Game: Cross Edge

Platform: PlayStation 3

Publisher: NIS America

Developer: Idea Factory

ESRB: T

Genre: Tactical RPG

Players: 1

What's Hot: The voice acting and character stills

What's Not: The rest of it

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Review by: Jason McMaster

It starts out in utter confusion. The two main characters wake up in a world they’re unfamiliar with and quickly come under attack. During these first few minutes, you’ll learn the combat system and, honestly, if you’ve made it this far you’ve seen a majority of the game. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as you could say the same thing about games like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Boom Blox – simplicity is great if the game mechanics work. Unfortunately, Cross Edge isn’t firing on all cylinders in this department either.

Your team, which is made up of four characters at a time, stays on the right side of the screen in a grid that’s three spaces wide and four spaces long. Each turn consists of choosing attacks to use against the enemies on the left side of the screen and then quickly scrolling between characters to start attack chains. That’s the quick version of battle and, in short, the rest of the game.

Outside of combat, Cross Edge unfolds in a lengthy cut-scene style, featuring well-voiced, still interactions over a static background. This is the actual draw of the game – there are characters from Darkstalkers, Disgaea, Ar tonelico, Spectral Souls, Atelier Marie and Mana-Khemia 2 that can be added to your party and dressed up in fancy, collectible costumes. Like I said, this is a fan service game and probably should have just been a DVD.

Shortly after the initial combat, Morrigan from Darkstalkers joins your party and you begin exploring the overworld map—and by that I mean to say “walking around, hitting the search button every few seconds until up pops a random encounter.” The next character you run into will explain the basic idea that souls are being trapped in an alternate dimension, which is a combination of multiple worlds and thus why we have a million characters from other games tagging along, and the only way to get home, I guess, is to stop whatever wacky evil is pulling the strings. During your soul searching you come to the aid of several other characters and form a party. Hijinks ensue.

Cross Edge isn’t a game… it’s an anime masquerading as a game. Usually, when a team spends any amount of time on a product, it doesn’t look like it belongs on the SNES, especially if the system it’s on starts with PS and ends with 3. In Japan, this game was released for the 360 as well, but we Americans only get to play it on the PS3. Ah, the PS3, whose entire operation hinges on the Cell microprocessor. The Cell is an amazing processor, outputting high quality graphics. So why, in the name of Kratos, would you release this game on the PS3?

With the exception of the extreme amounts of voice acting, Cross Edge could have easily been a DS, PSP or iPhone game that carried a $20 to $30 price tag. Though I believe 30 bucks is probably still too much for this game, it wouldn’t be the stinging slap in the face that requires a 50 dollar investment. I’m also relatively inclined to think that this could be a decent Tiger Handheld, but I digress.

In the end, this is a movie for collectors and fans with a casual game tacked on. The voice acting is quality and the actual character art direction (in cut scenes) is decent, it’s just not a game. What you’re really purchasing is an interactive movie that lets you change your characters clothes. If you’re a big fan of any of these series, I suggest you pick this up… when the price has dramatically dropped. Otherwise, give it a pass.

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