Cross Edge Review

Cross Edge (PS3 Only)

Cross Edge is a JRPG mashup that involves the Disgaea, Darkstalkers, Spectral Souls, Atelier Marie, Mana Khemia and Air Tonelico franchises. This game originally came out in Japan nearly a year ago and I’ve been patiently waiting ever since for someone to port it. But, should I be thankful that NIS America brought this game stateside?

Graphics

This is where most reviewers will hammer the game, just like they did with Disgaea 3. Yes, the graphics are simple – mostly 2D sprites that remind me of the SNES or PSX days. So what? This game isn’t about graphics, it’s about gameplay! To me, the graphics bring back a very sweet nostalgia. Furthermore, the spells, elemental attacks and EX skills that you can pull off (similar to limit break or overdrive in Final Fantasy titles) are very flashy and smooth. The EX skills will encompass the entire screen in a spectacular fluid, flashy, colorful display.

One issue with the game is that there are moments of slow down; especially when you enter into battle (the first few times I thought the game had frozen). Honestly, there is absolutely no reason why this should happen, and yes, I even installed the game. This could have easily been a PSP or PS2 title, so to come to the PS3, there shouldn’t been in graphical/gameplay issues/glitches.

- 14/20Sound

The voiceovers can be put to English or Japanese. Unlike some ported titles, I found the English voiceovers to be great. The music in the game is excellent, as well.

- 17/20Story

The main three characters are original creations for Cross Edge. The beginning of the game starts off with two of the main characters awaking in an area that they’ve never been before. After a battle, you run into one of the characters from one of the series mentioned above (I’ll let you find out who, but it’s my favorite character in the game) and you decide to look for the missing third main character. Later on, you run into a few other characters, all of which really have no idea where they are, and then you eventually find out that the Fantasy World, Demon World and Earth have all been thrown into an apocalyptic event.

Basically, it’s up to you and your crew to stop the approaching catastrophe from happening and to return everyone and misplaced souls to their rightful world. The story is written very well and the voiceovers make it all the better.

- 18/20Gameplay

This game plays out like your standard RPG, but with a twist. You can place up to 4 characters into battle on a 4 x 3 grid in order to attack. You have a counter that ticks down. Each of the character’s attacks cost AP, as long as they have AP they can use skills and attack until the counter reaches zero and your turn is over. The game doesn’t really do a good job at running you through its unconventional and unintuitive battle system and menu structure. I found myself going to the internet and message boards for help on how to play the game. The instructions help a little bit, but basically you just have to play the game for a long, long time to get use to everything. To get the “True Ending” you will have to play through the game on the Hard difficulty setting.

- 12/20Replayability

This game offers a New Game+ option that will allow you to bring a certain amount of stuff over from your previous game, depending on what difficulty you played on. There are a lot of different characters to use and level up and unlock skills and costumes, too. As far as replayability goes, this title is pretty solid.

- 18/20
Conclusion

Cross Edge is a huge fan service product that involves many notable franchises. It has a very unique battle structure, which in some ways hurts it. The sound is good, but the graphics and gameplay issues hinder this title greatly. I think this title may become rare in the future (my GameaStop only got my reserved copy and one other copy for sale), so its value could increase. Honestly, it’s up to you whether or not to buy this game. It has its moments of cool and awesomeness, but it definitely has its frustrating moments, too.

Final Score

- 79/100

You can grab a copy of Cross Edge for the PS3 below.