Crystalis

Crystalis
Box art from the original NES release.
Developer(s) SNK (NES)
Nintendo Software Technology (Game Boy Color)
Publisher(s) SNK (NES)
Nintendo (Game Boy Color)
Director(s) Kazuto Kohno
Producer(s) Kazuto Kohno
Programmer(s) Yukio Gu
F. Sasami
Satoru Okada
Artist(s) T. Furuta
M. Yamashita
Yoshihisa Maeda
T. Tokyo
Writer(s) J. Satoh
H. Kino
Kiyoji Tomita
Composer(s) Yoko Osaka
Platform(s) Nintendo Entertainment System
Game Boy Color
Release NES
GBC
Genre(s) Action role-playing, Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Crystalis, originally released in Japan as God Slayer: Haruka Tenkū no Sonata (ゴッド・スレイヤー はるか天空のソナタ, lit. "God Slayer: Sonata of the Far Away Sky"), is a 1990 action RPG/action-adventure video game produced by SNK for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Though Crystalis never became a runaway hit, it is now considered a cult classic. The game's initial success prompted a release for the Game Boy Color by Nintendo Software Technology in 2000, which is generally considered more of a remake than a simple port.[1] Many changes were made to the story, music, and other aspects of the game, upsetting fans of the original.[2]

The game begins with a man's awakening from a cryogenic sleep one hundred years after a global nuclear war. Even though he is unable to recall his name or who he was, he begins to discover that he may be the key to save this world from destruction. Aided by four wise sages and a mysterious woman, he rises up against the tyrannical Draygonia Empire to ensure that humanity ultimately has a future.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Crystalis is similar to that of other action RPGs.[3] The world is presented in a top-down perspective[4] so the player character can be moved in eight directions using the control pad. One action button is used for attacking with a sword, and the second is mapped to a chosen action, such as a magical power or an item from the player's inventory.[3] The start and select buttons bring up the status screen and the inventory menu, respectively. In addition, the player can equip various suits of armor and shields. Defeating monsters allows the player to gain experience points and levels, which boost his health, defense, and attack strength.[3]

The primary means of defeating monsters is through the use of the four swords scattered throughout the game (the fifth sword, Crystalis, is only obtained at the very end). The swords are capable of both normal slashes and powered-up attacks that launch energy projectiles.[3][5] Each of the four swords is imbued with a distinct elemental power (wind, fire, water, and thunder), making each sword more effective than the others in various situations.[3] The elemental nature of each sword also provides a necessary means of traversing otherwise impassable obstacles;[2] certain barriers succumb to the power blasts of individual swords, and the Sword of Water creates a bridge of ice across some shallow, narrow sections of rivers.,[3] also some enemies are immune to certain types of elements and must be killed using their opposite element (for instance, ice creatures are weak against fire). Also some bosses and enemies require the hero be a certain experience level or else they cannot be harmed, even if the correct sword is used.

The game features a top down view, and the ability to move in eight directions. The player can also jump over enemies, and certain enemies can form puddles to slide under the sword's reach.

Synopsis

Plot

Crystalis takes place in a post-apocalyptic world,[4] in 2097, one hundred years after "1997, October 1, The END DAY," when a global thermonuclear war began that reverted civilization to a primitive, medieval existence populated with fierce mutated creatures.[2] Science and advanced technology have been abandoned, though the old ways of magic have survived.[2][3] The survivors of the destruction built a floating "Tower" to prevent any future cataclysms, as its occupants would have the power to govern the world due to the Tower's weapons systems.[2] A man known as Emperor Draygon, however, has revived the forbidden ways of science and combined them with magic.[3][4] With these skills, he controls the world's last remaining military power and seeks to conquer what is left of the planet by attempting to enter the Tower.[2]

The protagonist awakens with no memory, but, guided by four wise sages, gradually learns that the world is sinking into turmoil due to the Draygonia Empire's destructive influence.[2] Entrusted with the Sword of Wind, he seeks to aid Mesia, another survivor from his time, and to combine the four elemental Swords of Wind, Fire, Water, and Thunder into the legendary sword, Crystalis.[2] Together, they must defeat Draygon before he uses the Tower to achieve his evil ambitions.

Characters

The anonymous male protagonist (named Simea by default in the Game Boy Color version) and his female accomplice, Mesia, are scientists who were cryogenically frozen, to be released when the tower began to activate.[2] The protagonist is assisted by four sages named Zebu, Tornel, Asina, and Kensu, primarily in learning magic spells and gaining information about the world and the quest.[3] They are encountered frequently throughout the game, and the player can seek their advice using the telepathy spell.[2][3] In the GBC version, the sages are each responsible for creating one of the four swords:[3] Zebu for Wind, Tornel for Fire, Asina for Water, and Kensu for Thunder. The original game does not mention who forged the ancient swords.

There are also four recurring boss characters, "Dragonia's Finest Four." Comprising this group are a warrior named General Kelbesque, Sabera the Witch, the Swordsman Mado, and Karmine the Wizard. Each of them has a distinct elemental weakness and, with the exception of Karmine, each is encountered twice during the adventure.[6] Though not the final adversary in the game, Emperor Draygon is the ultimate antagonist and the root of all of evil in Crystalis. After defeating his false self, the hero encounters the real one and reveals his true, dragon-like form. After defeating the real Draygon, the hero gains access to the Tower for a final showdown[2] with a machine called DYNA.

Development

Two of the characters from Crystalis are subtle nods to earlier SNK characters who later became part of The King of Fighters series; the latter two sages, Kensu and Asina, are based on Kensou Sie and Athena Asamiya from the Psycho Soldier arcade game.[2] In The King of Fighters series, Kensou is well known for his obsession with Athena,[7] a quality demonstrated even in Crystalis.

Release

The game was released in Japan on April 13, 1990,[8] and released in North America in July 1990.

Game Boy Color version

Nearly ten years after the game's initial release, Nintendo, with licensing from SNK, re-released Crystalis for the Game Boy Color on June 26, 2000. This version, however, is a significantly different game, exemplified by a different opening sequence. The nature of the Tower's origin and its purpose were fundamentally altered, with the Tower now being a weapon created by the game's antagonist, and the protagonist has been elevated to a hero of ancient prophecy destined to save the world.[2]

Other major changes include an almost completely new soundtrack, re-translation differences (for example, Draygon is now known as Dragonia, as in the Japanese version) and rewriting of story-items and events[1] (Kensu's Body and the dialogue in the Dwarven village, for example). The game now has a longer end due to the incorporation of a new dungeon,[3] the Tower dungeon being redone, and the re-ordering of the ultimate and penultimate boss battles,[2] which were excluded from the original game due to space constraints (Draygon's second form serves as the final boss in the remake as opposed to DYNA).[9] Also, a digital voice was added to state the name of each sword upon discovery.

Unlike the original version, enemies are not immune to certain elemental swords.[2] The lower resolution of the Game Boy Color screen, compared to that of the NES, results in a field of view smaller than in the original, making the GBC port more difficult;[9] some enemies can now attack the player from off-screen.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
Famitsu28/40 (NES)[8]
GameSpot8/10 (GBC)
IGN8/10(GBC)

The original NES version of Crystalis was praised for its advanced graphics,[5] high quality soundtrack, and elaborate plot.[2] Critics remarked that the story and art design seemed to draw heavily from the Hayao Miyazaki anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.[9][2] The main criticism of the game was its repetitive gameplay,[5] as many enemies can be overcome by continuous rapid pressing of one button.[1] Pocket Squirrel also mentioned flawed collision detection in his review for RPGFan.[1]

The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a score of 28 out of 40.[8] Famitsu writers compared it as similar to both Ys and Legend of Zelda.[8] In December 2005, Nintendo Power ranked the NES release of Crystalis at number 115 in a list of the 200 best games ever to appear on a Nintendo system, the "NP Top 200".[10] 1up.com called it a "hidden Gem" for the NES, and said it was one of the better games inspired by Zelda on the system, contrasting it with Willow, which they said was quite poor.[11]

The Game Boy Color port was not received as favorably, the majority of reviews citing it as an inferior copy, due to reduced screen resolution[9] and altered plot,[1][2] as well as its being seen as dated compared to more recently made games.[9] The music is regarded as one of the port's worst aspects.[2][1][12] The port was given an 8.0 rating by IGN, however, which denotes an "impressive" game. IGN criticized the game for being too linear and having a low difficulty level but praised its large world and visually detailed "cinema cutscenes".[12] GameSpot also gave the Game Boy Color port an 8.0, saying of the original NES release: "Crystalis' sheer depth - and the quality of its presentation - was without peer, and it is still regarded as a milestone title in the [action RPG] genre."[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pocket Squirrel. "Crystalis (Game Boy Color) Review". RPGFan. Archived from the original on 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Greene, Robert. "Hardcore Gaming 101: Crystalis". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on March 29, 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Lopez, Miguel. "Crystalis for Game Boy Color Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  4. 1 2 3 Allen, Jason. "Crystalis Review for Game Boy Color". Gaming Age. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
  5. 1 2 3 Caldwell, Adam. "Crystalis (NES) Review". All RPG. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  6. ↑ Sinistral. "Crystalis Shrine - Bosses". RPGClassics. Archived from the original on 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  7. ↑ "Sie Kensou Profile". gamegen.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-08. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "ゴッドスレイヤー はるか天空のソナタ". Famitsu. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Console vs Handheld : Crystalis". 1up.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  10. ↑ "NP Top 200". Nintendo Power (198). December 2005.
  11. ↑ "Hidden Gems: The Rest of the NES". 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  12. 1 2 Harris, Craig. "Crystalis (Game Boy Color) Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
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