64) Cris Tales (2021)

Developed by Colombian indie studio Dreams Uncorporated, Cris Tales is a self proclaimed tribute to classing JRPG titles such as Final Fantasy, Persona, and Chrono Trigger. Featuring plenty of influences from Colombian culture and architecture, the game also shows clear visual influences from Genndy Tartakovsky, Mary Blair, and Eyvind Earle, with character designs inspired by 2009's The Secret of Kells. Combined, these influences give Cris Tales a unique visual identity that is striking and beautiful, and truly feels as though you're playing an animated feature.

Our story begins with a young orphan girl named Crisbell who is dutifully tending to her orphanage's garden when a top hat wearing frog snatches a rose. Giving chase, Crisbell follows the frog to a nearby cathedral where her latent temporal powers activate. Guided by the frog, who can talk and is named Matias, we visit a young man named Wilhelm who helps to explain our abilities. Wilhelm and Crisbell are time mages, able to manipulate the flow of time in various ways. Returning to our village, we find it under attack by goblins led by the Empress of Time. With Wilhelm's help, we retrieve a sword that further augments our time magic, and teaming up with an elemental mage named Christopher, we repel goblin forces.

The basic gameplay loop we're presented with becomes traveling to a new town, using our time magic that allows us to look into the past and the future to aid the local citizens. As we travel, the screen is divided, quite literally, into three separate sections. To the left we see how things looked in the past, the center is us in the present, and to the right we see the future as it is currently fated to be. As we complete quests and aid those in need, we begin to see the changes our actions will have on the future. It's a fun and clever way to show the consequences of our actions. Regrettably, it is rarely utilized to its full effect, being used only a handful of times to solve environmental puzzles that are highly telegraphed to the player.

Combat also utilizes the time manipulation mechanic, giving Crisbell a unique resource that allows her to alter the flow of time. This shares the division of changing the battlefield on the left to the past and the right to the future, with every enemy having three distinct stages of age that we can thus manipulate. We can use this in tandem with our allies abilities to limited effect. For instance, we can poison and enemy on the right side of the field, then push that side forward into the future. Doing so results in the enemy taking the accumulated poison damage all at once. In addition, some enemies are stronger in one form, but can be pushed to a weaker form by utilizing our time magic. This, combined with how each party member distinctly plays, seems as though it would be a fun recipe for diverse and varied combat. Sadly, as is the case with puzzles, the time mechanic is rarely utilized to its full potential.

The story, while certainly not bad, rarely deviates from your typical JRPG fare. There are some rather convoluted twists and turns, but if you're familiar with the genre you'll likely see them coming a mile away. Where the game does excel is in how the characters are written and voiced. Every line of dialogue is voiced, with only one or two performances coming off as uninspired. Most of the voice actors do a wonderful job in selling the different, sometimes complex emotions of their characters. The writing does tend to lean a bit into snarky humor, but knows when to allow itself to be serious.

Unfortunately, the game drags itself down in the third act. With a plot twist that came as no surprise, we're forced to backtrack through the areas we previously visited not once, but twice, artificially padding the length of the game. In addition, there is an optional DLC party member that we get near the very end of the game that doesn't add all that much to the experience while feeling blatantly tacked on. This, combined with our character's slow, plodding pace makes the end of the game seem like a rushed attempt to tie up loose ends that, frankly, didn't need to be addressed.

Cris Tales is a visually stunning game with fun characters and some genuinely fun and interesting ideas. The concept of freely manipulating time both in and out of battle has a ton of promise, and is used in fun ways a handful of times. Unfortunately, the mechanic is largely ignored with little bearing throughout most of the game. As cool as the idea seems, the fact that the majority of bosses are immune to the temporal manipulation serves to punish the player for trying any fun combinations or strategies. Likewise, the lack of use in most puzzles, with the time manipulation being mostly absent in dungeons, often left me wondering what the point of having the mechanic was in the first place. The game isn't bad, but it never truly lives up to its full potential.