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Xross Chronicle tells a tale of a world where Humans and Yokai live. It’s certainly not all fine and dandy, with the threat of war looming once again, where Yokai who rather not coexist with humans await their chance to strike. Find out your past as you journey along with your friends. What will you find?
Now, JRPG veterans like myself would probably find this story pretty standard, but what’s fun is how you get there. The main story is fully voiced, with animated characters. What sets this story apart from most linear stories is that you have story branches. These story branches allow you to pick your choice of reward, so you can decide on what works for you better.
You can also always go back to see what the other option could have been, if you find yourself especially interested in the lore. You should definitely go through the story too! Not just for the clear rewards, but also to open up more features in the game. It helps prevent you from getting overwhelmed from the core gameplay loop, and also just lets you focus on the few things you want to do first before you decide to move on.
One of the best systems I think this game has to offer is the “Cross-Training” system. As mentioned in our introduction to the game, you form a party of six: 3 Humans and 3 Yokai. However, this being a gacha game, you may not necessarily have enough to fill the slots. With Cross-Training, you can fill up your slots. Depending on a character’s position in the party, their skills can also change in strength.
That’s not all! If your luck is terrible, like mine, the 2.5% rate for 4-star characters isn’t enough to get you any. Those duplicates you get from gacha still are useful though, as they get turned into Universal Beads. These Beads can then be used to create Beads for characters you own, which is necessary for Evolution, this game’s Promotion system. No matter what, you will be able to get 4-stars, who can then be further promoted to 5-stars. Don’t lose hope! This also means you can simply bring your favourite unit throughout the game! There’s also Fusion which I didn’t get to try, but it also upgrades their stats when you have the necessary materials.
Units can also use equipment, that can naturally be enhanced further. Other pieces of equipment can be crafted with the necessary Beads or materials to make your units even stronger. There’s another reason why you should be collecting these equipment too: if you obtain a set, you can claim additional rewards!
Progress far enough into the game to start opening up the various Battlefields in the game. There’ll be a few dedicated to getting growth materials, so you’d definitely be spending more time here. The Arena is also here for the competitive players, pitting yourself against opponents around the same rank as you. The real draw would be the River of Fire, and for more advanced players, the Scalar Tower.
The River of Fire is similar to a gauntlet, where your characters will be unusable once they have no HP. Clear enough nodes and unlock chests of goodies! I wouldn’t worry about clearing a lot of these nodes as a newer player. It and the Scalar Tower are locked behind story progression, where you’d be needing upgraded enough units to clear through anyway. It IS there for those who can flex their strategic chops in team composition, so something to work on for the later game.
This is one title that definitely rewards long term players, as it can be a little difficult to make a team to clear content at first due to the various time gates and story chapter progressions you need to do, much less playing around with the tons of characters you will obtain from the gacha! Once you do get over that hurdle, the whole world will be open to you!
Be it for the casual player who wants to collect a staggering variety of units based on myths from all over the world, or for the more dedicated player, there’s something for everyone. As someone on the more casual spectrum myself, I’ll be at least looking forward to the events to come… I get to try units I don’t have in my team for event battles, and it lets me know them without needing to rely on the gacha! Give Xross Chronicle a shot for yourselves!
You should check out our interview with game director Tae Hoon Oh here, or even our introduction to the game here.
