Cross Edge

Review - No angry U2 guitarists included

Undeniably an acquired taste, the Japanese RPG still has its fans and an immeasurable catalogue of titles that would probably stretch to Pluto and back if stacked on end. Cross Edge is another title to be added to that enormous stack and is unique in that the story envelops five famous development powerhouses of the genre whose RPG worlds collide, spurring an adventure that involves a raft of characters from each studio.

The rest of the world may shrug with indifference at the prospect, but fans of the genre will no doubt be enthralled by Cross Edge and excited by its roster of JRPG stars. Featuring peeps from the hallowed walls of Namco Bandai, Capcom, Nippon Ichi, Gust and Idea Factory drafted in from games like Darkstalkers, Disgaea and erm, Spectral Souls, there's a clear JRPG pedigree at work here and indeed the outward quality is apparent from the very beginning of the game.

Almost every JRPG tells its story via static portraits of each character and while Cross Edge is no different, they're vibrant, well-drawn and complemented by complete, well delivered voice acting much like recent PS3 exclusive stablemate Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. Cross Edge's narrative is classic JRPG hokum and therefore a perfectly serviceable motive for engaging in random battles, which is all you really need to know as an introduction.

Within the first couple of hours playing, you'll have encountered a host of characters that are enlisted to your cause. You start the game as protagonists York and Miko who find themselves mysteriously transported to an unfamiliar land, but quickly you bump into Morrigan from Darkstalkers, alchemist Marie from Atelier Marie and retriever of lost souls, May. And so with a four-strong team, you're able to create a custom formation, shuffle the order in which they attack and then confidently march into turn-based battle.

Skirmishes take place on a pair of 4x3 grids, one on either side of the screen. Your enemy's stand on the left-hand side while you and your motley crew stand on the right. Then in traditional role-playing fashion, you politely take turns to smack each other about a bit. Utilising an initially bewildering array of numbers, meters and gauges can make Cross Edge's battles seem impenetrable at first sight, but the tutorials do a decent enough job in providing adequate instruction on what they all represent.

The battle mechanic itself is actually very well constructed, superficially quite simple to learn yet deep enough to encourage experimentation. On a basic level, you're granted a set number of action points (AP) with which to perform offensive moves, and you can pull off devastating combos by executing attacks in a certain sequence. Cue up Miko's standard attack twice and you'll then have the option to bring Morrigan into play with a flashy finishing strike for instance. It's a straightforward but intricate system that enables you to branch multiple attacks into massively destructive combos.

And when merely killing an opponent isn't enough, you can continue pounding them until they go into Overbreak and then Overkill status, which earns rare items that are often highly valuable. Essentially, achieving combos involves switching between your characters using L1 and R1 before discovering the optimum combination that deals the most damage. As far as battle systems go, Cross Edge's might not represent a huge leap in design, but it more than serves in maintaining your interest whenever random fights do occur - which is frequently.

As usual, there's the standard array of weapons (our favourite is the Bastard Sword, purely because of its name) that augment each character's attributes, but there's also the added gimmick of costume changes, which alter the appearance of your character and shuffles their stats granting various new strengths and weaknesses. This further increases your strategic options and isn't introduced until later in the game. You're never bombarded or overwhelmed by too much at once and everything is always clearly explained, even though there's still enough textual instruction to turn off less dedicated players.

Outside of Cross Edge's mildly involving turn-based combat, there's an expansive world map to explore, filled with hidden Souls to unearth using May's special Soul locating powers. Finding and freeing trapped Souls awards useful items, so it's worth scouring for as long as your patience will tolerate.

After a hard day of (quite literally) Soul searching, you'd think it'd be a relief when you finally find a save point - an area where you're supposed to be able to enjoy some respite from doling out a kicking to green Hell Dogs. While taking refuge in one of these save points, certain members of your team bafflingly become shopkeepers, flogging you items at extortionate prices.

Now, last time we checked, these characters were supposed to be our allies, so finding them inexplicably become shamelessly smiling wheeler-dealing item sellers is counterintuitive, utterly bizarre and unbelievably stupid. Furthermore, any fallen comrades in need of reviving can only be resurrected at an exorbitant price, which is massively unfair to say the least.

And this is where Cross Edge epically falls down, becoming less a breezy joy and more of a thankless chore. Let's say you're a casual player who manages to make it past the daunting on-screen furniture and hardcore JRPG hallmarks, out onto the world map only to wind up at a save point where your progress can potentially be wrecked if even a single member of your party should fail to make it there alive with an adequate cache of TP (the game's currency). It's a maddening frustration that's enough to put you off the genre for life.

This obviously won't be enough to deter the devoted JRPG enthusiasts though, many of whom will no doubt lap this up. The draw of an irresistible cast of characters - all nicely rendered as endearing retro sprites and stylish anime portraits - should already seal the deal for the core audience, but for everyone else, Cross Edge will seem like nothing more than an obscure curio. While it's an accomplished enough example within its genre, Cross Edge is simply riddled with too many silly niggles and odd inconsistencies to warrant a real recommendation.

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