Review: Crossing

[Ocedic 249]

Title: Crossing

Author: Xephyr

Version: Chapter 2

Review by: Ocedic

 

Introduction

 

Crossing is a humor-based JRPG with an emphasis on writing.

 

 

Presentation

 

Graphically, Crossing is fairly robust. There are some custom tilesets, and the graphics in general are used to good effect. One big thing is I didn't notice any emotive facesets for the characters, though that did kind of fit their one-note personalities (more on that later.) It was also inconsistent which characters received facesets and which didn't. Most NPC's don't have facesets, which is fine, but then a few randomly do. The mapping is pretty good in terms of visuals. There is a healthy amount of doodads scattered about each map without looking too cluttered. There are, however, some strange mapping/pathing bugs such as this:

 

 

Audio-wise, Crossing is about average. At this point, Aaron Krogh may be as common if not more common than default RTP music, but the author does change the pitch so these familiar songs sound a bit different. Ultimately, Aaron Krogh made great music so there's no shame in using it. Those who are familiar with RM games will not be blown away though. The actual use of audio is a bit more questionable, as a lot of times the music just felt out of place or just used in strange ways. The decision to not have battle music is interesting, and though it took some getting used to I kind of liked it. There really should be a sound when you enter battles though, as the disconnect between the events taking place on screen and the lack of familiar auditory cues for the player may be too much. And really, there should be SOME kind of emotional reaction from the player when he enters combat, and audio is used to reflect that. Thus, at least a battle SE is recommended.

 

Verdict: Good mapping, passable graphics, audio weird

 

Gameplay

 

This is where Crossing really hurts. My emotions while playing the game could be summed up as frustrated and bored, almost solely due to gameplay. First, I'll point out that there's random battles. Now that in itself isn't exactly a death sentence. I personally find them annoying, but hey, they're a genre staple and some people like them. I can get over that. However, the problem is that there's random battles in conjunction with maze-like maps that really drives you over the edge. I couldn't play this game for more than 20-30 minute sittings as each dungeon was just exhausting to get through. In short, you really shouldn't make exploration a focus of your gameplay if you use frequent random battles. Because of the nature of random battles, I didn't want to explore since that would mean fighting more enemies, yet I was forced to explore to the dungeon design.

 

 

On top of the fact that there's tons of battles simply because you're wandering around searching for stuff due to the design of the game, the battles themselves are tedious and tiresome. Many monsters deal bizarrely high amounts of damage, which isn't that big of a deal as the game is very generous with healing items, but it just makes things drag on longer as you need to heal quite often. Battles have little strategy or skill involved. You start with no special abilities (I'm still wondering why any character has the 'Special' command) so they're practically indistinguishable. Just two guys with the ability to attack and use potions with slightly varied stats. Later on, you get access to magic, but it's the standard Final Fantasy-style spell system where you have one spell with six different elemental deviations.

 

The first time you use magic, enemies are conveniently named after their elements, which was a clever way to introduce players to the mechanic of elemental strengths and weaknesses. Unless games are really, really hard for you though, you'll figure it out after the first battle and things become as mundane as before. Instead of spamming attack over and over, you spam the spell that is strongest against your foe while every other character attacks. The system is also flawed because there's really no way to tell which monster is weak to which once their names no longer list their type. You basically just blindly guess until something works. Is there something inherently earth-like about Gazers and Snakes?

 

Essentially, the spells aren't very interesting and the weakness system is not very challenging, engaging or original. At the end of the day, your best options are crystal clear and players do not have to think about their actions in combat. This mundanity magnifies the too-many-battles issue, and I found myself groaning each time I took a wrong path in a dungeon and had to fight 3-5 more needless random encounters.

 

 

On the other hand, the author does have some puzzles here and there to break up the tedium. I welcomed most of these diversions, but the flame-running thing in the mansion was a bit over the top. It was pretty annoying and half of my deaths were due to there being so little space between 'sets' so I would die even though I got through a set because I kept moving. The last part of that event in particular is pure sadism on the author's part, and I actually stopped playing for a few hours when I got there. Other than that, the puzzle elements were well done.

 

Verdict: Boring battles, too many battles, forced exploration resulting in more battles, decent puzzles

 

Story

 

The game focuses on humorous writing, and it's not bad. Sometimes the author relies too much on lampshading, and the heroes have a tendency to simply state the current situation they're in, making them all seem like robots devoid of personality. I really enjoyed the main character's carefree attitude, though that lends the player to adopt a similar attitude and not really care about the game. The story might as well be a random series of events. There is a consistent villain who keeps popping up, and you have a general sense of a constant goal, but there's no real motivation for the player to be invested in this plotline. The hero himself doesn't even seem to take it too seriously. The villain's actions also feel very deus ex, as he has the ability to teleport (this attribute almost solely for the sake of letting him drive the plot forward by causing mischief) but doesn't seem to do anything substantial with it. It just allows him to be there when he needs to be to remind everyone that he's the villain and you should kill him.

 

 

In the lore of the game magic is supposed to be rare, but you wouldn't know it playing the game as you just use magic freely and without consequence. This is because some company developed tablets which let anyone learn magic, but it raises the question of why that needed to be plot at all. The world's people seem to accept free magic pretty easily and without question, and if magic had never been rare at all and it simply existed commonly throughout people, the plot of the story doesn't seem like it'd be much different.

 

It's not entirely clear if the story is meant to be taken seriously or humorously. It seems like the plot itself is sold as serious, but every other situation the hero finds himself in is meant to be lighthearted and humorous.

 

Verdict: Story is hard to be invested in, writing is good

 

Recommendation

 

I stopped playing when I came across this boulder.

 

 

I searched around and interacted with every object I could see, but at that point the random battles made it painful to walk 10 steps to search for whatever moved this object. If you're in the mood for a humorous RPG with fun dialogue, I do recommend this game. The gameplay could be more fun and creative, and the difficulty seems to be at odds with the lighthearted tone of the story, but if you can get past those hurdles this is a solid slice of JRPG.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Ocedic

[Xephyr 6]

To start I shall address some of the simpler concerns:

 

"I'm still wondering why any character has the 'Special' command"

 

The characters DO learn abilities in the traditional sense by leveling up, and abilities like those go under "Special". At level level 6 Lucas and Steven learn relatively useful abilities that go under "Special". So basically the skills that go there are non-magic related stuff.

 

Random Battles:

 

Upon reflection, I'm starting to agree. As such, I'm significantly lowering the encounter rate. On most maps I generally use somewhere around 40 steps, but I'm going to make it 60 steps or more now. My worry is here is people might become under-leveled, and I might have to adjust some bosses. I'll figure it out.

 

Regarding the boulder:

 

During that conversation they try to give you a sort of hint, that Lucas's wind magic can interact with things, and you're supposed to press enter/whatever on the part of cliff below that brownish boulder and you'll move it around and knock the heavier boulder out of the way.

 

I think your opinion of the story would have changed quite a bit if you had progressed farther, as a lot of motivations are explained. I assure you that the tablets are extremely integral to the story, along with the cloaked man and the things he does. You actually have confirmed to me that I have achieved my goal: I want players to question the cloaked man and the reasoning for the tablets. This will make "reveals" later in the story all the more satisfying.

 

The story is indeed pretty serious, and gets pretty brutal later on, but the humor makes Lucas seem more human to me. I don't know if you've ever read Lord of the Rings, but I kind of liken it to the war scenes where Gimli and Legolas compete to see who can kill more orcs. It's an extremely serious scene and everyone knows that, but the two having such a humorous competition adds an additional element to those characters and makes it a more enjoyable read than endless sentences of "And Gimli swung his axe again".

 

I will pay special attention to gameplay aspects from now on. I generally hate when developers do this whole, "I swear it gets better!!" thing about their games, but I genuinely think there's merit to this statement: the story really starts to take off in Chapter Two. And then in Chapter Three, well...shit hits the fan.

 

Anyway, thank you for reviewing my game! Your suggestions are valid and greatly appreciated, and I think making the necessary adjustments to the gameplay in response to your critiques will make the game a lot better. Thank you for your time