Cris Tales is a gorgeous love letter to classic SNES RPGs including Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. It features turn-based combat with active button triggers in a time-traveling adventure to save a kingdom from the brink of destruction; therefore, the game's influences are quite apparent.
However, compared to some modern turn-based RPGs or even the aforementioned classics, Cris Tales can feel dated in some respects, although there is still fun to be had with the game. Cris Tales could just use a little fixing here and there to make it better, especially when it comes to the Switch version.
8 Add Autoplay Text
Most modern RPGs with text-based conversations like Cris Tales have an autoplay feature. This allows players to set the controller down for a spell to just enjoy conversations as if they were a cutscene.
If players want to skip the dialogue, then they can certainly button mash through text as well. Cris Tales does not feature autoplay, which is a real shame as it detracts from the overall experience and makes it harder to get into the individual scenes. While not all of the voice acting is great, even the bad performances are charming in their own way. Â
7 Add A Run Button
The first couple hours of Cris Tales are pretty slow, which is not uncommon for RPGs. There are a lot of tutorials, text, and backtracking before the game opens up more. Alongside that slowness is the literal speed that the heroine, Crisbell, moves at.
There is only one animation for her movement and it can make getting around a chore. Slowly trudging through dungeons sort of makes sense as they are supposed to be challenging, but the same cannot be said about towns. There should at least be a fast-travel system in towns to speed things up if the running action can’t be added.Â
6 New Saving Features
Saving in a modern game should be as easy as one, two, three. Cris Tales is backward in this area on two accounts. One, there is no autosave feature. This feature has been essentially a fixture since the HD era began in the mid-2000s, so to see it missing here is strange.
The other oddity is that Cris Tales uses save points. That is not that uncommon but it would have been nice if players could save anywhere and not just on the world map. Another new RPG, Scarlet Nexus, also uses save points, but they are not that far apart. That game also includes autosave. In Cris Tales, save points can be pretty hard to find at times in dungeons.Â
5 Heal When You Level Up
One of the reasons why save points are so important is because they are used to heal the party as well as save data. Players can use tents to restore all stats such as HP, a feature that is quite common in RPGs.
Another trait often found in these games is that when characters level up, they restore all stats. If this was the case in Cris Tales, it would make this tent and save point situation a lot easier to swallow. Even just allowing players to use tents whenever would be nice.Â
4 Lower Item Prices
There is another problem with the tent system besides the fact that they can be hard to use due to a lack of save points. It’s their cost. They are 10,000 marbles, Cris Tales’ currency, which is very expensive. In a series like Final Fantasy, tents typically do not cost any more than 500 Gil or somewhere close to that.
It should be mentioned that most early fights earn players somewhere between 400-600 marbles. People also need to buy potions and equipment for the journey, and these items are not cheap. Consequently, grinding for cash is more important than grinding for levels. Hopefully, these prices can be addressed in an update.Â
3 Adjust Random Encounters
Most modern RPGs have seemingly all but done away with random encounters. Chrono Trigger, which again Cris Tales was influenced by, was one of the first RPGs to buck the trend. It instead had monsters running around the field that players could choose to engage with.
Cris Tales decided to include random encounters. While taking them out now would be presumably too difficult, the developers could instead add an adjustable meter. The first Bravely Default allowed players to increase how often they encountered enemies or they could turn it down all the way to zero. More developers should have copied that idea.Â
2 Add Difficulty Levels
Cris Tales is not the most difficult game around. However, the first couple of hours can be brutal for a few reasons, mainly the lack of healing items and the overwhelming number of enemies. Late game stuff can also turn the game into a grind.
That’s why it would be great if the developers added difficulty levels. The more inviting a game is, the better chances someone will pick it up. Â
1 Unblock Screenshots On Switch
For whatever reason, screenshots and video capture are completely disabled on the Switch. This is a common practice for companies to use toward the end of games in order to avoid people spreading spoilers. To have a game blocked from the start is very uncommon and the only other one that comes to mind recently was Persona 5.
There are ways around those blockages with cheap capture kits, but it is an addition that doesn't fit the current streaming era. Updating the Switch version to allow screenshots and video capture should be prioritized.