Over the last week, Tristan has been taking a look at Fourattic’s 80s inspired action adventure, Crossing Souls. And for a while, things were going well. The story was performing an impressive balancing act of tone, combining a teenage coming-of-age story with the cheesiness of an 80’s cartoon. Heartstrings were tugged, nostalgic references were made, and delightfully dodgy cartoon cutscenes were enjoyed.

But then something happened. Something broke.

No, not literally. But somewhere in the game’s final hours, that perfect balance of tone collapsed. Interesting game mechanics became flawed and frustrating. And the difficulty shot up to levels that its gameplay just couldn’t match.

What you’re about to hear is Tristan’s chronicling of these events shortly after he encountered them.

Be warned, there will be spoilers for Crossing Souls’ story ahead, but they are important to hear so that you may fully understand what it was about these final hours that not only changed his opinion of the game so drastically, but made him give up on finishing the game altogether. For even a good game can be brought down by the execution of its final act.