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chuckroThis was known in the US as Crystalis, but I played the Japanese version with a fan translation patch. While a lot of the town and character names are changed in minor ways, the real meat of the retranslation was restoring the religious overtones of the introduction and a bunch of the dialogue.
The plot of the game is definitely clearer in this version (and I had forgotten both how much was outright contradictory in the NES manual, and how much it had been cut down and streamlined for the GBC version of the game), though the names of various items are a bit less evocative. The big twist that Azteca is secretly Draygon is much clearer, and there’s even a hint to it earlier when Kensou reveals he’s spying on the Empire and doesn’t trust Azteca. For a NES game, there’s actually a lot going on if you take the time to look for it. The hero and Mesia were part of the original team that built the Tower, and were put into cryogenic sleep to make a decision about humanity if the Tower was activated: Let it destroy an unsaveable world, or judge humanity worthy and stop it. Azteca was an artificial humanoid created by the same people to lead humanity to peace with his magic powers, but the evil in his heart created Draygon and lead to the very situation the builders hoped to prevent.
I actually played this with two hacks: The QOL & Ungrind patch is great; it really makes the game more accessible to the modern player, as it doubles or triples the amount of XP and money enemies give, weakens some enemies to make them more manageable, removes boss level requirements (in the base game, you need to be a certain level to hurt bosses at all) and reduces the MP cost of level 3 sword attacks.
The game itself still has some annoying quirks: Most enemies are only vulnerable to one weapon, so you’re constantly going to the menu to swap swords, and you need to play with the sound on so you can hear the no-damage “clink” sound and know you’ll have to switch swords. The hitboxes are weird. I’d LOVE to see this game remade to modern standards—updated graphics, button-mapping for sword switching and separate buttons for magic and items, the smoother level curve and lower difficulty from the hack.
The locations of a lot of the items and the solutions to several puzzles are really obtuse; there are several cases where you have to backtrack but without any real indication you should. (I followed a guide so I didn’t miss the Bow of Sun, but forgot to return to Styx with the Flight spell to get the Psycho Shield.) I remember a LOT of Nintendo Power “Counselor’s Corner” questions about this game, and in the pre-GameFAQs era I’m not surprised. The not-quite-final boss requires you to be max level, to equip the Power Ring and unleash the level 3 thunder spell when his chest is open three times; but nothing in the game indicates this combination will work. (Though at least you get the beeps that other things aren’t working…unless you use level 3 thunder without his chest open or without the power ring, both of which give you no indication they aren’t working.)
Overall: The last time I played this (20 years ago), I used a cheat code for infinite MP. This time, with the various hacks, I still needed save states but I made it through without cheats. I’d make an argument that this is the best way to play Crystalis, as you get the clearest version of the original plot and still some quality of life upgrades.
The plot of the game is definitely clearer in this version (and I had forgotten both how much was outright contradictory in the NES manual, and how much it had been cut down and streamlined for the GBC version of the game), though the names of various items are a bit less evocative. The big twist that Azteca is secretly Draygon is much clearer, and there’s even a hint to it earlier when Kensou reveals he’s spying on the Empire and doesn’t trust Azteca. For a NES game, there’s actually a lot going on if you take the time to look for it. The hero and Mesia were part of the original team that built the Tower, and were put into cryogenic sleep to make a decision about humanity if the Tower was activated: Let it destroy an unsaveable world, or judge humanity worthy and stop it. Azteca was an artificial humanoid created by the same people to lead humanity to peace with his magic powers, but the evil in his heart created Draygon and lead to the very situation the builders hoped to prevent.
I actually played this with two hacks: The QOL & Ungrind patch is great; it really makes the game more accessible to the modern player, as it doubles or triples the amount of XP and money enemies give, weakens some enemies to make them more manageable, removes boss level requirements (in the base game, you need to be a certain level to hurt bosses at all) and reduces the MP cost of level 3 sword attacks.
The game itself still has some annoying quirks: Most enemies are only vulnerable to one weapon, so you’re constantly going to the menu to swap swords, and you need to play with the sound on so you can hear the no-damage “clink” sound and know you’ll have to switch swords. The hitboxes are weird. I’d LOVE to see this game remade to modern standards—updated graphics, button-mapping for sword switching and separate buttons for magic and items, the smoother level curve and lower difficulty from the hack.
The locations of a lot of the items and the solutions to several puzzles are really obtuse; there are several cases where you have to backtrack but without any real indication you should. (I followed a guide so I didn’t miss the Bow of Sun, but forgot to return to Styx with the Flight spell to get the Psycho Shield.) I remember a LOT of Nintendo Power “Counselor’s Corner” questions about this game, and in the pre-GameFAQs era I’m not surprised. The not-quite-final boss requires you to be max level, to equip the Power Ring and unleash the level 3 thunder spell when his chest is open three times; but nothing in the game indicates this combination will work. (Though at least you get the beeps that other things aren’t working…unless you use level 3 thunder without his chest open or without the power ring, both of which give you no indication they aren’t working.)
Overall: The last time I played this (20 years ago), I used a cheat code for infinite MP. This time, with the various hacks, I still needed save states but I made it through without cheats. I’d make an argument that this is the best way to play Crystalis, as you get the clearest version of the original plot and still some quality of life upgrades.
