Second Look: Crystalis

In 1990, the SNK Corporation (responsible for the Neo Geo arcade and console systems and the King of Fighters / Fatal Fury franchises) released an Action-RPG for the Nintendo Entertainment System called Crystalis. Armed with a very modest advertising campaign and going up against an impressive list of heavy hitting titles also released that year, namely Super Mario Bros 3, the very first Final Fantasy game, the second title in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, and Mega Man 3, Crystalis went mostly unnoticed by most gamers and was almost universally overlooked. Quietly, however, Crystalis was developing one of the most passionate cult followings of any game released in the third generation of video game consoles, and more than a decade after it's original release, it has finally gotten the praise and attention it deserved to begin with.

Boasting one of the most intricate, elaborate, and engrossing stories to be offered in a video game up until that point, Crystalis focused on the adventures of a man who awakens from computer-controlled stasis to discover that the world has experienced it's extinction event due to nuclear world war. As a result, the few survivors have rebuilt their society as intentionally primitive, shunning science and technology in favor of the ancient ways of magic and sorcery. The remaining technology was used to build a floating tower that would loom over the planet, the operators of the tower using the advanced computer and weaponry system to keep watch on the civilization below in an effort to ensure humanity doesn't repeat the mistakes of the past.

As every game needs an antagonist, enter the evil Emperor Draygon, a sorcerer who intends to combine his magic powers with the forbidden technology housed in the floating tower in order to expand his empire and rule the planet. Your character, the man formerly in stasis, is deeply involved in the entire situation, but cannot remember why or how due to temporary amnesia. Luckily, you are guided along your quest by four wise men who will aid you in your journey, bestow magic abilities and items upon you, and are even good for some witty banter every now and then. The good news is: there is a dynamic weapon and armor system in place, accompanied by an expansive inventory mechanic featuring offensive, defensive and event-specific items that will all help you along your journey. The bad news is: the majority of the planet is bustling with monsters, mutants, enemy combatants, and minions of the Draygonian Empire, not the least of which are a handful of extremely tough Generals in Draygon's army.

Your primary weaponry consists of four elemental swords: wind, fire, water, and thunder. All are upgradable with supplemental items that unlock new functionality; an upgraded fire sword can melt walls of ice, while an upgraded water sword can create bridges of ice across rivers allowing you to enter previously inaccessible areas. These different swords have another use as well in that most enemies you encounter can only be defeated using one specific weapon, meaning approaching a dangerous creature with the wrong sword equipped can have disastrous results. There is also an expansive array of armor and shields available that have different defensive benefits, a valuable tool against the litany of status-effecting ailments you can be afflicted with.

As with any RPG worth it's salt, your attack damage increases as you level up, along with your health bar, your available magic ability, and your resistance to enemy attacks. Speaking of magic, you're given an impressive list of abilities that range from healing spells to the power of flight, teleportation from one town to another, telepathy that allows you to remotely contact the four wise men as well as communicate with animals. You can paralyze enemies as well as townsfolk, erect a protective barrier around yourself, and you can even magically take the form of other characters in order to elicit knowledge from people or to gain entry to specific areas. Your abilities in Crystalis, magic or otherwise, are so diverse and varied that it's frankly stunning this game was released in 1990.

Equally impressive are all the locales and terrains across the vast universe SNK created for this game. There are over ten different living, breathing, bustling villages to explore, each with unique characters, shops, quests, and some with secrets. You'll travel from deep valleys to snow covered mountaintops, from temperate fields of grass to desolate deserts, from lush forests to a lava-laden volcano. There's a poisonous forest you'll need a gas mask to get through, and a vast ocean to explore from the back of a friendly dolphin. Castles, pyramids, ghost towns, caves, caverns, temples, underground waterways, and remote island villages all serve to make your quest as incommensurable as it can possibly be. There's simply so much to explore and do that you can easily get lost in this game for hours, if not days.

One of my favorite aspects of Crystalis is the soundtrack. Despite the limitations of the 8-bit console, the music in this game is just as diverse and dynamic as the graphics and the gameplay are, meaning that the music for the open ocean is perfectly suited for the open ocean, as is the track for the trek through the mountains, and that for trudging through the desert wasteland. The music is appropriately matched with what's going on in the game so that it coincides with what you, the player are experiencing. If you're a fan of the soundtrack, you can find a number of updated remixes and reinterpretations of the source material at the Overclocked Remix website; clearly the original soundtrack was interesting enough to have a lasting impression on fans of the game and aspiring musicians alike.

Finally, what I think is the best part of this game is just how unapologetic it is. This game can get mind-numbingly difficult, especially towards the end, and it demands that you pay attention and be agile with your controller. You need to be wise with what you have in your finite inventory and sparring with how you use it, not to mention being extremely nimble when fighting enemies so as not to run out of supplies too early. Everything you have is at a premium, from health to magic to inventory, and you're going to need all of it to finish this game. A momentary lapse in attention can swiftly lead to a painful death, complete disorientation as to where you need to be and how to get there, or even put you at a total loss as it pertains to what you should even be doing next. And Crystalis doesn't apologize for that, it demands your full attention and expects you to work for your payoff. In the year 2000 this game was re-released for the Gameboy Color, and apparently they removed many of the puzzles and dummed down the difficulty quite a bit, resulting in an experience equivalent to being led around by the hand and given no challenge to speak of. They also completely overhauled the soundtrack, which is a travesty, and as such I urge you to avoid this re-release at all costs.

I can't divulge much more than I have as I would be treading into spoiler territory. And although it seems counter intuitive to worry about spoilers in a game more than two decades old, I'm avoiding them now because I strongly encourage you to play the game and discover everything it offers for yourself. Either find a good quality NES Emulator, or if you can get your hands on an original game cartridge and immerse yourself in the genuine article. Crystalis is one of the most fun gaming experiences I've ever gotten my hands on; it's rich, enthralling and captivating from start to finish. Unless you have an inherent appreciation for the 8-bit gaming genre, you'll have to suspend the graphic, sound and control expectations we've all become accustomed to over the last few generations of consoles. Sure the game looks, sounds and feels aged by today's standards, but it was astoundingly cutting edge when released in 1990, and it still shines just as brightly now as it did over twenty years ago in the one category that matters most: enjoyability.