Me when I can't be bothered to write (lengthy) papers in college, but I can accidentally go about 4,000 characters over Steam's character limit for game reviews while typing out a review for a game
Guess what game it's for, by the waaaay (maybe I'll unconfirm ones that aren't it or just reply to this with the game in question when I whittle it down to under 8,000 characters and submit it?)
The game I was reviewing on Steam was Xross Dreams! I just suddenly felt in the mood to share my deeper thoughts on the game and I guess I got too carried away with talking about specific in-game stuffs and other thiiiings, heh. I always wonder about balancing between talking generally vs precisely about the game while writing Steam reviews, hmmm...
Anyway, that's just character limit stuffs. I might as well make a YouTube video reviewing the game at this point (actually wait, I already have too much stuff I wanna do, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA)! The Steam review I wrote for the game is here.
...Buuuuuuuuuuut, if you wanna see the full thing:
"...Meeeeeeeeeeeep, where do I even start with this game? I guess I can reiterate Xross Dreams' Steam description: "Head-to-head arcade VS game, where all the characters are puzzle games, you control 2 at a time, and everybody does their own damage." ...But what does that mean?
There are 11 different puzzle games that can be played, with 2 being original creations, and the rest being familiar puzzle games (Puyo Puyo, Super Puzzle Fighter, Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move, Pochi and Nyaa, Panel De Pon/Puzzle League/Tetris Attack, Magical Drop, Columns, and Kirby Star Stacker and...Tetris! ((forgive me for the spoiler, there's no spoiler tag on Cohost as far as I know)), and they can all be played against each other symmetrically (same characters) or asymmetrically, like Puyo vs Tetris in Puyo Puyo Tetris, for example. You can pick 2 characters and swap between them at will (or even force your opponent to swap or be stuck on their character for a certain amount of time). Pretty wild, huh?
"everybody does their own damage"
Holy. Heck. To bring up Puyo Puyo Tetris again, you know how Puyo always gets Puyo garbage (nuisance Puyos raining from the top) and Tetris always gets Tetris garbage (lines with 1-block gaps rising from the bottom) in that game? Xross Dreams takes it one step further by having each games' garbage keep its properties when sent to the opponent. This leads to all sorts of interesting interactions and consequences with the game's various matchups. If you'd allow me to nerd out for a moment: Fighter (Super Puzzle Fighter) sends timer pieces to opponents that turn into regular pieces after the opponent places down enough pieces, so their attacks can be reversed right back at them if they don't finish the job. Hive (Panel De Pon) sends horizontal shells that fall from the top of the board and can cover it up, forcing you to stack flat if you want to survive longer. Goddess (Columns) has the ability to destroy an opponent's current piece after building up enough energy to do so, my condolences to Super Puzzle Fighter players and their precious diamonds (clears 1 color from the board and only appears every 20 pieces) & Puzzle Bobble players and having to endure the game's RNG until you get just the right color.
I could go on and on, but you get the point (especially if you're familiar with any of the games I listed out earlier, I see you imagining the possibilities too .u.). I'm always intrigued by asymmetrical gameplay and this aspect of Xross Dreams alone is pretty hecking dope! You may have to play a bit differently depending on who you're up against, which is fun to account for. Combining that with the tagteam shenanigans (swapping to your other character, locking the opponent on their current character, or ejecting the opponent to their other character) and you've got what some peeps call the "Marvel vs Capcom" of puzzle games. Rightfully so, as the game's chaotic too! The art style's very colorful and eccentric, and the jazzy drum n bass music complements it all to make for one wild ride.
While vs mode is the game's main draw (especially since there's no "true AI" to play the game, I'll come back to this in a bit), there's also a single player story mode where you can explore the intriguing world of Xross Dreams and follow each Dreamer's plot. You'll be put up against enemies throughout your journey and you have to send enough garbage to top out their boards whilst they periodically send attacks to you (yeah, they're basically pretending to play their respective games). Some of these battles can actually be tougher than you might expect compared to other puzzle games and their story modes, which is a welcome challenge. The cutscenes in-between battles play out in sorta abstract, dialogue-free comic panels and while I may not understand everything (yet), I like how involved everything feels anyway. I also like that each character's plot connects to others' in one way or another, interesting stuffs! Lastly, there's a training mode for practicing all of the characters, and it has some pretty neat options for labbing to your liking: Spawning attacks from any of the Dreamers onto your board, the ability to save and load a board state, choosing the pieces you want to use next, etc.!
And there you have it, that's Xross Dreams! A very wild tagteam vs puzzle game with cool mechanics! ...Though I do have to mentions some of its roughness around the edges. I'll preface it all by saying that I still really appreciate this game's existence, but there's some things about it that might be off-putting to some. Here's a list of said thingssss:
Sorta vague tutorialization
The game does have tutorials for each of the characters, as well as brief descriptions on their controls and mechanics on character select, but you're mostly left to experiment on your own to figure out the basics, not to mention more advanced stuff to clear each dreamer's additional puzzles after their tutorials and just survive out there in a Dreamer Xross Dreamer world. There's also an in-game dictionary that details terminology and some mechanics, but you still gotta put the (puzzle) pieces together.
Confusing to grasp (at first)
All the insanity does make it a little hard to gauge what's happening sometimes, especially if you're just starting out. For example, some vs puzzlers like Puyo Puyo and Super Puzzle Fighter have numbers or some visual that shows how much garbage someone's sending. Xross Dreams does have visual cues for when someone's attacking, but it doesn't show how much, and that can feel unfortunate when you're trying to offset garbage (some characters can reduce the incoming garbage they're about to receive by sending their own attacks, and if it's enough, they can also surpass the amount of garbage they were about to be sent and send their own garbage instead). It's even trickier given the asymmetrical nature of the game. (I get the screen's already packed enough but aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!)
Also, there are some exceptions to this, but when a player sends enough garbage to kill their opponent and said opponent's about to receive the garbage, the game will play a knockout animation without showing the garbage falling onto the opponent's board. The animation is cool as heck with the defeated player's board getting xrossed (not crossed, xrossed out) and their pieces flying everywhere, but unfortunately the sudden deaths could make their causes ambiguous. This is especially apparent when you have a huge column on your board that's 1 tile away from topping out and the rest of the board is low, for example. If you didn't catch your opponent's attack before you died, did you die because your opponent popped off with a 10-chain on Robot (Puyo Puyo, do not sleep on this character by the way) or something, or because a singular piece of garbage fell on your super high tower? I sorta understand if the reasoning for the instakill is the scenario where a player's able to build more stuff on their board while their opponent waits for all the killing garbage to settle, then gets killed, though this already happens in some cases.
Balancing
This game is bonkers (and I have a thesaurus by my side and will use every synonym for "wild" in this review, just you wait)! That makes it pretty fun, though there's also some matchup concerns due to how it is. As of the game's current version at the time of writing this review (v1.35), Hive is extremely strong against all of the characters. I already mentioned before that her garbage causes you to have to keep a low stack in order to not top out immediately, but if you can think fast enough, you can top your opponent out without letting them place many pieces onto the board. Granted, Hive can fold under the right kind of pressure from opponents, but she can overpower others if you play her well enough. There's also Astronaut, one of the new puzzle game styles in Xross Dreams, who has a piece that occasionally spawns in the next queue or in new rows of pieces that are added over time: Slingshot. You have to time it properly when your opponent attacks but if you do it right, you can reflect an entire attack back at your opponent. It's huge and hype to pull off, but it also stings quite a bit for the opposing player if they had a huge attack going. Lastly, some characters that send "colored garbage" (can be matched with other pieces) can end up feeling like a bit of a pushover by practically sending material for the opponent to match with, and doubly so if said opponent sends "non-colored garbage" (can't be matched with other pieces, usually must be cleared adjacent to in order to erase them).
When comparing this to fighting games, almost all of the matchup shenanigans are justified as some characters will naturally be stronger or weaker than others. Thus, you'll have to play around your opponent sometimes, perhaps by swapping to a character that can deal with theirs better or forcing them onto their other character to be rid of the current threat for a little bit. Heck, change up your team if you have to go for the hard counterpick. There are options for the tough matchups, but they may not be available/viable all the time. It's honestly a tricky balancing act (pun intended), but that's just how it be.
Occasional glitches and crashes
I gotta mention that this game has seen rougher days around its launch day (and the dev was pretty active with patching stuffs early on), but there's still some lingering oddities here and there. Again, as of v1.35, Comet (Kirby Star Stacker) has a glitch where if they're about to die and you swap to your other character, both characters will die but only one will truly die and the other will disappear, leaving the other player by themselves and ultimately leaving the game softlocked. There might be a few other characters that don't play nicely with others, but yeah.
Online mode desyncs too much
Xross Dreams does have support for lobbies and quick matchmaking, as well as different regions to select, but unfortunately the game seems to eventually desync while trying to play online. I remember having a few matches that didn't desync at all, but they're still inevitable. As far as I know, I don't think this is a problem with rollback netcode (type of netcode that the game advertises having), but it's instead the implementation and handling of such internally, not that I know how to do netcode (I genuinely don't), but it's unfortunate nonetheless. Due to there being no AI for the game's vs mode either (which is honestly kinda understandable given the 11 different puzzle games, not to mention tagteam mechanics to handle on top of that), Steam Remote Play or Parsec (or anything else similar) is recommended if you wish to fight peeps over the internet.
And...there you have it, again. That's also Xross Dreams, as of now at least. I've honestly been on the fence at first with writing a review. At the same time though, I've been having a blast with the game so far. I loved the surreal story mode and occasionally collecting dogs along the way. (...Or right, at the end of each battle in story mode, a dog is presented to you and you have the option of petting, speaking to, or thinking about them. If you make the right decision, they'll be added to your collection which you can view from the "Dog" section at the main menu. I think there are some tells for which action you're supposed to do but I dunno. Maybe it's kinda hecky since if you guess wrong, you have to redo the fight to have a chance at befriending them again, oh well though.) I like the cast of characters and their personalities/traits. I like all of the counterplay and big brain moves you can pull off against others. I like that maxing out the score counter grants you a Terrifantastiperfect, an alternate win condition (yeah, the score is not just cosmetic flair)! And on top of that, IT PLAYS THE CREDITS FOR THE GAME BEFORE SWITCHING TO THE WIN SCREEN, AND THE WINNING PLAYER CAN EITHER SKIP THE CREDITS OR MAKE THEM ROLL IN THEIR ENTIRETY, PUZZLE GAME TOXICITY REAL???? I played this game with someone for about 7 hours straight, where there was plenty of tech-finding, playful banter, and insane chains/combos that was had.
I love Xross Dreams. OUO I'm hopeful that the game will continue to get supported in the near future and even with its setbacks, the game is still awesome and worth giving a whirl if you're a big (vs) puzzle game fan like me and you enjoy intricate/asymmetrical stuffs. Single player stuff exists, but vs mode is the main attraction, so having a peep to play with is recommended.
Sweet Xross Dreams, everyone."
