Cris Tales

Cris Tales takes the best parts of classic RPGs, mixes them all together, and adds its own spin to make it truly unique. While it can stumble a bit near the end, fans of the genre don’t want to miss this gorgeous game.

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Cris Tales is an indie JRPG where players can view the past, present, and future simultaneously on one screen, and where choices made have dynamic effects on the story's outcome. Join Crisbell, a newly awakened Time Mage, and her companions as they journey through a dark, fairytale world to stop the Time Empress and rewrite the future. Recruit allies, make choices, and navigate the consequences in this love letter to classic JRPGs.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

70%

Audience ScoreBased on 137 reviews

story57 positive mentions

grinding10 negative mentions

The art style is beautiful and visually stunning, creating a captivating atmosphere.
The turn-based combat system introduces unique mechanics like time manipulation, allowing for strategic gameplay.
The story has engaging elements and interesting characters, making it enjoyable for fans of the genre.

The pacing can be slow, with frequent loading screens and tedious backtracking that disrupts the flow of gameplay.
There are numerous bugs and technical issues, including crashes and glitches that can hinder progress.
The writing and dialogue suffer from inconsistencies and grammar issues, detracting from the overall narrative experience.

story
145 mentions
39 % positive mentions
52 % neutral mentions
8 % negative mentions
The story of "Cris Tales" is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its charming characters and engaging time-bending mechanics, but criticizing its pacing and execution, particularly in the latter acts where it feels rushed and poorly developed. While some found the narrative to be enjoyable and filled with interesting twists, others noted significant flaws in dialogue and character depth, leading to a lack of emotional investment. Overall, the game presents a visually stunning world with a decent storyline, but it struggles to deliver a consistently compelling narrative experience.
- “The art style is amazing, the voice acting is great, and the story is solid.”
- “The story was satisfying to experience and the combat was fun and required thought, even if the time mechanic ended up being in the background and it just turned into a more generic JRPG.”
- “The story, art, characters, music, mechanics, and depth of everything.”
- “The story is mediocre; they try fixing it with the extra content with Adri which gave us a better true ending, but it's still a pretty forgettable story.”
- “The story is honestly very amateurishly written; most scenes feel like quite a few lines of dialogue are missing and emotions are essentially never properly conveyed.”
- “In 'Cris Tales' lies the seeds of a good JRPG; its artwork and presentation give it a beautiful cover, but it's marred with the flaws of bad game design and story development.”
gameplay
108 mentions
34 % positive mentions
62 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Cris Tales is characterized by its unique time manipulation mechanics, which enhance exploration and combat, but many players find these features underutilized as the game progresses. While the initial hours showcase engaging mechanics and a charming art style, the combat becomes repetitive and lacks depth, leading to a sense of monotony by the end. Overall, the game offers a mix of enjoyable elements and missed opportunities, resulting in a decent but flawed RPG experience.
- “I enjoyed the story and the gameplay.”
- “The time control mechanic that is one of the draws of the game can be used in combat.”
- “The time mechanic felt useful and interesting throughout the course of gameplay, which was very refreshing when trying to determine the best strategies to fight through enemies.”
- “Some enemies have long pauses before attack animations start, some bosses jump from side to side on screen for seemingly no reason, and there is a brief pause between characters jumping from the back to the foreground to make their moves. The game also clearly runs out of steam by the end of the second act, as you are just returning to old locations and fighting the same bosses again.”
- “The gameplay is overly simplistic, with little synergy, especially between teammate pairings that don't include the main character, and requires little strategy.”
- “The issues are that the fights lack any real depth and do so little with the past/future mechanics that it gets really repetitive and boring after a while.”
graphics
66 mentions
56 % positive mentions
39 % neutral mentions
5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning art style, vibrant colors, and unique character designs, often described as reminiscent of anime with a distinct identity. Many reviewers highlight the beautiful hand-drawn animation and the overall visual presentation as the game's strongest aspects, despite some criticism regarding the lack of graphical options and occasional animation inconsistencies. While the visuals captivate players, some feel that the focus on graphics may have come at the expense of deeper gameplay and storytelling elements.
- “The art style is gorgeous, the soundtrack is good, the characters are nice, and it doesn't drag too much with the story.”
- “The visuals were amazing, the music was nice, the storyline kept me interested, and the combat was simplistic enough to feel like an old JRPG.”
- “Graphically, this game is exceptional, consistent, and pleasant to the eyes.”
- “I think Cris Tales was too ambitious on the art style, graphics, and gimmick of time travel, that it left a lot of the other areas unrefined such as the story, characters, and world exploration.”
- “The biggest downside for visuals was the areas outside of city safe zones.”
- “It also provides no mouse support even in menus, the graphics are all blurry and no video options are available.”
music
42 mentions
76 % positive mentions
17 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality and charm, with many reviewers highlighting the soundtrack as one of the standout features. However, some players noted issues with the music's ability to match the game's mood and its repetitive nature, suggesting a need for more variety. Overall, the music complements the beautiful visuals and engaging voice acting, contributing positively to the game's atmosphere.
- “The music for this game is fantastic and I plan to use a lot of it for my own D&D campaigns, and the time-based mechanics are really well done.”
- “The soundtrack and art style are the best part of the game.”
- “The music is a 9/10, from the different town themes to the battle tracks that change moderately over time as not to become stale.”
- “Finally, the music is rather homogeneous in tone, kind of like Constantine's music score, but it's still good music and accomplishes its purpose.”
- “Like some reviews also state, the music transitions sometimes are lacking, and the intro for the battles is just a loading screen, which is both good and bad; good because you don't instantly get a heart attack when one pops out, but bad because of the wait.”
- “Game feels extremely unfinished; the music in later levels consists of 1-minute-long annoying tracks, and every next chapter, the characters' speeches become more boring.”
grinding
11 mentions
9 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
91 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that grinding in this game can be a mixed experience; while some players appreciate the reduced need for extensive grinding compared to other RPGs, others find combat tedious and unengaging, especially as difficulty increases. The lack of meaningful equipment progression and the repetitive nature of battles contribute to a sense of monotony, making grinding feel more burdensome for those who prefer a more dynamic gameplay experience. Overall, the game may appeal to grinding enthusiasts, but it presents challenges that can detract from enjoyment for others.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The grinding is even less engaging as there are no equipment levels like in Final Fantasy IX or materia in Final Fantasy VII that make you think about long-term strategies.”
- “When the difficulty increases, combat becomes even more tedious because enemies take too long to defeat and you don't deal much damage.”
- “I appreciate the length of this RPG, as I don't have to spend hundreds of hours grinding like in other games.”
emotional
8 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its heartwarming moments and emotional depth, successfully evoking feelings for characters, even those initially unlikable. While the storytelling has some flaws and plot holes, it features a touching narrative with engaging twists, complemented by a beautiful presentation and soundtrack. Overall, it offers a satisfying emotional experience despite some shortcomings in conveying key moments.
- “There is so much good and heartwarming stuff in this game.”
- “Also made me feel things for a character I didn't even like.”
- “I thought the story and writing was phenomenal and, at times, moving and emotional.”
humor
8 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by witty dialogue, amusing character interactions, and creative enemy designs, such as the comically named "triggot creeper." Players appreciate the blend of humor with intricate lore and politics, finding the characters' banter and quirks genuinely funny, even if some characters are perceived as annoying. Overall, the humor adds a refreshing layer to the gameplay experience, making it enjoyable and engaging.
- “In the museum, there are these weird giant bug enemies. It starts off as a cocoon, but if you invoke the past, it turns into a giant grub thing and somehow webs up your time crystal so you can't break it. Not sure how that works... but anyway, it was called Triggot Creeper or something, and it swallowed up Zas. There's a little icon of her, and the face she was making was hilarious.”
- “The characters are funny, the lore is interesting, and the politics of each new area are intricate and fun to explore.”
- “I didn't mind that I was able to figure out a lot of the plot while playing, and I was inwardly pleased that the characters would sometimes act or say things I'd have expected them to—either logically or downright hilariously.”
character development
4 mentions
75 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
75 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is described as somewhat basic yet enjoyable, contributing to a fun and engaging narrative. The character designs, particularly for the mother superiors, are praised for their creativity, enhancing the overall immersive experience of the visually stunning world.
- “Despite a bunch of tiny flaws scattered throughout the game, I do recommend playing, mainly for the art style and animation, but also for the combat, which is pretty fun and engaging. The story and character development are a bit basic sometimes, but still fun, cute, and interesting!”
- “The character design is fantastic, especially for the mother superiors.”
- “Huge props to the character designers and environment designers for creating a world so detailed and lived-in, that it was possible to see three versions of it at once.”
- “The character development feels a bit basic at times, lacking depth and complexity that could have made the story more engaging.”
- “While the art style and animation are impressive, the character development does not quite match the quality of the visuals, leaving some characters feeling one-dimensional.”
- “The story and character development are enjoyable, but they often fall short of being truly compelling or memorable.”
stability
3 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game has been reported to have several stability issues, including buggy movement and visual and audio glitches, which persist even after updates. While these problems can detract from the experience, they are generally not game-breaking due to the presence of numerous checkpoints.
- “But it has a bunch of problems: this may be just me - but I feel the fights are tedious, the movement feels buggy, and the overworld looks very barren compared to the spawn rates on the route.”
- “Ok, it’s 2021, I bought it, but I didn’t start to play it immediately, which is kind of good since I saw a lot of discussion about audio and visual glitches.”
- “On the other hand, visual and audio glitches occurred even after a few updates, nothing game-breaking since this game has a lot of checkpoints.”
optimization
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
-100 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is generally solid, with no noticeable performance issues reported. However, the limited graphics options have raised questions about the necessity of the system requirements, suggesting that the optimization may not fully utilize available settings.
- “Performance-wise, it didn’t stutter at all, and I still don’t understand the system requirements list.”
- “The lack of graphics options does seem strange, but that may be due to optimization, as I'm pretty certain there wouldn't be anything game-wise you could change.”
- “Performance-wise, it didn’t stutter or anything like that, and I still don’t understand the system requirements list.”
- “The lack of graphics options seems strange, but that may be due to optimization and the fact that I'm pretty certain there wouldn't be anything game-wise you could change.”
atmosphere
1 mentions
300 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Reviewers consistently praise the game's art style, highlighting it as a key element that enhances the overall atmosphere, contributing to an immersive and visually appealing experience.
- “The art: I love the style and atmosphere of the game.”
- “The immersive environment truly draws you in and enhances the overall experience.”
- “The haunting soundtrack perfectly complements the visuals, creating a captivating atmosphere.”
replayability
1 mentions
0 % positive mentions
100 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players note that the recent patch has significantly improved the game's overall playability, enhancing its replayability by addressing previous issues.