Thanks to everyone who participated in the 24Q3 voting session of the GWJ Action Game Club. A winner has been declared:
CrossCode
HowLongToBeat says this should take about 35 hours to beat, and upwards of 76 hours for a 100% completion.
IsThereAnyDeal has it currently on sale for $6 from GOG, though it looks like it goes on sale for that price during Steam sales as well.
Finished:
AUs_TBirD
Playing:
Merphle
brokenclavicle
Sundown
TheMostRad
Might jump into this sometime in the next couple of months, assuming I get through a couple of games I'm making my way through right now.
I had it already installed on the Switch, so I'm definitely in. I'll try to get it up and running this week.
I reinstalled it on Steam. As mentioned on the main club page, I have about 16 hours invested from a prior attempt, but I'll be starting a new save file for this. I see there's also DLC that was released in 2021; I might look to snag that if it goes on sale, but it won't be required for the purposes of the club.
With the Steam sale starting today, CrossCode is available for a paltry $6.
I fired it up last night and found myself playing it all evening long. I had forgotten that the game has a bit of twin-stick shooter in it (partially for ranged combat, and partially for puzzle mechanisms). I'm really digging the overall aesthetic; such a cool premise for a game - I can't think of any other games that did this (maybe Sword Art Online? I saw the anime but only played a bit of one of the games).
Ooo, I also picked this up on a Switch sale a while back, so consider me contemplative! I've already got OT2 and P5R on my stack, but should I find some time, I'll hop in!
For folks who intend to play on PC with HDR: I suggest disabling HDR; the game looks incredibly washed-out to me with it enabled.
Played about 20 minutes last night. The Phantasy-Star-like character design did not appeal to me at all in screenshots and videos, but once I started playing, I realized that it was fine. I got to the deck of the M.S. Solar. Gameplay feels good, but the button assignments feel awkward to me, so I'll probably try to reconfigure those soon.
Does the game eventually max out all of the gamepad buttons? Right now attack and dodge are on RB and LB on my 360 pad, and I would much prefer them being on the triggers LT/RT, which (so far) have no use assigned to them.
Does the game eventually max out all of the gamepad buttons? Right now attack and dodge are on RB and LB on my 360 pad, and I would much prefer them being on the triggers LT/RT, which (so far) have no use assigned to them.
The triggers will have things assigned to them.
RT will be your power attack. LT will be your quick-menu. Both of these will get used quite a lot, though not as much as the bumpers.
Note also that you can attack with the X face button. I usually use X for melee and RB for ranged (while aiming).
Been playing pretty consistently since last night and am now starting Chapter 3. Did all the optional quests I could in Chapter 2 but have a couple I haven't knocked off. Might do that before going through Chapter 3's main quest.
Some of the quests you get in chapter 2 can't be completed before going through the chapter 3 area. Thankfully it's super easy to pop all around the map pretty much at will.
Some of the quests you get in chapter 2 can't be completed before going through the chapter 3 area. Thankfully it's super easy to pop all around the map pretty much at will.
Thanks for the tip! I'll move on to Chapter 4 without fear, then.
Also for what it's worth, none of the quests (in the base game, anyway; I don't know about DLC) are missable - you'll always be able to go back and complete them.
And speaking of quests, I spoiled myself a bit to see how many chapters there are, for some rough progression guide:
There are 13 numbered chapters (i.e. excluding the Prologue).
I finished up the big dungeon in chapter 4 today and rolled on to chapter 5 after completing a few more side quests. That chapter 4 dungeon sure had some thinky bits in there, including some surprising challenge in the boss fight.
Incidentally, for those techies out there - did you know that CrossCode is entirely an HTML5 and Javascript app? Super impressive for everything it does.
Incidentally, for those techies out there - did you know that CrossCode is entirely an HTML5 and Javascript app? Super impressive for everything it does.
That's pretty impressive!
Up to level 16 for myself and my party member and entering the Mine at Bergen, which is a good change of pace as I was starting to tire of the overworld stuff.
I've certainly learned that levels don't mean all that much (except for the circuit nodes you get), and that it's equipment that gives you any significant stat boost. Even normal enemies can take a lot of punishment before they go down - I assume the game is built that way, and not that I'm doing something wrong.
Also - entirely HTML and Java?? Wow!
Even normal enemies can take a lot of punishment before they go down - I assume the game is built that way, and not that I'm doing something wrong.
So, you might actually be doing something wrong. 
A few game mechanic specifics (not really spoilers since I think these are tutorialed, though that tutorial was kinda rapid-fire):
Some enemies are wearing armor that faces in only one direction. So for example, the Raging Bovine in the first open area wears armor that significantly reduces damage taken from the front; or the Horny Goat in the second open area that wears armor facing backwards. Try to focus damage on the unarmored side.
Breaking the enemy puts them in a state where they take MASSIVELY more damage, especially for an otherwise particularly tanky mob. Each mob has a different timing for breaking, but generally when they flash red, hit them with a ball or a swing and they should go into Break. Your party members are surprisingly good at setting up these situations, so if you see one of the mobs that you're not fighting suddenly say Break and stop moving around, go finish it off.
Also - entirely HTML and Java?? Wow!
JavaScript, not Java. Big difference - and all the more impressive imho.
For folks who intend to play on PC with HDR: I suggest disabling HDR; the game looks incredibly washed-out to me with it enabled.
Following-up on this: If you're using a Steam Deck OLED (not sure about the LCD version), it currently defaults to forcing HDR on for every game, and in the case of CrossCode, the lights and darks get really compressed and looks awful - not to mention making it nearly impossible to actually see some gameplay elements. There's currently no easy checkbox setting on the Deck to disable HDR (either globally, or on a game-by-game basis), but if you go into CrossCode's launch options and add "DXVK_HDR=0" (without quotes), that seems to do the trick
Edit: Confirmed that this DOES NOT do the trick. Bah.
Edit2: I missed part of the launch options. This, in fact, DOES work to disable HDR:
DXVK_HDR=0 %command%
Spoiler: Directional damageSome....
Spoiler: BreakingBreaking...
I do pay attention to the directional damage, but they still absorb what feels like a LOT of hits before going down. I know about breaking, but it doesn't happen that frequently (and rarely on purpose).
I do pay attention to the directional damage, but they still absorb what feels like a LOT of hits before going down. I know about breaking, but it doesn't happen that frequently (and rarely on purpose).
Alright. Breaking is definitely a technique you'll want to get more comfortable with, at least for the tankier enemies. Gear upgrades does definitely help, and remember also that you can wield two weapons. Some mobs towards the far end of each open world segment are the alternate-color tougher variety, which usually means tankier - and therefore, more critical to get a Break in. I remember I stuck with the ranged option almost exclusively for a long portion of the first chapter or two, and that was just making it more difficult for myself; I really needed to get melee attacks in, which is usually much stronger. Also don't sleep on those Circuit upgrades and skill power attacks.
Doing all that, but definitely need to use the skill power attacks more.
Defending
that tree
for two minutes without them was basically impossible at the level I was at.
Well, I finally made it through the second big dungeon* yesterday. There were some very unique mechanics to learn with this new power, which made the end boss quite a challenge for me; I spent probably a dozen attempts at it before I finally figured it out. Thankfully death in this game is extremely generous - it just respawns you at the entrance to your current room (or sometimes at a quest checkpoint, for quests that have multiple steps within the same room); also you can hit Y on controller to skip cutscenes - particularly useful when reattempting boss fights with long intros.
The desert pyramid-temple
I seem to be a bit underleveled for the next area, so I'm doing some side-quest cleanup in the second dungeon's region.
Finally defeated the boss of the second big dungeon last night. Took more than a dozen tries and I was about to give up and turn on an assist, but then got lucky after all.
On its default settings, quite a few sections of CrossCode must be impossible for people with reduced manual dexterity - some of those puzzles seem to require near perfect timing! I do like how the puzzles keep giving you something new and how I feel like I keep learning, but at the same time, I've been ready to move on a few rooms before the end of both major dungeons so far.
Picked up a bunch of new quests in town, went shopping, bought two new (expensive!) swords and almost immediately found one in the field that was better. Also replenished my sandwiches, because I've started having to eat a lot of them.
As much as possible, I've been focusing my circuit points on slowing elemental overload, because it just seems to happen so quickly. Level 34 now and about to go
on a raid?
Level 34 now and about to go
Spoiler:on a raid?
I'm eager to hear your thoughts on that event.
...and that which transpires after. The story ramped up to 11/10 for me.
I'm really REALLY digging how "in-character" the game maintains, as being an MMORPG. And for what it's worth, I'm in chapter 8, level 41 - heading towards the third big dungeon, I presume. I've made it to the city in the third dungeon's region (and completed a side quest in there that was abnormally difficult because I refused to lose any hostages, even though the quest clearly permitted losing a couple). The third region is beautiful though, and I'll probably end up taking a ton of time trying to unlock all the paths and find all the chests.
Actually, we haven't spoken about that too much. What do you think about the overworld zone exploration aspect of the game? I love trying to "break" MMOs by getting places I shouldn't be, and this feels like it's rewarding that behavior. Unfortunately the 2.5d nature of the game does make it difficult to distinguish heights in some cases, but I've been using the ranged targeting line to help me figure out whether the next platform I'm looking to jump onto is low enough, and that usually works pretty well.
Chapter 7, level 38.
Now I need to activate two...pillars?
The raid was fun...
...while it lasted. The boss wasn't what I expected. In fact, I had forgotten about him until he popped up.
Things became somewhat easier once I finally switched 360 gamepads for one where the LB button (dodge) actually works most of the time, rather than if it feels like it when I press it JUST right.
I like the optional exploration as well, as everything you seen can be reached....somehow(/eventually). You just gotta look hard enough (or have the correct power). I'm still trying to reach chests and rare plants, but on the other hand, I'm beginning to skip side quests, as some of them offer too much aggravation/drudgery for the reward; I can get XP and Gold just by grinding, assuming I'm the right level and enemies aren't worthless yet.
I agree that it can sometimes be hard to judge heights. Thanks for the tip on targeting (btw, upgrade the aiming speed enhancement ASAP!) to help judge if a ledge can be reached or not - I hadn't been consciously using that method.
EDIT: I also appreciate that there is nearly no penalty for exploring. Miss a jump and health refills immediately. You might have to redo a sequence, but that's as bad as it gets.
Well, I made it through the third and fourth temples yesterday and today, and earned myself the rewards contained therein. Some of the puzzles in the temples were quite difficult, though simple enough to reset and try again. Some of them really needed quick precision actions to complete; I definitely considered enabling the assist for timing-based puzzles, but I persevered and eventually succeed.
Temples 3 and 4 both unlock at the same time, and we're able to choose which one we want to complete first. One of our party members mentions something to the effect of "it's recommended to have at least 180 attack and defense skills before going in"; at the time I was like in the 160s-170s, so I did a bit more exploration and farming, then bought a couple of gear upgrades which bumped me up to the 180-190 range. Definitely worth it.
I ended up doing the one on the right first (the Wave temple, in which we get the Wave element and most of the enemies use the opposite element: Shock). The puzzles in Wave can get pretty think-ey, but aren't really fast-paced, so it's pretty easy to try all sorts of combinations to narrow down the solutions; not to say that it's trivial, of course!
Then I did the left temple (Shock). I found this to be more difficult than Wave; the nature of this power, and how it interacts with environmental puzzles, is very neat, but in many cases needed reasonably quick reflexes and forward-planning to do all the things necessary.
I don't remember exactly what level I was at when I entered these, but I'm at level 46 now.
I’m juggling other games, but I didn’t want to go a whole month without playing CrossCode, so I fired it up tonight and got through Ch.1, and now I’m off the ship and off to the Rookie Bridge.
Main thoughts are how the shooting is a little fiddly, but I can learn that. The action is giving me vibes similar to some of the 2D Ys games, and if this is anywhere as good as something like Oath in Felghana in terms of combat and action, it’ll be great.
I've never played an Ys game, but Oath looks pretty cool; might have to add that to my backlog somewhere. Is it necessary to play previous Ys games, or are they each pretty much standalone a la FF?
No, they're completely standalone. The the story of each game is "Adol goes on a new adventure". The main calling cards of the series are the huge boss battles and good music that brings the riffs in boss battles.
I think Oath is the best of the 2D games but Origins is also good. Of the 3D games, I think VIII is the best so far, since it has an actually good story and exploration to go with the combat. Oath is really short, so it's easier to pick up for a first game.
Ok, I'm still playing. Something more mashy makes for a good change of pace for other things I'm playing. I just hit Ch.4, so I beat the green haired dude and had the first 'logout' session. Seems like they're playing at a mystery of Lea doing this before and possibly losing memories about it. And that ignores the prologue.
I'm kind of surprised how much platforming there is in the game. Took a bit of getting used to how much I would be hopping around platform to platform in the field. I also do that thing in action games where I forget to dodge and just soak up attacks. I like the block for that purpose, especially in the green hair dude fight, where I could bait him to a corner, shield a big attack, and then drop the special attacks on him and just about kill him in a couple of seconds. I'll have to relearn how to dodge, I imagine.
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