I love almost everything about CrossCode. The beautiful artwork, the great big world to explore, the secrets to discover all over every map, the lovable characters, the engaging story, the superfun gameplay. All of it done with a charming care and attention to detail that had me thoroughly enjoy every part of this game where I wasn't fighting. 

The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is the frustrating combat. Even with difficulty assists, a lot of enemies have really annoying combat designs. Like periods of invincibility punctuated by tiny vulnerability windows. Unerring attacks that can't be dodged. Or inconsistent timing between attack telegraph and execution. I'm sure this was supposed to be about precise timing and learning enemy attack patterns, but when you have 3 different enemy types around you and they all have different patterns, different vulnerability windows, different engagement ranges, and different elemental weakness, it just turns into a frustrating mess with no time to think. And don't get me started on bosses that don't even let up long enough for you to drink a potion!

All-in-all, I really enjoyed everything but the combat. I was able to hack a boost to character stats so I could brute force my way through the combat and enjoy the rest of the game, otherwise, I would have given up halfway through and never played it again. And that would have sucked, because the story and characters are absolutely wonderful! Apart from the combat, there is a really great game here, and I'm really looking forward to Radical Fish's next game.