Crystalis

Crystalis is an action adventure video game produced by SNK for the Nintendo Entertainment System and released on April 13, 1990 in Japan and in July of that year in the United States. The game was ported to the Game Boy Color 10 years later in 2000 by Nintendo Software Technology. Crystalis never became a runaway hit, although it is considered today a cult classic among other titles such as River City Ransom

Gameplay
The game plays in a similar way to other action RPGs. The player can gain levels by defeating enemies, which raise defense and attack. The main method of attack the player has is to swing one of game's many swords. As the NES controller has only two action buttons, the scope for many moves is limited, and so one button is used for the sword and the other can be mapped to any other desired action such as an item from the player's inventory or a magical power. This method of control is similar to the earlier NES action RPG; The Legend of Zelda. The main difference is that in Crystalis, the player is not limited to moving up, down, left or right, but can move on diagonals, allowing for smoother control. The game mechanics feel similar to SNES's The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The mechanics of Crystalis are best described as having The Legend of Zelda style combat well-blended with traditional RPG spell casting, gold collecting, and earning of experience points.

On the NES, Crystalis utilized the MMC3, a standard Memory Controller that allowed access to more than 32kb ROM.



Plot
Crystalis takes place in the year 2097, in a post-apocalyptic world, 100 years after a global thermonuclear war has reverted civilization to a primitive, medieval state where science is forgotten in favour of magic and fierce mutant creatures populate the scorched earth. What little remains of humanity has built a weapon of mass destruction known as "The Tower". The construction of this was aimed to prevent any more future cataclysms as its occupants have the power to rule or destroy the world.

A man known as Emperor Draygon has revived the forbidden ways of science and has combined this knowledge with magic to create a computer capable of simulating his magic powers. He controls the world's last remaining military power and is attempting to conquer what's left of the planet. To this end, Draygon is attempting to enter the Tower. To combat Draygon, good magicians have created four swords from each of the four elements, fire, water, wind and thunder. If the swords are combined, they create a sword made from a fifth element, crystal. The sword is known as "Crystalis". When Draygon learned of the four swords, he took them for himself. The swords were too powerful to be destroyed so Draygon scattered them across the land.

The player takes the role of a young 20th century boy who has been cryogenically frozen for 100 years. He awakens in the future and, assisted by four sages, gradually learns that he is the destined saviour of humanity whose purpose is to seek out another cryogenically frozen survivor, a girl known as Mesia, and to reassemble the 4 components of the legendary sword. Together they must defeat Draygon and destroy the Tower before it can end what remains of life on Earth.

In the end, the player discovers that the main character as well as the other frozen survivor, were both scientists who worked on the tower as well as the computer that controls it. Both of them were preserved to be awakened at a future date, at which time they would judge how humanity is progressing. Although evil does re-emerge, it comes not from the humans themselves, but from the android Azteca. Azteca was left behind by the scientists to guide humanity in a positive direction. However, he had been built too well and experienced negative human emotions. He cut off all these emotions, which resulted in a personality split. The negative emotions formed a personality that called itself Draygon, the enemy of the video game. After the hero defeats Draygon, he and Mesia disable the tower, allowing humanity another chance.

It is noteworthy that the plot of Crystalis brings focus to the tyranical Dragonian empire, which, itself, pales in importance when Azteca's split engenders Draygon. A loosely similar plot device is used in Final Fantasy 7 when Shinra Corporation receives initial focus as the chief villain, which is then brought to Sephiroth. Although not capitalized in Crystalis, the internal struggle of Azteca could also be paralleled to Cloud and Sephiroth's grappling with the Jenova cells present in their bodies at birth.

The game's story appears to be heavily influenced by that of the Hayao Miyazaki anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, as well as some aspects of the art design (for example, the giant insect boss in the swamp appears almost identical to the giant bugs seen in the movie).

Differences between the NES and Game Boy Color version


Nearly ten years after the game's initial release, Nintendo bought the rights to Crystalis and released it for the Game Boy Color on June 26, 2000. The remake is a wildly different game, exemplified by the opening that does not include "End Day" October 1 1997, where civilization nearly destroyed itself. It is largely seen as inferior to its NES counterpart due to the many modifications to the plot and gameplay. The change with the most impact is that the plot twist at the end of the game has been removed. The Tower is no longer an ancient weapon created by the game's cryogenically frozen protagonist, it is now a weapon created by the game's antagonist and the player is now a hero of ancient prophecy destined to save the world.

The reduced resolution of the Game Boy Color screen compared to that of the NES results in a field of view far smaller than the original, making the GBC port considerably more difficult as it is much harder to see approaching enemies in time to deal with them.

Other major changes include a completely modified soundtrack, retranslation differences (for example, Draygon is now known as Dragonia as in the Japanese version) and a longer end to the game incorporating a new dungeon and a new final boss which was excluded from the original due to space constraints. One gameplay adjustment in the port seen to be positive was that unlike in the NES version, enemies are no longer immune to certain elemental swords. This negates the need to constantly switch between weapons during the game.

Critical reception
Upon its release, it moved to #7 in the Top 50 chart of Nintendo Power (achieving a 'purple' color usually attributed to big movers). This can be linked to an initial review of the game by the magazine. However, a more extensive walkthrough never occurred (NP coverage stopped at the swamp area) and within a month the game disappeared from the gamer's radar, and consequently, the Top 50. In retrospect, Nintendo Power followed games developed exclusively for the American market, such as Snake's Revenge and StarTropics, which became runaway hits after full walkthroughs over several issues. Crystalis had no such luck. Crystalis did get an extended Player's Corner coverage by the magazine many years later. This was during the heyday of the Super Nintendo, and other games were given the same treatment such as Star Tropics and Destiny of an Emperor.

The original NES version of the game was praised for its advanced graphics and high quality soundtrack, and elaborate plot. The main criticism of the game was its repetitive gameplay as majority of the game's enemies can be overcome by continuous rapid pressing of one button, together with poor collision detection. The Game Boy Color port was not received so favourably, the majority of reviews citing it as an inferior copy due to reduced screen resolution and altered plot, as well as the fact that the game is seen as "out of date" compared to more recently made games. The port was given an 8.0 rating by IGN however which denotes an "impressive" game, but it should be noted that the reviewer in question had not played the original game. IGN criticised the game for being too linear and having a low difficulty level, but praised the game for its bright colours and collision detection.