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HONORABLE MENTION #2: CrossCode: A New Home

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/0/AAA-H0AADWc2.jpg

To be clear, here, I do consider something like a lengthy DLC campaign to be a perfectly valid entry to the list, so that's not why I've kept CrossCode's long-awaited conclusion off the list. The real reason I kept it off the list is, uh, I haven't beaten it yet. But I still really want to talk about it, because it is one of my favorite gaming experiences from the past two years, and because I will absolutely never pass up the opportunity to shill CrossCode, one of my favorite games of the past decade.

CrossCode is an action RPG that borrows a little bit of DNA from various mid-90's RPGs - Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Phantasy Star, it's a love letter to all of these and many more. When I played the demo some time ago, the game promised a lot, and to my surprise, it ended up delivering. Despite being an indie game with a seemingly pretty small team, it's one of the most content-packed RPGs you'll ever play - it took me something like 50 hours to beat, and while some of that was some grinding and sidequests that were more or less necessary to get equipment good enough to win, it's also just jam packed with content, with an enormous world and tons of enemy variety and a lot of surprisingly hard puzzles. It's gorgeous to look at, it has a great soundtrack, and the game mechanics are extremely fun to use. It's a huge, sprawling game to the point of being overwhelming - CrossCode is a lot.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/1/AAA-H0AADWc3.jpg

It was, apparently, a lot for the developers too, as the original game from 2018 ends on something of a cliffhanger. There is a final boss and a resolution to the story's climax, but there are some loose threads left at the end, and even a big gate you can get to that straight up says that the rest of the game isn't finished yet and you'll have to come back when they finish the DLC. It was more or less still a complete game experience, but still a little bit deflating - there was still more story here to see, and I knew I was gonna have to wait for a little bit to see it. On the bright side, the promise of more CrossCode in the future was exciting.

In 2021, the wait was over, and the DLC campaign, A New Home, came out, which ties up all the loose ends and puts in place all the missing content in the game, making it truly and fully complete. I picked it up right away, played it for a bit, and then... bounced off of it for a while, actually. I wasn't kidding when I said CrossCode is a lot. The combat system is very involved, and the world is complex to navigate, and coming back to all of it after two years of waiting was too difficult. It's one thing when you start the game new and you can slowly learn the mechanics and ease into it, but it's another to come back to a fully tricked out character with 20+ different special moves to remember and having to fight endgame enemies with it, all while being in a world that you've almost fully explored before but now barely remember. I got kind of lost in the overworld's major new area looking for where I had to go and eventually put the game aside. I'd come back to it, I figured, but ultimately it took me wanting to write this list to actually make me get around to picking it up again - almost a year later.

I've been picking it up again now and slowly playing through it, but slowly is the operative word. They added a lot of content to the game here, and as I'm working through it I also find myself getting sidetracked by sidequests I didn't finish in the original game and hunting for items that I left behind in order to get good endgame equipment and... yeah, I just kind of end up sucked up into it all over again, and I don't want to rush it. I was really ready to start publishing this list by now and I want to continue playing the endgame content in this game at my own pace. So here we are.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/2/AAA-H0AADWc4.jpg

What I have played through so far, I've enjoyed greatly. I think what made me most interested in talking about A New Home was the idea of having a DLC campaign for an RPG like this in the first place. It's interesting, because this really is an *epilogue* to the game. I'm pretty sure there is going to be a climactic confrontation at the end of this - I'm starting to see where it's going - but for the most part, it's all falling action. Characters reuniting, plot threads being tied up, and a little peek into the continued adventures of this cast of characters. I can't think of a lot of RPGs that have a coda like this - usually, you go kill the last bad guy and save the world, and that's ironically where the game's world and your involvement in it stops, seeing the ending where everyone lives happily ever after but never getting to actually experience that world for yourself. CrossCode ultimately has you resolving the climax of the plot 80% in, and the rest is the afterparty. It's really kind of cozy, just getting to chill with these characters for a while longer after the main plot is settled and seeing how their lives are going and having a few more fun adventures for the road. There's still a couple dramatic plot reveals and huge boss fights to settle, but for the most part, it's relaxing and enjoying the fruits of your labor in the rest of the game. It's nice! I kinda wish more games were able to do this, but I guess once evil threats are vanquished in other games there's not a lot to do anymore. CrossCode takes place in a fictional MMORPG, so there's always things to go fight.

CrossCode, as an entire experience, would probably rank #3 on the overall list, which made ranking it really hard. Because I was going back and doing all these sidequests, the postgame campaign got all tangled up with the base game from 2018 for me, and it's hard to know how I should judge the game just based on this last portion of it. And, like I said, I didn't feel like rushing to the end of the game just so I could pass a proper judgment on it. So this is what I'm doing instead - banishing it to the honorable mentions section, saying my piece about it here, and strongly recommending you check out this game if you haven't yet, especially now that it's complete.

Up next, #50 for real this time: The only Zelda game on my list! Can you guess which one it is? (You'll have a day to think about it, because I have to sleep and start writing about games for real tomorrow)