Crystalis

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy datesTemplate:Distinguish Template:Redirect Template:Main other{{#invoke:infobox|infoboxTemplate | child = | subbox = | bodyclass = ib-video-game hproduct {{#ifeq:|yes|collapsible {{#if:|{{{state}}}|autocollapse}}}} | templatestyles = Infobox video game/styles.css | aboveclass = fn | italic title =

| above = Crystalis

| image = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{#invoke:WikidataIB |getValue|rank=best|P18 |name=image |qid= |suppressfields= |fetchwikidata=ALL |onlysourced=no |noicon=yes|Crystalisboxart.jpg}}|size=|sizedefault=frameless|upright=1|alt=|border=|suppressplaceholder=yes}}

| caption = {{#if:Crystalisboxart.jpg|Box art from the original NES release|Box art from the original NES release}}

| label2 = Developer(s) | data2 = SNK (NES)
Nintendo Software Technology (Game Boy Color)

| label3 = Publisher(s) | data3 = SNK (NES)
Nintendo (Game Boy Color)

| label4 = Director(s) | data4 = Kazuto Kohno

| label5 = Producer(s) | data5 = Kazuto Kohno

| label6 = Designer(s) | data6 =

| label7 = Programmer(s) | data7 = Yukio Gu
F. Sasami
Satoru Okada

| label8 = Artist(s) | data8 = T. Furuta
M. Yamashita
Yoshihisa Maeda
T. Tokyo

| label9 = Writer(s) | data9 = J. Satoh
H. Kino
Kiyoji Tomita

| label10 = Composer(s) | data10 = Yoko Osaka

| label11 = Series | data11 = Template:If first display both

| label12 = Engine | data12 =

| label13 = Platform(s) | data13 = Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Color

| label14 = Release | data14 = Nintendo Entertainment System
Template:VgreleaseGame Boy Color
Template:Vgrelease

| label15 = Genre(s) | data15 = Action role-playing, action-adventure

| label16 = Mode(s) | data16 = Single-player

| label17 = Arcade system | data17 = Template:If first display both

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| below = Template:EditOnWikidata

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CrystalisTemplate:Efn is a 1990 action role-playing video game developed and published by SNK for the Nintendo Entertainment System. A port for the Game Boy Color developed by Nintendo Software Technology and published by Nintendo was released in 2000.

The game begins with a young magician awakening from the cryogenic sleep he was placed in by the villains of the Great War before nuclear war rained down in the year 1997. Even though he is unable to recall his name or who he was, he exits the Mezame Shrine and discovers 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 Draygonian Empire to ensure that humanity ultimately does not repeat the Great War.

The original NES version has been re-released via the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.

Gameplay

File:Crystalis gameplay.png

Crystalis gameplay, in the town called Portoa

Crystalis is an action role-playing game.<ref name="GameSpot" /> The world is presented in a top-down perspective<ref name="Gaming Age">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> so the player character can be moved in eight directions using the control pad. One action button is used for attacking with a sword while the second is mapped to either an equipped magical power or an item from the player's inventory.<ref name="GameSpot">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 which increases his level thus boosting his health, defense, and attack strength.<ref name="GameSpot" />

The primary means of defeating monsters is through the use of four elemental swords scattered throughout the game (the fifth sword, Crystalis, is obtained in the final dungeon). The swords are capable of both normal slashes and powered-up attacks that launch elemental projectiles.<ref name="GameSpot" /><ref name="All RPG" /> 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.<ref name="GameSpot" /> The elemental nature of each sword also provides a necessary means of traversing otherwise impassable obstacles;<ref name=HG101 /> 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.<ref name="GameSpot" /> Some enemies are immune to certain types of elements and must be killed using the opposing element (for instance, ice creatures are weak against fire). Also bosses and enemies require the hero be a certain level or else they cannot be harmed, even if the correct sword is used. 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,<ref name="Gaming Age" /> 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.<ref name=HG101 /> Science and advanced technology have been abandoned, with the survivors deciding to study the ways of magic.<ref name=HG101 /><ref name="GameSpot" /> 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.<ref name=HG101 /> A man known as Draygon, however, revived the forbidden ways of science and combined them with magic.<ref name="GameSpot" /><ref name="Gaming Age" /> 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.<ref name=HG101 />

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.<ref name=HG101 /> 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.<ref name=HG101 /> Together, they must defeat Draygon before he uses the Tower to achieve his evil ambitions.

Characters

The anonymous male protagonist (named SNK by default in the NES version, Simea 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.<ref name=HG101 /> 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.<ref name="GameSpot" /> They are encountered frequently throughout the game, and the player can seek their advice using the telepathy spell.<ref name=HG101 /><ref name="GameSpot" /> In the GBC version, the sages are each responsible for creating one of the four swords:<ref name="GameSpot" /> 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: 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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<ref name=HG101 /> 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.<ref name="HG101" /> In The King of Fighters series, Kensou is well known for his obsession with Athena,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a quality demonstrated even in Crystalis.

Release

The game was released in Japan on April 13, 1990,<ref name=":0" /> and later released in North America in July.<ref name="NintendoList">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name=HG101 /> This story sequence was used in the instruction manual for the NES version.

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<ref name="RPGFan" /> (Kensu's Body and the dialogue in the Dwarven village, for example). The game now has a different final sequence too: in the original, after defeating Draygon's two forms in the pyramid, a character named Azteca dies and then the players travel to the flying tower to fight the final boss DYNA, the computer controlling the tower. In the Game Boy Color version, the players go to the flying tower directly (which has been shortened compared to the original). Once inside, the players fight DYNA and then fight Draygon's two forms. The re-ordering of these last battles caused Azteca's death scene to be excised from the game. 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.<ref name=HG101 /> 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;<ref name="1up Console vs Handheld" /> some enemies can now attack the player from off-screen.

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection version

SNK re-released Crystalis for the Nintendo Switch in November 2018, as part of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection.<ref name="snk40th.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Nintendo.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Thumbsticks.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This collection, including Crystalis, was released in 2019 for Sony PlayStation 4 on March 19,<ref name="Playstation Lifestyle">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> for Xbox One on May 2,<ref name="MajorNelson.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and for Steam on June 7.<ref name="Gematsu">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam releases of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection mark the first time that Crystalis, a game once exclusive to the NES, had been made officially available outside of a Nintendo console.

Reception

The original NES version of Crystalis was praised for its advanced graphics,<ref name="All RPG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> high quality soundtrack,<ref name="Switch RPG" /> and elaborate plot.<ref name=HG101>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> For their review of the Nintendo Switch emulated port of Crystalis in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Switch RPG noted that "Crystalis features one of the best soundtracks from the NES era".<ref name="Switch RPG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="1up Console vs Handheld" /><ref name=HG101 /> The main criticism of the game was its repetitive gameplay,<ref name="All RPG" /> as many enemies can be overcome by continuous rapid pressing of one button.<ref name="RPGFan" /> The reviewer "Pocket Squirrel" also mentioned flawed collision detection in his review for RPGFan.<ref name="RPGFan" /> IGN ranked Crystalis #42 on its list of the Top 100 NES Games.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a score of 28 out of 40.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Famitsu writers compared it as similar to both Ys and The Legend of Zelda.<ref name=":0" /> 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In a retrospective, Kotaku stated that "Crystalis has flaws, but makes up for it with bold strides in its narrative and gameplay".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Switch RPG called Crystalis "easily one of the best action RPGs from the NES era".<ref name="Switch RPG" />

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<ref name="1up Console vs Handheld">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and altered plot,<ref name="RPGFan" /><ref name=HG101 /> as well as its being seen as dated compared to more recently made games.<ref name="1up Console vs Handheld" /> The music is regarded as one of the port's worst aspects.<ref name=HG101 /><ref name="RPGFan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="IGN" /> 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".<ref name="IGN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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".<ref name="GameSpot" />

External links

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