Cross Edge is a game that you'll need time and a whole lot of patience to even think about playing.
Story & Characters - 6.5/10
The story in a nutshell is basically about characters from different games getting mashed up in a single world, only to find out when they arrive they have lost most of their memories. They all eventually meet up each other to join together and find the reason behind their lost memories and the world they have been brought to and to stop the bad guys from killing them for some reason or another.
The characters are fun and entertaining to watch. It's often nice to see how characters from different games interact with each other. The problem with the characters is that there is just too many of them. When you have more than 10 characters in a cutscene the dialogue tends to become long, drawn out and just downright pointless at times. It's a good thing that some cutscenes don't contain all the characters but then your sometimes like "hey where is so and so during this cutscene?"
Graphics - 5/10
The graphics are something that's either a hit or miss for most people. As some people won't mind the 2D sprites on PS3, but when you get right down to it, it's just poorly done. I've seen better 2D sprites on the PS2. Odin Sphere anyone? Which is exactly what this game (and other 2D JRPGs on PS3) should look like. The 2D sprites are average at best and leave much to be desired (especially on the females).
The over world is just a joke to look at and makes you think you really are playing a PS2 game.
There's a slowdown during battles sometimes and that's AFTER installing the game. And that's just inexcusable.
Sound - 8.5/10
The sound is the one clear thing that can be said that's good about this game. It's got Japanese and English audio. The English audio at times can be annoying but overall its done right and has no major problems to speak of.
The music is great but nothing really memorable and has a very nice battle theme that you'll be hearing many, many times.
(On a personal note a very minor gripe I did have with the sound is the sound of York's guns. I thought they would sound like well guns. Not Nerf blasters or cap guns.)
Gameplay - 7.5/10
The Battle System is a bit confusing but can be learned after sometime. It's very different from your standard JRPG affair and can be hard to get use to. Battles take place on a grid like field and your AP determines all of your characters actions from attacking to using items, to moving, to switching out party members.
There's a lot to learn and that's what makes the battle system intriguing and fun. Breaking out combos, EX Skills, and planning out your formation is the key to battles.
And with that there's just too much in the Battle System to be said in actual review. Just know it's different, which can be good or bad and there's a lot to learn and get use to.
When your not in battles your exploring the over world. Constantly searching out event points and souls (which give you items and weapons) to progress the story. It's a boring matter seeing as the over world is just dull with only thing to look forward to are Random Battles.
Difficultly in the game is something that I have mixed reactions about. It's not really hard. Its just time consuming, which is where grinding comes in.
(I put very hard for the difficulty because there's just no chance in hell that your getting through this game without a lot of grinding)
Grinding is a requirement for this game. The bosses are ridiculously overpowered and have a ton of HP (Sometimes its not the bosses but just regular enemies can provide a tough battle). This isn't a game you can fight your fair share of battles, progress, fight the boss, win and move on.
It's not really rewarding when you beat a boss simply because you had to grind a couple of levels to do so.
The Grinding not only involves leveling up but getting items to synthesize new equipment and leveling up that equipment.
Synthesizing is an important aspect to leveling up your characters and getting them on an even playing field with the Bosses. Synthesizing adds a layer of customization for your many characters because it adds stat boosts such as +70 to ATK, +LUCK, +500 to HP and so and so on. Synthesizing is almost the only way to get new weapons and armor (besides finding souls and chests in dungeons) Understanding synthesizing is a major part of the gameplay and is required to get though the game.
Conclusion
I've probably only scratched the surface of the gameplay but like I said it's going to take sometime to fully understand the battle system and get used to it but once you do it becomes fun and makes the grinding tolerable.
The story is nothing spectacular or moving. There's a plot twist that you can see coming miles upon miles away.
This is a game that begs for a strategy guide as there is no way to knowing most event points without it or to go back to get time sensitive events. (Events that happen after a certain point in the story.) Missing some events can result in not getting certain characters.
I've enjoyed my time with Cross Edge because it has different but interesting battle system and has a nice bunch of characters. But often found myself baffled by the overpowered boss battles and astonishing amount of grinding.
Don't play this game unless A) You can stand nearly an hour of grinding and 2) Have the patience to understand the battle system and the synthesizing
Rent this game if at all possible.