CrossCode

I went into CrossCode wanting to like it. I remember this game being in Early Access for ages, and it still released over 4 years ago, so I've been waiting for a long time. I think it was the art and style that gripped me, and I must say, they didn't disappoint. Still, from the advertised 30-80 hours, I only got about 12 in. So, what happened?

CrossCode starts off strong, dropping you into a tutorial / gameplay demo that also serves as a hook into the story. There's some mysterious figures, someone dies, something big is supposedly set in motion. Things are left unclear. The pixel art looks great, both for the large upper-body sprites, as well as the small characters. The animation is smooth, combat is responsive. It looks like a good start to a game.
The story cuts to the actual main character. A so-called Avatar, named after basically being an avatar for an online game, being materialized. They appear as confused as you are, not knowing what they are, or how or why they are here. It goes into a slightly more in-depth tutorial / practice, which re-affirms all combat mechanics (except for using elements and abilities, which I guess is a reasonable chunk of combat content), while giving you a bit of background into the story.
Covering the story first, just the first hour or so, not going into any spoilers, CrossWorlds is basically an MMO, but taking place in the real world. There is a lot of background lore made up for the game (CrossCode), like how the game (CrossWorlds) is actually located on a moon owned by some megacorporation, and it's fully immersive by utilizing FTL information transfer to link all of the player's senses to their character. The characters themselves are made of "instant matter", which can be formed and re-formed instantly, making these Avatars technically immortal. But, their attacks are virtual, and instant matter is so light it can not physically hurt or obstruct any real people. On top of this CrossCode lore I just covered, which is true inside the game (CrossCode) there is also CrossWorlds lore, which is not real, not even in the game (CrossCode), but only in the MMO (CrossWorlds), but I won't go into that right now. Got all that? Took me a good amount of time to differentiate what was the real game lore and what was the game-game lore. But combined with the mystery aspect, this very detailed world-building was right up my alley. Some mystery Avatar seemingly breaking the game rules then comes to abduct our protagonist from outside the bounds of the game, but you manage to escape into the game proper, being told to just go play the MMO for the time being.
Now, to briefly explain the combat and game mechanics in more detail. You have a ranged attack that can also bounce from walls, a melee attack that is AoE and does more damage, a dash with a brief invulnerability period, and a frontal shield that mitigates damage taken. There's also a skill tree of about 40 nodes, plus 4 more elemental skill trees unlocked later. Aside from passives these can also unluck skills which can use charges to do special versions of your basic actions. Throw in levels, stats, equipment, and you have very decent character building for a game of this size. A lot (about half) of the game is centered around environmental puzzles, and to that end you also have a height system. There are a lot of walls in the game, and they're all technically walkable, but you can only jump up a wall with a height difference of one. You can then cross rather wide gaps by just running over them, and the character jumps with enough momentum to carry you across, allowing complex traversal paths in small areas. I found this to be a very unique take on platforming.

So, I'm 2-3 hours in, side characters are being introduced, I'm itching to get into it all... And... Nothing? Hours pass, and I feel very much like I'm playing the worst part of an MMO. Pointless character dialogue, fetch quests, kill X of some enemy. The excitement of learning more about this world and the mystery presented at the start wear off during 10 hours, replaced with annoyance at the grind, and how I can't visually distinguish these wall layers I mentioned. The game looks gorgeous and detailed, but perhaps in that detail, playability is lost, and solving these platforming puzzles is frustrating trial-and-error of finding some single block that allows me to get up a layer, and then backtracking multiple maps on this higher layer. And it's not just for quests or collectibles, some areas just require this pointless detour for me to access. Heavens forbid I forget where the entrance to the puzzle is, because I do. A lot.

CrossCode built up a very strong desire to stick through the story, and then battered it down hour after hour. The combat is good. The art is good. The music is good. The character progression is good. The story is probably good? It's just, with all these great components, they somehow manage to make a game that is just boring, tedious, even frustrating to play, and I am so sad at that. I really wanted to like CrossCode, but I can't recommend it like this. Maybe a partial recommendation. Maybe if you really like the MMO grind and environment puzzles, and then also enjoyed what else I mentioned about the game.