CrossCode

An absolutely phenomenal game, I'd put CrossCode on the same level as Hollow Knight, Celeste, Pizza Tower, Gravity Circuit, Rain World, Darkwood, ULTRAKILL, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Star of Providence, etc. as a must-play indie title. To go over the things that probably don't need to be elaborated on as much, the game visually looks great. It's not quite the best pixel art you'll ever see, but the game is consistently visually appealing with detailed sprites, tons of animations, and characters that are expressive and have all the portraits they possibly need to show their emotions over the course of the story. The story is also great, with fun and interesting characters and covering some surprisingly deep and dark themes. Can't say much because I don't want to spoil it, but the story is a great compliment to the excellent gameplay. The soundtrack is also great, not quite top tier but it's got plenty of great tracks that suit the environments and story beats very nicely and make traversing the world enjoyable. The only thing I think could've been better would be different battle music for different areas as while the battle music is great, it does get a bit repetitive with how long the game's total runtime can be. Speaking of, the combat is excellent and one of the two pillars of the game. It controls smooth and the enemies are intelligently designed that you have to use different tactics for most of them, whether it's ricocheting ranged attacks into a weakpoint, timing an attack well to interrupt them, using a certain element or perfect blocking to stun them. What really makes the combat great is the elemental system. On top of your standard moves you can switch to 4 different elements you unlock over the course of the game, each of which alters your stats, allows access to a large variety of super-moves and allows you to inflict different status effects. Across all the different elements there are a few dozen of these, and it makes the combat incredibly deep while still being approachable with how it introduces portions of it over time. By the endgame you're utilising all of it in some challenging and incredibly fun, well designed fights. The elements also are part of the other pillar of the game, puzzles. You get a taste of these in the overworld you'll explore, which is fun to traverse being packed with secrets and chests you'll need to find ways of getting to higher elevation to reach. Once you get into the dungeons the puzzles really shine though, early on they're already a decent challenge but as you progress the elements get used in different ways and start being combined together to make for puzzles more complex than anything you'll find in Zelda. Not liking puzzles is the only thing that might be a reason to not get the game, but if you enjoy them at all this game has them in spades. The final dungeon in the DLC adds one new mechanic that combines with all the others to create some seriously mind-bending puzzles that are incredibly satisfying to figure out. To top it all off, the game is also jam-packed with content. Despite having almost 100 hours, I still haven't done all of the sidequests and have barely touched the arena with gauntlets of enemies and bosses. Some of the side-quests are your typical fetch quests or "kill X enemies" but the majority are all unique and engaging in their own right. Some involve optional side dungeons and/or new bosses, some have unique set pieces like fighting on top of moving cars, and some change the game entirely being fun mini-games that put a twist on the mechanics or make it a whole other genre like tower defence. The DLC is also well worth it, because the base game already has more than enough content to justify its price as well as New Game+ with all sorts of ways to modify a playthrough to increase the challenge or put twists on it. The DLC just adds even more, including two areas (one of which is basically a gigantic dungeon), a more satisfying ending and also a new final boss that somehow tops the already insane final boss of the base game. At the price it's selling for there is no reason not to buy the game if you're remotely interested. You'll thank yourself later. Consider getting the game on GOG as it seems to go on sale more often there and you can get the game and DLC for $10 or less, which is an absolute steal for the quality and quantity of content on offer. It's truly a shame this game didn't get the attention it deserves.