Crystalis is an action RPG for the NES. It looks a little like The Legend of Zelda, but plays more like Secret of Mana. It also has a post apocalyptic setting that is a welcome change from the typical high fantasy setting that was the standard at the time.
The NES version of the game was developed by SNK, and the Game Boy Color port was made by Nintendo. I’ll be focusing on the NES version of the game, but I’ll bring up some of the differences between the two versions when I go over the story. They’re basically the same, but there are a few minor changes that don’t alter the overall plot.
I didn’t know about this game until I started collecting retro games. A friend of mine told me that if I liked Legend of Zelda, then I’ll probably like Crystalis. I remember getting it back in the 2000s, but I don’t remember if I liked it or not. From what I do remember, this is a difficult, but fun game to play, so I’m looking forward to it.
TLDR: A wonderful story with solid gameplay.
Narrative
The story for Crystalis is very good! I love the post apocalyptic setting and how the world feels like it has regressed into a high fantasy setting. I didn’t get a lot of science fiction or forgotten technology in this game. This setting feels similar to a Phantasy Star game, if they never left the planet.
The game takes place in 2097, one hundred years after a nuclear war that created mutants and reduced the human population. Magic now exists in the world, and there is still high technology, but not too many people know how to use it.
Because this is an RPG, there has to be some bad guy who is trying to take over the world. In this case, it is a man named Draygon, who has merged magic and technology. He controls the last of the world’s military and is trying to take over what is left of the planet.
Our protagonist awakens with no memory and goes on a quest to get four elemental swords and combine them into the legendary sword, Crystalis. Once you do this, you fight off Draygon’s four generals and then defeat his two forms. Then you have a final showdown with the real big bad guy.
It is a decent story. I was almost expecting a twist where it gets revealed that you’re Draygon, or a clone of him, but that didn’t happen. This is a standard save-the-world RPG story, and it works quite well for a game like this.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very good. The game plays a little like Secret of Mana, and while I don’t like the controls all that much, I think it is one of the better games on the NES. The user interface is a little wonky, and it took me some time to get used to it. It isn’t a big problem, and if I had the manual (Link), then I might not have had the issues I did at the beginning.
Much like The Legend of Zelda, you get a sword from an old man right off the bat. I think you can skip this, but you won’t be able to kill anything. There are five swords in the game, and four of them have elemental powers:
- Wind
- Fire
- Water
- Thunder
- Cyristalis
Each sword can be charged up, which increases the attack power, and at level 2, they can break walls. If you don’t have the right sword equipped, some monsters can feel immortal. I’m not sure how I feel about this, and I can see some people thinking it is frustrating, or something like that. It does give you a reason to try the other swords.
Talking to people is a little awkward in this game. The A and B buttons are assigned to weapons and magic, which means you don’t have a dedicated talk button. Instead, you just run into people and they start talking. I’m not too sure how else they could’ve done it, and after some time, I got used to it.
The towns are fairly basic. Many of them have an inn and a shop. Others also have a pawn shop and tavern. The pawn shop is where you can sell unwanted items, like old armor and shields.
There are the standard healing, teleporting, and status effect items. This game has everything you should expect to see in an action RPG. It is like the game has set you up for success, as long as you talk to the townsfolk and are willing to do a little exploration.
Boss fights are a little challenging. They each have a pattern that can take a little time to understand and exploit. Nothing is overly difficult in the game; it is simply more challenging, especially if this is your first playthrough. Thankfully, there are guides you can use if you get lost. This is the one I used for this playthrough (Link).
The gameplay is solid. Overall, I don’t have too many issues with it. There are a few minor annoyances with how you need to swap weapons around, but those aren’t a big deal. It just takes a little time to know what you need to do.
Visuals
The graphics are pretty good. While I don’t like how each sprite looks, mostly because of there being one dominant color for each of them, I do like the variety in the enemies you’re fighting. The towns, dungeons, and wilderness sections all look good.
Character sprites look good enough for the time. They are well detailed for an NES game, but there is something about the color scheme that bugs me. I think it is how they have a dominant color, purple for the main character, which feels odd to me. Looking at this made me wonder what the Game Boy Color port looks like, and at some point, I’ll have to compare them.
The towns look fairly simple, but that fits with the post apocalyptic theme of the game. The stages between the towns and dungeons look very good. The dungeons aren’t anything special, but I like how they’re laid out. This game looks better than many of the other NES games released in the late 1980s.
There is one thing that I don’t like at all. Enemies can appear on the screen a bit too quickly for my liking. This has more to do with me than the game, and if I were younger, I wouldn’t have a big problem with it. It does feel like the enemies appear with little time for the player to react, so they can avoid or attack them.
The cutscenes in this game are excellent! I love that this game didn’t just use in game graphics and created some comic book cutscenes. They look great and add a lot to the story.
Overall, I like the way this game looks. The graphics are better than most NES games. While I don’t always like the look of the character sprites, and the scrolling is a bit of a problem, the rest of the game is very good looking.
Reviews at the Time
For whatever reason, finding reviews from 1990 and 1991 was a little harder than I was expecting it to be. You can find them if you want to, but it is a little annoying at times. One thing I’m starting to notice is that you need to look for the reviews months after the game was released, especially if you’re looking in one of the independent publications (i.e., not owned by Nintendo or Sega). I looked at three publications for this: Nintendo Power, EGM, and VideoGames and Computer Entertainment.
Nintendo Power gave this game a 4/5. It also gave a walkthrough for the game in another issue. They put a lot of marketing into this game in their magazines, which shows that they really believed in it. At this time, they didn’t always provide information for their reviews aside from scores.
EGM gave the game a 7.5/10. They had four people review it, and the scores were two 7s and two 8s. The reviewers liked the gameplay and graphics, while adding that this isn’t anything they haven’t seen before. It is fun to read four opinions on a game and see what they focused on.
VideoGames and Computer Entertainment gave the game an 8/10. They had a few minor complaints, but said that they didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the game. The reviewer went on to say that “Crystalis has more than enough ingredients that guarantee a great adventure.”
Finding the reviews from the 1990s was a little hard to do. It seems that every publication I looked at loved the game. This was considered to be a great game. The scores didn’t change too much, and followed a predictable pattern of dipping down in the 2000s and coming back up in the 2010s.
8.5/10.
Pros
- Easy to Learn
- Fun Story and Setting
- Lots of Weapons and Items
- Good Graphics
Cons
- Some issues with visuals
- User Interface is a Little Annoying
Conclusion
I didn’t have too much to complain about with this game. It is a solid action RPG, and one of the better games on the console. I wish I had played it more as a kid, because I would’ve really enjoyed it. This is what I enjoy about retro games. You’ll almost always find something that you haven’t played before, or didn’t get into for whatever reason.
This game has some similarities with other post apocalyptic media where the world is destroyed by technology, and magic emerges. It isn’t a new idea, but I liked the way the developers handled it. It is a cool story, the gameplay is good, and I like the graphics for the most part.
This game has been on my list for a while now. Crystalis is one of those games that flew under the radar for me when I was a kid. I want to say that my friend Drew had told me about it before we started playing retro games in high school, but I could be misremembering that. Going back to play this game was great. It is a wonderful game.
If you liked this post, please check out my other reviews of NES RPGs, such as Dragon Quest II and Final Fantasy.