During my stay at Gamescom 2019, I had the pleasure to meet up with Modus games, enabling me to learn a lot more about the upcoming Cris Tales. I’ve seen a lot of different games during my career but nothing compares to Cris Tales. If you thought time travel is a mere gimmick, you’re wrong. Yes, Cris Tales messes around with time but in a way like no other medium ever did before.
A love letter to Classic JRPGs
When Cris Tales was first revealed, it was introduced as a love letter to Classic JRPGs, and the influence of those is clearly visible but Cris Tales is something truly unique. The main feature of the game is your power to live in the past, present, and future all simultaneously. On the left of your screen, you’ll see the past, the present is always in the center while the future is located on the right side of the screen. This results in something that simply isn’t done in any game before. Although it might sound rather complex, it’s really impressive to see in action. Cris Tale consists of beautifully handcrafted 2D drawings that mimic 3D environments thanks to some neat tricks. Also add the fact that every character is voice acted and you understand that the atmosphere of Cris Tales is something entirely different. It’s great to compare your product to the classic JRPGs but in my opinion, Cris Tales easily surpasses it for multiple reasons, one of those is being able to tell a story without words.
Where did you go?
As you can clearly see in the screenshot above, everything happens on one screen but it also tells a story without any narrative. Take the older man on the left screen for example. He’s currently in the past but if you move towards the future, you’ll see he’ll disappear since the old man no longer is part of this world. It’s a great way to tell a story and it only immerses you deeper into the gorgeously crafted world. Not only does it tell a lot of different stories, but it also warns you for the future. If you see houses getting destroyed in the future, you can try to trace what happened by traveling from past to future, trying to change the possible outcome. Cris Tales is filled with these smart puzzles that will make you jump between different times constantly. Although you can’t interact with the times directly, your small companion frog is able to do so but he also changes depending on the time he’s in. He can interact with the times to change the outcome of a certain future. It’s your task to secure a safe future for as many people as possible but be warned that your actions come with consequences. Like I said before, this is something I haven’t seen on this scale in a video game before and it’s only the beginning of the fun.
A battle of ages
Narrative and puzzles are an important part of the game but it doesn’t stop there, as any good JRPG, Cris Tales comes with tons of battles, unlike anything you’ve played before. At first sight, it’s a rather straightforward combat system where you can fight your opponents in turns while using a party with a maximum of three playable characters at once. Just like in the Super Mario RPG games, you attack in turns but can affect the damage you deal by timing your attack precisely, resulting in more damage when executed correctly. The same goes for blocking attacks, if you perform a perfect block you can deflect the damage. This is something we’ve seen in other games before but then the time travel kicks in once more. Even in combat, you can transport your enemies through different times. Facing extremely strong enemies? Why not move them to the future and face off with a weaker older version of that same enemy. Facing an older opponent but you want a true challenge? Well, you’re free to move him to the past if you truly want to do so.
Of course, tactics go a lot further than just this. As demonstrated during our Gamescom session, time travel is also used to take down stronger bosses. For example, we were facing an enemy who used a metal shield we simply couldn’t penetrate. The solution. Use a water attack on the metal shield, move the enemy to the future and let the rust do its work. The water on the metal led to rust over the years, enabling you to inflict damage in the future. The combat of Cris Tales is extremely deep and strategical as this was only the tip of the iceberg. The game is said to house over twenty hours of gameplay and I can’t wait to discover what kind of innovative ways to defeat my enemies the team came up with.
Conclusion:
After seeing Cris Tales in action there’s no doubt about it, this is by far the most innovative game I’ve seen in years. Time travel is far more than just a gimmick here and the way it’s being used is truly unique. The game is filled with amazing details all telling a different story if you pay close attention. If you’re a fan of the RPG genre, this might be a game that will easily leave a deep impression after playing it.
