Review of CROSS†CHANNEL
| Subject | CROSS†CHANNEL CROSS†CHANNEL: Steam Edition |
| By | Helpfulness: 3 Vote: 4kengopilled on 2020-09-07 |
| Review | While my release of Cross Channel is likely not the best for an adequate review of the story, I could at least say one of my biggest criticisms of the game: Taichi. The other characters are most enjoyable to read about (and to even experience their perspectives from, as seen in this version of the game) but the protagonist himself is horrible. Taichi is interesting, definitely. He is someone we do not learn about truly until further into the game but the game itself does a poor job in having the reader want to learn about him. Taichi is a sexual harasser that is 84% nonhuman (mentally). The ending of the game shows Taichi saving all of his friends from the time loop that Cross Channel takes place in, almost showing the 16% of human that he is. Are they trying to make me sympathize for a sexual harasser? I definitely understand the idea that people can change and that the situation Taichi and his friends were in may have changed him thoroughly -- but the game doesn't exactly show that throughout the various loops leading up to Youko's. To put bluntly, he's still a dick until the very end. The ending was partially satisfying as seeing all of the lovable characters finally safe occurred but the way that they looked up to Taichi and how Taichi was painted as a good person in that moment was entirely unsatisfying. There's another criticism of mine: the story itself. The first visual novel I had one of my friends play was Cross Channel (which was likely a very horrible choice, but it was the one he was most interested in) and we both had a problem with the story itself. 1.) The story was hard to want to read firstly. There was no hook and that embarrassingly long prologue took an absurd amount of motivation to pull through. 2.) Despite the story being a good idea in itself (and having strong points definitely), the time loop made it repetitive. Obviously, a time loop will make things repeat, but Cross Channel does a rough job at making it intriguing. Because of Taichi, there was a great disinterest within me to want to read (but the other characters made it somewhat worthwhile). I rated this game a four out of ten. The art, the other characters besides the protagonist, and the music are all phenomenal and well-written. The story and the protagonist definitely knocked points off, though. Maybe playing a different release would have helped (even though my friend played the Amaterasu Translations version and I played the MoeNovel version only to have similar reviews), but Cross Channel is definitely a game that I wouldn't place high on a list. |
| 3 points |
