What’s up Nerds!
As soomeone who doesn’t have all of the coins to buy every single game I’ve been enjoying the demos ono the Nintendo Switch. I’ve played a few demos of other games but so far my favoirtie has been Cris Tales. So let’s get into the demo review!
Story
We start the story in a fierce battle that doubles as the tutorial. Once you see that you won’t will the fight the story really stars in Narim Town. A little frog takes a rose that you (Crisbell) are trying to pick. Your first task is to try to find the frog that stole your rose. As you go through town you see lots of different characters from kids to the mayor and other business owners. We see our first bit of political conflict as the farmers are disputing with how the mayor is more concerned with “the future” than dealing with the issues at hand, like goblin raiding parties destroying the farms. Instead of providing aid, the mayor urges the farmers to sell their lands in order to not have to “deal the with the raids. Once you find the rose in the cathedral you wee on the stained glass Her grace which look at lot like Crisbell. That is when you power is awakened and you can move between the past, present, and future. And you gain a frog companion named Matias. This power is called the Crystals of Time. To sum up now that you have the ability to see a possible future you can used the powers to aid you in battle. This may help turn the battle in your favor and help the lives of those around you.
Music
The music is a mixture of rock and fantasy. There is a strong fantastical melody with a strong drum feature that really drives the beat. The melody is lead by piano first and then switches to violins/string section. There’s also a nice guitar lead that takes over the melody for a bit. All while the violins support. you can hear three separate sections during the fighting theme. As we move to the town, the music sounds more majestic. There are prominent horns with a trumpet led melody with support from the string section. There are swells and falls that really round out the sound.
The cathedral has a similar rendition of the opening theme. This is probably the song that represents the entire game. it of course has the low and high droning of a choir. Think of like Catholic hymns that had sustained notes. This song is also led by piano with supportive strings. There’s also the light dings of a xylophone that help emphasize notes of the melody.
Characters
I like how there’s a running theme of main characters having Cris in their names. There’s an interesting twin villain pair that you might at the beginning of the demo. They are very powerful which causes you to go back in time. Their theme is related to volcanoes and fire. A we move into the story and the town we get to see the other girls who look like Crisbell and Mother Superior. As I played the demo, I got a sense that Crisbell is a dependable person. She’s not too thrilled to have these powers thrust upon her, but she handles it well. She’s also very caring of the people in the town. It was hard for her to decide which to save either the Apothecary or the Miller’s home. Which to be honest that would be difficult to decide. She also doesn’t hesitate to rush into battle if that means stopping harm or saving someone. She’s an all around good protagonist. I mentioned the Volcanic Twins but because I’m only playing the demo, we have no clue who The Empress of Time is, the real antagonist. But it seem she may have time wielding powers like Crisbell or may possibly be a Time Mage as well. The other characters like Cristopher and Wilhelm also seem to be fleshed out characters I wish we had more time to learn about their backgrounds but the demo is only so long.
Animation/Design
There is a mixture of bright and subdued colors. Depending on the time period, there’s a distinctive change in how the world looks as Crisbell travels from the past to present to future. All the colors go well with the theme of each section as well. I like the look of the Victory screen. The characters are in dynamic poses showcasing their strength or weapon of choice. The loading screen is also very simple just a white background with a little Crisbell running in the bottom right corner. I also appreciate that any dialog that happens during the battles happens at the bottom of the screen not blocking anything we need to be aware of like their heath bars or the enemy. During the story mode, I quite like the dialog screens. The character is larger and the dialog is the prominent item on the screen. I like that you don’t have to squint or sit very close in order to read what’s happening. There are a lot of games that make this feature difficult to enjoy because you spend a lot of the time trying to figure out what’s being said.
Moving on to character design, i love the colors chosen to represent Mother superior and the other orphans. There are greens, mustard yellow, and various blue hues. These colors are represented in the cathedral as well. The world outside of town looks like a mixture of patchwork and Sleeping Beauty. Now that I think about it, the aesthetic of this world is giving me strong Sleeping Beauty vibes. Loved when she went to retrieve the sword she got a whole costume change as well. I love her hair in the up do with the long braid and with her crown-like headband. Crisbell keeps her signature flower as well in the costume change.
Game Mechanics
Starts with a tutorial of the fighting mechanism. It is a turn-based attack system so very similar to the Final Fantasy series. There are simple instructions and guidance shown before you start fighting. I like that it’s clear and not convoluted. Once you are in the town we are mainly using dialog options. The game is very smooth as you move Crisbell from place to place. There’s no lag and you can change directions easily as well. I also like that if you don’t want to listen to the conversations you can sped through it without them having to finishing. I think the game could have an auto-play option so you could just listen to the conversations, but it’s not that tiring tapping through it. As you obtained the Cystals of Time a large triangle will surround you and you can see all three (past, present, future) at once. As you move the triangle will move and you can see how the town was undeveloped and then left to rot away. When you leave the town you will see areas you can travel too.
Overall I think this is going to be a great game. I actually am planning on buying for myself as a gift. I love the way it looks, the music, and the story is pretty interesting too. I am also intrigued by Crisbell’s powers. Being able to move back and forth through time even during battles seems like a handy power to have. I look forward to diving into the story more and completing the game.
Have you guys played Crisbell? If so let me know in the comments! And keep nerding out!
