The cheaty gameplay isn’t that bad, as long as it’s not the first playthrough. It’s definitely way too easy to give you a sense of accomplishment against all odds, but it also allows you to skip all the grind and the sidequests that you should’ve already done (as those, AFAIK, have no Lea-dependent dialogue).
I didn’t know Iconoclasts was usually compared to CrossCode!
I can’t really see any similarities. It’s a great game, definitely on the level of CC if a bit less git gud in nature, but the only similarity I can think of is both games using pixel art.
Signalis (low-poly (not that you can notice), low-res, CRT effect)
CrossCode (2D, low-res)
Valheim (low-poly, low-res, still graphically intensive due to lighting)
Lethal Company (low-res, bitcoin miner levels of GPU load)
Super Alloy Ranger (2D, low-res)
Terraria (you know Terraria, don’t lie)
Iconoclasts (2D, low-res)
Starbound (Terraria, but a bit worse and in space)
I don’t think these games aim for nostalgia, nostalgia alone is not a good reason to choose low-poly or low-res graphics.
Low-res textures and sprites have the advantage of being much easier for artists not only to hand draw, but to explicitly choose what details to give to a certain surface.
3D games with low-res rendering also have their own appeal, like you say: they tell you what you’re looking at but still leaves your imagination the burden of filling in the details.
To me low-poly models don’t really have their own appeal, unlike pixelated visuals, however I also don’t mind them at all.
I still occasionally play games like Perfect Dark and TLoZ: OoT on their recompiled PC ports, they look good despite their low-poly nature because they don’t need high-poly models and their animations would look uncanny if they did (goofy ahh textures though).
However, there are some retro effects that I find to be straight up ugly: Signalis applies a CRT effect occasionally, which I can’t say I’m fond of.
With the last two big things I’ve heard about (Yuzu and… Dolphin, I think?) they were legally in the right, but at least where I live there is absolutely no way to spin a recompiler + asset extractor as something illegal - they can’t even claim the developers are circumventing DRM, because OOT and MM didn’t have any.
Though, I would not be surprised if there’s something in US law that can be exploited for this.
I don’t think it’s that bad compared to X3, in fact I would say X3 is a better candidate than X4 for a “love/hate” award due to the almost constant jank and the… harsher consequences of unplanned rapid deceleration.