Developer: Dreams Uncorporated, SYCK
Publisher: Modus Games
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Cris Tales – Review
We first heard about Cris Tales way back in 2019, before the world went through a (still ongoing) pandemic. The beautiful art style immediately got our attention, and we loved the overall visuals the game seemingly had in store for us. Sadly, the game got postponed for quite some time, to make sure it was properly perfected for its grand release. Now, we finally got a copy in our hands to explore the beautiful surroundings of the game, and for the most part, we loved the journey. Sadly, with some stale and dated combat mechanics thrown in the mix, what could have potentially been amazing, turns into something that is just ‘good’.
Story
In Cris Tales you’ll be playing as Crisbell, a young orphan girl, who basically lives out her life quite happily in Narim. During one of her daily tasks, however, she stumbles inside the Narim Cathedral, only for her to suddenly be jolted by a surge of power, allowing her to see both past and future. Dazed and confused, she gets guided by a talking frog, Matias, who might be able to tell her what this all means. Soon Crisbell discovers that she is a Time Mage, and thus can manipulate things that have to do with the flow of time. When a great evil lurks in the shadows, she will have to combine information of past, present, and future, to prevent many catastrophes.
The story flow is quite pleasant and has a certain fairytale-like atmosphere. You’ll get more than enough information to plow through the content the game has on offer. In-between the voiced dialogues, there are beautifully crafted cinematics.
Graphics
Cris Tales is truly a spectacle. The game boasts impressive fairytale-like visuals that do want to make you explore every nook and cranny. Sadly, it’s utterly disappointing to be stuck behind invisible walls at every turn when trying to do so. Nonetheless, the overall quality is amazing and the visuals truly get you in the mood to uncover what is behind the next corner, even if you cannot stray too far away from the path laid out in front of you. The character design is nicely handled, and everything is perfectly in sync with each other, making a very picturesque whole. From start to finish you get that pop-up children’s book feeling that makes you want to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the Disney-like setting. We do have to mention that some animations feel a bit ‘wooden’ at times.
During dialogues, the game will take a more traditional approach, as it will zoom in on the portraits of the character(s) talking. There are no real animations present during the dialogues, only the static pictures change to show a change in the emotional state of the character. Overall it’s a tried-and-true formula that works, and we see nothing wrong with choosing this approach.
Sound
The overall experience is accompanied by a very cinematic and adventurous soundtrack. This certainly helps to build the atmosphere, but sometimes we feel that the music is a bit too adventurous when doing simple chores, making the grave-sounding music a bit less impactful at times. The voice acting is good; in a 1990s kind of way. It feels extremely cheesy and lacks emotion. While the voice cast is very pleasant to listen to, it misses a certain something to truly hit the ball out of the park.
Gameplay
Cris Tales is a fairly classic RPG experience, albeit with its own unique twist on time travel. The game will let you explore many different areas of the game to solve small puzzles, battle enemies, and of course, explore the narrative content of the title. Everything follows the format you’d expect from a title such as this, except for the fact that you can look in the past and future of your surroundings as well. It’s basically up to you, to sometimes get information from the past, to prevent disasters in the future. This also means that choices have to be made, which will influence the flow of the game. This is a quirky and interesting mechanic, and it does add an extra layer to the classic tried-and-true formula of these kinds of games.
Overlooking the fact that certain mechanics in the game feel a bit barebones and just downright basic, the exploration part outside of cities feels like you’re visiting the Dark Cave from the first-gen Pokémon games all over again. In Pokémon: Red (or Blue) there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Sadly, in Cris Tales, this is the basic formula. You get dropped in the wild, only to go from one random battle encounter to another, rewarding you with very low experience, but strain your resources heavily. If you actually like exploring the few sidetracks, you’ll only get annoyed with how many times you get attacked by enemies. This is truly the biggest strain on an otherwise magical experience. Sadly, also when roaming the overworld, the locations you pass or have to go to are not marked by name, only giving you the prompt to press X for ‘next’. This sometimes makes it a bit tedious to find the right location.
Conclusion
Cris Tales is a magical experience that shows that original ideas still exist in an oversaturated gaming market. The game nails it in terms of presentation and atmosphere, and even certain mechanics the game utilizes are fun and original. Sadly, the artificial gameplay-thickening, by throwing uncountable monsters at you at every turn, makes the game feel stale sooner rather than later. If you can overlook the constant unrewarding grind, there is a lot to love in this beautiful title. If your dreams are still haunted by the Zubat-infested Dark Cave, this one will certainly trigger that Pokémon-induced PTSD.
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