Crystal Project

I cannot believe how much I enjoy this game. It is a triumph of what can be done if you have good ideas but limited resources. Very much looking forward to the sequel!

Best JRPG

This is the best JRPG ever created.

According to the Oxford dictionary, the term "adventure" is a noun defined as "an unusual, exciting or dangerous experience, journey or series of events", as well as "excitement and the willingness to take risks, try new ideas, etc." Crystal Project is an excellent example of adventure, both countable and uncountable, and by far one of the most profoundly engaging games I've played in a long time. The story is nothing but garnish on the dish: it is there, it will flavor your experience here and there, but will only add to the adventure rather than dictate it. You will not play this game for an amazing or interesting story that will keep you coming back. Your journey is the story, instead. What you do is what matters whether it is exploring, finding crystals, creating the strongest 4-person party, something else or all of the above. The real meat and potatoes of this figurative dish is the world you inhabit. The world you are navigating is varied, wide and tall. Very tall and almost effectively as deep. Do be warned if you have a fear of heights, because this game will provoke that fear often. A fear of heights will especially be a problem, as most of the game is explored by platforming and similar means, which can take you pretty high up. That said, the camera or an atmospheric fog may abate this issue slightly if you have a severe or moderate fear of heights. With that aside, there's a lot to find and explore and discover. From start to finish I was doing all three of these things and then some. You don't usually enter a new area with its map going in, so finding that is always a top priority. Exploring the region leads you to monsters and loot and maybe a nice view, or somewhere to rest and someone to meet. In the meantime, you may also discover a new way to get around or the entrance to a dungeon, a new zone, or even a crystal. There are shortcuts, roundabouts, connections between areas that you wouldn't expect, secret zones and dungeons, and so, so much more. Nothing I could tell you (without spoilers) would do it justice. There's a whole world out there that is begging to be explored and will reward you for doing so. That's the whole point of the game: to have an adventure. While you're out there exploring and adventuring, the music will be with you. The soundtrack is immaculately optimistic, sometimes wistful, and other times ominous or otherwise fitting for wherever you've ended up. I haven't found a single odd or grating track throughout my entire time playing. They all transition seamlessly throughout the various areas and zones all around the world; which is also the only thing even remotely reminiscent of a loading screen in the entire game. There are no load zones. Everything is practically seamless. Combat is a standard turn-based setup reminiscent of Final Fantasy, as is the class system similar to Final Fantasy 5. Each class has a skill tree that unlocks skills and equippable passives and you can even "equip" two different classes as a primary and secondary combat command list. Threat is another combat feature that you'll have to juggle, as it dictates how monsters interact with your party. Whichever party member has their attention will take the brunt of their attacks. Classes such as Warrior can handle this, but damage and healing also affect threat. Casting takes time, too, so timing plays a part of combat as well. The turn order, thankfully, is always displayed at the bottom of the screen during combat. Now with most of my glazing out of the way, it wasn't all perfect all the way to the finish line. There are no "cheap" or "trash" monster encounters ever. Every single enemy, unless you massively out-level them, is not mindlessly easy to fight. If you aren't careful or prepared, you can wipe out in the field without a boss monster in sight. Going into this game blind (as you should), left me unaware of this for a while. This fact got me tripped up multiple times and resulted in party wipes that set me back a lot of time. Mostly in travel and money. Stay ready and prepared. Boss monsters are also challenging, even on Normal difficulty. They will always test your party and your skill no matter the level, and sometimes they require minor or major party overhauls to defeat them. There's always a way to defeat a boss, but it may require some extra time, effort, thinking, or all of the above based on what you've got. Maybe you'll have to simply come back later. Maybe you need a specific item, spell or game plan. Either way, you'll have to figure them out. With every crystal you get, the more options you'll have to complete the puzzle. I most certainly struggled when there was a tangible increase in difficulty after reaching a central place (you'll have to find out where and what that is). Discovering new items and resources eased the strain and getting familiar with new places made it easier to dodge or avoid enemies until I was more ready. Beware the lightness of your wallet if you decide to rest often, which you likely will. It's a vicious cycle, but it helps you continue to explore more and more. It gets even easier to explore once you uncover better and more convenient ways to get around, but it never goes as far as modern fast travel. You wouldn't be able to have an adventure if you teleported to any and every place you've ever been! My struggles with the game only made achieving progress and discovery even better than they would've been alone. Crystal Project is an amazing experience that emphasizes adventure and exploration in ways that other RPGs simply do not. It is rare to find an adventure that lets you go any which way and discover something new or interesting on your own terms. By your own hands you will have an adventure. On your own terms you obtain every last bit of progress you want. If you cannot afford the full price tag, at the very least try out the generous demo. Any save game you have in the demo can also transfer over to the full game. The single developer deserves all the support they can get for making such a unique game. I highly recommend Crystal Project so damn much despite its flaws. Try it.

Great game

THIS is what i've been looking for! The ultiamte Final Fantasy-like game, no long cutscenes, straight up gameplay focus, useful NPC dialogues, amazing exploration and a cheap price. What else can i say to convince you?

The game is alot of fun and provides very much good content for its low price. Exploration is fun and rewarding and combat is mostly balanced minus a few (optional) bosses in the late game which almost require you to have specific setups or are simple dps checks (especially the hard version of the final boss). Now granted i also did play on hard mode. other than that the game doesnt do much wrong. build choice are plenty and you can easyly respec and mix and match classes without much effort and investment once you are at the 50-60% mark (before that its rather pricy, but stat min maxing is hardly needed at that point). the game also offers alot of qol features. the only "bad" system is the need the lvl you class skills for EACH char. so if fight x may "require" passive from subclass x you have to lvl said class skills for each char (bassically 20-60 minutes of mindlessly killing weak mobs) to get the required learning points. granted you only have to do it once for each char but it still is fking anoying to waste 30 min just to test a setup that may or may not work on boss xyz for each class of every char. hope the dev fixes that in the sequell and simply unlocks skills partywide. all in all 8/10 extremly good rpg with a few minor problems.

There aren't many things quite like Crystal Project. If the premise sounds cool to you, it's probably worth giving it a go.

I like it

This one is outstanding. The addition of a platforming dimension makes the world-trekking feel less like a slog through increasingly asinine RPG-maker mazes (looking at you, Last Dream) and more like a charming jaunt through an environment hand-crafted by someone who likes fun and really cared about their work. It's a little frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of how it's all laid out, you'll find yourself building little maps in your head to scope out every corner of an area. It will be several hours before you get access to a mount, so it feels very rewarding once you do. You'll find yourself appreciating your newfound mobility and looking forward to the next. The world which seems reasonably zoned out at first slowly reveals itself to be one continuous landscape with many interconnections and hidden corners, so exploration never feels wasted. The combat is really good. I have two complaints: there is no quick-battle function to speed up animations, and there's no way to undo your previous character's command even if it hasn't been executed yet. However, the game is engaging enough that you'll find yourself settling into its intended pace & you'll learn to be adequately careful in selecting commands for your fighters. Being able to equip two different class abilities on each character opens up a world of strategy, synergy, and broken build potential. Once you get used to it, you'll find yourself scouring the passives of various classes and min-maxxing. The perceptive among you will drop everything get the coveted regen 15% health for 6 turns on every one of your fighters... at least, that's what I did, and I would do it again! The maker of this game seems to have a beef with items. I get it. Items are a bit broken in this type of game... looking at you again, Last Dream. You'll quickly find yourself ignoring the resurrection items because, by that point, you'll already have the ability to raise your dead with both AP and MP. Money is scarce, so you probably aren't buying items unless you're in dire straits, and you'll end up forgetting you have them unless you run out of MP, which you shouldn't, because you should've gotten the auto-MP-regen passive ability on all your mages and you're a fool if you don't. By the time the Chemist class is unlocked, then, you feel a bit disappointed. A whole class just to use items in battle? And the healing is worse than it is outside of battle? It hardly feels worth it when you can focus on DPS, total MP growth, or training up a bunch of clerics. Maybe I just don't get it, but I hate a class that requires items to use its skills when those items are inherently limited by cost & small carrying capacity. To reiterate, though, I understand why the game is built this way. If every character could use items anytime, it would trivialize many of the battles and obviate the numerous other mechanisms for recovering your stats. This is a fair and reasonable balance choice. Anyway, you know, who cares? Platforming is fun, the world feels large and worth exploring, and the classes are interesting enough that you're compelled to get a bunch of them and grind their unlocks. I'm having a good time. I expect I'll be playing this for quite a while longer.