CrossCode Nintendo Switch Review

"D-D-Did we just literally break the fourth wall or something?!"

Overview

All too often, I play games that have had mass media exposure, a barrage of youtubers and streamers playing them and excessive critical hype, to the point that it is impossible to avoid spoilers. Luckily, CrossCode was one of those rare games where I knew very little going in, having seen only a brief gameplay trailer. What I experienced was a delightful surprise.

Finally playing the game after a lengthy early access phase and a two year delay in coming to the Nintendo Switch, CrossCode is one of the most genuine and heartfelt games I have ever played. Radical Fish’s devotion to achieving an incredible amount of immersion is displayed in full force through emotional and clever writing and a soundtrack that blends styles to evoke the sounds of classic JRPGs. The immersion is bolstered by solid twin stick shooter gameplay, which forms the backbone of the fast-paced action combat and the deep and challenging puzzles available throughout the game’s overworld and dungeons.

CrossCode is undoubtedly a love letter to those classic JRPGs, those old Zelda dungeons, those retro game soundtracks and to the promise of games providing thoughtful storytelling and unique and developed characters. It’s an inspired game, and CrossCode shows how the medium of video games can be used for such immersive storytelling whilst displaying the ability of independent studios to create emotional and heartfelt experiences.

Lea, CrossCode and the Playground

You play as Lea, a young, mute woman who awakens on a cargo ship to find that she cannot remember her past. A man named Sergey Asimov informs her that she must play the MMORPG, CrossCode, in order to regain her memories. Having embarked upon the game’s blended world of virtual-reality and physical environments, the Playground, you soon meet Emilie, who suggests you form a party and begin your journey throughout CrossCode’s world together. What begins as a simple tale to regain forgotten memories, develops into a powerful story of self-discovery. As you traverse the varied areas of the Playground and begin to restore your memories, you discover the reason for your involvement with CrossCode, while the motives of those around you are slowly revealed. Along the way, the tale deals with themes of corporate control, the ethics of advanced technology and empathy (good thing I’m familiar with these - insert joke about my love of Blade Runner here). At its core, CrossCode is about self-discovery, and how important a role friendship and love play in forming who you are.

CrossCode’s level of immersion is breathtaking. The game is, in itself, a game being played out by all the characters within it, and you are reminded of this every time players “logout” of the game, or joke about the menial life of work outside in the “real” world. CrossCode is a unique experience. It so interestingly blends the virtual with the real that it makes you question what is real and what is not. I’ve not experienced anything quite like it in gaming.

CrossCode also had some of the most heartfelt moments I’ve ever played in a game. The vulnerability of Lea is one that we can all empathise with, and Radical Fish have done an outstanding job of creating real and relatable characters that make playing the game feel like Lea is working towards creating one close-knit family. The interactions between your justice-driven rival, Apollo, and sarcastic, bug-fearing best friend, Emilie, are hilarious, and Lea’s relationships with Emilie and C’tron are beautifully developed. Other characters you meet along your journey are similarly fleshed out and developed, and it is clear that Radical Fish devoted time loving and caring for CrossCode’s cast, something so often missed in RPGs where characters feel replicated, recycled or uninspired.

It has been a long time since I’ve felt personally invested into the characters of a video game and have been genuinely interested to unfold the story. In fact, the last experience of that I had was probably Mass Effect 3 some 8 years ago. But CrossCode managed to bring back that excitement and personality I knew video games could have and reminded me that video games are an excellent medium for powerful and emotional storytelling.

In keeping with its emotionally gripping story, CrossCode feels like Radical Fish’s love letter to some of its favourite games, films and series. I cannot tell you how many references to fantastic pop culture there are throughout this game and how they are dealt with in such cute, humorous and celebratory ways. Never mind the game’s combat system and in-game world revolving around four controllable elements that you have to master, one NPC monk explicitly tells you, “To become the first True Avatar you first need to master all 4 elements” – a wink, wink to The Last Airbender. Heck they even named another quest’s main NPC K’tara, I mean how much more obvious can you get? The references, story and characters speak only to the incredible writing offered by Felix Klein, Stefan Lange and Henning Hartmann. I feel the need to point them out as I am that impressed with such amazing writing by such a junior studio. It’s not only the incredibly written dialogue for the main cast, but the NPC dialogue and the amount of information available in the game’s rich encyclopaedia are both a testament to the devotion of the writing team to ensure quality and personable story and worldbuilding.

Twin Stick Action: Puzzles and Dungeons

CrossCode is by all accounts, hard. The gameplay challenges you to be focused, accurate and quick. As a twin stick shooter, the right analogue acts as your aim, while the left, your movement. You’ll need to be patient in waiting for a charged ranged shot which gives you 100% accuracy, but also quick on your feet, as moving and dashing rapidly is a necessity. If shooting isn’t particularly your style, you have the option to go brawler mode and batter enemies with powerful melee attacks, but you will be left vulnerable, and weighing up the benefits and costs of ranged vs. melee will be a skill quickly learnt by any CrossCode player. Dodging and movement are key to avoiding the frequent, fast and varied attacks of enemies, and carefully observing enemy patterns will ensure your success in combat. To defeat enemies, you’ll need to break their shield, weakening them and making them vulnerable to your attacks. This requires excellent timing on your attacking and blocking. After or during some attacks, enemies will momentarily be highlighted in red, and this will be your chance to land a critical hit that will instantly break their shield. Perfectly parrying attacks also provides you with the same opportunity. It should not be underestimated how important mastering combat is in CrossCode, as enemies will be constantly testing your mastery of the core mechanics and the elements you attain.

To complement the basics of combat, you are also able to learn Combat Arts – special moves learned in the multiple upgrade trees that have different effects depending on when you use them. There is an Art aligned with every basic combat move, Guard, Dash, Throw and Melee, which use up the Special Points (SP) you gain as you engage in combat. Not only are the Combat Arts functionally useful, but they go a long way in making you feel superpowered, reminding you that you are a deadly Spheromancer the CrossCode world has never seen. Despite feeling developed and polished, the combat can also feel repetitive. Combat can get frustrating when you come up against enemies that feel as though you’re hitting a brick wall with Styrofoam balls (ironically, in CrossCode, you are!). What at first seems like fun and exciting combat, can sadly sometimes feel like more of a chore.

CrossCode has four elements to unlock as you progress through the Playground which provide variety and challenge. The elements of Heat, Cold, Shock and Wave are all unique and it is in the Crosscode dungeon design where the elements’ functions shine. A clear nod to the old Hyrulian design, Crosscode’s dungeons are incredible. A combination of room-based logic, puzzle-solving and core gameplay mastery tests, each dungeon leads you to a boss fight and rewards you with an item to progress to the next area in the Playground. The dungeons are one of the most exciting parts of CrossCode. They are well designed, challenging, and make excellent use of the associated element. At times they can feel long and somewhat overbearing, but the “aha!” moments of solving a difficult puzzle reminded me of the satisfaction I got from beating the dreaded Ocarina of Time Water Temple. Despite focusing on puzzles in dungeons, the overworld also tests your ingenuity with its hidden treasures scattered throughout each area. Item crates in the overworld do a great job of testing your environmental awareness, and working in tandem with your core mechanics, the lucrative item boxes were always satisfying and rewarding.

In true RPG fashion, CrossCode conforms to the experience, items and gear systems found across the genre. A large emphasis is placed on the quality and the level of gear you wear. If you are struggling in an area, it will often be because your gear is under levelled. Despite having encyclopaedia entries for certain items, it can often be an annoying task trying to find the required parts for different gear pieces and finding them becomes something of a grind fest. I never did feel strapped for cash however, and the pricing of items and level of equipment always felt well balanced to the area you enter. Crosscode diverges slightly from the classic party-based RPGs by providing you with allies and party members, but not fully giving you control of when and who you use. The choices are rather meaningless in this regard, and it would have been nice to see party choices make real gameplay changes. Regardless, when it comes to dungeons, you’re on your own.

Playing the game on Nintendo Switch has its drawbacks, and these need to be said. Firstly, as I have spoken about elsewhere in my Nintendo Switch Retrospective, the Joycons are not necessarily designed for pinpoint accuracy, something that is required in CrossCode. This does not totally inhibit gameplay, but I can imagine that on other platforms, players would have a slightly easier time executing puzzles and accurate shooting. Also, to my surprise, the Switch cannot handle some intense sequences in the game. In a game so heavily reliant on speed, mechanics and precision, it was annoying to find that an end-game sequence was rendered nearly unplayable because of harsh framerate drops to the point where completing the level felt like painful drudgery. For some, framerate drops here and there may not be much of a bother to you. But I must warn that it may dampen the experience at times and picking up a PC version might be the way forward if you can do so.

Reinventing Old-School: Visuals and Sound

I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I love when games use sprite animations and update them with new engines to create a highly stylised and artistic look. We’ve seen such success in something like Octopath Traveller, with its HD-2D aesthetic, and Crosscode’s animation style wonderfully evokes those old-school Japanese games with fresh and polished sprite-based animations. In my Hades review, I spoke about the level of detail attained in some of their 2D character drawings. CrossCode does not quite achieve that level of detail, but it makes up for that by being brilliantly animated, capturing emotions and expressions through the hand-drawn text box character animations. I loved the sensation of watching the sprite animations play out while the hand-drawn models immerse you in the emotion and feeling of the scene. Quite a testament to the possibilities that updated technologies can offer the retro, sprite-based animation style.

CrossCode’s Playground takes you to many environments and all are beautifully designed with puzzles that become integrated into the landscape itself. It is a real joy when you stumble across new areas and begin your search for the hidden and just-out-of-reach item crates spawned across the map. In the search for the four elements, the Playground offers areas that range from snowy mountains and Japanese inspired forests to megacities and jungle-hut encampments. The enemies are designed to match, and whether you’re fighting the animal inspired enemies, such as the Papagun, Shokat or Horny Goat (yes it’s called, Horny Goat), or the technological entities such as the Beta Mouse Bot, Neutral Virus or Baby Pillar, the design feels suited for the area you explore and cleverly plays with conventional entities found in both fantasy and technological RPGs.

CrossCode’s original soundtrack, composed by Deniz Akbulut, is a triumph. The soundtrack mixes electro, jazz, soul and retro genres with powerfully thumping rhythms and serene ballads. This blend creates a beautiful soundtrack that evokes those nostalgic experiences found in classic JRPGs such as Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The faster and more electronic tracks, such as “Hack Your Way!”, also evoke the paced, rhythmic tracks of Mega Man, nodding to its shooter element. The music feels sophisticated and tailored to individual areas, going a long way in supporting the worldbuilding and providing excellent atmosphere. In one of my favourite moments of the game, Lea finds herself isolated with a friend, Lukas. Their relationship develops as they spend more time together and the culmination of time spent is embodied beautifully by my favourite track, “Sadness”, which features a soft, serene piano and clarinet melody openly played against a bed of strings and howling electro wisps. Personally, I was reminded of one of my favourite films, Whisper of the Heart, and in combination with the fantastic story and writing elements, I was reminded of those powerful emotions raised by the beauty of that film’s moments. It is in this vein that I also feel the soundtrack aims to evoke some elements of those 90s Japanese animation studios, the likes of which can be heard in Studio Ghibli films and something akin to anime show, Cowboy Bebop.

Final Thoughts

Despite CrossCode’s combat occasionally getting tiresome, and some clear drawbacks from the Nintendo Switch version, the gameplay is solid. The dungeon and puzzle designs feel logical and inventive and embody the essence of the gameplay mechanics, reaching the quality attained by those old-school Zelda dungeons - something CrossCode is clearly trying to replicate. A rich, emotional story that features a complete cast of unique and inspired characters, vibrant visuals and beautiful sound design go a long way in supporting competent gameplay to create deep immersion.

At times it felt as though I was watching Radical Fish pour out their heart and soul. Despite being set in a futuristic, technological virtual-reality MMORPG, Lea’s story felt so rich and so real that many will be able to empathise with the journey of self-discovery she embarks on, and will find themselves emotionally gripped by the wonderful cast of characters. I can imagine that some of the game creators were personally invested in the story and I hope that their future content brings to life more of these experiences in the same way CrossCode does so well. CrossCode took a long time to land on the Switch, but I welcome it with open arms. Days after completing the game I am still thinking about the story, the characters, the beautiful moments that captured my emotions – I still ponder on the themes and questions it poses. The gaming market should be rewarding studios like this for creating such evocative and compelling content, something that has been sorely lacking in recent Triple A and RPG titles.

Radical Fish must be told that their ability to deliver a genuine and heartfelt experience has been matched by very few, and although I could play CrossCode through so many times more, I’m very excited to see what’s next in store.