Cris Tales Reviews
CrisTales is a game with a lot to do and say, all while looking gorgeous, but it isn't without its flaws.
Beautiful and charming, but not worth everything it appeared to be. Adapting the lyrics of the popular song, this is how I see 'Cris Tales' after my unpleasant experience with a title in one of the genres I like the most. Merits for the beautiful art and care in giving voice to all the characters, as well as interesting uses of time and a script that is shaped by the player. The same Time that makes the heroine shine is very poorly used outside the game, with excessive loading screens, slow pace of combat and the infamous grinding, which make us lose even more of this valuable resource that rules our lives.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Cris Tales impresses for a number of aspects, such as its amazing hand-drawn look, its colorful scenes rich in small details, its expressive characters and the ambition of its mechanics. The final result, however, is far from ideal thanks to some problems — the result would be mostly positive if it weren't for performance issues and long loading times.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
GREAT - Cris Tales is a fun game that has a great concept reminiscent of Chrono Trigger or Radiant Historia. Technical issues hold it back from truly spectacular status.
Cris Tales turned out to be a pleasant surprise, managing to impress us for originality and artistic style, as well as interesting gameplay mechanics. Even if it shows a certain inexperience in the general balance of pace and powers, with some of them too overpowered making it almost useless to look for different combinations, it still remains a great homage to classic turn-based JRPGs, so we can only recommend everyone to give it a look.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cris Tales is the type of game you really want to love. You see the gorgeousness on the screen and hear the lovely score… but then you remember you have to play it. The visual and auditory elements are so stand-out in quality that they cause the more simplistic gameplay and unexciting narrative to feel stunted in comparison.
Cris Tales is a game that fans of the genre should check out themselves, as it tries to offer a different approach to the genre.
Cris Tales is worthy of praise for its gorgeous art design and originality to its gameplay design. The time mechanic gives the game its own identity which will likely net it a dedicated fanbase hungry for a new JRPG that is traditional but different. But being classic it’s not without some classic flaws with irritating random encounters and tedious backtracking. But if you can overlook these niggles you’re in for a game well worth spending your Summer with, or any other season of the year for that matter.
A graphically wonderful JRPG inspired by the classics but with an interesting additional twist.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cris Tales is an homage to the JRPG genre that delivers a worthy tale across time and space. With a gorgeous aesthetic and great characters, Cris Tales builds an interesting world but also never takes full advantage of its combat systems. There’s so much to love about Cris Tales but it stays far too close to an homage and a game that never attempts to stray away from the confines of what we know a JRPG should be.
"Cris Tales" is too faithful follower to JRPG both in good and bad ways. It has beautiful visuals and unique game systems, but some parts such as long loading time and no auto save function need to be fixed.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Cris Tales bills itself as an “indie love letter to classic jRPGs.” Instead, it so completely misunderstands what makes them great that it comes across like a creepy kidnapper letter composed out of letters cut from various magazines. This is a game that looks fantastic while doing everything at least a little wrong; entire mechanics are outright broken, bugs can strike and render certain battles unwinnable, and stats randomly see massive rises and drops that make it impossible to tell how powerful your characters actually are. Add in Cris Tales‘ slow movement speed and insistence on making you run around doing busy work and you have a recipe for a truly painful experience.
Cris Tales is definitely a praiseworthy effort from Colombian studios Dreams Uncorporated and SYCK, both of whom have crafted a JRPG adventure worth playing through from beginning to end. This game proves that even JRPGs can transcend their origin country, becoming a worthwhile and memorable experience, even with some of its issues.
So while Cris Tales’s story and gameplay may come up a bit light for some, it manages to provide a fun, unique experience that, rather than simply imitate the games that came before it, takes inspiration from them and strives to build something unique.
While Cris Tales has some bumpy aspects in its combat and doesn't pull any punches, it remains a stellar RPG that pays tribute to great titles of the past while still building forward to make a modern hit in the present.
Cris Tales utilises traditional RPG mechanics but applies a wonderful time-manipulating twist across all facets of its design. The narrative, the combat, exploration – everything is based around altering time and it really makes for a brilliantly unique experience. It also just so happens to look beautiful too, which is always a plus. There are a few things that let it down, such as the unforgiving save system, the high encounter rate, and the loading times. Thankfully, these problems don’t stop Cris Tales from being an utterly engrossing RPG experience and one that I certainly look forward to re-visiting again in the future.
Cris Tales is a stunningly gorgeous indie, with art that’ll make your jaw drop. However many of its time mechanics are relatively skin deep, and it lacks the kind of depth its art inspires. It’s also not the epic it claims to be. It’s a love letter to classic RPGs, if within that same analogy those classics are the full novel.
Cris Tales sets a high bar when describing itself as a love letter to some of the best JRPGs of all time, but indie studio Dreams Uncorporated manages to exceed expectations by delivering a charming game with unique and challenging combat mechanics and a gorgeous artstyle. The characters are interesting, and the ability to peer into their past and future makes you care even more for them – especially the protagonist and its allies, which will travel alongside you during the game’s 20-30 hours of gameplay.
I would avoid Cris Tales on the Switch until there’s been some patching done or you’ve tested it on another platform.
The graphics are colorful and beautiful, the story mostly motivating and at its core a turn based combat system with some clever time manipulation. Cris Tales got the whole package and every fan of RPGs should check out this amazing indie game.
Review in German | Read full review