Since Steam refuses to let me post my review of CrossCode on their page due to technical difficulties, I'm going to subjugate everyone here to reading it! Haha!

Spoiler free review.

This is a very tough thumbs down for me to give. My overall opinion of this game would be "meh." It is more middling than it is outstanding, and it is certainly not awful. The problem is that it is taxing, repetitious, and grindy. Usually, I don't mind a grindy element to a game, and I should say that it's not horrible here, but the game really makes you feel it in the presentation.

My biggest problem with this game, however; actually lies in the pacing of it's story and dialogue. I love the interactions between characters. I felt myself emotionally involved in the story at points and really sympathized with the characters, which is something that is important to me for a game--I want the creator to MAKE me care. I think they do this well with a relate-able dialogue and cast of characters. It feels natural, and the characters have a variety of personalities. The problem I have is in how wordy the game can be, and how the low points of the story are VERY low.

Creators love to put world-building into their games. They like to get the player involved in different aspects of the world, why things are the way they are, etc. The problem is that these creators often forget that this isn't just a book where you have to fill in the information for the player. This is a video game. The world-building is going to come from a combination of dialogue AND game-play. It's important not to overwhelm the player with too much dialogue and to also let them experience the game and understand parts of the world through their exploration. This game leans hard into too much dialogue, especially at the beginning of the game when you just want to play. To the game's credit, a lot of the world-building lore is optional, which I like, but it still fails to succinctly explain crucial information.

The highs in the story of this game are REALLY high. I was invested and involved and I wanted to know more. But once the plot progression goes back to normal, you get hit really hard with those lows. A bunch of fetch/combat/other quests for NPCs that actually don't matter to the game's overarching narrative.

They did well at making it seem like you're playing through an MMO, but sometimes, they succeeded a bit too well in that regard. The worst elements of MMOs from fetch quests to enemy grinding is really strong in this game. This isn't always a bad thing, but I did find myself skipping dialogue since the quests mainly played out the same, and none of the information was pertinent for the game's main story, nor was it interesting enough on its own.

For the enemy grinding, it's not a huge deal as the combat is pretty fun, and the enemies have patterns to learn and watch out for. I enjoyed that. Especially when they group up and you have to be mindful of what the openings are. The problem for the combat is that sometimes it's a waiting game, and it can be frustrating waiting for enemy AI to launch a specific attack or line up with other enemies attacks just so you can get that opening. It's not so bad at first, but that grind and frustration builds up over time, and by the end of the game, I wasn't having fun with the combat. I actively skipped enemies just to get to the next story cut-scene because they were not fun to fight.

Another rough aspect of this game that is hit or miss with me is the puzzles. Some of the puzzles are fun and really good, but they go on for too long. You have your standard environment puzzles where you have to figure out how to reach a chest or a higher place in order to access a ledge. These start as one-screen puzzles at first, but quickly turn into two and three screen puzzles where you have to remember how the environment is interwoven and connected so that you can reach the areas necessary. Actually, it's pretty entertaining, but it did get old by the end of the game. This is also true of the dungeons in the game. There is too much and too many of them. Sometimes, I would walk into a room, and I would immediately want to stop playing because there was so much information to take in about the new puzzle and it was overwhelming. I did solve all of them on my own, but sometimes it was far too much to handle at once, especially after I had already solved several before-hand and I walked into a new room only to be greeted with a puzzle that was far too big to see on one screen, so I had to run around and try to figure out what I needed to do first.

This relates back into those highs and lows I mentioned before. There are times when the story becomes very engaging and leads you into a dungeon, particularly at the end of the game. Curious to find out more? Too bad. Go through this puzzle dungeon. The concept of the challenge isn't the problem here, but it's more the pacing that I take issue with. It takes me from my most invested to wanting to shut the game off and take a break. It's a hard thing to bounce between, and this game does it several times.

To sum it up:

-Pacing problems
-Wordy dialogue
-Combat that starts engaging but becomes tedious and repetitive by the end
-Repetitive quests with pointless backstory to them
-Drawn out puzzles

This is not a bad game, but it is one that leaves me very conflicted. If these problems sound like they wouldn't bother you, check the game out. If it sounds like a pain, I'd recommend looking up the story on YouTube. I found it a fun one to experience.