User Review : Cross Edge

Is this title worthy of praise or should it merely be crossed out?

Putting aside inFamous the heavy hitter and Damnation the multiplayer at heart, another game that has been released this week at least on North American shores is none other than a game titled "Cross Edge" or "X Edge" if you prefer. The game itself is a blend of various other games all thrown into an RPG mix; yet does this title have what it takes or should it be crossed off from the list?

Being that this is an RPG with SRPG elements I will refrain from talking about the story at all, as it is better to experience the story first hand in RPGs rather than having the opening liner spoiled. Yet I will state that the premise of the game is that various casts from other worlds have come together and thus you will see Morrigan Aensland from Capcom's "Darkstalkers" series as well as Maria from Gust's "Atelier Marie" series. Of course their are other characters just as well, but I will leave the window of surprise open for those who have already made the purchase.

When you first boot up the game you are greeted with three choices: New Game, Continue, or Install. I am not sure how much the installing might help as the loading times were next to none at the start and as I have progressed I have rarely ran into too much slow down. Though like most of you who have bought the game you will more than likely chose the option "new game". From then on the player will be presented with three difficulty settings of 'Easy', 'Normal', and 'Hard'. For where 'Easy' is for beginners of the game and also those who may be new to the RPG, SRPG genre all together. 'Normal' is for those who have played either one, the other or both types of RPGs and is pretty standard difficulty with enemies being a little tougher than they are in 'easy'. As for Hard this is made for the experts of the game for those who have probably gone through it several times already; 'hard' also supports some extra features and for the sake of the review I'll leave it up to the players to become acclimated with the game and give this one a whirl on their own.

After the difficulty has been set the next option that comes right after is whether you would like to hear the voices of the characters in English or Japanese. For the sake of my own play time I have chosen to go with Japanese as it is just normal for me I suppose; yet for those of you who prefer it in English that option is there as well. For those of you who can't understand Japanese, but prefer voice acting in Japanese there are subtitles in English so do not fret! Also a very key feature of this game that I thought might be important for those who grow tired of the English or Japanese voice acting. Even in the middle of the game it presents the player with the option of switching the voice acting from one language to the other if they feel like the current one they have chosen just isn't working for them. This can be found under the Battle Diary menu after pushing Triangle which gets the menu up and going.

From there on out after all preparations have been made the game begins, and as I said before being an RPG and SRPG fanatic I will chose to omit the story period from this review as it may upset some of those who do not want to know until they put the game disc in the Playstation 3 computer entertainment center. Though if you would like to know the first few minutes and the main premise from the start I will be happy to send a PM of what I have gathered so far. So being that I will refrain from telling the story I shall move onto the graphics, sound and the other things revolving around this collided world.

The graphics itself are not terribly bad and certainly are not a draw back of the overall quality to the name. If anyone has played a Disgaea series the nostalgia of playing one will come straight back to you. Though their are certain times where a torso shot (from the waist line up) can be seen of the characters interacting this is generally seen in cut scenes and for what it is it seems synonymous to how some characters are portrayed in mangas right down to the facial expressions, again for those of you who are familiar with how Disgaea characters are portrayed as they are talking or perhaps as they are moving on the map this game's own designs should be strikingly familiar to you.

The pulsating sounds that crash against the player's ear drum is also an enjoyable experience of the game, though if you are not a big fan of what the developers have chosen then you have the option of turning the background music down just as well. Yet I found the background music as great edition to this title, the battle music itself is nice; the menu music is nice as well, a few options menu options also have their own menu (such as when going to save in the menu a different track will play - in a way it reminded me slightly of Final Fantasy's but not completely synonymous to it). Overall I'd say that the music is really great for this RPG title and would encourage those who do get this title or are thinking about it to just leave the background music on, as it is simply a joy to listen to.

What can one say about the game play? It certainly is refreshing to have the skills your character can perform located on the triangle, X, Square, or O button. Not too mention the combinations that can be done by combining character's attacks one after another. Their isn't a whole lot I can say about the game play other than it can truly be addictive trying to figure out how to do certain character battle combinations, trying to get certain status on yourself as well as against the enemy. I can 100% testify for this as my pizza in the stove was sitting there for 20 minutes longer than it should have been as I was trying to take down enemies and figure out patterns. One word of warning, if you are planning on doing something while playing the game; you must make the choice of either the game or the other operation.

Last, but not least fun factor; I believe that this in itself should go with everything else that I have written about in the various paragraphs above. Graphics, Sound, game play, I would even throw in story and dialogue just as well. The fun one can have here is just like having a breath of fresh air in my book; some of the dialogue will make you chuckle or even just downright laugh while at other times it may make you have a sour face or one such as this "-.-" In any event the fun factor in this game is truly amazing and cannot get enough of this game.

Final Verdict:
Truly a game worthy of being on the Playstation 3 computer entertainment center. Intriguing game play, memorable characters and even the Background music (I will wait for NIS to make a CD of the BGM used in this game and would be the first one to get it that I promise you!) For those of you who are aching for a worthwhile RPG to come out while waiting for other games to come out I would strongly suggest picking up this title, I would even go so far as to give it a first day purchase just as I have done. Being that the title is only 50.00 instead of the 60.00 that we as gamers have come to know it certainly is nice if only by a small amount in 10.00. Not to mention it has trophies (of which I have refrained from looking at to keep the aura of mystery of this game continuous and rather be surprised when I earned a trophy from it. So for those of you who are looking here to know what the trophies might be, I'm sorry; but you will have to check elsewhere.)

Rating:
Great game, First day purchase, I would even go so far as to rate it alongside Valkyria Chronicles. Though it may not encompass the same emotions that Valkyria gave to some people, it certainly will be an enjoyable experience nonetheless.

P.S - Now if you will excuse me I must find something else to eat now after burning my pizza. Also I'd like to make a note that I truly detest having to put scores for the fields; for the sake of a review. I would rather just tell people if it's a first day purchase, rental, or leave it alone. For this title as you can see at least to me I would say it is a first day purchase.