Cross Edge Retro Review – A Faulty Fusion

Every once in a while, maybe once or twice a generation, a game comes along that’s such a magnificently obscure mixture of ideas that only our Japanese friends could have thought it up. Cross Edge is precisely this, a cross-over game, a collaboration of retired, niche and unreleased games crammed together in one big 2D JRPG package. So, let’s break things down into manageable chunks so we can get our heads around it all.

Introduction 

Cross Edge was developed by Idea Factory, with characters from games by Capcom, Nippon Ichi Software, Namco Bandai, and Gust Corporation. These games include Darkstalkers, Disgaea, Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia, Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires, Blazing Souls, Atelier Marie, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy and also a Tekken cameo (phew). The player can also dress the female characters in a variety of additional costumes called ‘Forms’ because, you know, fan service.

Story

The outspoken York Neely is our main hero. Oddly, his name was changed and curiously Americanised when compared to the original Japanese release where he’s known as Yūto Kannagi. He is a childhood friend of Miko and, thanks to her, a straight-A student, albeit a cocky one. York once studied jujitsu, however he began to tire of ‘obsolete’ fighting styles and fused it with modern gunplay, complete with over-sized pistols.

Mikoto Aiba is our main heroine, however, again, her first name is shortened to Miko in the North American/International versions. She lives with York since her parents died, after which she gained the temporary ability to see spirits, but it soon faded. Miko is a kind-hearted Japanese girl, and also skilled in martial arts, fighting with a naginata.

The story begins with the two friends being suddenly dragged into a mysterious world which is formed from pieces of other worlds. There, they are met by a mysterious girl named May and buxom, flirtatious, fan-favourite Morrigan Aensland from the Darkstalkers series.

The four learn that this unstable new pocket dimension in which they find themselves was formed by a merger of components from the human world, the fantasy world and the demon world which are bound by trapped souls. May has the ability to release these souls and thus weaken the stability of this world, potentially to the point where they may be set free, though a shadowy army of villains blocks their way at every turn.

Gameplay 

The goal of the game is to release souls. You can find and collect souls by searching around area maps. Exposure to souls can grant players items or unlock events. Along with soul related events, maps will also point players to other helpful locations such as event points; places at which other events may occur, and save points where you can buy, sell and trade found items as well as save your progress.

Cross Edge is a traditional 2D JRPG complete with a world map, random turn-based battles, and item creation and combination using alchemy. Whilst this may sound like a generic JRPG title with a crossover twist, the game has major flaws which spoil this formula, the first of which is the overall game flow. Whilst it’s fun to recruit new party members by finding them wandering the wastes, coming to their aid or defeating them in combat to earn their allegiance, it’s just not really interesting enough to keep you playing until the end.

The combat slows your progress considerably with frequent random battles, which play out a lot like 2006’s Enchanted Arms, with movement permitted along a small number of grid squares to allow access to slightly more distant enemies, only in 2D and thus a fixed camera angle. Success in these battles is based on the ability to string together specific moves into chain attack sequences, which in turn unlock even stronger combinations when successful.

Special attacks require you to place specific characters in your party to unlock the most effective combinations, which takes the fun out of things by breaking up your custom party and forcing you to play as certain characters, simply to survive battles. Loyalists who would prefer to keep York, Miko and Morrigan in their party, for example, will quickly find themselves getting their party wiped out, as this team simply lacks any raw power from their special attacks. There is a huge roster of characters to recruit, yet it feels like you’re penalised for using many of them.

Graphics/Sound

Sadly, one of the biggestest disappointments with Cross Edge is its visuals. The title itself may be on a HD-capable system but the graphics are still very much stuck in the past. The graphics, as far as the character models and backgrounds are concerned, would be more appropriate on PSOne. I will say that the still animation images used in much of the dialogue scenes are nicely done, but that’s the only highlight worth mentioning. The minimalist animations are generally a bit of a let down too.

Unlike the visuals, Cross Edge’s sound is one of its better features. The opening animation featuring the song ‘Blade of Tears’ by Haruka Shimotsuki is a nice touch, while the background music heard during fights is upbeat and gets you ready for the tension of battle. You’ve also got a solid English dub too which is always a welcome feature in lower-budget Japanese games, and it’s delivered well here.

Conclusion

Enemies, which you’ll soon learn, pack a serious punch, and whilst players can increase their characters’ stats and abilities by acquiring better equipment or level grinding, this does very little to help. Critical hits from even minor enemies can wipe out entire parties, and so success in battle relies almost entirely on luck rather than skill.

You could always download some top-tier equipment from the PlayStation Store to give you an edge in battle, but even this will only get you about half-way through the game before the pressure returns, and it’s at this point that you’ll realise that Cross Edge isn’t ‘too hard’, it’s imbalanced to the point of being broken, and worse still, it’s just not much fun.

Any sense of enjoyment or reward comes from recruiting new characters into your party, though the feeling of nostalgia is lost when recruiting characters from games previously unreleased in the west. It’s briefly interesting, but only the Darkstalkers characters (and possibly Etna from Disgaea) will appeal to most western players. This goes a long way in proving the point (aided by 2011’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds) that the Darkstalkers franchise is long overdue a true, next-gen revival.

So, as pleasing as it is to see Morrigan, Lilith, Felicia and Demitri from Darkstalkers all over again, it’s a real shame that the game itself is simply unplayable. Shoddy, unbalanced combat, an overstretched storyline, repetitive gameplay and slow pacing are more than enough to condemn the game, but when combined with visuals that look like an upscaled Mega Drive game, Cross Edge is a bit of a disaster.