Modus Games, Dreams Uncorporated, and SYCK have finally released their long-awaited game, Cris Tales. Vibrant and colorful, for years the game has promised to deliver a classic JRPG experience while adding a modern twist. Intermingling a time-altering component to the story and combat, this game hopes to elevate the genre to new levels. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver on that promise. Time travel simply can’t save this title from its own pitfalls.

Story

Set in a colorful fantasy world, you’ll feel like you’re pulled directly into a children’s story (or cartoon, more on that later). You play Crisbell, a young orphan girl with special powers that enable her to see and manipulate the past and future. Early on in the game’s story she identifies these special powers and sets off into a cliché adventure to find herself, save the world, help strangers, and make friends along the way.

You are accompanied by a talking frog named Matias, who wears a top hat and assists you with your newfound Time Mage powers. Along her journey, Crisbell makes finds new companions as she ventures forth to vanquish threats that would destroy her world and the people she cares about.

Cris Tales’ story certainly tries to be cute, well-intentioned, and timeless. The end result is too much in-your-face cuteness and color, and a feeling of juvenile depth. Having an overall vibe of a tween TV show, enduring a 30+ hour game can prove to be overwhelming and exhausting.

Gameplay

The developers set out to add a unique layer of interactive time-travel control into the game’s core experience. Namely, exploring the world with a view of past, present, and future along with a combat experience that uses abilities linked to different moments in time. In theory, it’s a very intriguing idea. The game struggles to make this an enjoyable enough experience to make you want to do it for dozens of hours.

Exploring, puzzle-solving, and interacting with the world through a tri-time lens is fun at first, especially as you are allowed to see the consequences of actions and outcomes of characters in real-time. After many hours, this visual effect begins to bore and its uniqueness wears off. It ultimately comes across as more of a gimmick than a treat.

I was frustrated at times when the game required me to backtrack and find characters, even though interacting with their past or future selves is novel. Tracking down some NPC’s proved to be difficult and time-consuming, because I couldn’t remember who it was or where to look. There isn’t an easy way to find these NPC locations. If you don’t plan on sitting down and beating this game within a short period, plan on spending time trying to remember who-is-who, and where they are located. You’ll be going back through entire maps and cities, talking to every character to try and narrow it down.

Aimless wandering wasn’t only tied to finding characters, but sometimes simply figuring out where you should go next. While there is a “hint” button option, oftentimes I found that to be of little use. I wasn’t using this option very often, but the handful of times I did I was underwhelmed with the tip that was provided.

In the game’s battle sequences, you’ll benefit from pushing buttons at the right time to aid various party members with their respective attack or defense move. Tied to this, the game’s central battle strategy is when you take advantage of Crisbell’s Time Mage powers. You will do something in the past, present, and/or future to affect monsters and expose their weaknesses. For example, throwing water on an enemy’s armor in the present might cause it to rust in the future. When this happens you can exploit the opportunity and take advantage of the future you’ve created. This was highly interesting at first but eventually just became tedious.

When I take a step back and try to evaluate the core gameplay of this title, I’m left feeling like it should have landed on a mobile platform instead, where simplicity prevails and expectations are generally lower. The game has a simplicity that feels more casual, like so many mobile games, than the classics it draws its inspiration from.

Visuals/Audio

Full of bright colors and clean artistic renderings, the game is a visual spectacle and certainly show-worthy. Not a lot of games use this artistic method and color scheme. In its playful and lighthearted music and voice acting, I also found it to be unique. However, after a few hours, I began to feel as if I’d seen (and listened to) something similar to what I was experiencing in Cris Tales.

The combination of Crisbell’s annoyingly high-pitched voice and the game’s cutesy, colorful, big-eyed art style was strangely reminiscent of My Little Pony! I pulled up pictures and videos on my phone and sure enough, the two art styles and voice acting were strikingly similar. To be clear, I don’t necessarily view this as a compliment. This realization proved to be really detracting and offputting to the game’s experience. I’m not a fan of the TV cartoon series and can’t stand the way the characters speak.

While the game’s voice acting wasn’t bad, Crisbell’s high pitch tone eventually became unbearable. I had to mute my TV and listen to music at times, just to drown out the shrieking voice. Sadly, what was initially a strength of the game became impossible to deal with at times.

What It Could Have Done Better

I’ll admit, some of my criticisms of the game are highly subjective, such as not being able to unsee the parallels of My Little Pony or my annoyance towards the protagonists shrieking voice. However, there are some aspects of the game that proved annoying, unnecessary, and boring.

For instance, the difficulty of seeking out NPC’s creates a lot of unnecessary and time-consuming backtracking across the map. You will spend a lot of time trying to figure out who and where to progress the story. I’d love to see a map system that shows every NPC you’ve met so you can easily locate them when needed. Perhaps a fast-travel option directly to (or near) those characters would also help move you along faster.

There’s also the issue of the game’s underwhelming battle mechanics. The overall combat experience gets old fast and feels highly monotonous and boring. I never felt a moment where I could connect with the combat and simply have fun with it. Overall, it always felt somewhat easy, and highly forgettable. Sure the time-altering abilities are different, but it doesn’t necessarily add more enjoyment to the actual combat. Considering you encounter it repetitively throughout the game, I find this to be a glaring issue.

Verdict

Sadly, Cris Tales just doesn’t land its plays among the classics it seeks to emulate. Crisbells’ cringe-worthy voice, the issues with tracking NPC’s, and lackluster combat sink this game.

I’m not sure a patch or DLC content will fix what appears to be an inherently flawed game experience. It certainly can’t help remove the comparison it has to a child’s cartoon, nor will it dramatically change the combat system.

Setting aside my gripes of this game, let me clearly differentiate between the game and the developers who made it. I think this indie studio has great potential and talent and wouldn’t hesitate to try another game they will make. I found little to fault in how well the game actually played, especially on my Xbox Series X. The entire game looked and ran smooth, and showed a general polish that not every studio can offer. If I could travel in time I’d tell myself to skip this one, but look out for the next title this team produces; it just might be a hit.

Cris Tales is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia. It is also available to play on Xbox Game Pass.