A Battle That Transcends Time Itself
The opening cinematic for the upcoming time travel RPG Cris Tales has dropped and it looks absolutely amazing. That isn’t exactly a surprise, as Cris Tales looks amazing overall, but it’s still great to see. Under ordinary circumstances, the opening movie of a game–particularly an RPG–showcases the characters and world using higher animation quality than the game itself offers, but Cris Tales is an exception. By which we mean, the opening movie looks like it contains game-accurate graphics, because the in-game graphics look like an animated Disney movie. The special effects are gorgeous, the character designs are vibrant, and the imagery is gorgeous. If you haven’t seen the opening video yet, here it is.
The video opens on a peaceful scene of the protagonist Crisbell picking flowers before immediately cutting to a town on fire. Two of the apparent villains are shown soaring through the sky, wielding spiked shields. Just as Crisbell is bracing herself to be attacked, the fire disappears, and she finds herself back in the flower field, a visual illustration of one of the game’s time travel mechanics. Now that she knows what she’s fighting to prevent, Crisbell leaps into action, grabbing a sword and posing dramatically with two of her party members. The next section is dedicated to showing off some striking monster designs and some very fluid combat. Cue the title.
After that, the opening movie highlights the game’s environment as well as Crisbell’s ability to experience the past, present, and future all at once. This scene blends smoothly into another high-octane action sequence starring another party member, then takes a turn for the worse when the game’s main antagonist, the Empress of Time, makes her appearance. It appears to conclude with the planet being destroyed before a slow pan up from the destruction reveals that it was Crisbell having a vision of what her failure would mean. We think. Honestly, that last bit is kinda confusing, but it’s absolutely gorgeous and we’re sure it will make sense after the full game is released.
Cris Tales will be available on PC and consoles on July 20th. It is now available for pre-order.
What’s your favorite game about time travel? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.