I really wanted to enjoy this game. I’ve heard a lot of great things about it from friends as well as content creators I really admire, and the fact that it took major inspiration from Zelda made me very interested. After about 16 hours, I came to realize that the game just isn’t for me, and I’m bummed about it. I had to really force myself to play through a large chunk of that 16 hours as well.
My biggest problem with CrossCode is its level progression system. In most games I play, I despise doing sidequests that require a lot of chores or busywork, such as collecting a certain amount of materials or defeating a certain amount of enemies, and only ever really do them if it’s convenient for me. CrossCode requires you to do a lot of these very types of sidequests in order to be properly leveled for the main campaign. The game will let you know that you’re underleveled as you enter an area, or encounter enemies that are a higher level than you. I was surprised at how frequently I happened to be underleveled, as well as how many sidequests I needed to complete in order to reach the recommended level for an area or boss. I tried to go along with the game’s expectations and did a lot of these very sidequests, but this made my experience with the first half of the game a huge bore, and from what I’ve been told, it doesn’t really get any better.
The puzzles are also not my cup of tea either. They generally consist of just pushing and pulling blocks in a room, or shooting your VRP shots at different angles to ricochet and hit specific targets. By the halfway point of the game, I was already sick to death of both types of these puzzles.
There’s a lot about the game that I did enjoy. Its presentation is fantastic, with beautiful pixel art and outstanding music. I also really enjoyed the combat, even though it felt like I didn’t really progress far enough through the game to get a deep grasp of it. These are the elements of the game that really kept me going and made me want to stick with it. As for the story, I don’t think I made it far enough to be able to comment much on it. So far, from what I’ve experienced, the characters are charming enough, but I can tell I’ve barely scratched the surface of the plot, even though I’m apparently halfway through the game.
I don’t know if I’ll ever come back to CrossCode, but I’m shelving it for now at least. I really feel like I’ve been forcing myself to play it up until this point, and it’s leading me to resent the game a little, which I really don’t want to do. I really, really wanted to like this game. It’s clear that a lot of passion was put into it, but so much of the game up until this point has consisted of extremely boring busywork that’s left me immensely unsatisfied.
My biggest problem with CrossCode is its level progression system. In most games I play, I despise doing sidequests that require a lot of chores or busywork, such as collecting a certain amount of materials or defeating a certain amount of enemies, and only ever really do them if it’s convenient for me. CrossCode requires you to do a lot of these very types of sidequests in order to be properly leveled for the main campaign. The game will let you know that you’re underleveled as you enter an area, or encounter enemies that are a higher level than you. I was surprised at how frequently I happened to be underleveled, as well as how many sidequests I needed to complete in order to reach the recommended level for an area or boss. I tried to go along with the game’s expectations and did a lot of these very sidequests, but this made my experience with the first half of the game a huge bore, and from what I’ve been told, it doesn’t really get any better.
The puzzles are also not my cup of tea either. They generally consist of just pushing and pulling blocks in a room, or shooting your VRP shots at different angles to ricochet and hit specific targets. By the halfway point of the game, I was already sick to death of both types of these puzzles.
There’s a lot about the game that I did enjoy. Its presentation is fantastic, with beautiful pixel art and outstanding music. I also really enjoyed the combat, even though it felt like I didn’t really progress far enough through the game to get a deep grasp of it. These are the elements of the game that really kept me going and made me want to stick with it. As for the story, I don’t think I made it far enough to be able to comment much on it. So far, from what I’ve experienced, the characters are charming enough, but I can tell I’ve barely scratched the surface of the plot, even though I’m apparently halfway through the game.
I don’t know if I’ll ever come back to CrossCode, but I’m shelving it for now at least. I really feel like I’ve been forcing myself to play it up until this point, and it’s leading me to resent the game a little, which I really don’t want to do. I really, really wanted to like this game. It’s clear that a lot of passion was put into it, but so much of the game up until this point has consisted of extremely boring busywork that’s left me immensely unsatisfied.