Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2022

  Just outstanding. I've got Elden Ring, FF Origins SoP, and Tiny Tina's wonderland all started up on my PS5, but this is the game I can't seem to put down. "I'll just check over this last ledge and then go to bed", but inevitably that last ledge opens up into something new and unexpected every time. Positives: Scratches all the right spots for my favorite parts of JRPGs and metroidvania. Nice party management and job system. Detailed turn based combat with some clever ideas that require thought and strategy. For instance, with the threat mechanic, sometimes even something as simple as skipping a character's turn can turn the flow of a battle. Keeps battles engaging rather than just spamming my most powerful abilities like many turn based rpgs. Dropable and stealable items that matter, and a bestiary to help you keep track of them. There are a crazy number of secrets, and the game really rewards exploring and observation for small possible ledges that can lead to all sort of shenanigans. The game is HUGE. I think about 8 hours and 3 crystals in I finally reached the "Main" city with tutorials. Everything up to there (which honestly felt amazing and polished on it's own) was just trial and error to help you develop questions and enjoyment so that the tutorials would make sense and be engaging. So, don't get too overwhelmed with exploration early. It starts to make more sense and feel more structured as you progress and are able to unlock more maps. My only negative: Wishing that there were more fast travel options (can we get the option to travel between each save point please?). There are some quick travel options, and more as you progress and open up the giant map. But, given how much time it can take to parkour to some areas that are very close to each other but on different elevations, I'd love more of them. Definitely makes me feel less adventurous and less willing to see if I can find a way to hop out to the random chest I see nearby if I know that I'll have to spend 5 minutes jumping back up to where I am even if I do make it. Finally: This beauty was made by ONE person. Just one guy who loved the genres and made a beautiful little gem that I can't stop playing. So, thank you to him, and hopefully this masterpiece gets the recognition and success it deserves.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 22, 2022

  I haven't had fun like this in 20 years. All it needs is a .txt walkthrough with ascii art and I will be teleported back to the days before pain.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 25, 2023

  Crystal Project is made with a very specific audience in mind. If you belong to that audience, you'll probably see this as a pinnacle of JRPG evolution, the reason why Final Fantasy games were made - to inspire the creation of this. If you aren't, you'll find yourself frustrated because of many controversial design choices that you won't see the point of. There is a very generous demo (with data transfer), so I suppose you could check it that way; or you could read this review, in which I'll point out all the controversial things so you can decide if you like them or not. Oh, and for the record, I belong strictly in the first category of people - after beating the game's secret true ending, I can comfortably say that nothing in the mainstream JRPG space comes close to it as far as the general fun of the gameplay is concerned. Not FF5, not FF6, not Octopath Traveller, not Bravely Default, not Chrono Trigger. Crystal Project has ruined the genre for me, or - to be more specific - showed me just how lacking all of those games are. Mind, many of them might have better stories, graphics or music, but when it comes to the gameplay, Crystal Project is like a skip-boss-immunity Zantetsuken; slices through them and leaves nothing behind.

  Self-guided play

  Crystal Project doesn't really have a plot or quests in the traditional sense. As such, your main motivation to explore is exploration for its own sake, or perhaps to seek treasure or crystals. Are you the kind of person who wonders "huh, what's on top of that unreachable cliff?" or "what would happen if I try my darnedest to go as far East as possible?" ? Then know that this game turns presenting such things to you into an art form. It's kind of like Dark Souls, where you finally find a key to unlock that door, and you go through this terrible dungeon and then are rewarded with a new, wonderful area. You never really are "told" where to go, even signposts stop showing up pretty early on. There are always multiple paths to take. Now, this is not to say that you're just given a big, empty world and told "good luck sucker". The world is huge indeed, but it's made of smaller, hand-crafted areas, each different than the rest. Are you okay with truly forging your own path, rather than being told where to go? Even if you don't have a map? (you get maps, but usually only after you've been in the area for quite some time) If you prefer some guidance, then this game is probably not for you.

  Platforming

  This is another thing that will make it or break it for you. This game has voxel platforming. It's not this crazy precision platforming like you'd see in Celeste, though; it's more about carefully trying to find "paths" to get to the higher ground/cross pits. Jump on this, then carefully on that, and oh, now I can reach this platform! It's actually closer to IRL climbing/bouldering: find the next step and execute getting to it. Let me put it another way. Are you the kind of guy who likes to jump on heads on NPCs to see if you can climb on that damn roof? That's pretty much what you're going to be doing for a significant part of the game, because that's how you get places here. Normal, flat roads run out pretty quickly, and you're expected to just jump your way towards new areas. Luckily, you get certain methods of improving your mobility - so things get easier later on. But seriously: if this doesn't sound appealing to you, you'll hate this game, no matter how much you'll like the other parts. You'll end up frustrated and stuck pretty early on.

  Combat design & difficulty

  When you were playing (insert turn-based JRPG of choice), weren't you a little disappointed that spamming attack and occasional heal/rez were enough for almost every fight? All those status spells, all those items... I'd like to use them, but what's the point? Well, Crystal Project not only accomodates this more refined playstyle - it demands it. You'll get annihilated by normal mobs if you just spam attack. Actually, you'll probably get annihilated by them even if you play tactically. See, Crystal Project expects you to treat every single fight seriously. You have to read skill descriptions, pay attention to the turn order, use buffs and debuffs, pay attention to the gimmicks of the enemies such as counterattacks or unusual abilites. This is especially true for boss fights, of course, but most people don't expect regular fights to be this difficult. There are a lot of jobs which you can mix and match. You're expected to adapt your party composition to the area at hand - but even that is not so easy, as your characters' base stats are tied to which jobs they've been levelling up as. This is fine for the most part, ensures that characters stick to their general roles. I've had a tank/str fighter, a healer/supporter, an agi/dex based DPS and a debuffer/magical attacker. Worked well for the most part. Oh yeah, did I mention this game has aggro? It has legitmate tanking! And you'll need it, seeing as some enemies can easily one-shot an unprotected character. Anyway, I wrote all this because this game is HARD when it comes to combat. It's possible to lower the difficulty and there are some assist options - I had to unlock the (arguably rather low) max level as I was getting steamrolled by mobs in a certain endgame dungeon - but even with all of this, if you're not into tweaking builds and seeing combat as a puzzle of sorts, you'll hate this game.

  Other things you might like or dislike

  The game uses royalty-free music. Luckily, it's very well picked, much of it is by Vindsvept - it adds an insane amount of atmosphere, in particular of the "hell yeah adventure!" kind. The graphics might not be as detailed as in, say, Octopath Traveller, but there's a huge variety of enemies and everything looks great. Like I said, there isn't much of a story. There sort of is - including a final boss - but in general this game is more of a journey to make, rather than a mission to complete. Climb the mountain because it's there, not because there's a herbal cure for your dying grandma there. There is a lot of NPCs to talk to, though - and I'd say the writing is pretty good, very "real"... until you enter a cabin full of talking bears who ask you "Ever ridden a salmon?". Well, have you? You're missing out, my friend. I said before that there're no quests, but that's not entirely true either. There is no quest *log*. There absolutely are quests, in the sense that you need to figure out what to do in order to achieve this or that and complete those steps. Usually by paying attention to the world and to the NPC dialogue. I personally loved that style, it made completing a... certain endgame quest incredibly engaging; it felt like I'm discovering secrets not meant for human eyes. Oh, and the map. For the most part you'll be exploring new areas without one. Eventually you'll be able to find a map for a given area, which... merely shows you areas that you've personally been to. So you also need to uncover it. Mercifully, when you find the map it'll be retroactively filled with all the places you've been to. And you know what? Adventuring without a map has its charm. It forces you to pay attention to your surroundings. Dark Souls games never had maps, and they worked just fine, no?

  Conclusion

  With all that said: the game is very fair with giving you all kinds of information. And if you do get stuck, there are helpful guides available online. I tried to give you an idea of what sort of design philosophy is at play here. I've seen people complain on the forums and in reviews about it - and I think this is a bit of a misunderstanding. This game is what it is, what it wants to be; it might not be what you want it to be, though. As for me... I didn't know I needed what this game is, but I'm so, so glad I got it. Curator Page
• gamedeal user

  Apr 3, 2022

  I'm going to give this game a positive review because I do genuinely enjoy the game and I don't want my criticisms to affect anyone potentially interested in the game. It was clearly made with a lot of care, and the work on it's jobs and world are absolutely phenomenal. This game is a steal at $14.

  BUT

  There are some issues with it's balancing and it can be easy to become fatigued by it's exploration design. It is very similar to another 'really' good game called CrossCode, but to narrowly explain the problem: A lot of the paths you have to take are not designed in a way that allow you to simply walk to them. You must get used to the platforming elements. Every bit of the exploration in this game is platforming. If you are just an overworld-havin' JRPG fan then this can very much become tiresome for some people, and the lack of fast travel options can exacerbate this issue. I have a thread on it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1637730/discussions/0/3276939184060618530/ Another issue that I've run into thus far is some issues with item balancing and the ability to heal in the world. There is no tent item in this game, and you cannot heal at save points from what I can tell. You can only use inns to heal to full which causes EVEN MORE backtracking for something that should be an item in the game. I also think that HP/MP healing items are way too expensive, too weak, or a combination of both. Money drops are way too low in this game for how expensive the gear is. By the time you finish some of the major zones you're already needing to replace your previous gear with something 2 tiers higher than what you had before and the entire loop of getting enough money or grinding it out in this game is made worse by how ineffective healing in the field can be. This game is just tedious sometimes in an extremely unfortunate way. I'm enjoying my experience with it, but I could honestly be enjoying it so much more with just a few QoL features and item/gold/shop rebalancing.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 10, 2022

  This game is quite the experience. I've almost 100%'d the game with about 80 hours put into it, and now I'm feeling rather sad about that. For one, it's probably the first JRPG in a long time where I felt that I was actually exploring in the overworld, not just walking on a pretty static background. The platforming may be grating to some people, and it took some time for me to get used to it, but I think it really adds to the exploration feel of the game. There are a few jumps in the critical path that should be adjusted, though, but I trust the developer will get to addressing those in time. No loading screens anywhere outside of loading a save file is a nice touch too. The combat has consistently kept me on my toes for the whole game. The threat system and the ability to see your enemy's skill list and next upcoming action heavily rewards counter/preventative tactics rather than the reactive gameplay that I'd utilize in the majority of other traditional turn-based games. Status effects are extremely useful and not prone to RNG like most other games, like how Blind guarantees that all physical attacks used by an enemy during their next turn will miss, which means it's one turn where you don't need to worry about healing whichever party member they're targeting (or an extra turn to do so). Landing those status effects is usually guaranteed chance, though some like Sleep have a once per battle limitation. The vast majority of enemies do not have status immunities of any sort, so all status effects are just as effective on enemy encounters as they are against the party, a concept that is almost unheard of in most JRPGs. Granted, late game enemies seem very deadly, and this doesn't change after you reach the level cap. There is no out-leveling the endgame here. From what I've observed, if you are unable to one-round an endgame regular encounter, the balance seems to assume that you have a source of attack/magic down on the enemy or defense buffs on your party. Some say this makes the late combat very deadly and swingy, but at the same time hitting the level cap right as you reach the endgame also means you aren't really supposed to try to murderhobo everything you see past that point (nor is there much of an incentive to, beyond looking for gold or grinding up job levels, the latter of which can be done against much easier enemies specifically for that purpose earlier in the game). Most encounters are avoidable, and you are a party of regular ass explorers, not some chosen ones with an excuse to kill something. I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the expectations of this game's endgame balance at first since I couldn't just steamroll everything just because I was max level, but I've since reconciled with the idea that this actually contributes heavily to the game's overall exploration feel too. Granted, there are some things off with the game's balance, particularly how certain tools are locked to very specific class setups, but I imagine the developer will address those with time. The soundtrack is phenomenal. They're all apparently royalty free music that's properly attributed to their creators, and the collection within this game matches each environment and situation perfectly. I find myself frequently going into the game's archive function just to listen to them. The story kind of barely exists, and the developer has been openly saying that if what you value is an epic plot above all else, this game probably isn't for you. It's really more for the gameplay > story crowd. There are a few things that could still be improved in regards to the overall progression and writing, though. Expect to get lost at times, only to find another means to progress at a different part of the game world. All in all, this game is definitely worth much more than its low price. At the very least, I can guarantee there's no other JRPG like it as of the time this review was written. What a crazy adventure this game has been.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 22, 2023

  This dude made Final Fantasy 11 and thought no one would notice
• gamedeal user

  Nov 26, 2022

  The game is fantastic. FF5 vibes, the combat, job system, depth, world size (!!!!!), exploration - everything is top notch. I have but one gripe with it from QoL perspective - and for me (an adult with two kids who doesn't have 100-200hrs per game for backtracking purposes) it's a very serious one. I mean, I DO get the EXPLORATION bit....and BACKTRACKING BIT as well - but with the game / world of this size.....having 3 "home points" (tha'ts AFTER turning assist ON) is ridiculous.......having ONE - is on the level of "who came up with this dumb idea" from design perspective. Just a personal preference........but.................WHY...ON EARTH WOULD YOU DO THIS? Especially that getting BACK to some of the places requires so much platforming? It literally feels like the game was purposefully designed to artifically inflate length of play due to this "feature". I fell I'm almost at the end - but ultimately will not finish the game precisely because of this. I just can't stomach having to spent 30 minutes each time, jumping around the same 20 moving platforms through 3 regions because now I can get to a single chest that I caught a glimpse of 20 hours earlier, before I finally got ability to jump one block higher. With the "assist" option - fast travel to any of the previously visited crystals would be logical ~(or at least one per region or something) - while retaining the masochist version of the original no-assist variant. Best of both worlds? I'm sure all teenagers with too much time on their hands will not mind - but hey ho. Otherwise the game is, as I said, fantastic.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 8, 2023

  Pretty good, I think!

  What I Liked

  The exploration

  Big honkin' ol' voxel world, and you can platform two (2) boxes high and three (3) boxes wide, which means that each time you get a new method of traversal it feels like a huge increase to your explorative capabilities. If you like exploring off in random corners and seeing what weird shit's there, this has a lot of that. The warp point limit (and I used the additional home points assist option) feels incredibly restrictive at first in a way that makes you appreciative of the world design later when it's no longer an issue. Like, remember how in Dark Souls, you couldn't warp for the first half of the game, and that added a huge amount of texture to simply traversing to your next destination, and more importantly, back home after a major trip? Like, finding the bonfire in the bottom of Blighttown is a blessing because it's finally a bonfire and then a curse because now you're stuck in Blighttown? It's a little like that.

  The class system, most of the time

  FF-style job system, right? If it ain't broke don't fix it. You get a main class with an active ability and passive bonuses and a sub-class's active ability. Support abilities are lumped into one big pool and each has a point cost, so there's some decent configuring to be had. I stuck with a tanky physical boy, a dex/agility DPS, an offensive spellcaster, and a healing/support caster, and it worked out most of the time.

  The battle system

  Yum yum, give me that transparent turn order and damage numbers. I didn't get up to the kind of shenanigans I did in Bravely Default (Hasten World + Jump) but I had a few boss fights that came right down to the wire in a really satisfying way. I am always a fiend for Damage Over Time abilities and there are like three different kinds in this game fuck yeah.

  Assist options

  No missable items is a nice one; there's a Lost 'n' Found vendor in the main city who sells all of the boss steal items and anything that was in a chest that wouldn't fit in your inventory. You can talk to an NPC and respec your level growths at any time, which is great for the kinds of people who would step on that one trap space in Final Fantasy Tactics that lowered your level, but you would do it with a crappy job with bad stat growths, so that you could level up again later with a higher tier job with better stat growths, thus achieving a net gain in stats. But I'm sure nobody would do this. I turned on the multiple home points thing immediately, but in retrospect I might not have needed to. There are ways to configure the battle difficulty and to win minigames instantly and such (I will never race another Quintar again as long as I live). I also fiddled with the ones that let me configure EXP/Gold/Job Points rewards, which sort of leads me into...

  What I Didn't Like

  The game is somewhat judgemental about you using the assist options

  Once you turn them on, you can't turn them off, and each puts a permanent mark of shame on your save file. This is ridiculous. Just let me have the sliders set to 100% normally and let me move them up or down as I see fit, alright? Have a little trust.

  Long term progression is unreasonably tedious on Normal mode without using assist options (IMO)

  Okay, so like, with this kind of JRPG, non-boss encounters are all about resource attrition, right? You don't want to use up all your healing items before you get to a boss, because you want to be as close to full power as you can. But you also need to fight them to get strong enough to fight the boss, so you can't just skip them all. It's the push and pull. Encounters in this game will fuck you up. I assume I was pretty much on level curve, and I would often end bog-standard encounters with one or more party members downed or at low health. This is not bad in itself, but the game also has restrictive limits on how many restorative items you can carry, gold is fairly scarce, and equipment is expensive. By the time I was halfway-ish through the game, I was starting to dread reaching big new areas because I knew it would be a huge uphill climb. Then I turned gold earned up to like, 150%? of normal. Enough to actually afford potions and at least one piece of the next equipment tier for the whole party. Suddenly everything got way more manageable, while staying tough.

  The map system

  Specifically, the way it won't even show you where you are in the void if you don't have the map for that location. Look, fine, don't give me the minimap, but I deserve to know my relative location on the world map.

  What I'm Ambivalent About

  The lack of story

  It's not that there isn't a story, or that what's there doesn't do a decent job, but I could go for a little more meat here. For what it is, it's perfectly adequate, I guess. Just like, in Breath of the Wild or Souls/Elden Ring, the big-name "explore off in weird corners and see what shit's there" games, you often find things that tie back into the main plot and backstory and such or add flavor. In Crystal Project you might also find a sick sword, but it won't have a cool, evocative description that deepens your understanding of the world and its inhabitants. And that's fine, but I sorta wish wish it did, you know? The only real exceptions to this I think are the final boss area and the secret boss questline. Except, because of how most of the game is, I feel like there's little point in thinking about it because nothing else seems to really have much going on narrative wise. I dunno.

  Long term class balance

  There was never a moment where I felt like I learned a real game-changer of an ability. There's not really a Rapid Fire or Doublecast equivalent where you feel in your bones you need to beeline directly towards it (even though Doublecast is totally in the game, it has a bunch of caveats that make its usefulness limited to specific situations). The closest was probably the passive that lets you regenerate 6 MP a turn for six turns every time you enter battle; never took that off my casters once I got it. Instead I got these moments more from finding or buying fancy equipment, which is neat but not something I felt like I had control over. This isn't a bad thing per se, I think it's definitely by design to keep the classes balanced, but it does flatten the curve a bit. I didn't feel like my party had crystallized into true shitwreckers until, when I reached the level cap towards the end of the game, I decided I was done trying to fill out jobs, stripped my entire party naked, and respecced them all into what I felt were the best versions of themselves. Did pretty well after that.

  In conclusion, Crystal Project is pretty good (IMO).

• gamedeal user

  Apr 1, 2022

  I'm recommending it for a few things, a generous demo, demo progress that carries over to full game, and this is clearly a passion project with a lot of love put into it. As a whole though...I'm kind of "meh" on it so far. The classes...exist. Not many skills in the skill trees. It has a threat system but...it only matters in a boss. The tank - at least the one you start the game with - can only get the attention of one thing at a time. So unless you have three tanks and a heals, your squishies ARE getting hit in battles with more than one enemy. Functionally, the game is a dream. It runs smooth as silk, it looks gorgeous, the music is amazing. There is a LOT to love in this game. I just think certain things weren't really...as expanded on as I would have liked I guess. In the end, I am going to keep playing it, and I do suggest it even at full price. It just has some "meh" to start out with.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 24, 2022

  A really incredible, and charming RPG. Inspired by Final Fantasy with an original mix of platforming, and "minecraft" inspired aesthetic Crystal Project offers a unique experience that can't be found anywhere else. The core game play is inspired by "job systems" from JRPG's. This is one of the best systems a turned based game can employ due to the amount of customization, and flexibility that is offered both during the early and end game experience. With that being said this game is brutal. The difficulty can be incredibly unforgiving which isn't necessary a pro, or a con. Thankfully it offers three difficulty settings so your not locked into a "get good" situation. Dying isn't really punishing which is a great thing considering how difficult some battles can be, or how easy it can be to stumble across a difficult enemy by accident. Exploration is something that will be enjoyed, or hated depending on the type of gamer you are. If you despise games that provide little sense of direction then encourages you to "go be free EXPLORE LITTLE BIRD EXPLORE!!!" then you are going to enjoy this. Although if you prefer to have a strong sense of direction because you despise getting lost, or losing time trying to figure out where to go then this game might not be for you. With that being said even as someone who would rather engage in the RPG battle aspect of Crystal Project over the exploration aspect I think they handled both fairly well. I'm excited to see what more this game has to offer as I dump more hours into it. First impressions have been decent. You should know within the first two hours if this game is one you will enjoy - so don't hesitate to try it out. I'm not a big fan of platforming in general for really any game. Even though Crystal Project employs a fair amount of platforming I don't find it to be enough to ruin the experience even as someone that isn't super into of those types of mechanics. Although if you are enticed by the concept of platforming mixed with a JRPG format then this game is definitely for you.