As time goes on, I feel like increasingly more RPGs begin to adapt elements from MMORPGs. Series like Xenoblade and more recent Final Fantasy games like FFXII feel like the closest you'd get to an entirely single-player MMORPG with their massive worlds and real-time battle system, but what if I told you that there was an indie RPG that perfectly captures the vibe and scale of an MMORPG all on its own.
CrossCode is an entry in what I like to call the Holy Trinity Of Cyberpunk Indies, comprised of CrossCode, One Step From Eden, and Va-11 Hall-A. These are three fantastic indie games of entirely different genres that came out around the same time, with similar pixel-art cyberpunk aesthetics and soundtracks, and several references and crossovers between them. It's funny how many similarities these games share, and they're all equally beloved within the indie scene, but I'm gonna focus on CrossCode specifically for this post.
CrossCode's premise is that you play as a mute amnesiac named Lea as she explores the world of an in-universe MMORPG to figure out her backstory. If you know me, you'd know that I'm normally not a fan of amnesiac narratives, but that's not entirely true. I like stories that start with the character waking up having lost their memories, it can lead to a compelling mystery if executed well, I just don't like when it happens to a character we've known for most of a TV show, for example. Either, CrossCode is one of the good examples, I promise. CrossCode's narrative is incredibly satisfying and well-crafted, with some great twists, a very likable cast of characters, and a strong and emotional finale. It also helps that Lea is a fantastic lead and probably my favorite mute protagonist in all of gaming. Unlike other silent protags, Lea is mute because of a glitch in her coding, and she slowly learns new words over the course of the game. Seeing Lea try to make the most of her very limited vocabulary later on in the game is incredibly endearing and make her super likable. Lea also wears her emotions on her sleeve, her being silent does not stop her from having really genuine reactions to everything around her. Thanks to the really strong spritework both for the in-game sprites and the character portraits, it's always very easy to tell what Lea is thinking and feeling despite being mostly silent.
So yeah, CrossCode takes place in a cybernetic Phantasy Star-esque MMORPG, and that's probably the game's greatest strength. MMORPGs are defined by their massive maps, abundance of quests, and of course, all the other players populating the place. While CrossCode is a single-player game, it manages to capture the feeling of playing in an MMORPG impressively well. CrossCode's map is similarly ginormous and filled with massive landscapes to explore and tons of intricate secrets, there's countless quests upon quests upon quests, and there are a ton of NPCs scattered around every location ranging from novices to experts to game testers asking you to help them make sure everything works as expected. Heck, you're even able to go on raids with other characters, which ends up playing a big part in the story at one point. For a small indie studio like Radical Fish Games, it's incredibly impressive that CrossCode is able to emulate the sheer scale of an MMORPG, it feels so big and immersive and there's so much to do.
Of course, none of that would matter if the gameplay wasn't great, and it is! CrossCode is a top-down action RPG with a unique long-range battle system. The game almost plays like a twin-stick shooter as you circle around enemies shooting them with spheres, but you can also come in close for more powerful melee attacks. There's a ton of strategy and options here, from counters, to ricocheting your spheres off walls, to unlockable elemental abilities, to a massive skill tree you can grow. And on top of that, CrossCode even has a combo system similar to the Ys games where you're encouraged to fight lots of enemies back-to-back to get increasingly more XP and gold, at the cost of not being able to heal. This system helps the combat move at a blisteringly fast pace, and it all clicks together really well. CrossCode also has a solid amount of platforming and puzzles to shake things up, with the dungeons in particular having a lot of really engaging puzzles involving angling your sphere shots. Most of your moveset can be used both for combat and puzzles which is always nice to see in an RPG.
As for the presentation, CrossCode looks phenomenal. Like many of the best indie games, CrossCode's artstyle feels like a heightened version of Chrono Trigger, as if it's showing off what that game would look like with brighter and more colors, more fluid animation, and a more screen real estate. It really feels like the ultimate refinement of the SNES aesthetic, with pixelart so detailed I need to supersize the screenshots so you can really take it all in. Even beyond the spritework, I love the cyber look of CrossCode's world, it has this balance between cool-looking futurism and beautiful naturalism that really sticks out. The soundtrack by Deniz Akbulut is also really good, it blends that classic RPG sound with futuristic synths to create a sound that can only be described as "what if Falcom made Phantasy Star Online?". Highlights include Autumn's Rise, Battle 2, Raid, and Shizuka. Though speaking of One Step From Eden, CrossCode got a DLC pack with music done by STEEL_PLUS, the composer of that game, and it's just as good. Tracks like Azure Archipelago and One Last Trial are incredible and easily rank up alongside the best the main game has to offer.
Overall, CrossCode is just a really strong RPG, easily one of my favorite indies to date. As you can probably tell, I admire big showcases of ambition that manage to pull off everything that they're going for, and CrossCode is a perfect example of that. Radical Fish Studios set out to make a vast MMORPG-style single-player action RPG and pulled it off with aplomb, offering a massive world filled with content, a fun and fast combat system with lots of customization, a heartfelt and charming narrative, and a beautiful SNES-style presentation that feels like a love letter to the RPG genre as a whole.
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