A Beautiful Experience with Minor Issues

• Areas consist of optional combat you can use to level up, plants to punch, and platforming puzzles to solve accentuated by wonderful pixel art and an atmospheric soundtrack.
• Cities are where you get the major quest to access the dungeon, use your acquired materials and money to trade for better equipment, and where you can accept side quests to solve for additional materials and equipment. Most side quests are chains and add to the world building while fetch quests are kept on the lower end.
• Dungeons are a mix of puzzles and forced combat that conclude with a big boss fight at the end. Dungeon length varies and gets longer as the game progresses.

Pros

• The gameplay. Longest part of the review. It has four things in the core gameplay loop, those being combat, exploration, puzzles, and progression. Starting with the combat, it's fluid, has depth, and is deeply satisfying. The sound effects, animations, and how the combat works all are executed in a way that results in rewarding, skill-based fights that aren't brutally challenging but will still make you feel accomplished when you master the aspects of it. Your arsenal consists of four basic moves: Melee, Ranged, Dodge, and Guarding. Both melee and ranged builds work well, and you can do both at any time (No need to have specific weapons for one or the other.) Another thing to note is that most enemies only attacks you after you attack them, so when you explore, they don't get in the way at all. Exploration typically consists of some short, some slightly longer platforming sections that lead to chests that can contain anything from upgrade materials to unique equipment. These are completely optional and can be done whenever you want, but provide an great change of pace and variety. When you figure out the path you need to take to reach a chest, it becomes instantly clear whether you've figured it out or not, and feels very satisfying once you get there. Often times, you will find yourself enjoying just figuring out how to get to a chest more than opening them, even if the reward is exactly what you were hoping for. This is because of how CrossCode makes its puzzles and what makes them so rewarding. Puzzles. Despite being done very well, this is pretty much the only thing you'll find negative reviews complaining about, since they're a core part of the gameplay and some people don't like having them as one of the focus points. If you don't like puzzles, I'm sorry, this might not be for you. If you do, or don't care either way, stop reading this review and buy it. You could be playing the game right now. As for what makes these puzzles good, it comes down to them being designed with a single solution that makes it apparent when you have figured it out. This means whenever you think of an answer that isn't correct, it becomes obvious immediately, so you'll move on to another solution without spending time trying something impossible. And when you do figure it out, it gives you that feeling of it all clicking together. The final part of the gameplay loop is progression. You have equipment and levels. The skill tree system doesn't make you spend hours looking at it to figure out what you want, as any path you can take is designed for different playstyles, so you work toward what affects your way to play first, and fill out the others later. Equipment is gained through chests and merchants, which require materials you can gather from the environment and enemies (Environment materials are just plants that break instantly, no tedious mining here.) Equipment has a level attached to it, but doesn't require you to be that level to wear it. This is to show you when you're behind, and saves you the trouble of figuring out if you need to grind XP or equipment. Also, the grind is almost non-existent, you won't spend long amounts of time except at the end game, and even then it's not that bad.
• The story. (No spoilers) It is a slow burn with lovable characters that are real and have plenty of dialogue to express
themselves with. While it does take a while for the plot to go into full gear, when it gets there, it GETS THERE. The world building is also consistent with a decent amount of lore to it. And when it wants to make you feel something, it does so perfectly. Really the only reason this game doesn't have more attention is that people don't want to spoil the story, so they can't make youtube videos about it without ruining the experience.
• Graphics. It has great pixel art and when characters talk, they actually have a full size body on the screen 90% of the
time, and each character has plenty of different expressions, some used only for a handful of scenes. The enemies attacks are depicted in a way that is obvious so you won't be hit by things you can't see. The environments are depicted in a way that are instantly distinguishable, so you won't confuse two places. There are also screen effects and lighting that give a great deal of feeling to what's happening in the situation. When you charge an ability, it zooms in and darkens the edges to give the feeling of storing up power. When the characters are talking, it sways the camera in moments of uncertainty, gives a subtle flash when there's a surprise, and many more to emphasize what the character is feeling at that moment. It's not AAA super realistic stuff, but it looks and feels better than most AAA games.
• Sound and music. This is a really strong point actually, and while it doesn't have grandiose music like Hollow
Knight, it always sounds like it is exactly what should be playing for whatever situation you're in. Combat, just walking around, cutscene, all have music that goes together with it seamlessly. Sound effects have also been made great here, there are ques for when an enemy is about to attack that are unique to each enemy, so even when an enemy is at the edge of the screen you'll know what kind of attack to expect. Your attacks also have incredibly satisfying sounds along with them, probably the best example is the low 'pop' sound that plays when you break a plant, it's what makes gathering those drops not feel like a chore, and it does it all on its own.
• Bugs. I have not seen any. No game crashes, no weird glitched NPC's, nothing. You will not have your immersion broken
by some random bug while you're playing this game. Essentially you can expect the complete opposite of Bethesda.

Buy it, it's worth every cent