Cross Tails

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Note: This review has been directly sponsored by a kind donation from Jamie and His Cats. Thanks again for your generous contribution!

Cross Tails is a Turn-Based Strategy-RPG released in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game takes place in a medieval fantasy world where different nations are peopled by humanoids with different animal characteristics, with this game’s two nations at its center being the Kingdom of Ranverfurt and its dog-eared and -tailed people, and the Republic of Hidiq with its cat-eared and -tailed people. These two nations have long been fierce rivals with a strong distrust for each other, but a skirmish on their border threatens to ignite that distrust and hatred into a full war. Cross Tails’ two campaigns, each taking place simultaneously and occasionally crossing paths, let players see this conflict from perspectives on both sides.

It’s a strong premise, one with the potential to play with a Rashomon-style take on showing alternate perspectives of the same events, or giving two pieces of a puzzle that can only be solved once joined. However, this premise is undermined by a few problems. First, the protagonist for the Hidiq campaign is a hothead whose refusal to listen to reason makes her pretty unlikeable. Second, in both campaigns your party has very few characters who actually play a role in the plot, with the rest being filled in by nondescript soldiers. And third, throughout the entire game there’s a pretty terrible localization that makes it extremely difficult to get invested in the plot.

This poor localization is compounded with an absolutely terrible “tutorial” that bombards new players with page after page of text without ensuring that they understand any of it. And while the localization isn’t quite as bad as Final Fantasy Tactics’ original release (“I got a good feeling!”), it’s worded awkwardly enough that adds to the confusion.

The rest of the presentation isn’t exactly fantastic either. I do give this game credit for having a decent (if not exactly memorable) instrumental soundtrack and some beautiful anime-style character art, but the actual in-game visuals use pretty unimpressive simple 3D with chunky-looking landscapes and squat chibi-style characters with absurdly thick cel-shaded outlines. I suppose it’s a distinct look, but I wouldn’t say it’s even remotely a good one.

For the gameplay itself, this is mostly pretty standard fare for a Tactics-style Strategy-RPG, but there are a few things to set this game apart, such as the Hate mechanic, which quantifies when a character’s actions make them more likely to be targeted after attacking enemies or healing allies. This game also directly ties character upgrades to spending cash, giving players more to think about when deciding whether to upgrade equipment or buff up a character… though this also means players may opt to grind more optional missions to work up the cash they need.

Personally, I don’t think any of the gameplay is outright bad, but I do think that what it does to set itself apart from the genre just doesn’t make it stand out enough from the numerous other great Strategy-RPG games on Nintendo Switch. Even if we just limit ourselves to Tactics-style games in the genre, when playing this game I felt I would much rather be playing a Disgaea game, Triangle Strategy, or one of the Fire Emblem games, or if we look at the broader Strategy-RPG genre in general there’s the Mario + Rabbids games, the Valkyria Chronicles games, and numerous others I could name that do far more to truly make their mark on the genre.

By comparison, Cross Tails is… fine. It has its flaws, but it’s not bad by any stretch. But there are so many other great Strategy-RPG games on Nintendo Switch that it’s hard to recommend this one.

tl;dr – Cross Tails is a Tactics-style Turn-Based Strategy-RPG presenting players with a pair of campaigns that show two different sides of a conflict involving nations of cat-people and dog-people on the edge of war. This is a decent entry in the genre, but the visuals are pretty bad, the localization is terrible, the tutorial is garbage, and overall the few unique gameplay mechanics on offer here don’t do enough to set this game apart in a genre with tons of great entries on Nintendo Switch. I do think this is still an enjoyable Strategy-RPG, but you have better options in this genre.

Grade: B-

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