This will mainly be a review of the story mode.
[h2] Gameplay [/h2]
XF's racing gameplay is fantastic. The vast majority of the tracks have fantastic and interesting design, and there is (mostly) a smooth difficulty curve throughout the tracks, the on foot combat is inspiring to see in the genre as well. The zero G tracks are an interesting shake up to the gameplay, requiring perfection to maintain blistering speeds (which leads to Twelve Minutes being hellish in the story mode, more details below), and the Sprint tracks that conclude most cups are fantastic caps to each segment of gameplay. I feel the Outer Cup could have done with ending with a Sprint in the story, to make the final race more climactic.
Outside of the racing, however, there is a shortage of content. I had completed every on foot stage and unlocked all powers by March (the story ends on October 3rd), and was left with an extreme surplus of resets that I only needed for Red Hell and the Outer Cup, the two major difficulty spikes in the story. It took me until the very end of the game to max my Night Race rank and unlock every sponsor, but I imagine those better at racing games than I am would have an easier time doing so.
Red Hell is the only track I actively did not enjoy. It is very hard to keep on a path that cannot be memorised or learned efficiently due to being a Sprint, and the AIs seemingly perfectly race along it. It is also surrounded by some of the easiest tracks in the game, which does not help its standing.
[h2] Plot (Major Spoilers) [/h2]
The plot does have a few issues. The plot revolves around Cingul and Shell and their both seemingly possessing reality warping powers, yet the exact extent of these powers can be confusing. [spoiler]Cingular reveals that they are imperfections written directly into the fabric of the universe and as such have reality bending time travel powers and whatnot,[/spoiler] but the extent of Cingul's powers in particular is somewhat poorly set out. He [spoiler]can interface with the multiverse and send things to other universes (Shell was born from a fragment of Cingul he sent to our universe merging with a human), commit mass mind control,[/spoiler] knows where anyone is at all times, teleport people, stand in mid air, [spoiler]make the sun go supernova at will, and speed up light,[/spoiler] to name a few, but the rules that bind him are poorly explained simply because of the variety of what his "powers" are capable of. Shell's powers are similarly nebulous in their scope. He too can rewind time, but his powers also let him... block spam calls? Shell can use black fire based attacks, [spoiler]as can Cingul, that have antimemetic qualities. This is never expanded on in the story save for one scene establishing said antimemetic qualities.[/spoiler]. The story simply feels prevailingly half baked and shallow when it comes to the finer details.
On a more positive note, the underlying themes of the story (mainly, secrets and the turmoil that they can bring) are interesting and somewhat well explored with several character examples. Two examples of this [spoiler] are Shoe's homosexuality and Vespa's actions during the Venus cup. Shoe keeps his sexuality a secret for his own safety, but Cingul's death game pressures him to come out to his family, which leads to him being murdered by his brother. Vespa, upon learning of the death game, disappeared and kept her whereabouts a secret, leading Shell and Digi to have to find her and force her to race for the sake of everyone in the game. Both demonstrate two sides to secrets - Shoe kept his secret to protect himself for good reason, but Vespa keeping her secret actively endangers everyone and it must be exposed. Shell even experiences this himself, with the group sans Digi being suspicious of him following Wolfman's death, creating tension for the player. [/spoiler]
The story's ending, however, is somewhat flawed. [spoiler]Cingul traps Shell in a series of "ghost days" after Cingular does the same thing, forcing him to complete the Outer Cup against Cingul and 24 shadow clones of himself who are exactly as capable. Needless to say, going from racing a diverse skill-varied cast to racing 25 copies of the best AI in the game causes a major difficulty spike. The story's only real difficulty spike proceeding this was Red Hell, an aptly named, hellishly difficult sprint track that the AIs just magically have no issue with, surrounded by some of the easiest tracks in the game. The Outer Cup, Twelve Minutes especially, will likely take you many, [i]many[/i] attempts. After this, Cingul teleports you into space and... makes the sun explode, speeding up light so you can watch in all its glory. While no doubt a poignant scene showing that there really was never hope against a being like Cingul, it comes out of nowhere that Cingul is capable of making the sun explode. This goes into a final boss where Shell tries to merge with Cingul to recomplete him, in turn erasing his megalomania. The final boss is good, serving as a great mirror rival fight, but Freom from Spark 2 remains LakeFeperd's best final boss. However, after absorbing Cingul, Shell attempts to rewind time... ten months? It is said that Resets only allow for Shell to go a few minutes back, and he is presumably using the same power, so how can he suddenly rewind ten months? This ends with the human giving Shell form attempting to stop Shell from rewinding, or at least let the main cast keep their memories, claiming that Shell, by his nature, will live forever and keeping his connections from the characters a secret will only lead to Shell becoming like Cingul. Shell relents, but this carries a bevy of questions. Mainly: [i]several characters died.[/i] If they keep their memories, do they now just... possess knowledge of what happens after death? There is also a major typo problem throughout the game. I respect that English may not be LakeFeperd's strongest language, but there are several typos that probably should have been caught before a 1.0 release, including "through" being spelt as "trough" [i]in the final cutscene between the human and Shell[/i], ruining the emotional moment.[/spoiler]
Overall, the story isn't bad, per se, and provides a lot of good food for thought, but is deeply flawed.
[h2] Music [/h2]
To end this review on the positive note it deserves, no pun intended, XF comes with a phenomenal soundtrack. The music perfectly evokes the feelings it has to, and continues the high standard of music in LakeFeperd's work. The Speed Of Light and Find Your 4nswer are the highlights, the former being a cutscene track where any glimmer of a chance you may have had diminishes to make way for chilling hopelessness, and the latter being a track for the races on the surface of Saturn and race 2 of the Outer Cup, which never fails to hype you up when you steal first place on the final lap, as an incredible orchestral-rock hybrid that has lyrics come in at the final lap.
[h2] Conclusion [/h2]
To cap off one of the longest reviews I've ever written. XF is an incredible, yet flawed, showing for a decade-plus passion project for the developer. As is customary with LakeFeperd's work, gameplay takes centre stage, with the backdrop of a great soundtrack and a servicable story to hold it all together.
Overall,
7/10, FEAR NO ONE!
