CrossCode is a retro-inspired 2D action role-playing video game set in the distant future, combining 16-bit Super NES-style graphics with a fast-paced combat system and puzzle mechanics. Players control a mute character named Lea as she plays a fictional MMORPG known as CrossWorlds.
Plot
The game begins with a young woman called Shizuka Sakai fighting her way to rescue her brother, but once she finds him, he dies in her arms. Some time later, a girl called Lea awakens inside a cargo ship with no memories of her past and is informed by a man called Sergey Asimov that she must play the MMORPG "CrossWorlds" in order to regain her memories. Once reaching the game area, she befriends another player called Emile and the two explore the game together, eventually joining the "First Scholars" guild. During a raid with the First Scholars, Lea is dragged away and trapped into an off-limits area called the Vermillion Wasteland, where she is confronted by Shizuka. In the occasion, Lea learns that she is not human but an artificial intelligence called an "Evotar," based on the memories of Shizuka. After escaping back to the cargo ship, she also learns that Sergei used to work on the creation of CrossWorlds in the Instatainment Company along his friends Gautham Ranganathan, Shizuka and her brother Satoshi. These friends also took part in the Evotar project until disappearing years before the events of the game. Once Sergei discovered Lea, he decided to help her recover her memories in an attempt to look for them. Sergei helps Lea to escape the Vermillion Wasteland, return to the game area, and reunite with the friends she has made inside CrossWorlds. Back in the game area, Lea eventually locates Satoshi and Shizuka's hideout. She learns that they, along with Gautham, were forced by a man called Benedict Sidwell to participate in a scheme to create Evotars based on CrossWorlds' players and extract valuable information for him. She also learns that the real Satoshi is already dead but left behind an Evotar based on himself. With help from her friends, Lea storms the place where the server containing all Evotars is located in order to stop Sidwell's operation. Upon Lea reaching the top of the tower she finds there, Gautham challenges Lea to a duel. After she defeats him, he gives her access to the server, before committing suicide in atonement for cooperating with Sidwell. With his plans foiled, Sidwell accepts defeat and flees. Having secured the Evotars' data, Lea spends some time with her friends before she is also logged out from the game while Sergei attempts to convince the executives of Instatainment to allow the Evotars to keep existing inside CrossWorlds. The game then ends with two possible outcomes. In one of them, Lea's friends are informed by Sergei that Instatainment refused his proposal and confiscated all Evotar data, thus they will never see Lea again. In another, Sergei's proposal is accepted by Instatainment thanks to one of its stockholders whom Lea befriended in the game, and her friends are eager to reunite with her.
Development and release
CrossCode is an action role-playing video game developed by German studio Radical Fish Games and published by Deck13. Development of the game began in 2012. It was later introduced added as an Indiegogo crowdfunded project in February 2015, being released for Linux, macOS, and Windows in early access on Steam later that year. It was officially released out of early access on September 20, 2018, and was later released for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on July 9, 2020. The soundtrack was composed by Deniz Akbulut, with an official soundtrack released by video game music label Materia Collective on September 6, 2018. A 2-disc vinyl edition by Materia Collective was announced on June 26, 2020.
Reception
CrossCode received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregatorMetacritic. The game won the award for "Most Fulfilling Community-Funded Game" at the SXSW Gaming Awards.
