It's a demo? please if are a demo do a full game and keep it up! :D
Reviews for "CrossCode"
This game looks fantastic. The gameplay appears to be smooth, the art and music are beautiful, the character designs are great.
My only complaint thus far are the rather generic character names. If this is set in the future, I would imagine the names would be a bit more... alien?
Anyway, very excited to see full game!
When I clicked this I had thoughts like "Oh boy, here comes YET ANOTHER RETRO-STYLE INDIE-GAME".
Well, after somewhat sketchy intro (typical pseudo-mysterious Japanese girl and her DYING brother that worked ON SOMETHING BIG and then dying in her arms, oh boy we're hitting all the anime-clichés here!) I was ready to brush it off but decided to sit through it. And, well, yeah.
I'll admit, you got me hooked. Sound, music, gameplay mechanics, control, game design, GUI design, color palette, ANIMATION. Yes, you glorious bastards, it's totally superb! Goddammit, you made me wanting to find out what will happen next! I'll have to follow you now, ain't I? Well, one thing for certain, I will buy your game so you've got that part right it seems, huh?
One thing I didn't like as much is your drawing style of in-game portraits - they seem like they aren't sure whether to be anime or something like Flintstones American cartoons, but that's really subjective matter so that didn't influenced the score.
Overall, I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 because reasons below.
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First of all, I don't even like indie-games anymore because everyone and their dog are jumping on that band-wagon nowadays in hopes of easy profit under current trend. Also, overuse of retro-appeal to the 80-90s kids via 8-16bit graphics is way overdone. (Just for the record, I'm almost 25 y/o, hell, I have a very fond memories of the NES/Sega period) I mean, sure I understand that not everyone can handle something like Cry engine, let alone afford it's usage but still... But on the other hand I do get why indie-devs are using retro-style graphics, it's very easy to mess up 3D and it's way more difficult to make it look and move (good animation is one of the key aspect to the picture, ya know?) GOOD. In that way retro-bit graphic is way more easier and, uhh, a sure-fire way to get initial audience with nostalgic crowd. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I dislike your game because of that or anything or even blame you on attempt to milk on the current trend, I just feel that it could've been an even better experience with more advanced graphics BUT I DO REALIZE that's very expensive and very difficult to do properly and with same level of quality so I guess there's that.
TL;DR
I dislike retro-graphics because I think that they belong to the now gone era.
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Желаю разработчикам успешно завершить игру и что-бы у них всё получилось так как они хотят. :)
RadicalFishGames responds:
Hey, wow thanks for the feedback!
I can totally understand you opinion on 2D games :) We just love this SNES-like graphic style and we knew from the beginning we had to use <3
Don't play this game it's too adictive, you'll lose your mind over it :D just sayin...
Okay, so got finished with the demo of this game so far and I have to say: this is a welcoming game with a beautiful retro-style that is quite reminiscent to past 2-D games. Now, 2-D games are my favorites and I welcome it, considering that's what I grew up with. Besides Final Fantasy 6 and Hotline Miami, Cross Code is, hands down, the most beautifully designed 2-D game this year! No doubt about it. I also love the character designs and how they interact with Lea, Carla being my personal favorite. Other characters such as the crew members, despite not seeing what they look, are written well and have some comical things to say. Even while you are exploring an area, conversations are still going mid game. I also love setting this game takes place. Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres to date, especially futuristic games such as this.
But enough about the style and character designs. Let's get to reason why this game is excellent!
First, the controls are pretty stable. Movement by pressing W,A,S,D. Simple enough. Combat is simple enough but it also helps with the puzzles this game contains. In this game, puzzles depend on how precise you are. It took a little bit to understand where the projectile will hit. This game does offer hints to help you, but I never asked for hints, considering this demo offers very easy puzzles. I'm guessing in the finished product will contain difficult puzzles, making you think it through before you act.
In battle, you also use your ball throwing technique as lethal projectiles from a safe distance. There also the melee program you earn for close quarters combat, which is basically a 4-hit combo. But this program can come quite handy for interrupting enemy attack, but not all of them. But you are able to dodge away from the attack, simply by right click and to the direction you desire.
But then comes a few things that kinda hurt this demo experience for me. One is that this game kinda suffers from some frame-rate issues during battle, along with annoying lag problems as well. I was not liking how I was beginning to slow down during a fight. This also affected me when just exploring the area. But I'm guessing it was only me that suffered from this, not so sure with others. And the second thing was that there were a few crashes here from there, but again, I'm only guessing it's only me who is suffering from this frustration, I don't know. But if many players suffer from this, this could hurt the game's rating very badly if the game is unplayable. Either that, or their computers have a tendency to lag. I don't know, again, it just might be me. But this is just a demo.
Regardless of the cons, this game has interesting ideas, and a good story to match. Characters, enemies, and areas are well done. I can't wait to see and play the finished product!