Crosscode an RPG puzzle adventure

GGP Discord members will have seen me playing this game recently. Originally I picked it up during the 2020 summer sale. Sadly, it hasn't shown up in any bundles in the last few years (aside when it was in early access). Crosscode is available on various platforms, among which PC and thus Humble bundle. The price tag is worth it if you enjoy RPGs/Puzzles/Hack and slash.

Lea, Hi!

Comedy is a strong point in this game, and it is further enhanced with the main character's inability to actually speak more than a choice few words. Such as "Lea", "Hi", "Why" and a few others. Normally your run of the mill hero will happily chat, converse or ask directions from NPCs. In this case the NPCs seem to understand you happily even if you just say "Hi" and accept everything. They are just NPCs after all. Your "Player" interactions are a little more tricky, but that all works out in the end.

Secrets and puzzles

If you are expecting this to be a regular JRPG of even ARPG, you are in for a big surprise. The game's main focus is puzzles - lots, and LOTS of puzzles. Very challenging ones, and timed puzzles. There is no shame in lowering the speed in the game's settings for puzzles, or even the combat as it turns brutally hard by the time you get halfway through the game. You can always set it back to 100% in new game plus.

Secrets and parkour are also a big part of the game's design. Multi level, multi screen hidden pathways to get to a treasure chest will keep your brain very busy. In between dungeons you'll have plenty of sidequests and monsters to bash with your player friends. Take your time, look at things with different angles and you should eventually find out how to do things. But grabbing a guide can from time to time help you keep the enjoyment of this game on track.

Dungeon runs

Emilie - the spunky french girl challenge you to speedrun dungeons against her, and there's an achievement for actually beating her on every dungeon in the game. Aside her you can mix and match your party setup as you get deeper into the game, but she'll always be there to challenge you.

The dungeons are constructed as puzzle boxes. You go in, do a puzzle or two, get some keys and battle monsters in between all that until you reach the final room with a boss.

The boss fights are generally given a gimmick to beating them, whether with a specific element or trick in dodging and staying alive. The fights are very well made and quite doable, but certainly not easy!

It is a great game, well worth the price. I'd recommend playing it with a controller, but a keyboard is perfectly good as well. It's difficult to write about without spoiling too much of the experience, this is a journey best experienced first hand.

Crosscode release date: 21 Sep, 2018

Minimum system requirements: Windows XP, 2 GHx dual core, 2 GB ram, hardware accelerated graphics with 1 GB dedicated memory.

Honestly, if your potato can't run this game then it's time to upgrade to a lemon or hamster powered one.

Fancy detail - the game was written in HTML 5, and you can play the demo in your browser, for free - right now!