not good at describing characters, but suffice it to say the cast is consistently charming, and their relationships form the emotional core of CrossCode's story. They all feel like real people (well, except Apollo but he's doing a bit), who react in realistic ways to the situation the game puts them in. Lea in particular is a fantastic protagonist - despite being mostly silent. The game does a great job of portraying her emotions despite her limited vocabulary, mostly thanks to how great the dialogue presentation is. Detailed character portraits and use of screen shakes help sell impactful moments well.

Lea (right) and Emile discuss a mid-dungeon boss

Story​

The story of CrossCode can be divided into two parts. The in-game story of CrossWorlds, the MMO, which...exists. Ok, it's not great, but it's also far from the focus of the game, which centers instead on the second part, Lea's journey of discovering who exactly she is. Yes, it's a "protagonist has amnesia" plot, though I'd personally call it far from generic. The stakes stay relatively low throughout, at least for the genre, and the story is mostly character focused. And, like discussed above, the game pulls off this character focus well. And my god is it wholesome. The game is not afraid to go to dark places, but the core of the story is about the power of friendship. But like, not the anime "power of friendship". More that the story is very much driven by the relationships between characters and how those relationships strengthen them, in a realistic and heartwarming fashion.

Now one fault that I can place on the story is that it's pretty dependent on the DLC, A New Home, to come to a truly satisfying conclusion. It's not that the story is necessarily incomplete without the DLC, but more that the DLC's conclusion is just better and more thorough than the main game's.

World​

Alright, last section for this section. The setting of CrossCode, as previously mentioned, is an MMO named CrossWorlds. CrossWorld's story centers around a "Track" around the game world which, according to CrossWorld's lore, was set up by an ancient race of bird-people (called the Ancients in game, but we'll call them the not-Chozo. Notzo) in order to test future generations. The Notzo decided that the best way to test future generations was with puzzle dungeons...for some reason.

The game alternates between towns, overworld locations, and dungeons, all of which have distinct vibes that are pulled off well. We'll discuss more about the gameplay distinctions later on, but the game does an excellent job of creating distinct locations that are fun to explore and just vibe in. There's also a bunch of NPCs (or, I guess PCs in-game but that's just confusing) running about or sitting around and chatting, which does a good job of selling the illusion of an active MMO (though thankfully it never gets too crowded).

Alright, that was a long time spent on that, and it isn't even what I'd consider the highlight of the game. But, we still have a ways to go to get to that. Next up is

Audio and Visuals​

Soundtrack​

Spoiler: Media

It's good stuff

Sound Design​

CrossCode's sound design is absolutely brilliant. You gain access to four elements throughout the course of the game, and each element has a different sound. Each plant you hit has a different, satisfying sound when you hit it. There are enemies that have unique sounds when you hit them that reflect the material they're made of. It's just really good.

Visuals​

These are all very early game locations, but I'll spoiler them just in case

Spoiler: Images

The game's first major dungeon, Temple Mine

The first overworld area, Autumn's Rise

The first town, Rookie Harbor

It's good. Though that'll depend on your tolerance of pixel art. CrossCode's style is clean and elegant, while still having a lot of neat touches. It may not be as gorgeous as something like Eastward but it's still fantastic.

Alright, on to the meat of the matter. Let's talk about what sets CrossCode apart

Gameplay​

Combat​

CrossCode has 4 basic actions - a melee attack, a ranged attack, a block, and a dash. Everything in the game builds on these 4 actions. Sound simple? Well, it certainly starts that way

Each of the 4 basic actions has a special version that you can use by combining the action with the special button. So, special + melee gets you your melee special, special + ranged gets you your ranged special, and so on. You can also hold down the special button to increase the level of your special. So, holding down special + melee for a bit will get you your Level 2 melee special. This can go up to level 3. Using a special attack costs SP, which you can build up by doing basic attacks. So, we're getting complicated, but we're still not done.

CrossCode also features 4 elements that you'll obtain over time, and in addition to changing the element of your basic attacks, each element also has its own set of specials. So between those 4 elements and the default "neutral" option you end up with a lot of different moves you can pull off at any time. What's neat is that in addition to the elemental properties and status effects that each element provides, they also each focus on a different basic action. So, for example, Heat, the fire-type element, focuses on melee attacks. This means you'll often be switching between elements not just to counter a specific enemy weakness, but also to access that element's special moves or skills. For example, if an enemy attacks frequently in a way that's hard to dodge, you might want to use the Cold element's superior defenses to weather the assault. Since elements are more powerful than neutral in general, CrossCode implements an overload system, where using an element for too long will cause you to essentially overheat and lose access to any element. You can mitigate this overloading with certain items or by switching to neutral, which causes the building overload meter to go down.

While all this may sound overwhelming, CrossCode actually does a very good job of easing you into it. You'll only have access to Level 1 specials for a good while, and start off with only the neutral element. Each element is added at a gradual pace, giving you time to get used to one before another is added.

You also get access to a variety of items, which can heal you and provide temporary buffs. They are selected via a menu but eaten in real time, so you have to time your heals to get the most out of them

All my mortal wounds can be cured by this sandwich

Of course, your abilities are only half the battle. The enemies of CrossCode are varied, and each come with their own weaknesses and patterns to exploit. By hitting them with a certain element, or at a certain time, or both, you can cause a "Break", which momentarily stuns them and lowers their defenses. This lends a puzzle-like element to even basic encounters. That doesn't mean encounters are simple puzzle encounters, however - CrossCode is still very much interested in testing your reflexes as well. One could even say it's the... Lords of the Fallen of top-down indie RPGs.

However, if you're not about that challenge, CrossCode's accessibility options means you can granularly control the attack speed and attack damage of enemies, allowing you to tailor difficulty to your liking.

Boss Battles​

Where CrossCode's combat elements really shine is in its fantastic boss encounters. There are a ton of bosses in this game, and the majority of them have unique mechanics that test your strategy and combat skill. The general design ethos of CrossCode's bosses can be summed up as "what if Zelda bosses were hard". And by golly, they are.

CrossCode, not Zelda, that is.

You'll often have to find ways to dodge the boss' assaults while figuring out how to best Break it to lay on the damage. And most of the time, Breaking a boss requires use of its unique mechanics. For example, the dungeon bosses and mini-bosses will often require you to use the dungeon's puzzle elements to Break them, much like with a Zelda boss - the difference being that avoiding the bosses' own attacks and setting up the Break are much harder. It's a really well implemented system that leads to some really fantastic and memorable boss encounters

Spoiler: First Boss

It's probably friendly.

This boss has you dodging screen-wide ice attacks while shooting fire at bombs (a puzzle element in this dungeon) to expose its weak point, which you're then free to whale on until it's next phase, where it ups the anti on those screen-wide ice attacks.

Progression​

CrossCode has two main methods of progression, an equipment system and a skill tree (or circuit, as it's called). Equipment can either be purchased or traded for (essentially a crafting system). It has far more of an impact on your base stats than the leveling system, so keeping your equipment up to date is key for keeping up with the game's difficulty. Generally, the rule of thumb is that you can purchase equipment that has the raw stats you need but no modifiers, and trade for more unique equipment that'll toss in several modifiers and skills - for example, you might be able to trade for a pair of boots that increase your movement speed while aiming. You can get the items necessary for trading by breaking plants, fighting enemies, completing sidequests, and exploring the environment.

A look at the equipment menu

The other main method of progression in CrossCode are the skill circuits. You have a base circuit for the "neutral" element, and as you unlock each Element, you unlock its corresponding skill circuit. The skills in an Elemental circuit only work when you have that Element active, whereas the skills in the base circuit work all the time (except the active specials, which are overridden by your Elemental specials). This is where the element's focus really gets defined, as alluded to earlier. The Heat circuit, for example, may have a lot of "melee attack up" skills. You can CP, or circuit points, upon level up and at certain other story intervals, and you gain them for all your circuits, so you don't have to worry about distributing them between circuits.

The Neutral Skill Circuit

The progression systems both work well and give you a decent amount of options in tailoring your playstyle to your liking. But, if you're not interested in deep customization of your character, they're also fairly easy to engage with only lightly. It's not an overburdening system, but the options are there if you want them.

Exploration​

CrossCode's exploration is freakin' brilliant. This YouTube video does a far better job of explaining how its level design works

Spoiler: Media

But I'll do my best. CrossCode uses a platforming system where Lea will automatically jump up ledges that are a certain height, and automatically jump off ledges while running off of them. This platforming system lends CrossCode's environments a real sense of depth, and often each room or environment feels like its own puzzle. Unlocking that puzzle requires finding some way to access the different levels of the environment through that platforming, and it's always satisfying to puzzle out exactly what you're meant to do. And you're rewarded with rare items in the form of treasure chests and rare plants. Oftentimes, you'll find that the rewards in these treasure chests are exactly what you need to get a rare piece of equipment in a nearby town - CrossCode designs its systems so that you can either grind for the materials you need or explore to find them, which is a neat touch.

We've touched on plants a bit before, but I've yet to elaborate on them. CrossCode has a bunch of plants throughout its environments which are clearly meant to appeal to those of us who enjoy smashing pots in Zelda games. Each plant has its own drops and rare variants, and exploration is often punctuated with the delicious sounds of destroying the local ecosystem for sweet sweet loot (it's alright, the ecosystem in question is made out of basically holograms and as Toby the bio nerd will frequently point out, already makes no sense). Also for the completionists you can fill out a botany journal by destroying a certain number of each plant. It's fun stuff.

A very common, and valid complaint about CrossCode's exploration is that the height of platforms can be hard to make out in its top-down style. There are a couple "cheats" to determine platform length (my go-to is firing off a ranged attack in the direction of the platform I want to jump to, if it bounces off it means the platform is too high) but it can certainly be annoying to miss a jump and have to backtrack all the way back to the beginning of a platforming puzzle. It's one of the complaints the devs seem to have taken to heart and a priority for their next title, but it's just something you have to live with in CrossCode

Dungeons​

And here we get to CrossCode's most notable and oftentimes controversial element - the dungeons.

CrossCode has a series of dungeons that act as a set of puzzle rooms, typically broken up by combat challenges. These dungeons are long, and certainly not for everyone. The puzzles can certainly be challenging, though they are, in my opinion, extremely well designed. They typically rely on Lea's ranged attack to interact with different puzzle elements. They also follow the typical Zelda formula of: introduce a puzzle element, expand upon it, obtain a new tool (in CrossCode's case a new element) that allows you to interact with that puzzle element in a different way, and rinse and repeat with new puzzle elements.

Spoiler: Image of a puzzle from the end of the first major dungeon

Just to give you an idea of how ridiculous this can get. However, by the time you get here the game will have taught you everything you need to know to solve this monstrosity

CrossCode does this repeatedly with more and more complexity, until by the end of the dungeon you'll be essentially asked to manage a Rube Goldberg machine of puzzle elements. I think the pacing of these puzzles are brilliant, but general opinions are mixed. However, there are a couple things that you can do to help avoid frustration. These may or may not work for you, but they definitely did for me.

Accessibility - You can turn down the speed of puzzles. CrossCode's puzzles are timing-based, and the timing can get really tight and frustrating at times. Turn it down if you get annoyed, it's what I did and it likely helped a ton

Spoiler: This will make puzzles a lot easier and if you don't want that don't look at this

Look at the floor. The floor designs in the dungeons are very much intentional and will give you an idea of where to move puzzle components

Dungeons mix up the puzzles with enemy encounters, which'll often use that dungeon's introduced puzzle elements. This applies doubly so to the mini bosses and final bosses of each dungeon. They're really well done, but I think you've gotten the idea that I think that about a lot of CrossCode's mechanics

Side Quests​

We're almost done! Thanks for sticking with me this long.

CrossCode's sidequests are endlessly creative and unique, with almost every one offering some sort of twist on the standard gameplay, while retaining the basic controls. You'll have all sorts of minigames, wacky scenarios, and a boatload of fun optional bosses. There's not really much in the way of story, but despite that I'd still highly recommend trying every one you come across, and heading back to earlier towns to see if any new ones have popped up (they often do, CrossCode has a lot of sidequest chains). They do wonders to mix up the gameplay and keep things feeling fresh and exciting.

Spoiler: Out of Context Sidequest Image

Me when starting to write this post

Conclusion​

And we're done! Thank you so much if you're still reading this, and if you haven't already I hope I've convinced you to give this game a shot. It's my first time writing a long form post (essay? review? thinly disguised shilling?) like this, so I appreciate any feedback. I might decide to do more of these mega-posts about other games if this one does well. Or even if it doesn't. We'll see.

 

[EvilChameleon]

I got really into this game, then I'm pretty sure something else came out and took me away from it, and I haven't gone back yet. I really like how the difficulty options are so changeable. Towards the end of my time with the game I had the combat difficulty way down (because I suck at games like this) but kept the puzzle difficulty as high as it could go.
I keep saying I'm going to get back into it, and probably even start a new playthrough, but that day hasn't yet come. It will eventually though!

 

[SammyJ9]

This game absolutely nails the "secret sauce" of certain games I love that manage to mix a lot of different gameplay elements together perfectly: Exploration of huge areas full of secrets, with gorgeous graphics and chill music you can just get lost in? Check. Combat that's engaging, fast, and fun, with some skill based on knowing how to 'break' enemies with different elements? Check. Huge dungeons full of deviously difficult puzzles that make you feel like a genius when you figure them out? Check. An engaging story, plus characters that are just bursting with heart and emotion? Check.

Everything about this game feels lovingly-crafted and masterfully put together. It's one of my favorite games of the last few years, and I really need to start another playthrough so I can get to the endgame DLC at some point!

 

[Heruderu]

I’ve been eyeing this game since before its release. I see that it’s a pretty long game, which means that I would probably play it more if I got it on Switch, but in Brazil it’s cheaper on Steam.

How is the performance of the game on Switch?

 

[Donnie]

That is an absolutely wonderful thread and pitch for the game, well done! I played the game through very early on this year, I think in January, and loved it! Literally my only knock is some.of the later dungeons were *very* long but the story, the world, the characters, the gorgeous pixel work, the combat and traversal. Just brilliant, it's definitely between Crosscode and Eastward for the best indie game I've played this year.

I haven't played the dlc yet purely because I assume it'll pick up in challenge from the end of the game and it's been awhile so I'll probably get my ass kicked while I get back in the rhythm lol but it's nice to know there's more there to return to when I'm ready. I want to run the raid!!

 

[NabiscoFelt]

I’ve been eyeing this game since before its release. I see that it’s a pretty long game, which means that I would probably play it more if I got it on Switch, but in Brazil it’s cheaper on Steam.

How is the performance of the game on Switch?

Not the best, but it's more than serviceable imo.

I played through most of the game at launch before major patches came along and fixed a lot of the framerate issues. Revisiting the game for the DLC a month or so ago was a lot smoother, though there were still issues when a lot of stuff is on screen

 

[HockeyBird]

CrossCode is a game I really want to play and I tell myself that I'll pick up next time on sale, then I forget the game exists until it's randomly brought up on a message board and the cycle repeats itself.

 

[Skittzo]

I played it for ~4 to 5 hours and decided it definitely wasn't for me. The gameplay didn't gel for me at all and it was a pretty slow moving game.

 

[1upmuffin]

Shame this isn't on Game Pass anymore, I would have liked to play more of it. I agree that it is too slow though, that tutorial section was massive.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

CrossCode is a game I really want to play and I tell myself that I'll pick up next time on sale, then I forget the game exists until it's randomly brought up on a message board and the cycle repeats itself.

Do it now, let my giant wall of text not be for nothing

I played it for ~4 to 5 hours and decided it definitely wasn't for me. The gameplay didn't gel for me at all and it was a pretty slow moving game.

Skittzo noooo (jk, the game isn't for everyone. I think it just gelled with me really well).

I suppose it does start fairly slow, though iirc that doesn't last too long. The game is fairly well paced after the opening hours

 

[SiG]

Why not...try both Eastward and CrossCode?

 

[apathetic]

Super interested in the game but been waiting for it to be "complete". Is it done with DLC/seem like all the bugs are patched out of it? Almost bought it a few months back but then was happy I didn't when I saw some new DLC was coming out.

 

[EvilChameleon]

Why not...try both Eastward and CrossCode?

CrossCode is a game that I thought I would suck at and thus hate, but loved the art style and the description of the game, so I gave it a chance.
Eastward is a game that I think I will suck at and probably hate, but I love the art style and the description of the game... and I'm eventually going to give it a chance.