#CROSSCODE OKAY

[girl-who-says-hi]

It's been said many times how Crosscode's characters have a lot of unprocessed trauma and existential dread and I think Sergey definitely has it pretty bad. Two of his best friends are dead, one of which literally died right in front of his eyes and the other he never really got to grieve properly because Satoshi's Evotar is still alive and well.

Not to mention the fact that he had to deal with years of Gautham, Satoshi, and Shizuka being missing, disappearing after making their deal with Sidwell. And of course when he finally finds them, he learns Satoshi's been dead for years, and, days later has to watch Gautham die.

I also think Shizuka's attempt to break Lea and Lea's subsequent outrage over Sergey's lies had to have seriously hurt him too.

It's why I included his outburst(s) in Crossed Lines and am definitely going to be writing more about him processing (or failing to healthily process hehe) his trauma.

[lorekeeper-backset]

Lea! Hi!

[oneclickangel]

i dont think ive shared this before. and also i want an excuse to fagpost again SO ! me and my roommates made presentation slides of men we are/were into and idk about them but i still regularly update it to this day and i want to share this personal relic with all of you <3

you can comment on it and stuff. do whatever the hell you want with it. and yes i WILL add more men. this presentation is alive i tell you that

[darlingsuperstition]

Okay, so I played about halfway through CrossCode, and then I just forgot to ever get back to it

If this post gets fifty notes, and it isn't just backset or clover spamming me, I'll liveblog playing it from the start

If it gets 100 under the same conditions, I'll liveblog it on one of my rp blogs, in character

[shadowing-k1ng]

...so the autism has kicked in.

Happiness post #1512 (dec 26- Jan 18)

I played crosscode. A lot.

I played balatro

I'm doing fine in school

And bagels

Okay, back to crosscode.

[vagonca-rigo]

top 5 games?

Okay kinda tough but let's see

Felvidek Okay, kind of an obvious choice given my recent obsession with it, but it's so great. It's an RPGMaker game where you play as Pavol, an alcoholic knight whose wife left him, who is at first tasked with finding out what struck the old castle, to later joining an emerging cult that has been recruiting the locals and making them disappear, accompanied by Matej, a priest from Debrecen, who's original task was trying to get Pavol off of alcohol. You don't need to level up, you just need good equipment and strategy to win all battles you encounter(and there are optional ones too, but they're not worth it unless you want more crowns). The ending is also extended as you help certain NPCs.

Kynseed Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley kinda farming game where you inherit your uncle's farm, have a little fight with your sibling you gotta make up with later, and some mysteries to uncover. There's wayyy more to the game though, for instance you have to have good reputation with the villagers in all villages to initiate certain quests or buy certain shops to maintain AND if you are particularly nice to some villagers and their family members(even in later generations!) you get to piece together a code you get bit by bit as you talk to them after a certain friendship level for a locked chest with money or resources. You can get boons from some sort of hare time fae in exchange for some years off your life, there's also combat regions and the combat mechanics themselves are really neat. You can also gather notes to find out how to grow high quality crops, learn recipes, and read journals for additional lore about the world.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight Okay so, Momodora is a game series(I'm almost through 4 of them!) and playing all will give you some lore, but the 4th and 5th entries are the best. The 4th, RUtM honestly made my jaw drop, especially after seeing the previous games. You play as Kaho Reinol, a priestess from Lun who seeks the queen of Karst to combat corruption, but the queen has been cursed along with her country, and it's up to you to fix it. The visuals are absolutely stunning and the combat is really great, and along the way you can collect items to apply modifiers to your weapons or gain a certain ability, as well as for healing and damage boost(some of which get permanently increased as you find more of them, and every time you hit a bell to save, all restock). You also get boons for defeating bosses without taking damage, which is difficult, but worth trying (note: if you do wanna attempt, quit to the menu and reload to the last save if you get hit or die). There's also a spider at the beginning of the game that if you don't kill, it will sell you great items later(and is the reason i had to make an entirely new save T_T). I can't tell more, as it would slip into spoiler territory, but this and the last game in the series(Moonlit Farewell, that btw, has notes in a menu about lore you might be missing out on) are absolutely worth checking out.

CrossCode You play as Lea, a girl who lost her memory, wakes up in an MMO(CrossWorlds) as a rather rare choice of fighter class(spheromancer)among players, who also happens to have her mic broken, so with the help of Sergey(who got you into the game in the first place), you get basic lines as you progress, like your name, greetings, questions and basic answers(so her talking is often just "Hi! Lea! Yes! Lea! Lea!"). There are many regions in the game, most of which you can only access if you acquire a certain elemental extensions to your Circuit tree(these you can get in select dungeons full of puzzles). The combat is really interesting and you get to have fun with elemental modes, but you have to look out as you can get overheated using one mode for too long, so you have to switch frequently. There's also a wiki and plenty of guide videos from the editors of it.

Moon Remix RPG This is an anti-rpg, so it parodies common tropes present in the genre and doesn't take itself seriously. You play as a little boy who, at the beginning, is seen playing some generic RPG about a mighty knight who defeats evil. He is told to go to sleep, but in the middle of the night, the TV mysteriously turns on with static, and takes him in, right to the world of the game he was playing. He is invisible, and only after visiting his...grandma(?) does he get clothing items he is able to be seen in(which looks real reminiscent of Rayman as his arms and legs are not covered by any in-universe item). Your mission is to learn about love, expand your heart, and sleep. Speaking of, as you level up your love, you can stay awake longer and explore more. You can do this in many ways, like quests or finding creatures according to hints in a book. If you "oversleep", it stacks, and you can also recover sleep by eating certain items. Along the way, you also get to observe the knight the boy played as in his game, which reveals that the guy's just a big strong idiot, not giving a single shit about his surroundings and using his fame to not hold responsibility for his actions. One thing I love in this game is the "voice" of characters. You are mute, but everyone else has some sort of 'yap' or 'wobble' or 'eh eh' that vaguely sounds like a voice and they vary a lot. From what i know, the game has only recently been translated to english and released on steam, so you might not find much about it if you're stuck somewhere.

[hexacasts]

I love the concept behind miss Normal "Grace" Pentafist and was wondering if it's okay if I take some inspiration from her for a crosscode fic I'm writing! (Specifically the idea of a female Sidwell Evotar whose personality acts as a foil to C'tron's.)

Yes of course omg the more evil women in the world the better...I think theres even one other female avatar that we see in the clone torture room if you want a design to steal :P

My only stipulation is that you have to tell me when you publish this fic bc I want to read it immediatelyyyyyyyy

[emberscarletvt]

okay, not actually forgetting to post here as well this time: Today's the 5th Anniversary of CrossCode's release, so I made some fanart of Lea to celebrate!

If you haven't already, you should play CrossCode! It's a pretty good game!

[parab0mb]

EDIT: shocky and wobbly temples are for the temple theme, not for the element you acquire.

[callmearcturus]

@robinade replied to your post “i have done it, i have completed my holiday...”:

Archie, I would love a game rec for someone who really likes story-based single player games. They liked Dragon Quest XI and Hades (and also Lego Star Wars for some reason?) but usually tend to get bored with games after trying them out for half an hour. Any suggestions?

Okay so it sounds like you want a long game to sink into but it needs to IMMEDIATELY grab you. All killer no filler.

I would try out Persona 3 Portable because its on sale. Ignore the game's warning, you can play the Girl right off the bat. I found P3P REALLY fucking gripping and I like the pacing of it the most out of the Time Management Persona games.

I also found the start of CrossCode really intriguing, and the gameplay is super satisfying, so that may hook you sufficiently. (Note: It is 2 dollars cheaper on GOG if you prefer.)

OH I LOVED THE INTRO TO CHAINED ECHOES. I need to put a lot more time into it but its like the only good "we're trying to do a modern classic JRPG" and it has a fun edge to it and THE COMBAT DOES THIS THING where after every battle you regain all HP and MP, which is GENIUS bc it makes you actually give a shit about the one battle you're in, not anticipating an upcoming one.

Try those! 8)

[legitimatesatanspawn]

Okay, I'm... confused? Because I noticed some things I've played are updating / have updated recently and some are really unexpected. For the record: increasing order of surprise.

Secrets of Grindea: 1.01a (2024) - Purchased 2015. No I don't remember the first time I tried the demo but I'm really excited to see it got released I think I first saw it around the same time as CrossCode's older demos. The updates for Grindea were slow but steady, but yeeees. SNES style Action-Adventure with bullet curtain (lite) bosses and lots of extra sidequests and hidden things.

Stardew Valley: 1.6.1 (2024) - Purchased 2016. I thought it was done updating in 2021 but huh. ... I don't remember the last time I really played this. Probably 2018? To be fair I don't often play Harvest Moon style farming sims but hey cool news.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4: v3 update (v2 in 2021 was Beta opt-in mode so I completely missed it) - Released 2014. I remember 3 more clearly than 4 but this is going to be sweet. I want to say "oldschool flash game series" but it was closer to mid/late Flash? But with 3 (which is FREE by the way) they went from pure battle runs to a more general JRPG setup with an overworld and sidequests and everything.

SWR JST DX Selective Memory Erase Effect: New engine... and new name "Selective Jump: Once Again With Feeling". 2015 to 2024. ... I legit don't remember this one. Apparently it's a platformer.

100% Orange Juice: Apparently still updating? About 10 years running (English, came out 2009 in Japan so 15 years) and good lord that's a lot of character pack DLC. If you've never played it, think a digital board game like shoujo anime Mario Party (minus minigames but with card-based combat).

And the ultimate surprise of what I've seen:

Toribash: It was put on Steam (free) in 2014, but I remember playing it via IndieDB before then (it came out 2006 but I know I didn't play it back then). 18 years, holy shit. Toribash is an incremental 3D fighter - basically you slowly changed your ragdoll rock-em-sock-em puppet to fight frame by frame and then you and your opponent got to see how crazy the damage was.

[limayde]

Y'know, I was thinking about Final Fantasy XVI, and it being advertised as an RPG kinda ticks me off. That's just straight-up Devil May Cry, you can't fool me. But then I kept thinking. I don't really know how to define an RPG. It no longer just encapsulates turn-based games anymore, it also has sub-genres. Stuff like CrossCode which is an action RPG, or Fae Tactics, which is a tactical RPG. And then you have stuff like Elden Ring or Mass Effect, which include elements of RPGs, but in reality are a Soulsborne action-adventure, and an FPS respectively. If anything, Mass effect is closer to that illustrious title because of the role-playing aspects. Okay wait, let's zoom in on that part. RPG stands for "role-playing game." Surely that has some answers. CRPGs like Baldur's Gate fit snugly into that category. Playing the role of a specific character you created—while the world changes and evolves with every decision you make. But hold up, if we stick to this very narrow definition, then the entire JRPG genre, the thing you first think of when someone says "RPG," can no longer be called an RPG. So, that doesn't work. What if we broaden our definition here? "You are playing the role of Super Mario on his quest to defeat Bowser." Now hold up, Mario isn't an RPG (most of the time). Now it's become too broad, and we've lost any value the word had. "You are playing the role of Tony Hawk." That's not a category, that's every game ever conceived...aside from like...Tetris. We gotta find a different way to define an RPG besides its literal defeniton. What about EXP? Most RPGs have EXP systems. So...does Splatoon count as an RPG? It's got an EXP system. No, of course not, that's a third-person shooter. Hell, it's been proven that RPGs don'e even need EXP to work well—Chained Echoes does a wonderful job at balancing a game without an EXP system. So, is there any trait exclusive to RPGs? Optimizing weapons and armor? Breath of the Wild isn't an RPG. Managing an inventory?? Minecraft isn't an RPG. Different classes to choose from??? Kid Icarus Uprising isn't an RPG. Creating a party made up of different important characters???? Kirby Star Allies isn't an RPG! NUMBERS ON EQUIPMENT????? CALL OF DUTY ISN'T AN RPG! FUCKING??? NUMBERS POP OUT WHEN YOU DEAL DAMAGE TO AN ENEMY?????? NO! BECAUSE GODDAMN ARMORED CORE ISN'T AN RPG!! SO WHAT THE HELL IS AN RPG? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe it's just a vibe. Like, yeah, Xenoblade doesn't exactly have any stand-out RPG-like traits, but it just feels like one, y'know? And I think that's enough. Anyway that was a long-winded way of saying that Final Fantasy XVI is NOT a fucking RPG.

[blazeball]

12, 17, 27 :]

12: A character you particularly like in the game you’re currently playing

HMMMMMMM.... i feel kind of lukewarm on most of the characters in crosscode, but lea is a fun main character! a good twist on the silent protagonist. im excited to see what her deal is

17: A game you didn’t finish but would like to get back to or restart someday

i'm GOING to finish spiritfarer someday. i was almost done with it i think. it just kept making me cry. stanley was the last character that passed for me and it REALLY hit me hard so i put it down and have yet to pick it up again... BUT I WILL

27: A game you love the atmosphere of

okay i've had rain world on the mind recently so like. That. its really dreadful but so so good. if you like dreadful things. paratopic is another one.... oh and return of the obra dinn!

[leathemage]

LINK BOTW/TOTK

AND THE BEST SILENT PROTAGONIST OF THEM ALL

LEA CROSSCODE

(okay okay she might not be completely silent and no it's not bc we have the same name but her characterization is SO GOOD)

explaining to gamers that “silent protagonist” does not necessarily mean “blank slate devoid of all personality, characterization and agency”

[darlingsuperstition]

Okay, next question

[kozykricket]

yknow its interesting though that like. with artstyles for games... its funny that i can get such nostalgia for an era that i wasnt even alive for. like. i remember a recent Astortion devlog, mr astortion said that ... he wasnt around for when pixel art was a technical limitation, but he just likes the style i find that i quite like that, as well as very low poly stuff. like, okay. games i like the artstyle of a lot that i'd consider emulating an older style? astroneer. hyper light drifter. celeste. maybe even pseudoregalia and like... the 2d sections in mario odyssey. i LOVE those. "so retro nerd emoji" i LOVE SO RETRO STUFF!!! yes theres certain pixel art styles i dont love as much as others.. but really i am a sucker for them a Lot. i love the art of stardew valley, but also of risk of rain returns in terms of actual older games, shoutouts to old pokemon mystery dungeon games and i love all pixel art, even if i feel different ways about different styles. some feel Rarer than others, like ive realized about the... someone said the Crosscode artstyle is reminiscent of SNES pixel art, and im like. hm. yeah actually. thats probably why it feels like, peculiar (not in the bad way) to me. because... you get tons of games using pixel art or replicating older styles, but theres not that many that replicate something like the era of super metroid or ... i would specify a final fantasy game but i dont know which one