Cris Tales is a JRPG, but it could very well be considered a CRPG, given it was developed by Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK, two independent Colombian teams. Definitions aside, the title is strongly inspired by the historic genre of video games that emerged in the land of the rising sun from the 1980s and defined a generation of gamers, including, perhaps, the creators of Cris Tales. A nostalgic love song to a genre that was, and remains, albeit somewhat aged in some of its components, but the Latin American developers have nonetheless sought to enrich and refresh the formula with some interesting and modern game design choices, while others...
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Meet Crisbell
Crisbell is a young orphan who spends her days cultivating roses in the orphanage of Narim, under the attentive but authoritative gaze of the Superior Mother. Her life is, however, disrupted by an encounter with a mysterious orange frog, Mathias, who unwittingly leads her to the Cathedral of the City, where the sweet Crisbell finally discovers her true nature: she is a time mage, capable of seeing the past, present, and future. We are mere minutes into the game, and the core mechanic of Cris Tales is revealed: the screen splits into three, with the center fixed on Crisbell and her present, the left side showing the past flowing, and the right side displaying the future.
We can therefore see, simply by moving through the game world, the story and fate not only of the city’s buildings, but also of its inhabitants. The sight of her home, the orphanage, destroyed and in ruins, deeply disturbs Crisbell, and so Mathias decides to accompany her to another time mage, Willhelm, to learn how to control and best utilise her power. Before even returning to town, we discover that the outskirts of Narim are under attack by goblin raiders: it’s time to fight. The powerful Empress of Time and her forces threaten to unleash a cataclysm that will destroy Crystallis and the other four kingdoms of the region, and it is up to the young Crisbell to prevent this from happening.
A fable poised between past and future
Telling you more about the story in Cris Tales would essentially ruin your experience irreparably, so we’ll stick to the above premises. Premises of a game that, during the first few hours which serve as a tutorial, definitely delivers its best: a compelling narrative, occasionally told a bit too hurriedly, but which certainly pushes the player to continue to uncover its twists; an innovative time-loop management mechanic that’s also used during turn-based battles; a top-tier artistic presentation. Unfortunately, after the magic of those first hours fades, the title struggles to keep up with the promises it initially “tricked” us into believing, but let’s proceed in order.
We’re told that our choices — and the completion of certain side missions — will influence the unfolding of events, and consequently the story’s progression. In reality, time’s flow remains always and solely something to admire for its causes and effects, without ever being able to interact with it directly. Furthermore, for completionists , this means more than one playthrough is required to complete the game at 100%, since certain choices you make will block others. If we assume that, on average, finishing Cris Tales takes roughly thirty hours, completing it at 100% will require at least fifty.
Initially, the time-loop gimmick is presented to us as an incredible tool available during battles: using Christopher’s Water Bubble magic, we can soak the enemy and send them into the future via Crisbell, where they will be rusted and suffer a significant reduction in defence stats. Or, by poisoning with Willhelm’s Yucata, shifting the opponent into the future will cause them to take all progressive poison damage at once. Interesting mechanics and certainly innovative, but over time they become superfluous and excessively “mechanical”, since direct attacks or the use of spells often prove more efficient. But we’ll discuss battles in the next chapter.
The only element that remains consistently at a high level is the visual/audio experience: the outfits with which Cris Tales presents itself on screen are extremely enjoyable and inspired, a sort of moving video game painting. Unfortunately, however, exploring it requires a considerable effort of patience, given the depressing slowness with which Cris moves through the environments. It would have been genuinely appreciated a kind of running or faster movement, especially given the absence of a fast travel mechanic. Regarding the audio aspect, the game has been fully voiced, even for secondary dialogue, a truly massive undertaking that will have undoubtedly drained much of the budget. Regrettably, it seems as if the team from Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK have done everything possible to make Cris Tales appear like a triple-A title, forgetting, however, the equal importance of gameplay in the evaluation of a title’s quality.
Old-school battles
We now turn to the most “succulent” component: the combat. Cris Tales takes the now well-worn turn-based battle system and adds a few twists to “refresh” the genre a little. During the fights, our party of three members will be positioned at the center of the screen, while enemies will be arranged to the left and right. Crisbell will therefore be able to send the enemies on the left back into the past and shift those on the right into the future, causing structural changes: each monster, in fact, possesses three distinct “stages” (young, adult, old), which also affect their stats. Pushing an old monster further into the future or a young one further into the past will cause damage, for having surpassed the biological limits of time.
Beyond the abilities of the time crystals, every party member also possesses a melee weapon and a spell repertoire. Although there are no explicit roles, it will be immediately clear who will serve as the healer, who as the DPS, etc. Moreover, each of our companions will be able to develop particular synergies with Crisbell, generating even deadlier attacks. To make things less sleepy, in Cris Tales we’ll also have the chance to actively influence the criticality of our attacks and the quality of our defense: pressing a button at the right moment will grant us greater chances to land critical hits on enemies or block their attacks. Judging the right moment relative to the animation isn’t that simple, and the somewhat rushed tutorial doesn’t help.
If the combat isn’t even that bad, we found the decision to keep random encounters with enemies during the “dungeon” phases decidedly anachronistic, despite the title being essentially a tribute to the genre — it’s probably one of the most annoying mechanics ever conceived, and we’d have hoped it was removed or at least replaced with something more fitting. Since there’s not even an animation that triggers the battle, you’ll find yourselves every three to two seconds staring at the screen turning suddenly black, breaking the exploration rhythm, to give rise to a battle from which you often can’t even escape (and we don’t recommend it anyway, since EXP points are essential to keeping your characters competitive). A negative point also for the boss fights, not difficult but absolutely too long, too long, and with gimmicks that aren’t particularly inspired.
Technically speaking
We tested Cris Tales on the following setup:
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x @ 3.60 GHz
Gigabyte RTX AORUS Master 3080 Ti 12Gb
Kingston Hyper X FURY (2x8Gb) DDR4
3440x1440 resolution (21:9)
We’ve already praised the title for its visual design and audio department, which is rich not only in terms of voice acting but also in background music. Unfortunately, the title doesn’t natively support ultrawide displays. We haven’t experienced any crashes or bugs, but likely this is down to luck, given the conflicting opinions on Steam regarding this point.
In conclusion
Cris Tales is a title born from a team’s independent passion for a genre — the JRPG — that shaped the childhoods of many gamers, introducing them to a pastime that later became something more. A game with strong foundations that nevertheless struggles to keep them cohesive and relevant throughout the entire adventure. Not necessarily a bad experience, far from it, but the feeling that Cris Tales was somewhat wasted remained with us throughout the entire gaming experience. We hope that, with a potential sequel, the team at Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK can redeem themselves, fixing and improving errors and flaws due to inexperience.
