Cris Tales is a beautiful rendition of the classic JRPG formula with unique time travelling mechanics and a distinctly nostalgic hand drawn art style. Set in a magical world resonating with vibrant colours and intricate charm throughout, Is this underdog worth your time?

Developers: Dreams Uncorporated, SYCK

Publisher: Modus Games

Released on: 20 July 2021

Reviewed on: PS5

Review code provided

“Cris Tales is a gorgeous, indie love letter to classic JRPGs with a new perspective. Peer into the past, act in the present, and watch as your choices dynamically change the future — all on one screen as you play! Beautifully hand-drawn 2D animations bring to life a world where your choices will change both the present and the future across more than 20 hours of gameplay.” - ModusGames

Let’s begin by discussing the very unique time travel mechanic within its turn based combat, essentially you have the ability to move enemies into the past, present or future. The game is centred around this mechanic so it's a good idea to utilise it the best you can, for instance you’d apply a status effect like poison to an enemy in the present and send them to the future dealing seemingly years of accumulated damage in one shot. However it can also be used in reverse, if you send an enemy into the future it can actually buff them making them a lot stronger so be careful because the tables can turn very quickly if you aren’t paying attention. Also If you time a button press correctly upon inflicting or taking damage you’ll either deal higher damage or block the oncoming attack, you’ll still take damage from blocking but at a highly reduced rate.

This time based mechanic is also used around the world you’ll be exploring, in towns you can see the past present and the future simultaneously which is actually one of my favourite aspects to this game. It’s very interesting seeing the depressing future as you run around town and how things came to be through small unique details. It’s impressive to think how much care has gone into detailing multiple versions of the same area with such a unique gameplay premise, it’s safe to say the risk they took paid off resulting in a well executed time travel based game.

You can also use your time travelling, eloquently British frog companion Matias to jump into different time eras and interact with the world around you, often you’ll need to do this to progress anyway so it’s not something you’re going to miss out on. It’s a welcome inclusion overall helping to break away from any tedium you might feel while exploring a town adding a puzzle element into the mix. Don’t worry though if you ever find yourself unsure about how to progress there’s a hint button that’ll help you find your way, after all there’s no map so you might find yourself relying on this from time to time.

The art direction for this game is so unique trying to put it into words might not do it the justice it deserves, overall it’s very reminiscent of a cartoon called: Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends which aired on Cartoon Network. The world is bursting with colour and individuality, each character model feeling uniquely personalised it’s almost hard not to stop and stare, from the gorgeous backdrops to the monumental set pieces I really couldn’t get enough. The battle UI and menus screen are both stylised, simple and consistent, you won’t find yourself feeling lost or overwhelmed in them. The pre-rendered animated cutscenes are phenomenal making the story segments easily digestible and very enjoyable to watch, with so much personality crammed into each frame, it’s amazing how they’ve got characters to emote with such passion everything just feels so stylised and incredibly artistic.

My only real issues came from the difficulty spikes, pacing and rate of random encounters. The game has three distinct gameplay formats; towns, dungeon areas and the overworld. Although battles aren’t initiated in towns or the overworld they’re almost constant in the dungeon areas making them a pain to navigate, the battles themselves can be quite punishing if you aren’t playing how the game is intended to be played, properly utilising and exploiting the time travel mechanics is key to survival. Although, this does add a nice challenge to the game enough to keep you engaged and having to think about the next battle pre-emptively.

The game regularly gives you choices that you’ll have to make that’ll have you questioning your morality and the ethical repercussions of your decisions. It can sometimes feel like a utilitarian nightmare but in a good way, it’s very thought provoking, having to decide a fate and watch it play out is very enjoyable.

Crissbell is an orphan that stumbles upon her newly found power of being able to wield “Time Magic” becoming a “time mage” while making friends and going on a grand adventure across the kingdoms. To avoid spoilers I won’t directly address the story but what I can stay is that it’s a lovingly crafted experience with multiple endings adding to the games replayability, with an engaging cast of characters and surprisingly dark subject matter don’t let the cartoon aesthetic fool you, this game is very well suited for mature players.

The overall length of the game will vary based on skill but it’s suggested that the average player will beat it roughly between 30-40 hours for the story and 40+ hours for a completionist playthrough. For me it took about 28 hours for the story to reach a conclusion, I’m sure that could have easily been extended for people less familiar with turn based combat.

This has such a wonderful soundtrack, so many emotive tracks that really pay homage to classic JRPGs with triumphant battle music and incredibly uplifting fantasy themed melodic scores, it’s no surprise that the quality really caught me off guard. The sound effects used throughout the game are very crisp and clear, I can’t say I ever felt like they sounded out of place. The Voice Acting is good and plentiful with each character's voice perfectly complimenting the cartoon aesthetic, often at times you’ll feel as if you're watching a cartoon rather than playing a game which in this case is a good thing.

As for performance I played it on a PlayStation 5 which delivered a pretty sturdy 60fps, certain areas did cause the frame rate to drop but nothing drastic and although noticeable with the games overall aesthetic I couldn’t say it ever pulled me out of the immersion. It would have been nice if they had included some form of haptic feedback or controller vibration in the battles but that’s just a small complaint and I don’t think it detracts from the experience as a whole anyway.

Conclusion

Although I’m not a huge fan of Indie games, I was very excited for this release, the personalised charm of the world and enjoyable battle system won me over instantly. It’s not often we witness a game with this level of individuality, it really sets itself apart and shows that games can still introduce us to new ideas and concepts. I can fully recommend picking up a copy and I hope it’s as memorable for you as it was for me, I think it’s about time we deserved such a truly unique experience. I’d consider this a not so hidden gem.