Review of CrossCode for Nintendo Switch, a real RPG wonder!

in hive-103219 •  5 years ago 

Review of CrossCode for Nintendo Switch, a real RPG wonder!

I don't understand how 'CrossCode' has been a play that has spent so much time under my radar. The game was launched to the public already in 2015 with a project of Indiegogo, a small title that covered its ideal to make it possible. One like so many others, right? Not at all. The project would be humble, but the result surpasses any expectations created around it.

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More than three years of constant work by Radical Fish Games led them to its release in 2018 for PC; from then to now, strong updates, the promise of future expansion via DLC, and this port for game consoles accompanied by a physical edition for collectors. Fans of this new developer are growing by the minute, and not without reason. CrossCode' is one of the most special independent RPGs that I have had the pleasure to know in almost thirty years of multiple experiences.

Hi! Who? Read on! Why!

Raise your hand if you haven't heard this before: our protagonist suffers from amnesia. So serious is his problem that the developers of the most popular video game of the last few years, CrossWorlds, are willing to give him a hand. Through the virtual reality MMORPG that is sweeping through young people, our young woman will surely be able to recover her memory, she just has to go through the main plot of the adventure. What can go wrong? There's nothing suspicious about this premise.

That's the card that 'CrossCode' plays with you: you think you've got it in you until it starts to transform its tropes and slowly turns into its own beast. This is not a high-fantasy, high-tech video game, it's an MMORPG within the game itself; and it's not a 'Sword Art Online' where we live an isekai fantasy either, but the world keeps spinning indifferently to us.
There are several layers to what is happening during the plot that we must keep an eye on, from the story of the game itself to what is happening beyond the screen of the virtual glasses that all players admire. You walk down the street and hear rumors about upcoming patches that will expand some areas or the complaints of our colleague about how the day before she spent playing until dawn and still has several projects pending for the university.

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All this would be nothing but curiosities if it weren't for the main character with whom it is tremendously easy to create a strong bond. Lea, the mysterious blue-haired girl we control as an avatar, is halfway between the classic mute main characters and those with a strong and independent personality. Because of a problem faced by the developers, she is unable to speak, but little by little words are added to her vocabulary so that she can express herself and make contact with others. In the first few minutes of the game we have total control over what she feels and thinks, and when we learn the simple monosyllabus we get excited at the same level as our girl - we can talk to people, even if it's just by using that word repeatedly!

Moving forward in the plot and getting more vocabulary is a perfect way to make Lea independent from our yoke. She's still our avatar, but she's expressing more and more of her personality, her worries, and fears. It is a very effective system to tell the story she wants while keeping us linked to her with a very personal bond: we not only understand her frustration, we live it. Seeing someone say goodbye to us and not being able to respond with a goodbye hurts; unblocking being able to do so makes us want to express that word as strongly as we can.

Teach me to Play MMO

The control over Lea is reinforced by the combat system and missions that we live within the CrossWorlds MMORPG. The battles are frantic and intense as in other action RPGs, giving special importance to our ability to adapt to the scenario and our reflexes. The enemies we face can fight both melee and from a distance, forcing us to go into battle with our weapon in hand or with loaded projectiles that leave them disoriented. Different kinds of monsters throughout the world use different strategies and ideas of how to approach a very deep combat system that makes the best of its possibilities.

This is linked to the constant difficulty of the game, which maintains different peaks that balance themselves. On the one hand, the experience gained can be limited if we spend too much time training, trivializing also the experience gained through the secondary missions; it is better to focus on the present and advance regardless of our level.

This is especially true because, just as in a game of the class you are trying to emulate, what is really important is our equipment: keeping in touch with the trade, creating and buying the different armor for our present and going for the secondary missions with the best reward is the real key to not suffering constant humiliation in combat. Even so, the game always demands the best of us with that high difficulty in its final bosses, although it can be adjusted for those who are not looking for a challenge.

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Instead of constantly fighting it is better to focus on those side quests I mention so much, which mimic the experience of an online game like Final Fantasy XIV very well. Some are repetitive turn-based quests to make time for players, such as simply picking up a series of drops from the map. Even the characters within the CrossCode itself point out that these kinds of tasks are best avoided. Instead, it's better to focus on other tasks that put your parkour skills to the test, follow a subplot that gets you interested, or simply follow the madness of your turn.

We find things as serious as suing racism among law enforcement to stupid things like stopping an army of goats from conquering the world.

Share the secrets of world

There are so many aspects that 'CrossCode' excels in that it is difficult not to bring them all out in a cascade of information. If there is one thing that has not yet come to light in this article, it is its dungeons, which are a great design and approach. Instead of taking the idea of many MMORPGs and forcing us to fight our way through with a team of different kinds, they force us to stop and consider our progress on an individual level.

These are levels in the style of 'The Legend of Zelda', paying special attention to the puzzles in our path and rewarding us for our ingenuity or how we use the elements provided to us as we progress through the different floors. In the end, we always have a final boss to test what we have learned and force us to live a memorable battle.
Every 'CrossCode' has an ardent, living soul that makes itself expressed in its dozens of ideas. The developers have proven their talent and creativity to create a unique product while drawing inspiration from the best sections of other titles. The big problem with the game is that this unchecked passion leaves some of its margins neglected: puzzles can be overdone by the lack of some feedback between players and creators, not to mention that some of the pixel art style designs will not end up being liked by all players.

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The biggest problem that can't be ignored is the not-so-small list of technical problems with Nintendo Switch. It is being addressed for an upcoming patch, but the current version at the time of publication of this article suffers from frame per second problems in some areas, sound bugs, and most seriously, the inability to access some of its menus without the application suffering critical error and shutting down. We will update the analysis as soon as these issues are addressed and fixed, which we hope will not be long in coming.

Conclusions

Enjoying 'CrossCode' is one of the best experiences you will ever have before the end of the generation. Radical Fish's work is an example to follow and a model to study for the future. It's almost criminal how unnoticed it has been so far, and I hope it gains the traction it deserves; just as I hope the correction of technical problems in the current version of the Nintendo Switch that prevents it from achieving excellence.
For those of you who are determined to enjoy 'CrossCode' for good, you can find the limited physical edition on its official website, which will be released in August. If you love the title, don't hesitate to get your hands on it: it will be a gem in the PS4 and Nintendo Switch catalog for the future.

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