CrossCode: One of My Favorite Games... Kind of

[@DavidFowlerMusic]

The vibe of this game completely drew me in. The music is like a warm hug. This game got me through the pandemic

[@tiredko-hi-]

I agree. CrossCode's biggest flaw is that it expects you to know a lot of stuff from other games. The less you know, the more assignments you get. And since learning is quite literally painful in a way, it's no wonder most players have some sort of resilience towards booting it up. Since I played from the tech demo, throughout the early access, and then onto the finished game, I had a lot more time to chew on every individual aspect of the game. This feels like the intended experience. But for the people that buy the finished product, they have a mountain of stuff to get through before being able to properly enjoy it.

[@proximaevening4764]

There are so many generic action RPGs that I thought this was just another one of them but I was wrong. I bought it then couldn’t stop playing. The story, setting, combat and skill tree are all fantastic. I felt the same as I did as a kid playing Pokémon for the first time. Lost in another world.

[@cmcguire7901]

I feel similarly about Crosscode as I do to hollow knight, the sheer quality and depth is so good but the difficulty can be frustrating when you aren’t in the mood to be challenged

[@melephs_cap]

Maybe I have a skewed difficulty expectation from playing roguelikes, but CrossCode didn't strike me as overly challenging, and I'm surprised that this is a fairly common experience (this isn't the first time I've heard it said). I'm used to a lot of trial and error so CrossCode's puzzles were usually fine, and you could always do some (surprisingly not boring??) farming to get new high-level gear for tough combat encounters, or just come back later when your level would let you tank more mistakes. That said, the "objectively this game is fantastic but my experience wasn't ideal" sentiment is common to me. Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight, and Subnautica all felt this way. It's sadly all too easy to play a great game in a way that doesn't amplify how great it is.

[@SalsaSeth]

I’ve thought about what makes something someone’s favorite game every now and then. My favorite games are pretty static, but in the beginning of the year, I played Donkey Kong Country for the first time, and enjoyed it so much I wondered if it was becoming one of my favorites of all time. A lot of my favorite games are ones I’ve played during my childhood or teen years, so a part of me wonders if you can still have new favorites even when you’re as old as 70 playing games. But as you said, any game can be someone’s favorite, and it can be someone’s favorite for any reason.

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Deemo is a game that I score 10/10 but it isnt in my top favorite games of all time. Do you think its weird?

[@ChrisTheFields]

Not at all. It's all about whatever speaks to you the most. It's perfectly valid that a game can be as close to flawless as possible, achieving everything it sets out to do, but still not be the kind of game someone most enjoys playing. If anything, it should theoretically be weirder that a game like CrossCode (which I wouldn't score 10/10) is among my favorite games of all time. At risk of sounding a little crass, being a favorite *thing* is a completely arbitrary concept. It's about the experienced vibe, not the numerical score.

[@valfar27]

Alundra vibes on some puzzles, the game is really an experience to be felt.

[@rhiannn3416]

I feel for that "tailored-specifically-for-me" feeling! But I also love how difficult crosscode is. That feeling of accomplishment after FINALLY solving that one really long final dungeon puzzle and getting the timing just right. The feeling of finally killing that boss? Amazing.

[@verdantabyss5951]

You're not alone in feeling this way about cc. As someone who doesn't normally play games of its genre/difficulty and leaned heavily on the assists, who blew through the game over the course of a month while feeling pandemic-depressed, I was exhausted at the end. More than that, though, I was having difficulty coping with the fact that I'd finished something so special, and it would be hard to find another game that meant anywhere near the same thing to me that CC does.

[@Bnnanna]

This game has been on my wishlist for a while now. Excited to watch!

[@phoenixedraws]

when the game was in game pass I genuinely enjoyed playing crosscode, even with the difficult puzzles and complex mechanics. but I felt like that made this whole game even more fleshed out. all in one game, and I didn't have to switch to another one to experience fun combat, challenging puzzles or an intriguing storyline. this game includes multiple genres in a way that leaves you satisfied and not too overwhelmed with how much there is to do sadly though, when I reached the "final boss" of the main story I couldn't beat it. my level was too high to get enough exp from the side quests I ignored and too low to sufficiently power up the circuits to have even the slightest chance at the fight without being beaten in just 2-3 hits. I completely forgot about being able to lower the settings to make the fight easier and just ended up never finishing it. still had the game installed though, long enough to finally buy it myself with the money I earned. and I am so glad I did. despite knowing all about the plot twists and characters, it was still so much fun to live through these experiences with them. I can't help but get emotional when luke and lea are spending their time in vermillion wasteland, trying to find a way out, together. this time it was actually a lot easier to play through the game, probably because I already had some experience I feel like the only thing this game really lacks is more "tutorials" for its mechanics. most of it is just figuring it out by yourself. to me, that's a lot of fun, as long as it's not almost impossible to figure it out. but sometimes crosscode really doesn't make it easy to find a solution

[@widget3672]

I won't lie, this game frustrated me to no end, but getting down an understanding of the enemy attacks and figuring out how to out do them was a reminder of the game being challenging but not unfair. Combined with a beautiful soundtrack and pixel art and an engaging story, the game had me and I'll always have a special place in my heart. I might play through it again in a few years, just like many of the games I love.

[@ste_the_legend]

This is deep in my backlog but I am looking forward to finally starting it. Great video with some really well argued points.

[@yaroslavrebro7090]

You precisely described my experience with this game. Thanks!

[@sprinkles9504]

Holy crap man this video was amazing! So much respect I love the way you thought of things like "Could I call this one of my favorite games ever if I turned down the difficulty or took a break from" cause I totally think things like, that and a mixture of the music, and editing and script (idk if its a script or not but the wording) was just beautiful man truely spectacular. CrossCode is my favorite game of all time, even thought oh my god those boss fights man, but for me I love the actual game, and it was basically the game that got me into more rpg's and just appreciating the work that goes into games as a whole. The fact RadicalFish is already working on another title is just amazing to me and I love them for making this game. Man what a beautiful video bro, that was such an awesome video to watch , and gave really good light to CrossCode.

[@nerdzone]

No shame is admitting you were not able to beat CrossCode without assist mode. It is a difficult game. I feel its difficulty is what solidified it in my mind as an all time great game and if it was a more straightforward and easier experience like any of the Zeldas it would have never achieved that status. Even if you do not like to be challenged too much though and crank up the assist mode, the game still has plenty to offer.

[@Dark__Thoughts]

I feel that dread. I finished the EA version & post grind content, but haven't touched the remaining finished parts, NG+ or the DLC. Unfortunately I also suffer from a crashing issue with mouse inputs on Linux now, which just adds to me hesitating to commit to learn this again (which is much harder midway through). Still… Even with that it managed to kick my previous all time favorite RPG, Terranigma, from its throne. The characters and story are just so freaking wholesome and lovable that I also had to think about them for literally weeks after playing. I really sometimes felt like you were playing with some awesome friends within this universe. I can only praise the devs here for writing such authentic and expressive characters, especially in regards to our lovable mute Lea. The only real flaw here is how underrated & unknown CrossCode is.

[@rocket4227]

I'm only in the second dungeon, so I don't quite feel the overwhelming difficulty yet, but I agree with the "tailored-specifically-for-me" feeling from playing it.

[@VDAband]

I finally beat crosscode this week after years of trying. I picked it up after it first came out and instantly fell in love with it, but even so, it took four years for me to beat it. I reccomended it to all my friends. Talked about it as much as I could, but the struggle to get through the tedium was real. It's a genuine triumph of indie game desigin, and it deserves way more recognition than it got. It's incredibly ambitious, and I think it absolutely succeeds at everything it sets out to do, but I still think it cou have reigned those ambitions in a bit more.

[@pipeliner8969]

over 90 hours of playtime and didn't finish by 100% yet. I love this game so much

[@RoomforGaming]

Wow Im discovering this channel now! This is some premium content really loved the video. I Will watch the channel's future with great intrest

[@MrFreedomforyou]

As someone that's currently playing Crosscode I wholeheartedly agree with this review

[@proph5035]

I was really waiting for the “kind of” at the end.

[@davehoffman515]

This is how I felt about the game when I put it down in the ice cave. I should love everything about it but the combat and puzzle input speed made it feel more like a chore to redo when you failed rather than give me that "I'm so smart" feeling that game like Portal was amazing at. It felt more like a fighting game at times than a zelda-like. I forgot about the assists so maybe that will help me get past my current wall and get back to enjoying the world building

[@BillErak]

I often wanted to slide down the difficulty while playing too, though to be honest, I found it much more rewarding when I learned to cheese everything and everyone lmao

[@sheldonzs]

I absolutely love crosscode. To me, it feels like a streamlined Secret of Mana, a favorite from my childhood who's mechanics aged poorly.

[@bennettcarlson3974]

As someone who has beaten this game all the way through the dlc and considers it easily my favorite indie game tied with hollow knight and is in my top 3 games of all time, it pains me that it didnt get the love it deserved

[@breakerboy365]

The puzzles, on my first playthrough, was a painful experience. Some of the puzzles I thought were stupid and questioned whether the developers have tried a particular one I was struggling with. But the 2nd playthrough felt much smoother, though you can only experience a story like this for the first time only once. This was one of those games where I couldn't stop until I beat it and I'm stubborn about completing things at a certain difficulty. I think it was really wise of them to include the difficulty sliders. As fun as I personally find the challenge of this game, I want everyone to experience at least the story and environment it has to offer, even if sacrificing the challenging part of the game is what it takes.

[@nercu743]

Best action/rpg i've ever played, just before the witcher 3.

[@SainteTheGoat]

Can't wait to finally play the witcher 3 for the first time with the new next gen update!! 🤩😭

[@JButterZJ]

i just bought crosscode and this video was nice

[@FG-418]

My 2 favorites games are ones that I wouldn't have finished without their assist modes : Celeste and CrossCode. Even now after 3 clears I need the puzzle speed slider for the later ones. On my first run I had to turn down received damage for a few bosses, because I suck at dodging. Now I've learned that I need to put my points on defense and not hp regen. I wish Hollow Knight had an assist mode, the difficulty one some of the bosses combined with redoing the path to it just killed my enjoyment of the game, it's sad because I liked the world and exploration a lot, but again, I suck at dodging.

[@cullenlatham2366]

Well, it really is hard to say any relevant tips off the limited view i get from the outside, but assist mode is there for a reason. If you feel like you cheated yourself, the only answer i can come up with is to slowly crank those assist features back to default as you get a better feel for the game. At the same time, i was someone who jived with the fast pace, and also wonder if it has something to do with the different styles that come from the fundamental separation between projectiles and melee... For me, i found myself constantly getting in close and using melee, relying only on range for puzzles and out of reach foes. Endgame mostly expects the player to be able to balance the pros and cons of both and use them interchangeably, and as close as i can get, charged vs uncharged projectiles do have very different flows in and of themselves. Every single style has its own flow, and some may be more suited for the faster paced game than others. For as good as i got at 3 of them, i practically never guarded unless i was grinding out the cumulative totals achievements, despite recognizing its advantages when mastered. And then equipment abilities only take the customization to another level... XD Yeah, i love the game, and i dont need to justify it to myself, but helping others takes a lot more context and possibly even an understanding of personal psychology to give anything more than surface level help. The "pain" is part of the experience to a certain extent, as it is the joy of overcoming a challenge, especially when the game isnt holding back, that makes the experience so rewarding; there is even an entire genre of "rage games" that capitalize on that exact phenomenon.

[@gamerprince-tl5hg]

Funny because this is kind of how I felt when I first played this game back in 2019 on my PC (with dusty old PS3 controller). Felt exhausted and didn't even get to finishing it. But I bought the game again on Switch and replayed it after missing it a bit because I knew it was actually a really good game and I fell in love. Didn't even have to change the sliders at all. I was also noticeably better at the game as well. I think I was just better at the game using the Switch pro controller lol

[@soloshottie]

ya'know, for me, it's exactly this that makes the game so amazing. Halo 3 is an absolute masterpiece of a game, but it really only does so many things, and while those various parts all come together to make a truly legendary experience, and it is for its individual parts being well made, but it really lacks depth and interest for those who want to delve into the game. Crosscode is the first game I've ever seen that has near perfect design and cohesive vision from start to finish that also succeeds at making every aspect a complete enough game all on its own. crosscode with only the great combat would still be great. same for if it only had the great story or puzzles, and those alternate universes of crosscode would still be masterpieces, but it would fall into the place that many other masterpieces do where the scope of what it does as a game are quite limited. Crosscode is a special game for me because it goes above and beyond mere excellency and instead provides you several aspects that could carry the weight of the game almost entirely on its shoulders

[@Hopper_Arts]

The fact that i almost didn't play this amazing game because the art in the steam page didn't necessarily catch my eye 💀 (i also didn't go inside the steam page so i didn't see the beautiful pixel art)

[@pipeliner8969]

Don't feel bad for using the assist mode. As long as you enjoy the actual game. I used guides and video tutorials all the time

[@angeldude101]

If someone says it's not _really_ your favourite or you didn't _really_ beat it just because you used the assist mode sliders, that's just them being elitist. Difficulty options exist for a reason: to allow the player to engage at the level they're comfortable with, and so that it still provides a challenge for those who want one, while not being so frustrating for those who don't that it stops being fun. If lowering the difficulty was necessary for the game to be fun, then you _should_ lower the difficulty. Because the game being fun is more important than it being challenging. Challenge is simply a means to that end, even if it only works for specific players and specific games.

[@truthedministry]

I don't mind difficult games, but CrossCode is different. People compare it to Dark Souls, but Dark Souls provides a reasonable challenge, whereas this game is often unreasonable. What I am talking about is the randomness of certain bosses, challenges, and quests is just too much. I played through the entire game and DLC with the sliders at 100%, but not without yelling at my screen after losing a fight for the 20th time to some BS RNG. In the game, there are 3 platforming challenge quests where you have to step on switches and/or navigate platforms without falling off or being shot off by turrets. Typically in challenge like this, it would be based on how well the player could execute the game mechanics and memorize a pattern... but CrossCode has the turrets fire at random intervals. So, I'd find myself in situation where I would do a run and screw up because I forgot to switch elements which ok, that's on me, the player, not the game. So, the next run, I'd be in exactly the same spot with the same time on the clock, correctly switch weapons and then get hit by a stray shot before I could use that weapon. Then in run 3, I'd get to that same spot at the same time on the clock, switch weapons and make the shot without issues. So, what you end up with is runs that require the player to play perfectly while also getting beneficial RNG on the shot timing. That means you could run the same challenge 20-30 times with perfect play on the player's part and still fail all but one of those runs do to the timing of the turret shots, that's not a challenge, that's BS! Then there were some boss fights, where I was much higher level and had better gear than would be required, but they still took 10-15 tries before I just got lucky and won. This was most frustrating in the DLC. So, probably the hardest boss in the game is the Quest Boss from Son of the Beach. I was level 74+ with all the end game gear. I could dodge like 90% of the attacks he threw and the ones I failed to dodge didn't do that much damage and my HP Regen was high enough to keep me at almost full hp the entire fight. But, all it would take is one failed dash, block, or being too slow to switch elements and he would hit me a time or two, which would then push me off the edge and into the water only to return to the land to be hit by his next attack, pushed back in the water and either die or be knocked off again and die. Like my entire health bar and the run would be completely ended because to the randomness of the timing of his follow-up attacks. Like, once I got hit the first time, OK, that was my mistake, but the second hit and the knockback into the water I couldn't even control my character during that. Then when I am resummoned back on land at the exact same time that he was using his next attack. I get the "Just stay away from the edge", but some of his attacks make the center either off limits or certain death. Oh, and then there is the opposite effect. Bosses in this game love breaking on the edge of platforms. You get that last hit to break them, but it either puts them on the edge, or knocks them off the edge. This results in them either falling off the edge when they are broken, or falling off after your next attack. You take way more falling damage than bosses do (I think it is like 10% of your health when you fall, but it's only a few hundred damage for boss, when some have hundreds of thousands of HP). So, instead of being able to use your highest damage combo, you have to move to the side of the boss, but then they just up and recover before you get to land a single hit. Or, you hit them and they fall off, take their abysmally low falling damage, which resets them to having their unbroken state. Which brings me to the broken states recovery inconsistencies. Same boss, it was taking 30 seconds to a minute for each break, but sometimes they would recover after only 1 second giving you no time to do anything. Other times they would stay down for like 5-6 seconds giving me time to unleash 1-2 tier 3 high damage abilities. So, sometimes, I'd get no damage or maybe a hit or two, while other times I could destroy an entire block of his HP. I didn't see any consistency in these recovery times. I know towards the end, there is a counter above his head requiring multiple breaks to get him down, but I was having this issue from his first HP bar. Like I'd start the fight, break him once and he'd instantly recover and I'd end up losing the whole fight on like the last phase. In the next attempt when I broke him on the first HP bar, he'd stay down for long enough for me to hit him with for his entire first HP block. RNG seems to determine recovery time or the time between attacks to the point of making it where sometimes you can actually injure the boss after the first time breaking him, but other times you have to break him 2-3 times before you can do any meaningful damage. Ok, one last gripe about the RNG. There is a quest, Spiritual Drinks. It is one of those boss fights where you can't do any damage at all to the boss until you do the puzzle element. You have to freeze bubble then slide the ice into 4 different furnaces. Now, at first I didn't realize that you could chill him (slowing him down) even with his shield on, so that made this fight impossible as I didn't have time to even freeze the bubble or if I did, I couldn't fire them without him burning them up. But even once I managed to chill him with that shield up so he was slower and no longer had that burning ring around him, he still had a habit of burning my blocks before I could use them. Either he would jump right on top of them, or he would jump on them as they were on their way to the furnace. Or, they fire ball would go right for the frozen block. One time, it took me 5 minutes just to get a block of ice to a single furnace because I couldn't even get to a cube to try to angle a shot to a furnace before it was melted. The time I actually beat it, I had both bubbles frozen, and instead of jumping on both of them and melting them before I could use them, he jumped to the far left side of the map and the fire balls chased me instead of making a beeline to melt my blocks... So, it wasn't a game mechanic where he and the fire balls focused on melting those cube, I had just been getting unlucky that he or the fireballs happened to choose the spots right where my cubes were for 5 minutes?? That is some major BS right there!! And I tried multiple strategies of where to freeze the bubbles and trying to line it up so that I could freeze and melee attack or aim it to the correct angle, but most of my shots were still blocked by RNG and attack frequency. Now, for the arena's, I turned down all the sliders by one and tried the same boss fights... platinum on both, first attempts. Like, WTF game!?!?! So, by just decreasing the attack frequency by 10% and damage received by 20%, that was enough to turn change these fights from nearly impossible to being a cake walk?? I could now actually freeze blocks and use them before the boss melted them or blocked them from hitting a furnace? I could actually hit the boss when I broke him every time, so I didn't have to break him multiple times in his first block of health. So, what that tells me is that the normal attack speed is so high, that RNG is almost always against you. Oh, and these sliders make the challenges not based on player skill rather than RNG luck.

[@PeruvianPotato]

Bro wrote an essay just to tell everyone that he's bad at the game.

[@truthedministry]

@@PeruvianPotato Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote. I beat the game and DLC getting all the trophies and platinum on all arenas. My complaint is that player skill has nothing to do with many of the challenges as they are based on luck. Challenges based on luck aren't fun as the player skill is ignored and the chance of success is merely a coin flip. I've seen others play the game as well and they had the same issues with the default settings. Dark souls is about skills and strategy, this game is mostly just luck.

[@nesoukkefka1741]

Hey truly enabling this assist mod feature is nothing to be shy of if at the end of the day it allowed you to enjoy a game, nobody should be ashamed of playing easy modes if that's allow them to enjoy the game more, and people that mock those that play easy mod can just fuck off. And in the case of this game the very first thing you see when starting the game, is a message from the devs warning that the game is meant to be challenging, and telling you that if the challenge proves to high for you to enjoy the game, to not hesitate to enable the assist options. So clearly the devs are aware that their game as they design it ain't for everyone, so they give the option to tuned it down if you just want to have fun with the game but don't want to fully commit to it, which I think is a good move on the devs part.

[@ChrisTheFields]

True. But in addition to generally having way too much pride, my playthrough was also spread out over multiple months spanning a full year. By the time I turned on assist mode, I forgot the prompt at the beginning of the game was even there. In fact, I might be misremembering but when I started the game in 2017 after it's initial beta release, my save data carried over to the final game. So I'm not even sure if assist mode was even in the game when I started. I could absolutely be wrong about that, though.

[@nesoukkefka1741]

@@ChrisTheFields To be fair I got the game very recently I'm still far from finishing it, it's possible they might have add that prompt in between 2017 and now.

[@mythteller3051]

@@ChrisTheFields True, it was added a little after in 2018. Probably a good thing indeed because it can be quite brutal. And though I like it that way, it's definitely not for everyone.

[@Andreopimentel]

The characters are very good in this game, but the story... I mean, for the most part I felt the story didn't really matter as you were playing a game about characters playing a game, no weight to most missions until the very last 20% or so and some parts in the middle

[@skelemanon]

Las bian

[@StewNWT]

40 hours? Shit I'm 60 hours in and not even close to the end

[@ChrisTheFields]

To be fair the side content is very quality. I just usually crit path the games I play.