Satirical website Hard Drive once ran a story which poked fun at the long, drawn-out nature of most RPGs. In a hard-hitting investigative report, one player was commended for finally getting to the good shit at the 117-hour mark of a fictional title, while his roommate scoffed at him for only making it mid-way through the game. Like most RPGs, CrossCode is an immense and time-intensive experience. Learning all the facets of its world from the combat system to trading with merchants does take a substantial amount of time, but it also makes every minute of this long stretch of time matter. This is done by framing its story as a game-within-a-game , lightly knocking on the fourth wall rather than blustering through it, showing familiarity with the genre, while subverting it at the same time. (more…)
CrossCode, the 2D sci-fi RPG that's proving a big hit in Early Access, will launch in full on September 20, developer Radical Fish Games has announced.
Expect fast combat, physics-based puzzles and old-school, SNES-style graphics, along with a story that will take more than 20 hours to complete.
I'd never heard of it until last month, but the Steam user reviews suggest it's worth keeping an eye on. 96 per cent of its nearly 2,500 user reviews during Early Access have been positive, and it was chosen as one of Steam’s top-rated, least-played games last year.
In a blog post announcing the release date, Radical Fish detailed exactly what will be added in update 1.0. Several existing areas of the game are expanded, and a new area called Rhombus City—the largest city in the game—has been added. There will also be more party members, quests, boss fights and enemy types.
Several extras that the developer promised during Early Access will arrive after full release, including a New Game+ mode, a boss rush mode and several NPCs. The game will likely get extra DLC in the future, depending on how the release goes, Radical Fish said.
Read the blog post for more details, and grab a free demo on the Steam page.
I reckon that CrossCode is quietly one of the more exciting things lurking around in Steam’s early access section right now. It’s a fast-paced action RPG in the vein of Terranigma or Secret Of Mana, set in a pseudo-virtual world that reminds me of Phantasy Star Online. Initially demoed and crowdfunded back in February 2015, with plans to launch at the start of 2016. Obviously that didn’t work out, but judging by CrossCode’s massive strides made during its time in early access, it was worth the wait. The developers have announced It’s releasing on September 20th.
Highly rated 2D action RPG CrossCode will leave Early Access in September, Radical Fish Games has announced.
If you haven’t heard of it before then—judging by its user ratings on Steam—you should probably get to know it. It was also picked out as one of Steam’s top-rated, least-played games last year, so it probably deserves a little more love.
It combines 16-bit SNES-style visuals with a more modern physics system, fast combat and puzzle solving. There's plenty of loot to find and sci-fi dungeons to explore, and it'll take between 20 and 25 hours to blast through the full story when it comes out.
The developer's YouTube channel essentially chronicles CrossCode's development in real time: each video, a couple of which are released every month, is around five hours long and shows the development team at work on various aspects of the game, whether that's adding new facial expressions or tweaking enemies.
It has a free demo on Steam so you can try it out before the full release in September. A more precise date will arrive in early August, the developers said in a blog post. You can watch it in action below, but just bear in mind this trailer is a year old.