CrossCode

Cross Code is one of the best indie games I've ever played.

It's story and overall progression is very reminiscent of pre-BOTW Zelda games.
It combines the aforementioned progression with a typical action combat system that's very responsive and fun to play around as well as a nice open-world in which there are many secrets to find and sights / dungeons to explore.
The narrative has great pacing and managed to surprise me multiple times with various, well-executed twists.

Overall, CrossCode is a steal for the price the developer is asking. If you want to see everything the game has to offer, you're roughly looking at 80-100 Hours worth of great content in this game.

Highly recommended!

Overall this was a extremely good game. I had so much fun with it and its so well done. The characters, facial expressions, and story all really bring you in and make a great experience full of twists and amazing world building. The combat and puzzles I really enjoyed too. The concept as a whole was really well executed and overall I would easily suggest this to anyone looking for a game to sink time into.

This is an extremely good videogame.

It has some moderate problems (puzzle fatigue, combat encounters that run very long, dungeons that run long, grindy elements owing to its JRPG roots; basically, it would have been better with some elements left out). But these are largely forgivable for such a fun, well-written, unique, and enjoyable game end-to-end.

I played it twice through now, once vanilla and once as part of a randomizer run via Archipelago (modded). It was fun in both cases, and was surprisingly replayable as a randomizer. A lot of the more painfully meticulous puzzles felt good to breeze through on the second go.

In terms of gameplay, Zelda is a close analog to what to expect here with a heavy puzzle emphasis. Most puzzles are relatively intuitive, but a few (especially in the overworld) felt less than refined. Combat, however, felt really great and I didn't have any problems with it other than fight duration and occasional uneven difficulty.

The game does skew much harder than your traditional RPG, so be aware of that as well. It does have some difficulty sliders that help. And if it's your jam, there's a lot to enjoy here.

Also, at $20, you'll have a hard time finding a better value for your money. Recommended.

One of the best games I've ever played, where I sank 90 hours in a blink of an eye without even noticing, also sacrificing my already fu**ed up sleep schedule even more beyond.

Simultaneously

A game riddled with puzzles made by Devil himself that made me question my sanity and (fuck Wave element by the way) made me feel like I need 4 academic degrees to solve them. Now imagine solving these godforgotten puzzles mid-bossfight while that dumbfu** doesn't give you a 5 seconds peace. Once you solve them, you actually appreciate the thought behind these puzzles and understand why the masochists that defend these creations of someone's sick mind proclaim that these are one of the best puzzles ever conceived in a videogame. Doesn't change the fact that they are infuriating to solve and I would commit a slew of warcrimes after entering 4 puzzle rooms in a row.

Fortunately, the good things heavily outweight the bad ones, but it makes the frustrating parts stand out more, and it is completely understandable why some people dropped this game, since sometimes it was just too much.

I'm doing "coding", it HAS to be good. Great story, music, and pixel art. Combat is smooth, puzzles are complex and mostly fair, and everything is satisfying. Only annoying thing is weirdness of jumping, but it's mostly fine.

CrossCode is probably the longest I've ever played a game without being sure I was enjoying it. I've followed this game since EA days a long time ago, so when it finally came out, I was thrilled to dive into the at times overwhelming litany of systems and interactions the devs had set up.

Core combat in CrossCode is so fun it was enough to keep my experience going the entire time even when no other bit seemed to hold up. The narrative has many promising themes but didn't deliver on them in a way I felt was satisfying. The puzzles are innovative, but each screen in a new area seemed to completely discard all the previous rules in favor of establishing new ones that were seldom if ever used again. The exploration always felt more like solving an obtuse cryptogram than actually moving around in a fun way, with out of the way items often necessitating guides. And towards the end of the game the combat even started to lose its glow, as most or all of the end-game skills and upgrades are purely stat based.

All that being said, I would still tentatively recommend this game, and might even do so strongly if you are more of a puzzle/Zelda fan. CrossCode is, to me, a game that resonates with potential. While, to me, it may not have fully realized all the elements it establishes, I'm quite certain anyone interested from a glance will enjoy at least sections of this game, maybe enough to keep them playing as long as I did.

More than anything, I can't wait to see what this team comes up with next.

One of the best games I've played on Steam. Great story, gameplay, audio, and visuals. The art for the characters in dialogue is so expressive. The dungeons and puzzles give me a zelda-ish vibe, but with more difficulty and complexity. The combat has variance, nuance, and difficulty to it as well. For those who enjoy finding secrets and working through multi-layer platforming puzzles, that is an optional form of content for you as well.

The story is well thought out and felt very impactful to experience.

For those who are interested in it, there are accessibility features which help tune the difficulty of the game in case the challenge is not desired.

Overall, one of my top games played in 2024. Do recommend.

A gem of an indie game. Great combat and puzzles. Good story and lovable characters. I highly recommend the DLC, as it is the real conclusion to the story.

Can't wait for Alabaster Dawn.

This game is good. I am just not good at it. I would still recommend checking it out for yourself. Its charming.

10/10

You will want to off yourself when doing the puzzles. Otherwise, one of the best games that i have played. If u like challenging games that clap your cheeks every 2 hours, then this is the game for you.

100% recommend.

Incredible gameplay, incredible story. Really looking forward to the next game from these guys. Easiest 9/10 of my life.

The narrative and characters of this game are top-notch, but I personally feel like there's just far too many puzzles and it ruins the pacing. If you like story-focused RPG's and don't mind puzzles, you should definitely play this

CrossCode is an indie gem.

It ticks all the boxes:
16 bit-era inspired graphics, great soundtrack, smooth gameplay, a fun combat system, good customization and progression, and an actually competent story. It really is one of the best action-adventure game out there.
2D Zelda games should take note from this.

I'd like to highlight the spritework, both for the characters actually in the game, and for the conversation portraits.
They are suprisingly expressive and well-drawn!

Sadly the experience has some flaws, if you are interested, keep these in mind:

• There are a LOT of puzzles, and I'm not joking. I think it is a bit overboard, they make the game tiring to actually play.
  
• As much as I like the combat, it can be very frustrating, especially some special enemytypes and the very-very long endboss.(luckily you can easily adjust the difficulty, but it's still a shame)
  
[*]Exploration can be frustrating, as there are different levels of terrain involved, and they are very hard to progress through in my opinion.

This game is truly something else. In a world of Ubisoft games, and yet another remake of the same Final Fantasy game, this is one of the better RPG games out there, probably on par with titles like Tears of the Kingdom.

Story:
The game's story takes place on a moon that has been terraformed for the sole purpose of making a half AR, half VR online video game that is basically FFXIV on steroids. Your player character cannot customize her appearance, change her class, or even speak, and she has lost all her memories. Luckily, she has a few friends outside the game who are trying to help her get her memories back. Side note: The story is the only one in a game that made me cry. Twice.

Combat:
The combat in CrossCode is highly addictive. There are five "modes" based on elements that you can switch between - heat, cold, shock, wave, and your default elementless mode. Picking up all four elements will take a new player around 40 hours. Each element has its own skill tree, or "circuit" tree, which allows you to unlock COMBAT ARTS. The SP bar at the top of the screen tells you when you can activate an art. Each element has unique properties when you perform an art - the dash art for cold leaves a trail of damaging icicles, while the dash art for wave repeatedly rams the enemy. The melee art for shock is relatively slow or only hits one enemy (yes there are two variations of the melee art) while the melee art for fire is heavy-hitting and great for crowd control. After getting half of the elements, you should soon get used to switching between them seamlessly. Take a bad hit? Use wave's throw art to heal yourself with homing projectiles! Enemy too aggressive? Slow them down and damage them with cold's dash art! Enemy stunned? Charge up a level 3 melee shock art and combo them for massive damage, and inflict a status effect on them. Since enemies tend to take some time to kill, pulling off combat arts is immensely satisfying.

Exploration:
A little mid. There are a lot of areas, but some of them are just big for no reason. If you're a completionist who's trying to get all the chests, some areas (Gaia's Garden) can be a nightmare. Otherwise, the atmosphere in a lot of the places is really well thought out. I especially like the Bergen Trail climb, seeing the areas get snowier as I ascend the mountain.

Endgame:
I'm going to try and not spoil anything, but the endgame is kind of similar to Zelda games - meaning that it's not good. There's some good endgame content in Rhombus Square, like enemy arenas, but they're nowhere near as good as Hollow Knight's Godhome. I highly recommend buying the DLC if you want some endgame content - it's decently priced, and neatly wraps up the story, as well as adding new areas and several new challenging bosses and enemies.

Puzzles:
Ooh boy. Puzzles. You either love them in an RPG, or you hate them. I am both. Some of the puzzles in this game are satisfying to figure out, some are a bit challenging, and others make you want to tear your hair out when you do them (I'm looking at you, Faj'ro Temple)...anyway, the only places you really need to worry about puzzles are the dungeons. There are walkthroughs on YouTube if you get stuck.

Pacing:
This game takes forever. I don't mean in a bad way - the cutscenes almost never waste your time - but just the shear amount of stuff. This game is packed with content to the point that we might need to raid Radical Fish's headquarters to see how much crack is in their desk drawers. It takes maybe 10 hours to get the first element, and then another 5-10 to get the second, and then there's a giant 20-hour gap where they make you chase a random enemy, do a "multiplayer" raid, and an entire other major story spoiler before they even let you enter the next area, and the first thing they make you do? Hit glowing poles for an hour. I'm not joking. And I haven't even talked about the side quests. Needless to say, if you want a game to fill your time, this game is for you.

Overall:
[b]Buy this game! It needs more love! And buy the DLC too![b]

I just finished playing CrossCode a second time since my first playthrough five years ago and fell in love again. I think this time around was even better because I paid more attention to all the little details that went into making this game as good as it is. To me, it strikes this perfect balance between exploration, combat, sidequests, puzzles and story progression that you might find for example in older Zelda games. It really feels like a spiritual successor to all these great Japanese Action RPG classics from the late SNES and early PS era. Think Alundra, Secret of Mana, Terranigma, The Legend of Zelda, Chrono Cross and sprinkle in some Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Lufia II and of course old-school MMOs like Runescape. All that while having this super unique playstyle of shooting orbs in a twin-stick-shooter like fashion.

But don’t get me wrong, on the technical side this is still a modern game and a very snappy one! It flows extremely well. There are basically no loading times and it runs at a smooth 60 FPS. There are no lengthy room transitions or teleporting animations. There is no waiting around for cutscenes of doors opening, chests appearing and so on. They do what they can to let you stay in gameplay and only interrupt the flow when necessary.

The game’s premise is of course quite different than the aforementioned SNES and PS games. I won’t go into it too much because you can just read it up on the store page. I will only say that I think that this might be the best execution of the „game-within-a-game“ premise I have ever seen and the overarching mystery goes places I did not expect. The overarching story takes a little bit to develop but it is all good because the likable cast of characters carries you through.

Something needs to be said about the awesome music as well. It manages to create this instant familiarity and nostalgia while feeling quite fresh at the same time. You’ll hear a lot of inspiration from Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Phantasy Star and the like. All quite fitting to the charming pixel work. Also great sprites, great animations and effects and good sound design in general.

What I also really loved about the game is the general approach to game design. The game treats you as a competent player and lets you figure stuff out to feel a real sense of accomplishment when you manage to overcome a difficult combat encounter or solve a tricky puzzle room in a dungeon. And that leads to a big payoff in the late game when you finally ascend to a galaxy-brained god gamer to complete the final dungeon. You can definitely achieve some kind of mastery over the game’s mechanics and the game tests you on this.

And there is just so much stuff in this game! It is not just padding, either. My second playthrough took around 40-50 hours to finish up the main quest and all the side quests. There is just a lot to do.

One word on the puzzles: A lot of games treat puzzles as a quick diversion from the main thing, which is most often combat. Puzzles then are mostly sprinkled in to provide a little bit of variety. If you approach CrossCode with this mindset you will inevitably be confused and are in for a bad time. You need to understand that in CrossCode puzzles are not there to pad out the game but are as integral to the game loop as the combat is. Even combat encounters sometimes have some kind of puzzle aspect to them. Here you find your big Zelda influence.

I think the puzzle design is sublime and rivals full-blown puzzle games. They are however more Portal-like intricate puzzle webs than the typical "shoot the eye with an arrow" Zelda puzzle. In dungeons, they build on top of each other and always result in a big brain super puzzle as a test of your understanding of all the mechanics introduced so far. But you need to be able to focus longer than 10 seconds to get some of them. This is not everyone’s cup of tea. I am a huge nerd so I loved every second of entangling room after room and figuring out where and when to shoot the damn ball at.

All in all, I can’t recommend this game enough. It is insane to me that CrossCode is still so unknown while being so damn good. And it is even more insane to think how small the dev team was that made this happen. I am looking forward to whatever this team puts out in the future and hope they’ll get a publisher that helps them to get on more people’s radar.

Also: The DLC „A New Home“ is very good but takes place after the events of the main game. So you can safely buy it later if you know you will finish the game.

An intriguing story with fantastic gameplay, varied and interesting environments and a kickass soundtrack.
Highly recommended

Great puzzle and role play game. Off to my second playthrough

This is somewhere between a yes and a no for recommendation.

The story and themes and characters in this game are all amazing, 10/10.
The pixel art and music is great too.

But the actual gameplay is some of the most obnoxious, tedious, repetitive, grindy, and time wasting stuff I've ever had to slog through.

This game has more puzzles than actual puzzle games. It's a puzzle game first, and an RPG last in many ways.

If that sounds up your alley, then you'll probably love it. But CrossCode to me feels like a fantastic game that winds up getting in its own way far too often.

I'm glad I beat it, I loved my time with the characters, but the thought of ever playing this again makes me want to vomit.

So far, this ranks amongst the best RPG I've ever played. As someone who is very action game-focused, this game delivers satisfying combat in spades. It's challenging and fun, requiring and rewarding focus due to how tight it is and rewarding it is to grow and master my arsenal of abilities.

The characters also really appeal to me. I loved Lea's character as it was before she lost her memories, and every new character character introduced has a little something to them that makes them interesting. They don't just feel like NPCs and that makes the story engaging enough for me, even though I'm not someone who's keen on stories in my games.

As for the story itself, it's alright. It doesn't piss me off, which is rare in games, probably because Lea is not just some would-be hero and her adventures have been very personal so far. In either case, I've been having so much fun just fighting around and completing side-quests that I don't really care and am enjoying the game at my own pace.

And the art-direction!! Very beautiful!! I really like it and appreciate that there are amazing games that are not focused on dull realism. I'd currently give this game a 9/10, and I'm delighted with it. Recommended.

This might genuinely be one of my most favourite titles of all time, charming characters,beautiful art, very intiguing story that DOES need a bit of time in order to truly shine AND incredible combat/puzzles, alongside big skill trees and genuinely interesting side quests. Whenever I boot it up I play thinking it'll have to end,making me sad, so I guess you can understand how good it is.

P.S not reccommended for people who dislike puzzles,as they oftentimes are very tough.

I felt this game was a complete waste of my time. I spend more time figuring out where to go than actually playing the game. I'm told to "Visit FD HQ Southwest of the Market," yet there are no markers on the map pointing me to where it is. I'm sure that is by design so to "Encourage exploration", however I don't want to explore I want to tick stuff on a checkbox yet this game provides me no option for that. As an extremely busy person, I don't have time to be skipping over the same town over and over again just to find place x and looking up guides to complete a simple quest, I would rather my time be spent fighting enemies and theorycrafting builds, yet here this game is wasting my time cause "Exploration is good". If this game were to implement markers pointing you where to go, and give an option for entirely skipping puzzles, I will switch my review to positive. Otherwise, the game neglects me as a player and I feel very frustrated by that because I enjoy everything else about the game (especially the combat).

Best game I played in years, and by that I mean in a long long time. Great combat, characters, story, and puzzles that will melt the brains of game journalists. It definitely earned place in my top favorite games of all time. If you're getting this, then I'm jealous because you get to experience it for the first time.

Note: Sorry for the lackluster review. I don't know how to write a good one.

This is one of my favorite games of all time

It looks fantastic and feels fantastic. It's very enjoyable to hit enemies, to hit plants, to jump platforms, and to explore the environment.
Great music and visuals, nice story that very clearly references SAO, and godlike dialogue and characters.
This game is kind of challenging by default (with an option to lower the difficulty), has some hard optional challenges for skilled players, and some very hard optional challenges for freaks.
I am replaying this game for the third time and have a feeling that I will do so again in some time. Absolute gem and cinema.

The skill ceiling on this game is insane. I fully recommend anyone who likes twin stick shooters to give this a try. The introduction of skills makes each combat choice personalized to the player.

I don't buy games. But this game is too good for me to pirate. That's my proof that this game is REALLY good. Game is hella smooth and cool, go play it

The game is way too long, a lot of it is because it loves wasting your time.
The platforming consists of jumping on platforms that you can't tell on high or far they are because of the art style and perspective. There's no technique, just do the same thing over and over again.
The combat is mostly trying to figure out what the gimmick is while under a lot of attack. It's kind of like Zelda but where as Zelda is mostly pretty boring because nothing is happening, this game is annoying because it does not give you the chance to figure out the puzzle. Enemy attack's tracking is insane, telegraph isn't very good and you're i-frames are tiny so dodging isn't the most fun.
I don't have any comment on the story because I started skipping every cutscenes about 1/3 into the game. There were a ridiculously amount of yapping and I just couldn't take it. It would take me 50% more time to finish if I didn't do that.
The main dungeons are pretty fun with cool puzzles that also require action skill.
Unfortunately the fun parts are connected by sections that just annoyed the hell out of me.
Not a fan

Excellent game! The setting and story are great, with some nice twists. The gameplay is tight and both the combat and the puzzles are challenging and rewarding.

🌟 10/10 – A True Masterpiece! 🌟

CrossCode is hands down one of the best action RPGs I’ve ever played. It perfectly blends fast-paced combat, deep puzzles, and an engaging story into an experience that feels like a love letter to classic RPGs with a modern touch.

🔹 Combat – Smooth, fluid, and incredibly satisfying. Dodging, melee, and ranged attacks all feel intuitive, and the variety of skills keeps things fresh.
🔹 Puzzle Design – Some of the best puzzle mechanics I’ve seen in a game. They’re challenging but fair, making dungeons feel like rewarding brain teasers.
🔹 Story & Characters – A heartfelt and mysterious journey with great world-building and lovable characters. Lea, the protagonist, barely speaks but is still one of the most expressive and charming leads in an RPG.
🔹 Soundtrack – Absolute banger. Every track fits the atmosphere and enhances the experience.
🔹 Content – A massive world filled with secrets, side quests, and tough boss fights. You’ll easily sink 50+ hours into it.

If you love SNES-era RPGs, challenging but rewarding gameplay, and a great story, CrossCode is a must-play. One of the best indie games ever made! 💙

This game is the most underrated game I have ever played in my entire life. It took me close to 130 hours to complete it and very little of the game play I experienced during that time felt like filler. In many ways the game is similar to the old Legend of Zelda games before Breath of the WIld. The reason I bought this game was due to its similarities to those games. It does not disappoint in this regard. Each dungeon is a unique extensive labyrinth with several hours of gameplay, its own puzzle gimmicks, locked doors, and a new element which allows players to progress through the dungeon by solving puzzles in a new way. However, it is far more than just a Zelda game.
It has one of if not the best combat system in any game I have ever played. It reminds me of dark souls 1 where every boss and enemy is challenginng at first, but as I learned their movesets, they became more manageable and I was able to doge their attacks. Many of the enemies in the game can "broken" and figuring out how to "break" enemies is an interesting puzzle. When an enemy is broken its defense it weakened so that it can be damaged easily. To break an enemy one may need to use a specific element. A major part of the combat system especially later in the game is switching between elements which each have their own unique abilities, strenghts, and weaknesses. As you level up you can fill out a skill tree to get more abilities for each element.
The game features some of the best puzzles I have ever experienced in a videogame. They remind me of portal where all puzzles are solved using one main tool which in this game are balls which can be bounced off walls. As the player progresses through the dungeons and side locations, the puzzles get more complex as new gimmicks are added while still sticking to the core concept. Traversal puzzles are also common in the overworld where the player has to figure out how to navigate to cliffs and other areas they can't access easily. These can be more annoying especially since the depth perception makes it difficult to tell if you can jump to a platform.
The game is like a JRPG in that it has an epic story with memorable characters and many sidequests. However, unlike many rpgs almost every side quest in the game felt worth my time. Many of them had me exploring a mini dungeon with its own unique puzzles culminating in a unique boss fight. Some also involve mini games or intersting characters. The main story started slow, but as I got to the middle of the game it go way more interesting. Do not be discouraged by the game taking place in an MMO. The MMO is just the setting. The game is still excellent as a single player game and at no point did I feel it became too meta to the point of being cringe.
Overall this game feels like it was made for me specifically. There are many games I can play with excellent combat systems, great puzzles, epic stories, and memorable side content, but very few games do all these things well. The fact that an indie team was able to pull this off is truly special. This game deserves to be recognized as much as undertale, celeste, hollow knight, and other impactful indies.

The gameplay is AWESOME. While the combat is a bit simple during the start of the game, it gets more depht the more you progress with special attacks and elements wich all have their own special attacks btw. The puzzles can get pretty complex wich I absolutely love, they also never really get too difficult to the point where it feels unfair (small hint: those weird floor patterns in the dungeons can often help with the puzzles). The dungeons are great, they might be too long for some people, but Im not one of those. The game also never becomes too grindy since equipment matters more than xp and with most of the sidequests being pretty fun and the more "boring" ones being doable while you just play the game normally. I would recomend just speaking with any quest npc you stumble across, its either gonna be something you can do while progressing through the game normally or its gonna be something more fun.
The story is also great, it felt like it was saying something about self identety and what makes someone human. The characters are all lovable in their own way with the dialogue really making it feel like theyre just a group of friends playing a game together, I cant think of any reason why someone would dislike anyone of them that isnt the main villain.
The new home dlc is absolutely worth it in my opinion, with it just showing all the characters hanging out together, a new area, the longest (and best imo) dungeon in the game and tying some loose ends of the story.

Tldr: 10/10 game for people who like games with more challanging puzzles, combat and a more character focused story

A fantastic RPG that evokes some of the best games of the SNES era with tight combat, tons of puzzles, and exploration filtered through an MMO setting. The story is a rarity in games and shows a lot of restraint when it comes to melodrama, grounding a lot of what happens through realistic characters that feel true to life. There is SO much in this game and I left a lot of the end game content left untouched (Arena) but finished the main plot + DLC and walked away feeling like Crosscode is a "lost" gem from that era, lovingly developed in the present.

Says it runs on MacOS and it says it supports the XBox controller, yet when I try to play it on MacOS with an Xbox controller none of the upper (LB/LT/RB/RT) buttons work.

absolutely adore this game, both gameplay and story-wise. PLEASE play it if you think you'd be even slightly interested.

TL;DR

I am very conflicted. I had a decent time with this, but the dungeons and puzzles towards the end of the game (and the DLC) are so long and unenjoyable that I feel like I have to add a lot of asterisks* to my "Yes" recommendation.

If you are looking for a great RPG, you have most of it here, but with lots of... stuff in the middle. For better or worse. If you are ok with some very complex and somewhat tedious puzzles, I recommend CrossCode. Otherwise, avoid.

If you still can't decide, or think you are willing to suffer knowing that the puzzles might be too much, I gave this game a "Yes" recommendation because I think it's worth playing and completing at least once.

----Summary

You play as Lea, a person who has lost her memories. Playing the MMO CrossWorlds is the key to unlocking her past. CrossCode is a fairly robust action RPG, with a huge emphasis on puzzles and long dungeons. And I do mean long.

----Positives

Beautiful Graphics

I am a sucker for good pixel art and this game has it in spades. It looks like a 32bit game from the Playstation era, but in widescreen and HD. The animations for Lea are also very expressive for such tiny pixels. There is a lot of variety in the environments too. An excellent looking game.

Story

No spoilers, but the story does a good job of not being very cringy with its dialog, despite its modern-ish setting. Despite being in an MMO, the people in the game offer a much better delivery than say, .hack// G.U. which features a lot of lingo that was kind of dated when the game was new.

The characters are varied and hearing them comment on what's going on during the action gameplay is a nice treat. You get a lot of detail with just a few text boxes. CrossCode does a very good job of making it seem like these characters are interacting with each other, instead of just talking near each other.

Combat

Assuming you aren't using the easy mode slider, the combat is really good. The game is balanced in such a way that you won't be able to easily over-level your character and just one shot everything. Dodging certain mechanics sometimes feels impossible, but most of the time the combat feels great.

I liked hitting things on the way to my next objective, so something the combat's got to be good.

Exploration

More or less every screen has a bunch of hidden stuff in it that you can look for. There is somewhat of a "parkour" system which adds verticality to the maps. I call it parkour because you don't jump with a button. When you run off of a cliff, the character does the jumping for you. It's not automated exactly, you still get some say with how far your jump goes. Perhaps not all maps, but some of them were very fun to figure out.

Puzzles***

The way that puzzles are done with projectiles is really neat. The opening does a very good job of getting you acclimated to what is expected of you. It's really unique, or at the very least, I haven't seen another game do it the way CrossCode does. When the puzzles are bite-sized, they are really engaging. Definitely a defining feature of this game.

----Negatives

The Controls Are Busy, And Somewhat Inaccurate On a Controller

This is a minor gripe, as at around 70 hours I was able to fully master the controls for the Final DLC boss fight. It's a doozy. This 2D game requires you to use the analog sticks, which are not as precise as I would like. Many times, for puzzles, I would need to switch to the M+KB controls to get better accuracy and those controls have their own problems. Definitely use a controller if you can. As for controllers, every button on the controller does something (technically a positive). My complaint about indie games not using all the buttons at their disposal is finally baring fruit.

Just be aware that neither control system is perfect. And control is very important when you have the puzzles that CrossCode does.

Dungeons Are Too Long and Puzzles Are Too Much

For like, the first few dungeons, the puzzles and the length are reasonable. After that, the amount of mechanics you have to juggle on top of having speed and aiming requirements makes many of the later puzzles frustrating and annoying.

My main problem is that there are too many puzzles that I solved in my head, but it's too easy to make a mistake, or the timing is very strict. Yes, there is a slider that modifies the timing requirement for the puzzles to make them less strict, but timing is not the only issue with the puzzles. You shoot the orb slightly off, you don't quite flick the switch in time, or you shot something through a wall that didn't quite line up. "Oh well, that was in the middle of the puzzle, but now you have to do the whole thing again!". I really dislike the puzzles where you can't see everything at once.

Finally, and I'm expecting a "well what were you expecting?" kind of response, but your reward for doing a very annoying, strict puzzle is likely ANOTHER really annoying and strict puzzle. The second to last dungeon, the final dungeon and the DLC dungeon are all like this. They just go on and on. The final dungeon does something that made me scared of its potential length when I first got in, but thankfully, it's not as bad as it (I think intentionally) was made out to be.

The Parkour Doesn't Give You Enough Control

While exploring the maps can be great in CrossCode, there are a few problems with how failure is handled that made me stop trying to 100% all the areas. Basically, when verticality is involved, there will be times were you don't land your jump. When you fail to land your jump off a cliff onto lower ground, you basically need to spend two minutes getting back to where you were to try again. This sucks a lot.

I would be more ok with this if I had more control over the jump. Because of the control stick, It's very easy to over or undershoot your jump. There's something that tries to keep you on ledges, but it's not enough. Given that this is a 2D game, sometimes it's hard to know if the platform in front of you is at the same level, above or below you. You can always throw an orb, but having to stop and check every so often is a real pace breaker.

There is incentive to explore outside of main quest objectives, but that leads me into my next problem.

Most Chests Have Boring Items In Them

I can't say every chest has boring items in them, but most of them do. You either get some materials for the area you are in, some unique materials that you won't know what they do for hours, or buff food. Buff food is unnecessary, though I did use it on a few occasions. The real stuff you want is equipment, but you don't know going in which chests contain those, so you have to try them all. And while that equipment is generally better than what you can get in shops, you can beat the game just fine relying on shop equipment. I did for the latter half and it was smooth.

There is nothing more annoying that repeating a jumping puzzle over and over to get 5 Vanilla Ice Creams or 2 Veggie Sets... in the final area.

It's just so disappointing.

----Conclusion

I had a decent time with CrossCode, but the lows are very low. For the 70 hours I spent, I probably had a good time with about 60 of them, Not a bad time over all. But I'm NEVER doing that final dungeon again nor the DLC's final Dungeon, cool boss fights in both cases aside.

There is a new-game+ option, but the dungeon length and puzzles have really soured me on another playthrough. And that's disappointing.

I can't recommend this to everyone, but if you can get past my problems, or even if you can't, I think CrossCode is worth playing and completing at least once.

- Really good combat
- Really good story
- Very challenging puzzles
- Good replayability
Crosscode is genuinely one of the best rpg games I've played, cannot recommend it enough

For me, this game is an almost perfect blend of great pixel art, fun elemental combat, and engaging (if a little predictable) story.

why didnt i hear about this game until mr. basedrew cunningham played it wtf all of my friends are such baboons for not telling me this game is a game that exists its so lovely

I really like the art-style, characters and story. Unfortunately, I can't really say the same for the gameplay. There are only so many fights with the same enemies and similar puzzles I can handle before it gets dull. It eventually got so bad that the first time, I dropped the game at 90% done. Came back years later wondering why and realised it again.

Plays like a meaty SNES-era JRPG in an original setting. Rewards exploration and a little bit of grinding. Good puzzles and bosses, although some might feel a bit tedious towards the end of the game.

This is one of my favorite RPG's that i've played. The story stuck with me for so long, it's been a few years since i've played it know but i still think about Lea and friends from time to time. It was also just very fun to play. moving around the world and the combat system felt great, so i even enjoyed just running around to solve the little map puzzles and side quests.

Please. Do yourself a huge favor and treat yourself to this game.
It's just such a fun ride from beginning to end.
The combat is simple but satisfying.
The writing is admittedly full of the un-serious irony trappings but it like... works this time\

Absolutely amazing. The gameplay is great, the story and characters are wonderful, and the puzzles are well made. Also love the boss fights

There is something charming about this game. It is overall a good experience with challenging puzzles and gameplay. I found some parts to feel tedious. The music is really good. Some of the tracks in the soundtrack stand out to me such as Mysterious Place, Awakened, and Maroon Valley.

Smooth combat, highly engaging story, beautiful music

I'm thoroughly invested in this game every time I play it. Some of my favorite games of all time are Golden Sun, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. While this game rewards exploration and solving puzzles, I did find that the puzzles occasionally became a chore more than a challenge, unlike the puzzles in Golden Sun and Zelda that I felt were fresh every time.
The combat system is PHENOMENAL. The most satisfying of any real-time combat game I've ever played. While there isn't quite as much of a selection for what you can do in combat (at least compared to the three game series I mentioned), the selection you do have is very full-featured. The skill/stat tree (somewhat like the Crystarium in FF XIII or sphere grid in FF X) has enough customization potential that combat never gets boring.
But the main thing that keeps me playing is the story. I feel connected with the characters, which is something I don't feel with other games.

Final overall ranking, alongside my rankings for my other favorite game series
Golden Sun - 7/10
Golden Sun, The Lost Age - 8/10
Golden Sun, Dark Dawn - 3/10 (not among my favorites obviously, but just throwing it out)
Zelda Majora's Mask - 8/10
Zelda Twilight Princess - 7/10
Zelda Skyward Sword - 7/10
Final Fantasy IV - 6/10
Final Fantasy VII (original) - 9/10
Final Fantasy VII (Remake) - 10/10 (haven't played Rebirth)
Final Fantasy XIII - 5/10
CrossCode - 9/10

If this game looks at all interesting to you try the demo, it gives you a perfect example of what you can expect from the game, I immediately fell in love with this game after trying it.

This is my favorite game of all time (previously that was Portal 2)

Everything feels so right with this game, it feels like your actually playing an mmo, the art is amazing, the characters are awesome, the story is sublime, the combat and puzzles are engaging, I have 92 hours in this game, and I didnt even get to do all the content (passed up a lot of the sidequests, which by the way for the most part are unique and really fun)

I wish more people would discover this game, I only discovered it on a whim bc I was like "sure this game looks cool I'll try it" and now I'm thinking about playing it a second time.

What an amazing game!
I really can not believe that i only discovered this game now because someone in YS forum recommended this game to me.

I love almost everything about this game, the MC and the crew, the beautiful story and art, and also the combat gameplay.

I said almost everything because im not a fan of puzzle game in general and to be honest the puzzle in this game is kind of tough one because not only it needs solving but the puzzle also requires you to solve it in the correct timing yea its double layered puzzle. Even some bosses are kind of puzzle as well since you have to do specific thing to beat the boss.

But! The dev is kind enough to give you "assist" options that helps with the puzzle and also the overall combat in the game so even if you are not good with puzzle in general (like me) this assist option will definitely helps you out.

The gameplay overall is a good action rpg similar to ys games (i got this recommended from ys forum) the diff is that you also have long range basic attack and this game have both perfect guard and perfect dodge so you know its action packed game.

Story is so beautiful, its start so simple like hack (game and anime) where you are playing VRMMORPG but then become more and more emotional with a plot twist its just amazing.

Tottaly recommend the game if you like action rpg games and i also have to recommend the new home dlc since its like the cherry on top for this game, its completes the story and fills all of the story loophole (not like reMIND).

Also this game has new game plus that offers a LOT of modifier for the next playthrough.

After 100% it yesterday i give this game 8/10.

Phenomenal.

The MMO theme wasn't my jam, but the story was nevertheless well done.

Combat and Puzzles were top notch. Comparable to old top-down zelda games, except even more enjoyable. These are the reason to play the game. Dungeons were amazing.

Music was stunning.

The only hesitation I have in being an S tier game is in some of the side quests and "treasure chests" were on the tedious side. Most of them were great, and I would hate to skip some quests and miss those ones that led to unique monster fights or battle mechanics.

CrossCode is just all around a very solid game, but especially solid if you're looking for:
* puzzles
* fast paced combat
* cute story
* well-paced and compelling power growth

My only complaint with the game is the driving force for the first half of the game is a bit weak. In some ways it feels a bit intentional, like parody, but still, the game within the game has such a bad story that it's hard to be motivated by it. Pair that with the fact that the main mystery moves very slowly early on, and it can make the game feel like a bit of slog in the first half. The rest just flew by though, and the DLC built very nicely on the story. 8.5/10, would recommend.

Amazing game
Great art
Great music
Great story
Hi! Lea! Bye!

Its a quality game that basically feels like a modern re-imagining of a 2D Zelda game - so if you can play those and have a good time, you will probably find more of the same satisfaction here. There isn't too much depth past the pretty straightforward puzzle solving and fun-enough combat, so I probably won't end up replaying. But everything is done with polish and it was a fun for the time spent.