Cris Tales

I really wish the game was as good as its art, and while I do acknowledge it is an indie studio's first game, that can't save it from its lack of quality. It is a below average JRPG on pretty much every front; the gameplay, the story, the characters are all just not very good. This game is incredibly slow and dull, and it drags for far longer than it should for a complete playthrough. Sadly the selling point of time manipulation largely doesn't matter in this game - I might even go as far to say that it actively proves detrimental in combat, as spending a turn manipulating time is wasting what could be spent having Crisbell cast haste. I love the art, and if the art is appealing enough that you would like to support it, I would recommend getting the game on a sale and just watching the cutscenes on youtube. I wish I had more to say about it, but it's really just a largely forgettable game that seemed to ignore decades of JRPGs to take guidance from.

Hello friends, Today I will review the game Cris Tales. This is a game about time traveling having a female protagonist that travels thru time to change events. The unique aspect of this game is the ability to see past, present, and future all on the same screen. This aspect is not found on every map, but when it does on a map, it is very interesting to see the effects of the players actions in the future. There is also many characters that the player can recruit, and they all have their specialties. One complaint on the forum for this action is that not all characters are available all the time, and the fact the game does not auto level characters that are stored in the players party, so if a player wants to keep everyone leveled up, they will have to grind and switch out characters every so often to keep them up to date and their equipment good. PROS: -The world is very pretty and looks like it was sewed together. - Different locations to explore. - Multiple endings and events. - A coliseum near the end of the game that players can challenge themselves to hard fights. CONS: - Do not alt tab when saving the game. It will crash the game and cause it to BSOD your pc. - There are bugs in the coliseum fights that can freeze your game by game breaking your game.This is very obvious in fight #20 in the coliseum fight. In this fight, i personally fought against the enemies. If you use a AOE spell when a certain enemy in this round is in a shadow in the ground, it will soft lock the game. The worst part of the coliseum, players cannot save it, so if it bugs out, players have to start over from fight #1. - They are very strong messages about class difference with wealth present in this game. It is very on the nose, and many people may not like this message it implies. Do I recommend this game? Yes, as a short rpg. So if your looking for a short rpg, then yes. The time mechanics make it interesting, but some people maybe put off by their on the nose messages in the game. The fact that some characters are not available all the time also is off putting to many people, and the fact the party characters in storage cannot be auto leveled, and must be leveled up manually. This is what i consider a light rpg, as the time to beat it took me under 50 hours. In fact I personally beat it in less than 30 hours. I also tried to complete the coliseum fights, but i could not get past the monsters on fight #25. I left a post about how far i made it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1079830/discussions/0/600784815203077442/

The most beautiful game i've ever played. I think things could be improved in terms of level design of the quests and puzzles, and also the writing at times. But the voice acting is good and i think the game is worth it for the visuals alone.

I like this game, but I don't think I have the heart to give a complete confident recommendation for this game. First off, to give credit where credit is due, the art is very beautiful. It's really colorful and charming to look at, overall great, and easily the best part of this game. Also, the music is pretty good, there were some city themes and area themes that really caught my attention and set a good vibe for whatever each area is going for, and some of the boss themes are pretty fire. For the most part though, I wouldn't say these tracks are anything so absolutely amazing that you would actively look them up and listen to them outside of the game. The voice acting is overall pretty good, not much else to say there. That's basically all I have for positives, the rest of the game very flawed. The story and plot are okay, but there's quite a few plot holes, especially at the late-end of the game, all of which have to do with time travel. Speaking of time travel, this game definitely under-utilizes it. Basically, you can send your little frog buddy named Matias to go into the past or future, but it doesn't have much usage. You do get to hop to the past and future a few times for secret chests with mid rewards (Oh my god, healing potion again? This is the best reward ever!) but the actual amount of times you have to do it in the story you could count on both hands, definitely less than 10 times. Even then, all those times just amount to "send the frog back so you can get a clue or item to solve a puzzle or move story forward" you don't get to do much else. These moments could have been used not only to get little clues, but also give extra time and focus to Matias, as he doesn't do or say much other than at the very very end (for which I won't say because of spoilers), and could have really made him something special other than just a cute frog and the spoilery stuff that happens at the end. There are other time manipulation mechanics though, like being able to reverse specific objects to there past or future states. This is mostly just used for solving puzzles, like fast-forwarding a broken statue so it's gone, which lets you move forward to another path. And without spoiling much, you get a time stop that gets used for nothing other than one time that lets you choose to do something to prevent a bomb from exploding, and another time for a brief conversation with the main villain, BOTH TIMES completely out of your control, and also it's never used again. I also wish that characters in general had more time to become more 3 dimensional. The first 2 unlockable party members, Willhelm and Christopher, are alright with this. Christopher especially goes through a good amount of development and change throughout the story, and I loved how a big part of the first big city's storyline revolved around him, and his family, and it meshed well with the other big conflict and more general conflict that storyline was about. And he continues to do more and go through more throughout games runtime. Willhelm is similar, though not as good imo and his character kinda amounts to a plot twist and exposition dump. The next unlockable characters, Zas, and her sister Kari are the worst though. Other than brief sad backstory, and I mean brief, it sorta feels like they're cliff-notes for potential good characters rather than actually being good characters. Zas is a very happy sorta comedic relief vibe, that also gets kinda annoying at times, and that's basically it. She has this completely optional dialogue where she talks to herself about having to be the happy one, which I thought was interesting but we never get to see that other side of her aside from that. I'm not gonna talk about Kari though, I honestly don't remember that much about her. The biggest flawed aspect of this game though is Definitely the combat, so I'm going to put this into multiple parts. Parry/Deflection: This game takes inspiration from the paper mario games with the parry mechanic. You can press a button right before an enemy attacks hit to take less damage. If you press the button a little early or late, you get a deflect, which only reduces damage a little bit, but if you do it on time, you get a parry, which significantly reduces damage. The first thing is both of these don't feel particularly satisfying, with underwhelming audio feedback, with just one little sound playing. If you use a controller, then it feels a bit better because the controller will vibrate, but if you use keyboard and mouse, its just ehh. Next, the enemies don't move from their positions when they attack, so they just kinda swing or bite at the air, making the characters have some weird visual feedback or them parrying the air. Spells don't do this, and actually go to the characters, but most melee attacks do that, which isn't good because paper mario has the enemies move and attack mario. It's very easy to parry because the border of the screen flashes black every time, so you can just look at the corners of the screen and time it off of that. Although, the borders flash black basically every time an action takes place, making it kinda confusing to time it off of that as some attacks can't be parried at all. Time manipulation: You can have the left side of the screen shift into the past, and the right side into the future, having enemies change into their respective young or old forms. This is interesting early on but becomes absolutely useless and unused later on. You can do some interesting things, like cover metal enemies or enemies with metal shields with a water attack, then send them into the future to have them be covered in rust and have a defense debuff, or plant a poison plant, then send that side into the future so everyone gets hit with aoe poison. This becomes quickly useless though, as some boss fights become immune to the time manipulation, like you literally can't use it at all, or just do nothing, the party members' kits don't do much with it, with only a few little extra effects that don,t do much of anything in practice, or it amounts to a waste of a turn that could be used to give your dps a speed buff to spam the strongest spell or attack they have. For the most part, you aren't at any disadvantage if you just completely ignore it, which sucks as it's what makes Crisbelle so unique other than standard support spells. Fighting: Now to the actual fighting part, it's also kinda just whatever. Very very very standard turn based jrpg combat, with some timing thrown in. Basically, if you press the attack button at the right time, your character will do an extra attack, or if they use a spell, it'll do increased damage. It has similiar audio feedback issues with the parry, although its a bit better. It became pretty repetitive as it went on and overall kinda boring. Aside from that, there's some small things about the game, like having to replay the entire game and do every single sidequest for the true ending, or this one specific staircase before one of the boss fights that wont let you go up it unless you wiggle the joystick around a bit, but the first one isn't an issue if you do everything in the first playthrough. Also the 2 endings you can get that aren't the true ending are both very underwhelming. So yeah, at full price this game ain't worth it, although I got it on sale for $4 and for that price it's okay, but the fact the base price is so high confuses me. It at times gave me the feeling of "when is this gonna be over?" and in general, that's not a feeling your game should give to the player.

[i]Find more of my reviews on my curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45817624-Kasurot-Recommends/]Kasurot Recommends[/url][/i] [h1]Short Summary[/h1] A visually stunning love letter to Colombian culture and JRPGs that stumbles on its own ambition. The "Past, Present, Future" screen mechanic is brilliant, but the combat and pacing drag the experience down. [h3]Who Is This For?[/h3] Patient fans of [b]Paper Mario[/b] combat mechanics who value art direction over gameplay depth. [h3]Who Is This Not For?[/h3] Players who despise backtracking, random encounters, or "timing-based" blocking that feels inconsistent. [quote][h1]VERDICT: SALE DEPENDENT[/h1] [b]Our Valuation: $10.00[/b] The gap between the MSRP ($40) and the quality of life is too wide. However, the Historical Low dips to the price of a coffee (~$4). At that entry point, the art style alone makes it a worthy addition to your backlog.[/quote] [table] [tr] [td][list] [*]Simultaneous Time View [*]Stunning Hand-Drawn Art [*]Creative Boss Solutions [/list][/td] [td][list] [*]Severe Backtracking [*]Repetitive Combat Loop [*]Inconsistent Parry Timing [/list][/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]The Hook[/th] [th]The Loop[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]See Past/Future Live[/td] [td]Turn-Based Time Puzzles[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Core Tone[/th] [th]Market Competitor[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Fairytale Optimism[/td] [td]Child of Light[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Tech State[/th] [th]Value Prop[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Steam Deck Playable[/td] [td]Volatile (Wait for Deep Sale)[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]The Review[/h1] [b]Cris Tales[/b] captivates immediately with its primary mechanic: the screen is split into three triangular slices, showing the Past, Present, and Future simultaneously. This is not just a visual gimmick; it allows you to manipulate the world in real-time. You can plant a seed in the past, water it in the present, and climb the resulting tree in the future—all without a loading screen. It is a brilliant, scholarly approach to puzzle-solving that makes the world feel dynamic and consequential. The aesthetic wrapper is equally impressive, drawing heavy inspiration from Colombian architecture and biodiversity. The hand-drawn 2D assets are vibrant and distinct, giving the game a storybook quality that rivals [b]Child of Light[/b]. Combat attempts to marry this style with [b]Paper Mario[/b] mechanics, requiring timed button presses to parry attacks or increase damage. When it works, you feel like a tactician, soaking enemies with water in the present and sending them to the future to rust their armor instantly. However, the novelty wears off long before the 25-hour runtime concludes. The combat system stops evolving halfway through, devolving into a repetitive cycle of random encounters that lack the strategic depth of the bosses. Worse, the game relies heavily on backtracking to pad its length. You will walk through the same beautiful environments until they become tedious corridors, a problem exacerbated by a lack of fast travel options in the early game. Ultimately, this is a case of style over substance. The asking price of $40 suggests a polished, AAA-adjacent experience, but the friction in movement and combat reveals its indie limitations. Do not pay full price for the art alone. When this title drops to the $5-$10 range, it becomes a charming, low-risk experiment that is easy to forgive for its flaws.

It's a cute game, like playing through a storybook. Fans of old-school turn-based JRPGs should keep an eye out for sales. At the right price, it's totally worth playing.

Jueguenlo

Top. Tragam uma tradução pt-br, nós adoramos jogos assim ❤️

Cris Tales is one of those rare RPGs that immediately distinguishes itself not through scale or spectacle, but through a clear artistic vision and a mechanical idea that feels genuinely fresh within a genre often defined by tradition. Developed by Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK, the game presents itself as a modern homage to classic JRPGs while attempting to weave in a more interactive relationship with time itself. From the outset, it leans heavily into a storybook aesthetic and a structure that echoes genre greats, but what keeps it engaging is how it frames its entire experience around the concept of seeing, influencing, and sometimes being burdened by the consequences of time. At the center of the narrative is Crisbell, a young orphan who awakens to her role as a Time Mage and is quickly pulled into a larger conflict threatening the world of Crystallis. The story unfolds in a fairly traditional arc—gather allies, confront a looming evil, uncover deeper truths—but it is filtered through a thematic lens focused on causality and responsibility. The game frequently asks the player to make decisions that shape the future of towns and characters, and while these choices are not always as deeply branching as they initially appear, they do create a persistent sense that your actions carry weight. The writing strikes a balance between earnest and familiar, occasionally predictable but consistently sincere, and the supporting cast adds personality even if some characters fall into recognizable archetypes. The defining feature of Cris Tales is its simultaneous display of past, present, and future, a mechanic that is seamlessly integrated into both exploration and combat. As you move through towns, the screen is split into three temporal perspectives, allowing you to instantly observe how environments and characters change over time. This system is more than a visual novelty—it becomes a puzzle-solving tool and a narrative device, letting players directly intervene in timelines. You might plant a seed in the present and watch it bloom instantly in the future, or choose whether to repair a structure and see the long-term consequences unfold before your eyes. It creates a constant dialogue between player action and world reaction, reinforcing the game’s central theme in a way that feels intuitive and immersive. Combat builds on this idea by allowing enemies to be manipulated across time, introducing strategic layers that go beyond standard turn-based encounters. You can send enemies into the past to weaken them or push them into the future to exploit status effects, such as accelerating poison or decay. Combined with timed button presses for attacks and defense, the system encourages active participation and rewards precision. There are flashes of brilliance in how these mechanics interact, especially in boss encounters where understanding temporal shifts becomes essential. However, the system doesn’t always expand in complexity as the game progresses, and after several hours, battles can begin to feel repetitive. The limited variety in enemy behaviors and a somewhat conservative approach to evolving mechanics hold back what could have been a truly groundbreaking combat system. Visually, Cris Tales is easily one of the most memorable RPGs in recent years. Its hand-drawn art style is bold and expressive, resembling stained glass brought to life with vibrant colors and exaggerated forms. Each region feels distinct, drawing inspiration from various real-world cultures, particularly Latin American influences that give the world a unique identity rarely seen in mainstream JRPGs. The environments are layered with detail, and the shifting timelines create a dynamic visual experience that constantly changes how you perceive the same space. Character designs are equally striking, though sometimes the stylization can make depth perception slightly awkward during navigation. The soundtrack complements the visuals with a gentle, melodic presence that supports the game’s emotional tone without overpowering it, even if it doesn’t leave a lasting impression. Despite its creativity, Cris Tales struggles with pacing and structural issues that occasionally disrupt its flow. Backtracking between areas, uneven difficulty spikes, and moments that require grinding can slow the momentum, particularly in the mid to late game. Load times and minor technical hiccups, depending on the platform, can also chip away at immersion. More notably, while the game emphasizes choice and consequence, not all decisions feel equally meaningful, and some outcomes can seem more cosmetic than transformative. There’s a sense that the game reaches for something deeper than it ultimately delivers, especially when it comes to branching narratives and long-term impact. Even with these shortcomings, Cris Tales remains a compelling and heartfelt RPG that succeeds in carving out its own identity. It may not fully realize the potential of its time-based systems or narrative ambition, but it offers enough originality, charm, and visual distinction to stand out in a crowded genre. For players who appreciate experimental twists on classic JRPG foundations, it provides a memorable journey that is as much about its ideas as it is about its execution. It’s a game that feels crafted with genuine care and artistic intent, even when its systems don’t entirely keep pace with its imagination. Rating: 7/10

Este juego es una mierda, lo he jugado con un amigo y si no fuera por la cerveza y el autismo no jugamos ni dos roñosas horas, hemos tardado dos años pico en terminarlo, Si lo vas a jugar con amigos y cerveza adelante, si quieres vivir una experiencia soporífera este es tu juego. Beso