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Cris Tales is a side-scrolling role-playing game released on the Nintendo Switch in 2021. It was developed by a indie team from Colombia, The main mechanic is a time manipulation with the past and future.
Gameplay[]
The game is a turn-based RPG. The player has the ability to time jump on the field and in-battle. With the time jump, the player has the left side of the screen become the past, the right side become the future and the center as the present. In battle, the player has to expend crystals to send an enemy to the past or future which opens up opportunities. The playable cast each have their own unique abilities as well.
Plot[]
Crisbell is an orphan girl who lives in the Narim orphanage. While she picked up a rose for Mother Superior, it is snatched from her by Matias, a talking frog, whom she follows to Narim Cathedral (inspired in the Las Lajas Shrine), in order to unleash her powers. After the events, Matias asks Crisbell to accompany him to visit his friend Willhelm, a time mage, who explains more about her powers.
Later, Crisbell is commended in a series of missions, until she finds the village farm in flames and invaded by goblins under the command of the Empress of Time, whose aim is to take over the Crystallis Kingdom. To avoid a disastrous future, Crisbell returns to Willhelm to ask for help, and he tells her about the Sword. Crisbell is determined to use the powers of the Sword, becoming a time mage herself.
With the Sword in hand, she returns to the farm to battle the goblins. During the battle, Cristopher, an elemental mage warrior who has been fighting the goblins, joins her. After a couple of battles, they are faced by the Empress of Time's minions, the Volcano Sisters. Crisbell must use the power of the time crystals to help defeat them. After receiving several attacks, the sisters retreat.
Development[]
The game was originally announced at E3 2019 being described as a tribute to classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. It was originally scheduled to launch in November 2020. It was postponed to 2021. It was featured in the April 2021 Indie World Showcase that announced its release in July 2021.
Reception[]
During its development within early release gameplays streams, Cris Tales received critical acclaim by specialized media. Hardcore Gamer cited it as "an unmissable, gorgeous manipulation of time" and nominated it as the Game of Show and Best RPG at E3 2019. Tom Marks from IGN claims that Cris Tales "looks a bit like Paper Mario with Persona 5's UI", praising the concept, the hand-drawn graphics, and the time jump-based gameplay.
After its release, Cris Tales received "mixed or average reviews" on Metacritic, with an aggregated score of 73/100 for the PC version based on 27 reviews. Nintendo Life praised the premise for taking the classic JRPGs in gameplay ideas and art style, but criticized some aspects of the combat, calling it "frustrating", giving it a 8/10 for the Nintendo Switch version. IGN praised the cast and the art, but critised the gameplay, citing it as "a clever time-traveling JRPG that’s held back by monotonous combat", giving it a "Good" score of 7/10 for all platforms. A less favorable review came from PC Gamer, which cited it as "a striking RPG that fails to deliver on its temporal premise", giving it a 57/100 for the PC version.
The local media rated the game a 7.5/10 and said, "Cris Tales is a game with an excellent premise, but one that has lagged behind remembering the past."