Good evening everybody! This is Aifos coming to you alive from Rhombus Square! I’ve only been here for five minutes, and this peaceful utopian song is already getting on my nerves, so let’s get it out of my head with a game recommendation, oui? Do you like puzzle filled Zelda-esque dungeons? I like puzzle filled Zelda-esque dungeons. Have you ever wanted to be the Avatar? I know [i]I’ve[/i] wanted to be the Avatar. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a game where you could play as the Avatar while taking on puzzle filled Zelda-esque dungeons? That was rhetorical, it would be great. Obviously. Luckily, there [i]is[/i] a game like that, and that game is CrossCode! So let’s just get this out of the way first, the story in CrossCode isn’t great, at least, it starts off pretty terrible. While it does pick up later on, I almost dropped the game completely just because of how garbage the story is at first. I promise, though, if you can put up with the not-very-good story for just a little bit, a truly great game is waiting just beyond the prologue! And, for as bad as the story is, the characters really grew on me, and the game definitely recognizes this, as the plot starts homing in on a character focus as soon as it can. But, let’s put that story behind for a moment, and talk about the gameplay! CrossCode is a top down action RPG. It’s very fast paced, and action-packed, but don’t think that means you can just button mash your way to victory; you still have to be careful and deliberate with your actions, or you’ll wind up dead pretty fast. The best part about the combat however is your ability to freely switch between 5 elemental forms; Neutral, Fire, Ice, Shock, and Wave. While each element shares the same basic attacks, each one has different stats, as well as uniqie special attacks, letting you switch up your fighting style on the fly. I had a bit of a hard time really putting the combat into words, so I made a clip for you showing off some of your moves! https://gamerdvr.com/gamer/the-first-aifos/video/123892856 Each element is highly customizable, as well, so the moves I showed off here is only some of what you can do! However, while combat and Avatar powers are great, the real selling point of the game—at least for me—are the dungeons! Depending on how you look at it, there are somewhere between 4-6 dungeons in the game, and each one is filled with dangerous threats, clever puzzles, and some really great uses of your elemental abilities! These dungeons, for the most part, follow the classic Zelda formula; explore dungeon, find dungeon item, re-explore dungeon with new paths opening up with your new item. Unlike Zelda, however, your dungeon items—or in this case elemental powers—remain relevant all throughout the game. Combat utility aside, you’ll still see clever Flame (your first element) puzzles all the way through to the final dungeon! And if that’s not enough puzzling for you, the world itself is also filled with plenty more smaller puzzles, brimming with optional goodies for you to find! And let’s talk about that world for a moment, because it’s worth discussing in its own right. It is mostly linear, but filled with a lot of shortcuts that make retreading the area a lot easier. Each area also has chests scattered throughout it, some in plain sight, some hidden behind some neat parkour puzzles. While the platforming in CrossCode is rather minimal, mapping out the path to reach a high ledge is always really fun. One uniqie bit about CC, though, is how they handle overworld enemies. With rare exception, you will almost never be attacked by enemies in the overworld without actively engaging them, and your HP will regenerate to max while not in combat. This laid back approach to fighting makes it really nice when you’re just combing an area for chests, or trying to complete a quest or two. There is still a motive to fight, though; enemies drop loot! And not only do they drop loot, but the best loot only drops once you push yourself to your limit! See, the more enemies you take out in a row—that is, before your health regen kicks in—the higher your “combo gauge” will go. Each rank on the combo gauge will in turn add new, rarer items to the baddies’ loot pools. And while enemies won’t drop new weapons themselves, all the best weapons need to be crafted with these high-combo loot drops. And the game definitely knows how to make your combos feel amazing, as hitting higher ranks will change the music, add in bright shiny lights, and generally do whatever it can to help you feel like you’re on a roll! If there’s one big flaw this game has, it’s that it doesn’t encourage switching between elements too much. All elements are tied to an “overload” timer, which will disable all elemental forms upon filling up. This often results in switch between your favorite element (for me personally that’s Fire) and Neutral, only occasionally hopping into other forms to pull off a quick special before jumping back into your favorite. I think individual overload timers would’ve worked a lot better—forcing you to hop to different elements as your favorite cooled down. (At least during normal fights. Bosses usually make more clever use of your powers) Well, that and the dumb story premise. Overall, though, CrossCode is an amazing game, and I—obviously—highly recommend it! [b][u]Tl;dr? Here’s my point![/u][/b] You should play CrossCode! Final verdict: Hi! Lea sorry! Wait.. Why? ..What? out of 10! That’s all for now folks, jambuhbye!