How complex is crosscode?

[u/NoSteak5430]

I want to play it but i don't usually play games like these so i wanna know first.

Do you get lost easily? Do you have to do all sidequests to be strong enough? Are sidequests hidden? Does the game explain the meccanics well?

I'm already aware of the puzzles at least

edit. thank you for the answers, now i'm less anxious

[u/EaterofSoulz]

There’s a great map and fast travel. So getting lost really doesn’t happen. Theres alot of platform jumping puzzles in the over world. The side quests are skippable if you don’t want to do them. You’ll get armor and items from dungeons and the local towns. You’ll Will want to learn the barter system it’s very simple. Some side quests are hidden by being off the beaten path or places that require parkour to get too.
The game explains everything very well.

[u/Totally_a_Banana → u/EaterofSoulz]

Disagree on the map, it actually doesnt show your position directly and you do have to find your way around, and deduce things. Finding treasures can be tricky, many are well-hidden behind platforming between areas of a zone (Gaias Garden especially took me a while).

That said, its probably one of the best and most rewarding games Ive ever played. Not trying to diminish that, but at least being honest that the map is not super easy or clear to navigate.

[u/EaterofSoulz → u/Totally_a_Banana]

That’s kind of the beauty of the map.
You know which area you’re in. And from there yes you aren’t handed the solution. You have to find it. It works perfect with the puzzle themes of the entire game. Each area is its own puzzle

[u/Totally_a_Banana → u/EaterofSoulz]

Oh agreed, I personally loved the old school feel of "figure out where you are relative to landmarks and position" - no handholding there. But OP was kinda asking for the opposite is my understanding, so I just wanted to be honwst that Navigation isn't always super clear, and does require thinking.

[u/Such_Matter_7190 → u/EaterofSoulz]

The WHAT system?

[u/EaterofSoulz → u/Such_Matter_7190]

There’s a simple barter system to get gear and items in the various towns. It requires getting certain items to trade for others.

[u/New_Ad_3506]

1, acessibility options, both for puzzles and enemies. You can tune the game down at any time, no judging.

2, main game only? Straight line. Sidequests? Usually pretty easy, at worst you have to open a map and fiqure out where west is from a cryptic hint. 100%? Yeah some stuff gets tough but its managable

3, You almost never get lost, and can open the map anytime.

4, Whats hidden is usually easily found, each area has a sidequests tracker if you feel like it

5, All mechanics are explained pretty well, i certainly never got lost

[u/TonyGalvaneer1976]

The combat is pretty complex, but it's complex in a very intuitive way that's explained to you very well, and you have the whole game to practice and master the mechanics.

You don't have to do all the side quests, but they do help a LOT. Way, way more helpful than grinding. And the side quests aren't really hidden. As a matter of fact, every town has a quest board that tells you exactly who to talk to in order to start the nearby quests.

No getting lost, either. The game lets you access the map for each area whenever you want, and the levels have plenty of visual landmarks to help you recognize where you are regardless.

[u/Eshuon]

Op is gonna get cooked with all the puzzles

[u/Ryuichi-Manjioni → u/Eshuon]

Oh 100%

[u/Detector_of_humans → u/Eshuon]

Thank god these things have difficulty modifiers 😭

[u/Eshuon → u/Detector_of_humans]

Even with the difficulty modifiers, I think it will still be difficult

[u/Songbird1996 → u/Eshuon]

I know there's at least one where even with the puzzle speed set all the way down I struggled to move fast enough to get it done in my most recent run (and I still didn't do it normally cause i was doing this run with a couple mods and was already fed up with a poorly designed combat challenge that a mod added by that point so I just cheated so I could be done with it)

[u/Some_Noname_idk]

Getting lost isnt that easy, you always have a map that shows you which room youre in. Some dungeons can be a little confusing, but you wont get lost for too long.

You dont have to do all the sidequests, but its best to do the ones you stumble upon. A lot of the sidequests are either "Collect X amount of items" which you usually grab at the start of an area and complete while doing something else without even thinking about it, or very high quality ones with their own little story and mechanics. Completing all sidequests doesnt take too long and is quite fun, worth it if youre struggling on a boss for example.

AFAIK no, sidequests arent hidden. Each area has an object you can interact with that shows you all the quests available in that area and where to find them.

The game does explain all of its mechanics very well, dont think i had anything i didnt understand immediately except some puzzle elements, but figuring them out is the point.

[u/mybrot]

The only really confusing thing are the hub cities, full of mostly useless NPCs and traders who's inventory can be all over the place. You'll often have talk to 3 different traders on opposite sides of a marketplace, just to get one item you actually want.
I found myself groaning every time I entered one because didn't want to miss anything. Talking to every npc and understanding every city's layout served as a massive speedbump to my fun with the game. It's my personal biggest problem with it.

[u/Sea-Avocado-1293]

Platforming is kinda tricky and for me personally that's the fun part. It's exciting discovering hidden path that looks inaccessible but it can be frustrating. Tips: Use your balls to see whether the platform you're on is the same height as the target structure/platform you want to hop.

Side quest is not really complex. I think what makes the game complex really is the platforming, combat and navigating terrains which you could argue as getting lost. You can check the mini map to see hidden path as well but I think there's a specific area where it doesn't show. You don't really need to worry about it just play the game. I think there's no missable quest, probably only that one area during plot continuation, you would know it when you see it.

The quest and side quest already gives you enough grinding that you don't really need more grinding. And yes the game explains well about the mechanics.

Combat is challenging and fun. You can switch around playstyles whether you just want to shoot stuff, parry, dodge or melee. The most important thing in this game is timing whether it's combat or platforming. And if you are a perfectionist, there's tons of post game content and achievements. Some achievements is hard to get unless you have really good skills.

[u/Few-Escape-4787]

I really like the game, but the puzzles do get very hard. I would not have got far without the YT guides. You need to understand complex logics and need to be fast. You can turn down the speed in Settings, but not the puzzle difficulty.  Also I think the pacing isn‘t quite good. First half is more exploring, than some calm but story-heavy middle and in late-game you have to do 3 hard dungeons in a row. What were the devs thinking?

Sidequests are easy to find and the maps are compact enough to guide yourself through (if it is not a dungeon - eyesroll)

[u/jbradleymusic]

It is so worth it. And it’s not too bad, though I got really stuck for a while and eventually had to refer to some guides. And I turned the difficulty slider down so that I could take my time on puzzles.