Cris Tales in the preview: It's finally time to travel back in time

Cris Tales in the preview

We first reported on Cris Tales two years ago at E3. Even then, at a very early stage, the game made a solid impression. It was actually supposed to appear in November 2020, but the release had to be postponed. The publication date is currently planned for July 20, 2021. In order to keep us informed about the latest updates and final developments, we were allowed to take part in a presentation by the developers.

Table of contents

1 Ready to save the world (even if that is perhaps too much wanted ) 2 A fight against time 3 To my beloved Chrono Trigger ...

Ready to save the world (even if that is perhaps too much wanted)

As players, we slip into the role of the young time mage Crisbell. She bears the heavy responsibility of preventing the end of the world by preventing the time empress and her army in good time from bringing the five kingdoms of the land to ruin. In this quest, she relies on the support of allied characters to accompany her on her journey.

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A fight against time

In addition to the kingdoms, there are also various dungeons to explore. There are almost 20 of them, each with special mechanics that need to be unraveled. For example, we can only cross one of the dungeons by carefully controlling gravity. We fight the opponents we meet there in the classic way in a turn-based system. In addition to the selection of our actions, attacks and blocks can be reinforced by well-coordinated pressing of the action button. Crisbell's ability to intervene in time is also used here. We have the ability to send opponents into the past or future to give us certain advantages. For example, an aged opponent could be weaker or slower, but also more powerful. How a time shift affects our adversaries can turn out very differently and the use of this power must therefore be carefully considered.

In this boss fight we face an adversary who carries a huge, almost insurmountable shield with him . How can we cause damage there? Source: Modus Games Time manipulation can also be useful in combination with our competitors. One of the characters, for example, throws a chicken as an attack, which then arrives at the target as an egg under the right conditions. Each of the team members interacts differently with Crisbell's magic, which further expands our room for maneuver.

Of course, we have to face powerful bosses at some point. A diverse bunch of demanding challengers awaits us. In order to win over them, in some cases we have to use certain tricks and use our forces purposefully. Just hitting it is not particularly advisable here.

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To my beloved Chrono Trigger ...

Cris Tales (buy now 39.99 €) is often described by its creators as a love letter to the classics of the JRPG genre. As inspiration, they cite Final Fantasy 6 as a timeless masterpiece and newer titles such as Bravely Default. This is particularly reflected in the basic elements of the game. In terms of graphic design, however, Cris Tales is more reminiscent of a modern children's series. There is still a lot of love in the style, because everything is hand-drawn and animated frame by frame. The 2D sprites seem a little out of place in the three-dimensional environment.

Both the characters and the environment are interesting and individually designed. Unfortunately, the large, empty areas of color lack a bit of depth. Source: Modus Games

All in all, the developers give a total playing time of around 30 hours. That's okay for an indie title. In addition, there will be more content to discover in the endgame, which will be accessible via a special aircraft. This can then be controlled in the superordinate world map, which we use to travel from place to place. In addition to an extensive soundtrack, Cris Tales also offers a complete setting in English.

At the moment, a free demo can be played on Steam, which has been updated repeatedly in the past. The full release is scheduled for July 20, 2021 and will take place on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.