Recent reviews by UltimaCJ

If you like MMZ and MMX style games, you'll 100% love this.
Not nearly difficult as a MMZ game, but challenging nevertheless. Short but sweet game. Awesome soundtrack. Tight controls. Awesome comic book style cutscenes.

Some stage design was annoying at times and the boss battles some weren't so tough and some where very tough. The final boss can induce sensory overload and can be overwhelming. It's one of those bosses "this was fun until this". But if you're determined, you'll get it done.

8/10 game. Get it on sale overall, 20$ may be too high for such a short game unless you plan to 100% it.

Only thing this game lacked was voice acting.

Over all medicore NFS game. The story is pretty bland and the voice acting is overall cringe (especially Mac with constant cheesy lines). Control is overall tight, grinding is required for the later races. Cars will also sync to your level which kinda makes over grinding pointless. Even on Easy mode.

Get it on sale if you need a racing game otherwise...eh.

Fans of Fallout series will like this game because plays very similar to it. Story is good, the voice acting on par, control is tight, and the menu system is overall well designed.

Pros: Music great
Control and slow motion is pretty good
Characters and NPCS are easy to connect with it and get into the story with.
Combat solid and not too difficult.

Cons:
Somewhat linear game, unlike Fallout. But the journey was still great.
Jumping fall damage is WAY too sensitive similar to Far Cry series. 3 feet should not not break my ankle lol.
No romance options with your crew mates, that would be a nice touch since you connect with the characters.
About 40 hours in length not as long as I expected it to be but still, the journey was good.

Disappointing. I thought I was playing more Clannad joy, instead rubbish.

Overall fantastic game. WAY longer than the first and I didn't do the DLC yet.

Quests get buggy at times like any other long game like this.
Also, tends to crash a lot when zoning into areas.

Beyond that, great game 8 / 10.

I'm going to play the game all the way through, but since again Steam doesn't allow middle reviews, I have to give this a thumbs down. This is a great AARPG but it is "ahead of time" similar to games like Majoras Mask for the N64. There's a lot of good ideas here this game presents....the problem is execution.

Example 1:

Puzzles do not clearly show or execute a good "hint" system of what to do, leaving you scratching your head. Of course there's google and Youtube out there to aid you but that DOES kill the joy of figuring it out for yourself.

Example 2:

Mechanics, while I do love a good mechanic, again, it's execution. A fine example of this when you are faced with a boss that is twice your level and you are suppose to slowly lower a bridge so you can escape to safety. The game "hints" you that the boss cannot track you in Shadow Form but how this EXECUTED is poorly shown. I've seen many (BAD) designed games for melee attacking the attack will follow through 99.9% of the time and this case, 1 shots you. The "mechanic" is to turn into Shadow Form so it DOESN'T land on you. Wouldn't this be better executed if this was a RANGED attack? Instead, there's a homing missile that follows you instead in Shadow Form, in which, when you return to normal form, goes away. Quite the 180 if you ask me. I couldn't figure out this fight for the life of me, but gladly thanks to the aid of the steam forums which a lot of people showed their grievousness about this mechanic.

Example 3:

There are instances where you'll get an auto cut scene as well as an auto save. Auto save mostly only works when you transfer to a new area and that's ALL it should do! This game encourages you to save and in mulitpule slots but the auto save can also bone you most of the time. In chapter 3 where you can become 1 of two different things, but the game doesn't tell you this until you've reached said area. I accidentally saved, the same slot after I became the wasp. When I researched right after the fact, you can become something else but you can't get both puppets in a same playthrough! Guess what kicked in and I didn't transfer into a NEW area? That's right! The auto save! Why? That's bad design and it should be designed for one or two things NOT both and especially not something over that. So do I lose several hours of progress because I'm only saving per chapter, or take the loss because I wanted the other character?
Again, poor EXECUTION.
There are lot of neat things this game presents itself. I enjoy the story, the voice acting, and the neat way of swapping characters out to plan your next move. The point n click parts are shoddy at times but it's nothing to draw away from. The equipment section is a little confusing and could have been organized better, but it's not too bad once you get it down.

Execution was the problem with this game on a lot of mechantics. I've given you three examples, I expect more examples down the road but I've gathered enough intel to write a good enough review about it.

Again, this isn't a bad game but I cannot recommend a game to the community when things are not executed properly and act "ahead of its time". It's one of those play at your own risk.

IF you can get passed these features, then is a good time killer of a game to play.

Great metroidvania game, a hidden gem.

The story is a bit medicore but what makes it up is its SOLID game play. Tight control. Good music. Good map design. Mark system. It's a perfect blend what if a Castlevania got mixed in with Chrono Trigger.

Not too long of a game, shorter than I expected, but still a great game. Decent difficutly, but not too hard.

8/10

Overall recommend this game because it has that charm from the first game.
*QOL improvements such as casting spells gives your units EXPs. They no longer have to do or assist in the killing blow. Which made leveling healers/casters sometimes tedious in the first game.
*Fantastic soundtrack
* Funny Story

Negatives:
*Not a fan of the tile system and gets near crazy near the end like you have play this like a Chess Board. (and that's just normal story mode). That's just not my style!
*Story isn't AS funny as the first one, but I still liked it.
*Foes tend go after and out of their way to the squishest characters / lowest level ones. Which in end, does work to your advantage if boss of that stage decides to risk it all and making it easier for you to win. Only downside is, that killed unit gets no exp.
*Unable to revive characters once they die until you either game over or clear the map. I prefer you can revive a character in someway, that's just my style.
*Expect some long grindy sessions but the game presents some good maps to get that EXP knocked out!

Overall:
Tough to thumbs up or thumbs down this game because there are lot of good qualities but there are also qualities that give that 'Ugh this was fun until THIS part."

This game scores on average of 6-8 out of 10 depending on the situation.

This game has everything:

GREAT music
GREAT control (I haven't played a game with such fantastic control in a GOOD while)
GREAT story
GREAT Pixel Style Graphics
GREAT menu system, lore, and lot of other things.

What this lacks though is BALANCE.

Imagine Zelda, picture if you will, let's say Zelda has 50 rooms about 40% is puzzles which is normal for Zelda game.
Now that you have that image, picture CrossCode with that same idea bout 90% of them is puzzles and a many of them are a doozy.

If you really want a STRONG HEAVY PUZZLE BALL BUSTING game, this YOUR cup of tea. If you're looking for the latter like Zelda, then I do not recommend this game for you.

It's a shame to thumb downs this because this game really has a lot of promise and I'm happy I got to try it out (and get it on sale too so money not fully wasted).

This game caters to a certain audience and a very particular audience.

Hopefully the dev's will put this in stride and when Cross Code 2 comes out (they add a previously on if they do make a sequel so I can jump right into it!).

This game shows a lot of promise to a CERTAIN audience ...it's a shame I had to thumbs down it.

Recommend ONLY: If it is on sale.

If you love GNG you'll love this game.
Overall tight control.
Good retro style graphics.
Great sound.
Story is OK, but you're here for the game play. Not the story.

The Bad:

No Sound Option and Dev states in the forums to lower it with using Via Windows Sound Bar. I had to get it as low as 7% for my chat to hear me on Twitch. It's THAT loud.

Stage 7 has a point where you have to climb down ropes while avoiding projectiles and they're very bad placed. It took nearly 15 continues get that past that part. It was one of those parts were "I enjoyed this until THIS part of the game happened." The fact you can't defend yourself on the ropes makes this very difficult to get past.

Beyond that, not a bad game I did get my 5.99 worth of it.

Again, recommend ONLY if it goes on sale!