Cris Tales

Cris Tales doesn’t quite deliver on its clever premise or its chrono-combat. There’s no denying the passion and talent of the developers, however, manifested in stunning visuals and a wonderful cast. Cris Tales will definitely ostracize some players, but those with a little patience may see past its flaws to embrace its heartfelt homage to gaming’s bygone era.

As attractive and thankfully successful its visual style and aesthetic has remained over the course of its total run-time. Both the design and presentation of its world, its setting and even its character design alike, bringing a genuine flair that allows the game to stand out in that regard. But the lack of similarly-lofty ambition and care with its general journey — as well as some occasional annoyances with its combat — do eventually drain some of the deserved joy out of one’s experience.

Cris Tales has a lot of positive elements but they start to fall apart at the end. Much of the title's end game could've been stripped down and the game would've benefited from this. The great cast of characters, visual design, and the promising combat system have a lot of positive features. It seems that towards the end the developers decided to try and extend the game's life by adding unnecessary tasks.

Overall, Cris Tales is a beautiful indie RPG that is held back by various issues, keeping it from being one of the greats. Incredible story, filled with exciting characters, areas and interesting time powers, makes it worth the play. However, held back by an uninteresting battle system that becomes stale and too easy, a horrible third act of the game slows it down to a crawl.

Maybe Cris Tales has an audience among very small children but in almost every case you’d be better off digging up an old copy of Chrono Trigger. That said, this is Dreams Uncorporated’s first game, and while I'd hardly call Cris Tales a good game, it shows considerable promise in visual flair if nothing else. I’ll be curious to see where they go from here.

Honestly, despite its flaws, I still enjoyed my time with Cris Tales. There are seeds of a fantastic game in here, but sadly none of them were able to fully blossom. I would really love to see a sequel where they expand upon what they’ve built already, because the idea of defeating your enemies using time magic along with other spells is wonderful. It lends itself to a lot of creative battles if explored in more depth. As it stands, Cris Tales is a fun time, even if it never realizes its true potential.