I wanted to like CrossCode. It's beautiful, the music is really good, and it controls well. But there's so much jank and frustration otherwise.
There's tons of quests, but they're mostly boring and have terrible rewards. There are tons of trading materials, but the vast majority are kinda useless, apart from completing quests and filling out the item encyclopedia. Trading can be aI wanted to like CrossCode. It's beautiful, the music is really good, and it controls well. But there's so much jank and frustration otherwise.
There's tons of quests, but they're mostly boring and have terrible rewards. There are tons of trading materials, but the vast majority are kinda useless, apart from completing quests and filling out the item encyclopedia. Trading can be a massive pain, moving between a bunch of different locales in hopes of getting one upgrade. Early on, the game outright tells the player that leveling up isn't all that useful, that gear is what matters. Yet good gear is few and far between. Not particularly fun.
Overall progression is also kinda bad. Once the character's level is high enough, enemies quickly start giving 1 exp point, even some pretty strong ones. Like, 3-4 hits to kill strong. One enemy a few levels above my character took off 75% of my character's HP in one hit.
SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT OF MY HEALTH
And this is where I start complaining about the action. Enemy damage output is sometimes ridiculously high, and all projectile attacks track with varying degrees of success. Exploding rocks shot out of a sandworm's mouth? They track. A moth's fireball? Those track, too. Jumping goop? Yup. Doesn't sound so bad, but many of these explode as they land, which usually requires two dashes to avoid. Again, not that bad, but remember, one hit can be 1/3 HP, and there's a 3 dash limit. So, if two enemies launch projectiles at inopportune times, that's basically a guaranteed hit. And I'm not even talking about those attacks that are basically Epyon's Energy Bomber from Endless Duel. Just obscene amounts of damage, even while blocking. Not very fun.
And what about dishing out damage? Well, it feels anemic. Enemies are massive sponges, and damage output mostly relies on breaking the enemies' guard. Remember that mechanic? Guard break? So much fun.
Bosses usually have multiple phases, and since 2 attacks are often enough to kill, without prior knowledge of the bosses' tactics in each of their forms it's pretty hard to avoid those 2 attacks on a first run. So yeah, I died a lot against bosses. I just never felt strong, like I would in Bayonetta or DMC or Ninja Gaiden. Am I being unfair thinking this isn't fun?
What about the puzzles and level design? Early on, I found this part pretty fun (yes, fun!) but as the game progressed, area layouts got more and more tedious to navigate, which is something your in-game allies will make sure to point out. Lampshading so intense it even surpassed that last terrible Marvel movie. You know the one. No no, the other one. Yeah.
There's no clear indication which platform is at what height, so I'd often walk along these narrow ledges, eyeing my next landing spot, only to realize it was one level higher, and I'd have to go aaaaaaaaaall of the way back to the beginning of this "course". Early on, these paths are obvious and short enough that my middling parkour skills didn't prevent me from enjoying the experience. As the paths get more complex and difficult, it becomes frustrating and works against the desire to explore. Unfun.
Puzzles mostly involve shooting charged bullets at stuff in hopes of something happening. Some require such precise aiming and such strict timing that it just becomes a chore to do them. They're not challenging otherwise; it's not hard to figure out what to do, it just takes tons of tries to get the timing right and the aiming true. Some I couldn't do with a controller, and had to switch to keyboard and mouse because I just couldn't aim precisely enough or fast enough. In the eternal words of the Stooges, "NO FUN".
And what about that story? Well, it moves i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y slowly. Every time I thought things were moving along, "don't forget about this raid", "let's meet up at the Rookie Hub", "help me plant some vegetables, Noc-" sorry, wrong game. When the story does actually move forward, it's in tiny, minuscule increments. It has an interesting premise, but doesn't work out anything particularly meaningful out of it. It asks "what does it mean to be human", and responds with "the power of friendship". So deep, bro.
Fairly early on, I realized that I kept wondering when the game would start letting me have some fun. Any time I was in a groove, the game would grind to a halt by throwing an overly strict puzzle at me, or having me go back to the beginners' hub, or have some super long boring banter. I wanted to charge in and slash away, but I've got to guard break enemies to do any sort of damage. It's constantly preventing me from moving forward, slowing me down, preventing me from having some enjoyment. If the game just let me play, just let those puzzles be slightly less strict, cut down on the awful dialog, remove the guard break and let me fight however I wanted, I would probably love it.
But that's a lot of ifs.… Expand
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