Fairs such as E3 and Gamescom are certainly ideal events to try out the games expected by the general public, but they are also opportunities (for those who know how to seize them) to get in touch with "minor" titles, whether indie or simply less favored in terms of budget. and media exposure. Among the various games of this genre tested at the recent Gamescom 2019 certainly Cris Tales is among those that most impressed us and put us a great desire to play the full version as soon as possible. But let's go in order, because the presentation of this little gem deserves a couple of your minutes.
Presented for the first time on the occasion of the PC Gaming Show of the last E3 2019 by the publisher Modus Games, Cris Tales is the creature of the Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK studios, both located in Colombia and directed by Carlos Rocha Silva. It is a title that is openly inspired by classic JRPG Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Valkyrie Profile, Bravely Default and Persona 5; from some of these it takes inspiration for the game mechanics, for others for the style. What we saw during its presentation is however enough to be able to say that it is not a mere clone, but a title with excellent ideas and its own identity.
We can already notice the first sign of atypicality from the setting and the graphic style. Cris Tales is set in the kingdom of Crystallis, a fantasy setting heavily inspired by Colombia. The developers paused to describe how the style of the characters' clothing and architecture is strongly influenced by the folklore of their country of origin. The most striking examples are the protagonist's clothing and one of the very first buildings we will visit in the game: the Cathedral of Crystallis, inspired by the Las Lajas sanctuary in neo-Gothic style. The graphics are totally hand-drawn, even where the transition effects would suggest a three-dimensional environment, with a very particular fairy-tale visual style with bright colors that change dominance depending on the place and context. The few backing tracks look really good, and were created by Norihiko Hibino (who has already contributed to the soundtracks of several chapters of Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, Bayonetta etc.) and Com_poser, an emerging composer quite well known in the Super Mario Maker community.
The Colombian cultural identity of the authors is veiled even in the title of the game with a play on words between English and Spanish: by combining the two words of the title we obtain “cristales” which means “crystals”. These in fact will be a central element in the gameplay. But let's go in order.
The protagonist of Cris Tales is Crisbell, a girl from the city of Narim in the kingdom of Crystallis that one day she discovers that she is a Time Mage capable of seeing past, present and future at the same time of places and people. This gift is reported to the player by dividing the screen into three sections that move with the protagonist and show the various changes of the elements around her: the central part is that of the present in which Crisbell exists and moves, on the left we see a glimpse of the past and on the right of the future. For example, if we see a girl in the middle section, we just need to move to see her in her youth or in her adult years. Unfortunately, the future of the kingdom does not look very bright, and it will be up to us to do something to avoid this grim fate.
Luckily he will be alongside Crisbell Matias, a talking frog who will guide her on her journey and in the discovery of her powers. The girl will also be able to send Matias into the past and into the future to interact with the timelines and take advantage of them in trying to change events.
In the demo this mechanic was shown to us with a short quest in which we had to prevent two houses in the city of Narim from rotting due to a plague affecting the buildings. To do this, we warned the carpenter of the danger, but he is a tired and disillusioned man, and the only way to put him in a position to work is to give him a tonic that only the pharmacist in town can pack. This in turn has a problem: it cannot prepare the tonic because the bottle of a toxin placed next to that of the ingredients has inexplicably lost its label, and now it can no longer distinguish them. By visualizing the bottles in the past we can therefore see which of the two is the toxin, and talking in the present with some children we discover that it was they who stole the label, which we immediately have to give back. After telling the pharmacist everything, she tells us that to prepare the tonic she needs a particular fruit that only the seeds have. We then plant the seeds, and in the future they have already become a fruiting tree; we just have to send Matias to the future, pick some fruit and bring it back to the present and that's it. The pharmacist then gives us the tonic to give to the carpenter, but he tells us that he can only repair one of the houses in the paricolo. We will therefore have to choose whether to save the pharmacist's home or that of a family who has just had a baby, a difficult choice that will have consequences that cannot be changed.
The developers have confirmed to us that the storyline of Cris Tales will have different ramifications depending on our choices, and although about 20-30 hours are enough to finish a run, the different courses will add a considerable replay value.
Crisbell's particular ability, however, is not only linked to exploration, but it can also be used in combat, and this is where things get really interesting. In the second part of the demo the game's authors showed us the dynamics of the battles, which as per tradition of the genre will take place in turns. From a menu, whose radial interface is clearly reminiscent of the stylizations of Persona 5, we can choose whether to physically attack or use magical abilities that consume mana. In a very similar way to titles like Super Mario RPG or the various Mario & Luigi we will be able to interact with the action with the timely pressing of a button; by pressing it at the right moment of the attack we can make it critical, and in defense by pressing it at the moment of impact we can reduce the damage or even deflect it.
What will really make a difference is Crisbell's ability to manipulate time. The young heroine will be able to send her opponents to the past or the future at the cost of special Crystal Points. This alone will determine differences in the course of the fight. By sending creatures or people back in time, for example, they will find themselves younger, and possibly less strong; this obviously will depend on the type of opponents. Combining this ability with certain altered states will make things even more complex. For example, we can poison an opponent and send him to the future to instantly exhaust all his HP.
During the presentation Crisbell and his ally Christopher faced two young twin soldiers with huge shields as bosses; any physical blows delivered were nullified by their metallic defense, and the situation seemed to be turning for the worse. To defeat them, Christopher cast a water element spell on them that inflicted moisture status, then Crisbell sent them into the future; in this way the sisters have become stronger, but in the meantime their shield has rusted and broken, finally making them vulnerable to physical attacks.
During the battles of Cris Tales we will therefore have to pay attention to the pros and cons of sending our opponents back or forward in time and have a clear and functional strategy. The writers also told us that other Time Mages with different abilities will join our party, and that the temporal alterations can also be used to manipulate the turns of the battle. For example, a badly wounded ally can be "healed" by sending them back in time to a turn prior to the hit.
The gameplay dynamics of Cris Tales promise to be really complex and interesting, and promise to delight lovers of reasoned role-playing games that reward intuition and tactics. If we add to this the beauty of his visual style you will understand why we see great potential in the title of Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK, which very positively reminded us in some way of the enchanting Child of Light, while differing greatly in dynamics.
L'uscita di Cris Tales is scheduled for a generic 2020 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC. A demo of the first 40 minutes is available on Steam, which we highly recommend you try.
