Trials, Tribulations, and Ordeals: A CRYSTAR Review

By Anton Carino

Player(s): 1
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PC (via Steam)

Crystar is an action JRPG with a heavy emphasis on traditional hack-and-slash gameplay combined with a story featuring unique themes of catharsis and impulse.
 
Cystar's story centers around a reclusive high school student named Rei Hatada who finds herself in purgatory with her sister Mirai. Together, they explore their surroundings until suddenly, Mirai gains strange powers. However, due to her inexperience with these newfound abilities, Rei accidentally kills Mirai. Desperate to get her little sister back, Rei forms a contract with two demons, making her an Executor who is sent to cut down monsters in purgatory known as revenants. Along the way to save her sister’s soul, Rei encounters several other Executors, people who aid her as well as have their own trials and tribulations.

It’s definitely an interesting story thanks to the colorful, yet very limited cast, of characters presented in this game. Rei may have spent her life as a recluse but she isn’t miss broody-pants 24/7, she’s a refreshingly decent person who tends to distance herself a bit. As a result, her moral quandaries about her own mission of killing revenants is also well executed at times.

​Another thing that I took joy in is how the other party members in this game play off each other pretty well too. I genuinely enjoy how playful these girls can be with each other.  My favorite character is Kokoro who represents that one friend almost all of us probably has who’s always outgoing and ready to party as a means to distract themselves and loved ones from their actual problems. I also enjoy how shady the two demons are too. They give Rei her “Ordeals” or missions and send her off to kill revenants despite how she’d feel. Rei is constantly uneasy about this idea but it’s also somehow satisfying to see her stay motivated for her own beloved sister. If there is one thing that this game should take pride it, it’s the story. 

Presentation is all over the place. To start off with some good first, you’re treated to, for lack of a better word, gothic pencil sketches to introduce the pasts of Rei, your party members, and other revenants. This stylistic choice gives a cliché yet somehow subtle feeling of tragedy to these stories. When you are first introduced to purgatory, there’s a wonderful mix of colors that give an eerie feeling of beauty. It all looks so nice yet feels so wrong at the same time.

​I also love Rei’s room as a hub because every option such as music, changing clothes, or even looking at a compendium are lovingly depicted by Rei actually performing these actions in her room. When you decide you want to listen to music, Rei breaks out her Sony headphones, plugs them into her Sony phone, and listens to the really good soundtrack along with you. You even get to play with her dog, Thelema!

The game even has a dope anime intro that wonderfully sets the tone for the game as well as sprinkle references to its themes. However, there are cutscenes that take place with the in-game engine and they look awkward at best. The character portraits that show up during these sections are of course beautiful and even come with variants for each emotion or expression, but in the middle of these two portraits you see the 3D model’s static face sometimes when she’s supposed to be angry or crying. It’s so much more apparent when Rei needs to make a call and on the center of her screen is her near blank expression while the portrait on her right is doing all the emoting.

The combat gave me a good enough first impression. The controls are responsive, they move quickly, and executing spells is easy and satisfying. You’re also introduced to Guardians right off the bat. Guardians are this game’s version of Jojo stands or Personas, but what makes this game suffer so hard in my eyes is how repetitive it is to do almost nothing but fight specters and revenants.

There is barely any variety with the enemy types at least from a functional point of view. A lot of these enemies are approached in ways that are too similar to each other. The only strategy is to hit them a couple of times then dodge before they hit you, then dash back at them again. And this rings true for every character I guess except for Nanana. There are moments when I specifically stuck with Kokoro because she hit the hardest, making each encounter that much faster. Guardians barely fix this issue either because they’re functionally just an excuse to swing with even more reckless abandon or when you do have to fight an enemy that you have to dodge more than once, the Guardian protrudes your view, weakening its practicality.

I usually caught myself dashing through enemies just to make it to the end of the mission that much faster and that’s definitely a knock at this game. I’m particularly hard on this section because it’s definitely the element most players will spend the most of the time doing. As good as the story is, it will no doubt get tedious to witness a 5 minute cutscene only to do about 10 minutes’ worth of going through the same dungeon fighting the same enemies just to experience another 5 minutes of very charming dialogue. 

I know there’s passion behind this game, especially the story. It’s a genuinely heartbreaking tale filled with good tragedy and lovable characters who want to cheer themselves up as much as you do. As tragically anime as it can be, it’s also pretty relatable too with these characters wanting even the simplest yet most intimate comforts such as hugs and hand holding, but if the combat were just a bit better, with a little more variety, I could have seen myself enjoying this more.

If you can get used to some holes in the presentation and if you only play RPGs for the story while not caring that much about gameplay, I can say I’d recommend this game. If the story has already gotten you interested, then you’ll like it. Just be sure to play it on easy. It’s $60 on PSN and Steam right now which I do find a tad steep, but you can also do a lot worse. The game’s pretty lengthy already despite its lack of variety.

For More Information on Crystar:
https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/games/crystar/

Our interview with some of the Crystar creators!
http://a-to-jconnections.com/gaming/making-cute-girls-cry-an-interview-with-crystar-creators-fuyuki-hayashi-riuichi

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Story: A
Presentation: B-
Gameplay: D
Value: B-

Overall: C+

Pros:
+Very nice story
+The music is atmospheric, yet wonderful enough to justify an animation of Rei listening to it
+ Backgrounds are super nice
+Charming characters
 
Cons:
-Hack and slash gets repetitive and the options such as different characters and guardians don’t do enough
-The cutscenes played out within the in-game engine look awkward at best.
-Launch price is a little steep.

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