CrossCode

Hi! Lea! Bye!

This game embodies the idea of a "hidden gem" maybe more than any other game on Steam. The polish and "soul" is there. With that said, I don't think this rises to the level of the greatest modern indie games like hollow knight and celeste, but this is easily top of tier2. It's primarily a puzzle game, with some bullet hell (sort-of) combat. Good story and writing. There is very clearly a vision here, and I'm not sure how this game didn't blow up like so many of its contemporaries. I do think it is too long. I was losing steam around the Japan/Ninja section. A playthrough is 40+ hours.

If you enjoy the Link To The Past-type top-down Zelda games this is absolutely worth checking out. Fantastic dungeons, deep combat, meaningful upgrade choices, tricky puzzles, a narrative far better than I could have ever expected, and a cast of characters that are easy to love. The only real complaint I can levy is that side-quests suffer a bit from its MMO inspiration. A lot of "Go here kill x amount of y, go there and collect x amount of z" type things. But it's all very easy to forgive when everything surrounding such a small tedium is so excellent.

3rd time I tried to get into this game. It's just so tedious, boring and unenjoyable. Having a "real life MMO" as setting might have been cool, if it WASN'T JUST AN AWFUL single-player fetch quest MMO [b]REGARDLESS[/b]. There is no distinction whatsoeever, so what is even the point gameplay wise? And the convoluted ways to reach chests with 3 screen transition round-about way jumping paths along the edge of each screen is absolutely unenjoyable. The combat system is okay enough but super shallow and I can already feel the absolute requirement to "break" enemies and otherwise they have super-armor or just avoid everything you do. PS: Whoever decided to have "YES" as default option for the question after a text tutorial "Should I repeat it?" deserves to never work in this industry again.

The puzzles are genuinely brilliant. However, the overall experience is hindered by what feels like a developer's ego trip; the game serves more as a showcase for the mob's evasion and tracking code rather than providing a fair or enjoyable challenge.

All parts of this game are awesome and there is just so much to do, this game is certainly worth playing. The combat and buildcraft are fun, fluid and rewarding. The story is unique and the characters are so much fun. And the puzzles, the puzzles. The many unique mechanics that are introduced in each dungeon slowly build upon each other and really test your understanding of all the ways they can interact. Add to that all the exploration/jumping puzzles that make traveling through this world so enjoyable and you have yourself an amazing puzzling experience. Also, whoever placed like 20 mushrooms and corals next to each other and gave them satisfying sound when you break them needs a raise.

Too much platforming puzzle for me.