CrossCode Review: The RPG About An MMO (PC)

Starting development all the way back in 2011, CrossCode is an action RPG set in a fictional MMO. But that’s not all the game is! Beneath the high concept and 16-Bit styled graphics is an interactive one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Playing with elements to both enhance your combat abilities and completing the game’s puzzles is key to making it through as you upgrade your sprawling skill tree, meet charming characters along the way, and uncover a sinister message in this seemingly perfect virtual world. CrossCode manages to combine all of this to create a satisfying package that many failed to notice.

CrossCode is available  for $19.99 on PS4/PS5, Steam, Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch

STORY – A PLOT IN 2 PARTS

CrossCode is a story in 2 parts; the plot you play through, and the story and lore of the MMO you play in.

The Story of CrossCode

To start with the first, more interesting part, the game kicks off with a bang. You blast through a terracotta garden as a black-haired woman called Shizuka and complete a combat and movement tutorial. It’s equal parts action-packed and mysterious, ending with your brother dying in your hands. Shortly after you play as Lea, a AI known as an Evotar that has been teleported to the fictional MMO Crossworlds by Sergey Asimov, your typical guy behind a chair. Lea appears in a futuristic boat cabin without any memories. What follows is a more advanced tutorial, that may be long, but it’s needed for how complicated the mechanics are. After an encounter with a god-like figure called the designer and a giant enemy crab that you quickly dispose of, you finally land on Crossworlds itself and begin the game in earnest.

The setup is brilliant, bringing up so many questions about what the prologue was all about, who Lea is, why are they in Crossworlds and so much more that all gets satisfyingly paid off by the end. As the story progresses, it gets a lot more complicated with twists, and turns, culminating in an important message that, without spoiling anything, made me deny more internet cookies. You end up meeting loads of colourful characters in this densely packed MMO world, such as the mild-mannered C-Tron, your rule’s lawyer rival Apollo and the gentle giant Lukas. I want to give a special mention to Emile, your best friend you meet very early on. She’s funny and snarky, full of infectious energy, and has a crippling fear of bugs. I love her.

A conversation between your party members during battle. Emile is the best!

The Story of CrossWorlds

The fact the game is set in an MMO gave the writers lots of opportunities to poke fun at the conventions of the genre, an excuse to make the more gamey elements immersive, and it gives the characters lives outside of the game you play in. My one flaw with the plot is the actual story within Crossworlds. It’s hard to pay attention to with its spamming of keywords and is not interesting to pay attention to. I sure didn’t. It’s not the main focus of the game, and the character interactions and main plotline more than make up for it.

GAMEPLAY- ALL IN ITS ELEMENT

What puts CrossCode in the upper ranks of its genre is the gameplay.

Combat

There’s a lot to it, and it can be overwhelming. Lea has a 3 hit combo, a projectile attack that can ricochet off solid surfaces, a guard, and a dash to quickly avoid danger. All of those can be charged to unleash a super version that deals massive damage. Eventually, you gain the power of the elements to give your attacks more of an oomph. But that’s not all, you can combine the elemental states with the charge attacks to create powerful elemental charge attacks. Each of the 4 elements has its own unique charge attacks for each of the four moves. And then you unlock the second and third-level charge moves to create even more powerful charge attacks. And then there’s the break state where once you fulfill certain conditions, enemies will freeze in place, allowing Lea to deal boosted damage!

Burn baby!

Yeah, a lot. Thankfully the game paces all these mechanics out throughout its 40-hour length and teaches them well through good tutorials. In no time you’ll be switching elements, breaking enemies, and kicking ass like it’s second nature. 

Skill Tree

Like many RPGs and MMOs the game’s setting takes its inspiration from, there’s a huge skill tree. After leveling up you gain circuit points that can be spent on nodes. These nodes can range from passive buffs such as health regen and more attack power to those powerful charge moves. There is never a huge grind to get circuit points, leading you to constantly feel like you’re gaining progress. It’s what helps the combat feel easy to digest and eventually leads you to summon meteors to rain down on tiny hedgehogs.

Woah that’s a lot of diamonds

But what’s most interesting is node switching. The skill tree often branches in two. In one branch, you could get a charge attack that surrounds you with ice, higher defense, and more melee damage and in the other branch, you get a charge attack that blasts ice in front of you, higher hp, and more projectile damage. Switching between the nodes gives you a bit of customization to suit your play style and make your Lea unique.

Dungeons

Now here is where CrossCode stretches its wings. Taking a very Legend of Zelda approach, each dungeon is split between puzzle and combat rooms where you unlock a new elemental power to help with said combat and puzzles. Each dungeon has its own unique gimmicks too such as timed bombs and melting ice blocks.

A fancy room to get an element

The puzzles are amazing! They involve you throwing a projectile into bubbles that can change its direction and even element to hit a switch. You then must change the way the ball travels by moving blocks around. What starts as a simple brain tease game can turn into a timed rush where you must teleport a block to one area and then flick a switch to activate a directional bubble so the projectile can move into an melted ice block that you have to freeze before it gets there in or else it’ll destroy the projectile. These Rube Goldberg-esq puzzles are so satisfying to nail on time and make you feel like a genius. 

The dungeons get you very comfortable with the element you gained as well. The enemies you fight are usually weak to it and the puzzles teach you its unique features. Each dungeon also ends with a gigantic boss fight, where you must use what you have learned to satisfyingly defeat it.

Overworld and more

Between each dungeon, there are different areas to fight enemies, chat with NPCs, complete quests, and buy gear. Each overworld is very explorable, with chests around every corner. It almost acts like a big puzzle in itself. You enter a flow state in these areas as each charming side quest gives you gold, gear & exp, which you can then use to make combat easier, do more quests, unlock more stuff and repeat the addicting cycle until the sun come up.

It’s a very multilayered overworld

GRAPHICS AND SOUND- ELEVATING THE OLD

CrossCode takes its 16-bit-inspired visuals and pushes them to the max. Not only are the characters and world well designed and appealing, but each move you perform is juiced to the max. It can be as simple as dust trails following you as you dash, to charged combat moves zooming the camera in to then unleashing a flurry of particle effects and freeze frames when you defeat an enemy. You couldn’t do that on a Super Nintendo! The soundtrack is also great. It ranges from serine in the overworlds, more peppy and tuneful in the towns, and intense and energetic during combat. The sound design helps every action from the satisfying click of buying an item to each and every punch. It’s so detailed in fact, that each element has its own different sound effects for each action!

CrossCode was reviewed on PC