Indie Cross Is The Indie Collaboration We’ve All Been Waiting For

To create a lasting impression on a game, part of that job goes to the developer, and part to the player. If a player keeps talking about a game or supports it through the use of player-created mods, new support options, or even YouTubers playing it, it can make a game last way longer in the long run. But one of the most pivotal steps in keeping a game’s memory alive is fan-made animations, and Indie Cross is here to do just that.

Created by MORØ Productions, who are widely known for their fan-made animations regarding many popular Indie protagonists including Sans, Bendy, and a whole lot more. After a lot of teasers, he finally released the full episode, and to no one’s surprise it was perfect, he perfectly capitalized on the quirks of every character and what made them unique to their own game, while also juggling all of them together in one scene.

The general gist of the story for Indie Cross is that some sort of mechanical creature is hunting all these indie protagonists. Now most of them are still in conflict with each other and some of them, well, let’s just say MORØ chose some of them to be a bit, aggressive. Although the story is a bit sudden, the real charm here is the many diverse characters and how they interact with each other.

The most alluring part about all the characters is the time in their own story that they were picked up from. This means to say the time when they got transported into this new world and where they were from concerning their own timeline. Here I will also talk about every character’s uniqueness, voice acting, feats and so much more, so without further ado, here is every character that appeared in Indie Cross episode 1.

Frisk

Arriving from Undertale, we have Frisk, the child that fell into a world she couldn’t truly understand, and before you know it, she’s going on an adventure to defeat the ruler of this world and find a way home. Now this game sounds like cupcakes and rainbows, and if you follow a more generous path that is the path you get, but the Frisk in INDIE CROSS, took a different one.

It seems that the Frisk we see here is the result of a genocide run in Undertale. For those unaware, you can kill every creature to get the neutral ending, but killing everyone by first gaining their trust, and then killing them, leads to a genocide ending where Frisk slaughters everyone. Definitely not the experience I was expecting, and the reason the Frisk we see here is so soulless.

This is undoubtedly a great face for Frisk, not in the story, but as a character. She was plucked at the most eventful time in her journey, every other ending is happy and fulfilling, but this version of Frisk is corrupted, damaged, and with her knife, shell be wreaking more havoc in the future episodes, much I’m sure every viewer can agree on.

Cuphead

One of the more notable characters of this episode, Cuphead meets up with Shovel Knight where they have their own encounters with the mechanical beings out to kill them. After that, we enter a minor disagreement between Shovel Knight and Cuphead, where they begin a pretty fun fight highlighting all of the different utilities and special moves Cuphead had used in the past.

The voice actor for Cuphead is well-selected, he gives off the vibe of the same Cuphead we saw in the Netflix animated series. Cuphead seems to arrive somewhere after or before the events of the main game, but his abilities would suggest that he comes here after defeating the devil and saving all the souls of his previous enemies in his original world.

Shovel Knight

The one and only, Shovel Knight being here ties everything pretty tight together as you have humorous, terrifying, and emotional characters, but Shovel Knight is pure of heart, and this is something no one else in this cast can ever relate to. The voice actor for Shovel Knight also hits the right tone with just enough chivalry in his voice.

It seems that Shovel Knight arrives at this world just after the end of the main game where he reunites with Shield Knight. At the beginning of the episode, we can see that Shovel Knight yet again, for the third time, gets separated from Shield Knight. It is hilarious to see the creators go this far to keep the two of them apart for as long as possible, but her return is definitely possible in future episodes.

Madeline

An unexpected surprise, we have Madeline from Celeste joining us for the INDIE CROSS. Coming from a pure parkour-driven 2D platforming experience, I really didn’t expect to see her having a part here, mostly because she isn’t a combatant, but that’s where her counterpart, Badeline comes along, and acutely covers those criteria, quite excessively.

We see her dashing around just as she did in Celeste, right up until we see Badeline join in and help her, signifying that Madeline arrived here just as the original game was ending, seeing as how both the characters are working with each other. The voice actor and animation style for both of them was done exquisitely, so much so that it felt like an actual adaptation.

Hollow Knight

I have poured dozens of hours into the world of Hollow Knight, but it was kind of disappointing seeing how little he contributed during the run time of this episode. He used a few dashes and straight up got slaughtered by Frisk, only to go and reunite with his shadow just a little while later. It was wholesome to see Madeline share a few moments with him, but all-in-all it was pretty unsatisfactory.

I’m sure as the series progresses we will see the true power of the emotionless vessel that took down the Hollow Knight, but for now, his contribution is lacking, and his overall weight to the other characters and story seems very underwhelming.

The Beheaded

And finally, we receive a teaser for a beloved character, our very own, immortal, king of the shifting castles, The Beheaded. We can definitely theorize his move sets and weapons, but I’m more keen to see if he gets a voice actor or not. He definitely does show visible notations of conversation during Dead Cells, but not enough for him to get a separate voice actor.

Inspirations

Among many other series currently in the show, recent Indie titles like Pizza Tower may not be able to appear due to the course of the story taking hold, but the chance of seeing Binding of Isaac or Furi and maybe even Enter the Gungeon still seems probable.

While this show was inspired by previous iterations of videos produced by MORØ where he made multiple indie characters battle against foes of different genres, other newer Indie games and characters were also a form of inspiration for many of the fights and drives directions that the game took. With that being said, it could take some from many other titles, which could make it all the more interesting for viewers and future projects alike.

Unlike other games focused on characters, Indie Cross could try to implement features from other indie games. One example could be Total Reload, a new Portal-inspired puzzle game that comprises some unique features the animated series could use. Not only characters but stories and items from other games could also take part in the grand scheme of things.

Total Reload uses mechanics from games like Portal and adds their own unique twist into them, with the added uniqueness, it is very plausible that these mechanics could be incorporated into Indie Cross to keep many other games in the series overall circle. Total Reload is an upcoming game, and puzzle games like The Witness and some interactive titles like The Stanley Parable could have a place in the series.

The creator also made a tweet asking the fans what they thought were good or bad additions to the overall pacing of the show or the animation. Many users had some issues with the character’s models and MORØ clearly declaring bad Lip Syncing. But when the action scenes are this good and high quality, little hiccups like these don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Hey y'all! Just wanted to respond to common Criticism/Questions regarding Indie cross :)

I really appreciate everyone giving their opinions respectfully without any hate, Love you all!❤️

Read thread If you're interested pic.twitter.com/EoPVKDwFWr

— MORØ (@moro_production) May 20, 2023

This shows that MORØ really does want input from players and loyal fans of the series to make future episodes more authentic and true to each character’s original game. The video has crossed 1 million views and the more support it receives from fans and such, will eventually lead to faster and higher quality products, and for that, we the fans are waiting, impatiently.