Easily one of the best games released this year, even standing up alongside such historical greats as Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia, and Secret of Mana.

This game hit so many of the right buttons for me. From the graphics to the world design to the story it was all tailored to be exactly my jam. A fictionalized MMO set on a real planet in a galaxy where humans have colonized the stars and play by remote linking to holographic avatars. And that's just where it starts.

Normally I hate the silent protagonist in video games. They never feel well done and it always seems to be more laziness than an attempt to get the player immersed in the story. For whatever reason with Crosscode they decided to take the silent protagonist and give them a capital E Extroverted personality. It paid off brilliantly. Through her facial expressions, body language, and interactions with the other characters Lea absolutely dominates this entire game and every conversation she is in. This is Her game, no mistake, and the end result is that I feel she is a stronger character with her limitations than she would be had she had full dialogue.

The gameplay is enjoyable enough, being simple to learn and difficult to master and all that yadda yadda. The amount of freedom to customize your approach to combat encounters was pleasant, and always made leveling up enjoyable so as to unlock the next perk on the skill tree. I do wish it were a bit less difficult on some puzzles and encounters just so more people could experience the setting and story, but that is a minor complaint amidst literally everything else that is perfect about the experience.

This is one of those few games I would recommend to absolutely anyone. Even someone who doesn't have the manual dexterity to play yourself, watch a friend play or watch a video being played. It is worth experiencing, and at the $20 price it is an absolute steal.

It really is something quite special.

2019 Edit: Since it initially came out and I wrote this review, they have added accessibility options in the form of difficulty sliders. Taking too much damage and dying too frequently? Turn down the received damage. Enemies attacking too quickly and not allowing you to find a spot to heal or do your own attacks? Turn down enemy attack frequency. Puzzle timers too fast making you unable to perform the sequence in time? Turn down puzzle speed. They are incredibly well implemented, and of course if you like the defaults you can never touch them and your experience will remain unchanged. Letting anyone who wants to play your game have a good time with your game is an unambiguous good, and this change has removed the only complaint I had. Everyone needs to play Crosscode.

2019 Edit the second: New Game + has been added and it gave me another reason to play through this masterpiece.

Easily one of the best games released this year, even standing up alongside such historical greats as Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia, and Secret of Mana. This game hit so many of the right buttons for me. From the graphics to the world design to the story it was all tailored to be exactly my jam. A fictionalized MMO set on a real planet in a galaxy where humans have colonized the stars and play by remote linking to holographic avatars. And that's just where it starts. Normally I hate the silent protagonist in video games. They never feel well done and it always seems to be more laziness than an attempt to get the player immersed in the story. For whatever reason with Crosscode they decided to take the silent protagonist and give them a capital E Extroverted personality. It paid off brilliantly. Through her facial expressions, body language, and interactions with the other characters Lea absolutely dominates this entire game and every conversation she is in. This is Her game, no mistake, and the end result is that I feel she is a stronger character with her limitations than she would be had she had full dialogue. The gameplay is enjoyable enough, being simple to learn and difficult to master and all that yadda yadda. The amount of freedom to customize your approach to combat encounters was pleasant, and always made leveling up enjoyable so as to unlock the next perk on the skill tree. I do wish it were a bit less difficult on some puzzles and encounters just so more people could experience the setting and story, but that is a minor complaint amidst literally everything else that is perfect about the experience. This is one of those few games I would recommend to absolutely anyone. Even someone who doesn't have the manual dexterity to play yourself, watch a friend play or watch a video being played. It is worth experiencing, and at the $20 price it is an absolute steal. It really is something quite special. 2019 Edit: Since it initially came out and I wrote this review, they have added accessibility options in the form of difficulty sliders. Taking too much damage and dying too frequently? Turn down the received damage. Enemies attacking too quickly and not allowing you to find a spot to heal or do your own attacks? Turn down enemy attack frequency. Puzzle timers too fast making you unable to perform the sequence in time? Turn down puzzle speed. They are incredibly well implemented, and of course if you like the defaults you can never touch them and your experience will remain unchanged. Letting anyone who wants to play your game have a good time with your game is an unambiguous good, and this change has removed the only complaint I had. Everyone needs to play Crosscode. 2019 Edit the second: New Game + has been added and it gave me another reason to play through this masterpiece.