I needed to pick a game to play after having spent my last couple of weeks playing “The Last of Us Part II”. After spending hours in that dark and depressing world, I needed something a little more light-hearted. I needed something that was going to help me get over the events of the Last of Us, and Crosscode was just that game. When Crosscode console announcement came out I immediately put that game on my radar. The art style and concept of the game drew me in from the first announcement. After months of waiting, I finally got the chance to play this game and I am happy to report that it didn’t disappoint.
In Crosscode you’ll play as Lea, a mute MMO character that is suffering from memory loss. As you embark on this journey you’ll begin to unravel the mysteries that are hidden within Crosscode, the fictional world that this all sets place in, and you’ll begin to see more of Lea’s memories. The story of Crosscode has a lot of nods to gamers and I feel like that is one of the strongest aspects of this story. In one particular segment that is early on in the game, one of the characters accuses you of cheating, because of how fast you made it through a dungeon. This conversation brought me back to the times where I would accuse someone of cheating just because they were simply better than me. Don’t worry, I don’t do that anymore. Conversations like the one I just mentioned made Crosscode such a fun experience. Every time one of these nods would come up I couldn’t help but stop and say to myself, “ha, I see what you did there”. Crosscode story is accompanied by a great soundtrack and great visuals. The main battle song has been stuck in my head for the past couple of days. But all of this would be in vain if Crosscode was not fun to play or didn’t have enough content to go through, fear not, that’s not the case for this game.
In this RPG you’ll have plenty of side missions to unlock as well as plenty of abilities to discover. You’ll unlock different elements that can be very useful in battle and to solve puzzles. The game does a really good job of not making you depend on these elements. After a while, your element core will overheat and you’ll have to go back to your “normal” stage. It sounds more confusing than it is. At first glance, Crosscode has a lot going on in every battle, but once you get used to it and you beginning to understand all of the systems, you’ll come to love Crosscode’s chaotic battle system. Like every good RPG, Crosscode also offers a party system and your companions are excellent. Every time I needed help with something I would check to see if my companions where “online” and I would ask for help. Crosscode made me feel like I was playing a multiplayer game in a single-player game, and that’s amazing. But battling is not the only thing you’ll be doing in this game. In this 2D RPG game, you’ll be challenged not only with the battles that you face but with complex puzzles. The highest praise that I can give Crosscode puzzles, is that they reminded me of the puzzles in Zelda Breath of the Wild. Just like in Breath of the Wild, a lot of the puzzles in this game require you to understand the physics of the game, and that’s where the real challenge begins. I cannot tell you how many times I got stuck in a puzzle just because I was not bouncing a ball in the right direction. Every puzzle has that “aha” moment once you figure it out and I love it.
My only complaint with Crosscode is how tedious it is to track things on this game. From key locations in a village/city to side quests, Crosscode makes it difficult to track these things. I have a lot of side quests on my log and I have not gotten to them, not because they are hard to do, or not fun to do, but because how hard the game makes it to track them. For example, there was a quest that required me to go back to a place that’s called Falldivers HQ, I had just started the game and I had visited that place only one time, so I completely forgot where it was. I looked on my map and I couldn’t find it. I looked all over the city trying to find this place, but I had no luck. I ended up having to check every building in this city and just hope I would stumble upon this infamous place. After a couple of frustrating minutes, I came into the building without even knowing it was the correct building. I wish the game did a better job of highlighting places and side quests on your map.
Crosscode is a must-play game for anyone that loves video games and RPGs. The intriguing story, the fast combat, and the excellent puzzle designs will keep you engaged throughout this campaign. Although some tracking issues hold the game back a bit, Crosscode is still one of the best Indies I have ever played. Plus, if you care about trophies on the PS4, Crosscode has a great trophy selection and very obtainable platinum. Wherever you decide to play Crosscode, whether is on your Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox or PC, I can guarantee that you’ll have a great time and you won’t want to put this game down. Log in to Crosscode, you won’t regret it!
Physical boxed version/s can be pre-ordered from crosscode.inin.games/
Score: 80