Cris Tales Review – Hour you doing?

All of time and space, everything that ever was or will be, and I’m genuinely fascinated by how a talking frog managed to get a cute little top hat that fits him perfectly.

Cris Tales isn’t exactly a hard game to explain, because at its core it’s a love letter to the Japanese role-playing games of the past, brought up to speed with more present-day ideas, and somehow manages to look forward into the very future with some fascinating gameplay design choices. At the same time, Cris Tales looks like a storybook come to life, as its rich and luxurious use of colour stands in stark contrast to its inspiration, a genre of gaming that’s usually populated by flawless rubber dolls who hurl magical spells at nearby dragons.

That gorgeous art design is in turn anchored by both a clever use of time-warping gameplay and a story that doesn’t pull any punches with its themes, characters, or consequences of trying to save the day. Admittedly, there are times when the turn-based gameplay of Cris Tales can feel a tad bit monotonous, but the game more than makes up for those few stumbles with its grand and wonderfully silly story. It’s a narrative that also feels just right because it taps into a force more powerful than time-bending witches or world-ending cataclysms: Hope.

Hope is such a powerful force in Cris Tales, a driving factor to make things better, and even when the incredibly optimistic main character Crisbell has her beliefs and worldview shaken…there’s still that flicker of charming and unflappable naivete that we could all stand to embrace in a world that has become a bit too dark. Crisbell’s journey is further enhanced by the characters around her, allies and enemies who all have their own stories to tell.

It’s not long before your entourage expands, with the elemental warrior Cristopher, the surly mentor Wilhelm who is trapped in the body of a child, JKR who looks like the long-lost brother of Genos from One-Punch Man, and my personal favourite, Zas. Have you ever wanted to hurl random weapons and spells of varying levels of destruction at your enemies, like some sort of murder-wizard with a severe lack of focus? Well there you go, Zas is the perfect character for you!

It’s pretty amazing for a video game to be dripping with so many primary colours, and yet it’s the grey nature of this tale that’ll make you think twice. Nothing’s really cut and dry in the world of Cris Tales.

For a game about time travel, Cris Tales certainly does require a lot of investment from its players. I’d ended my playthrough after around 30-ish hours, and I could have easily extended that to around 50 hours with all the side-quests on offer. The meat ‘n potatoes gameplay revolves around turn-based battles, utilising the unique strengths of each party member to take out the various enemies who gather on each side of the screen. As the main character, Crisbell has multiple roles in the game but usually serves as a Paladin: dealing out damage, keeping her party in the fight with her healing magic, and adding buffs to her posse.

Crisbell’s other unique trick is that she can use her time-warping powers to move the clock backward on her left side, or speed time up on her right side. What does that do? As an example, if one enemy has been poisoned and you fast forward time on their side, all the poison effects of multiple turns will hit them in one huge damage-dealing go. Other characters all serve specific purposes that make each battle a tactical use of their skills, such as Cristopher’s collection of different elemental spells, JKR’s double-edged offense, or Zas’s roulette wheel of misfortune.

This strategy grows during the course of the game, as soaking an enemy in water in the present leaves them all rusted up in the future. This loop can become a bit tedious as you progress and spend some time engaging in the good ol’ grind that RPGs are known for, but when you throw down with a number of bosses who’ll test your newfound powers, the system shines beautifully across the entire time continuum.

Outside of battle, Cris Tales also spends a lot of time on the idea of time travel, as Crisbell can see into the past and future. Numerous side-quests are focused on time manipulation puzzles that your froggy pal Mattias can interact with, and how your interactions impact the present and future of the land. There’s a certain charm to reuniting lovers from opposite sides of life together, by interacting with their past and then glimpsing into the future to see them happily united in marital bliss.

The big misstep though is in how Cris Tales concludes its incredible story, as the odyssey of Crisbell and her friends is an unsatisfying slideshow that strongly hints at a sequel instead of neatly wrapping the saga up. For a game that focuses on the ramifications of every single action that you make, being met with a vague promise of the future that’s summed up in a single minute is just an unrewarding end to an otherwise emotionally charged and memorable adventure.

That major stumble aside, Cris Tales still stands tall as a traditional RPG that’ll have you chuckling at the dialogue in one moment and reeling from having your worldview shaken the next. It’s compact in design but its world is dripping with detail and lush atmosphere. It’s also got one of my favourite soundtracks of the year, an epic arrangement of instruments and vocals that set the stage for each of the major kingdoms that you visit; and a quirky cast of voice actors who bring a nuanced life to each character that they bring to life.