Written by: Patrick Orquia
Title: Crystareino: The Awakening Hero and the Crystal Kingdom
Developer: Hit-Point
Publisher: KEMCO
Genre: RPG
Release Date: Sept 07, 2017 (exclusive to Nintendo eShop)
No. of Players: 1 player
Price: $9.99
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
KEMCO is back again with another port of another of their iOS/Android RPGs. Here comes Crystareino, developed by Hit-Point and originally released on mobile phones back in 2014, and it is about a nameless protagonist and he is training to become a warrior like his father before him, to protect the kingdom. He is being trained by a magical monster named Eppol. One day, they are suddenly summoned to another world, to save the kingdom of Rodwaal from the demon king Geist. They are informed by the king that in order to return to their home world, they have to defeat the said antagonist. After some time of protesting and refusing to do so and finding out that the magical crystal that could return them to their home world is sealed by a powerful barrier, they relent and agree to go across the land to defeat Geist. Along the way, they meet many different characters to assist them in their adventures. Now it’s up to him to save the kingdom of Rodwaal and return his own world.
While the first two KEMCO games that I reviewed look and play like Final Fantasy games, Cystareino looks and plays like a Dragon Quest game. Like Dragon Quest, the party consists at any given time four characters, the protagonist mandatory included, and they have to travel from town to town to accomplish their quest. The game sort of forces a character or two into the party at every town they visit as a new quest gets introduced, but that’s not really much of a bother. The main protagonist and other supporting characters can change into 20 available classes that can be mastered quite easily, and the character inherits learned skills from a mastered jobs into another (like in KEMCO’s other game, Dragon Sinker).
Random battles against monsters are encountered in each area visited and in the overworld, and the battle screen looks like the ones in Dragon Quest games, with the monsters facing you instead of facing sideways. The characters in battle can either fight or flee, as usual, with another option, “Auto”, to have the characters perform moves automatically. The “fight” command allows the character to either perform a normal attack, perform a special attack, defend, or use an item. Unique to the main protagonist is a battle gauge that fills up over time in battles, and when completely filled up, he can unleash a powerful special attack, the “Brave Burst”, that hit all enemies hard. This is very useful against more powerful monsters and bosses.
Like in most RPGs, grinding is a must to level up in this game. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t allow to change the difficulty or the rate of random battles so it could take some walking to and fro across the map to grind, but the game allows the battles to be played at thrice the speed so each battle can be won faster to get ready for the next one.
Speaking of the map, the game map is shown constantly at the bottom touchscreen of the 3DS, and it shows everything: all available paths AND all the treasures and pots and drawers that contain items and whatnot in it. This makes you no longer have to check every nook and cranny as the game literally shows you what to check. This could be a bummer to those who prefer to discover treasures on their own, but for the likes of me who don’t have much time to play video games, this is a welcome feature. You no longer have to be where you don’t have to be, but you still can check any area that the map shows if you want but you really don’t have to. Maybe a strong monster can be encountered there, but there’s no guarantee.
Aside from the map, the touchscreen also shows other options with the touch of the X button that pauses the game and shows the menu. The game interface is pretty neat, with each options represented by an icon. The current main quest info is readily available whenever you pause the game so you really don’t get lost ever since the game tells you exactly what to do next and where to go, again like in the previous KEMCO games. Aside from the main quest, several subquests can also be accomplished given by NPCs from the towns that the party visits. These subquests are usually pretty easy to accomplish, and the game tells you when the subquest is already complete so you don’t forget about it.
Genre: RPG
Release Date: Sept 07, 2017 (exclusive to Nintendo eShop)
No. of Players: 1 player
Price: $9.99
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
KEMCO is back again with another port of another of their iOS/Android RPGs. Here comes Crystareino, developed by Hit-Point and originally released on mobile phones back in 2014, and it is about a nameless protagonist and he is training to become a warrior like his father before him, to protect the kingdom. He is being trained by a magical monster named Eppol. One day, they are suddenly summoned to another world, to save the kingdom of Rodwaal from the demon king Geist. They are informed by the king that in order to return to their home world, they have to defeat the said antagonist. After some time of protesting and refusing to do so and finding out that the magical crystal that could return them to their home world is sealed by a powerful barrier, they relent and agree to go across the land to defeat Geist. Along the way, they meet many different characters to assist them in their adventures. Now it’s up to him to save the kingdom of Rodwaal and return his own world.
While the first two KEMCO games that I reviewed look and play like Final Fantasy games, Cystareino looks and plays like a Dragon Quest game. Like Dragon Quest, the party consists at any given time four characters, the protagonist mandatory included, and they have to travel from town to town to accomplish their quest. The game sort of forces a character or two into the party at every town they visit as a new quest gets introduced, but that’s not really much of a bother. The main protagonist and other supporting characters can change into 20 available classes that can be mastered quite easily, and the character inherits learned skills from a mastered jobs into another (like in KEMCO’s other game, Dragon Sinker).
Random battles against monsters are encountered in each area visited and in the overworld, and the battle screen looks like the ones in Dragon Quest games, with the monsters facing you instead of facing sideways. The characters in battle can either fight or flee, as usual, with another option, “Auto”, to have the characters perform moves automatically. The “fight” command allows the character to either perform a normal attack, perform a special attack, defend, or use an item. Unique to the main protagonist is a battle gauge that fills up over time in battles, and when completely filled up, he can unleash a powerful special attack, the “Brave Burst”, that hit all enemies hard. This is very useful against more powerful monsters and bosses.
Like in most RPGs, grinding is a must to level up in this game. Unfortunately, this game doesn’t allow to change the difficulty or the rate of random battles so it could take some walking to and fro across the map to grind, but the game allows the battles to be played at thrice the speed so each battle can be won faster to get ready for the next one.
Speaking of the map, the game map is shown constantly at the bottom touchscreen of the 3DS, and it shows everything: all available paths AND all the treasures and pots and drawers that contain items and whatnot in it. This makes you no longer have to check every nook and cranny as the game literally shows you what to check. This could be a bummer to those who prefer to discover treasures on their own, but for the likes of me who don’t have much time to play video games, this is a welcome feature. You no longer have to be where you don’t have to be, but you still can check any area that the map shows if you want but you really don’t have to. Maybe a strong monster can be encountered there, but there’s no guarantee.
Aside from the map, the touchscreen also shows other options with the touch of the X button that pauses the game and shows the menu. The game interface is pretty neat, with each options represented by an icon. The current main quest info is readily available whenever you pause the game so you really don’t get lost ever since the game tells you exactly what to do next and where to go, again like in the previous KEMCO games. Aside from the main quest, several subquests can also be accomplished given by NPCs from the towns that the party visits. These subquests are usually pretty easy to accomplish, and the game tells you when the subquest is already complete so you don’t forget about it.
Overall, Crystareino is a run-of-the-mill RPG with a generic story, typical of a KEMCO release. Despite that, the game is pretty decent. I did enjoy playing it and had a good time with it. I liked how the characters can be customized with the many job classes available and gears to use. The narrative, though straight forward and predictable at times, is also ok, enough to keep you moving across the world. All these, plus the good game interface, makes this game a good purchase, though at $10, is a bit pricey, in my opinion. Nonetheless, if you have some extra eShop credits to spare and wants a good game to breeze through, Crystareino could be worth your time and money, especially if you are a fan of Dragon Quest games.
REPLAY VALUE: low
PROS:
- Good narrative, soundtrack, character design, and game interface
- You can save anywhere, anytime (except during cut scenes)
- Has a wide range of job classes to choose from and master
- Has a lot of characters to invite to your party, and if you don’t like some of them, you can remove them and change to different ones at taverns
- Has a good variety of monsters to fight
- Very straight forward, with the map showing everything on the map and the game telling you what to do and where to go next, ideal for those who don’t have much time to play
CONS:
- Not in stereoscopic 3D
- The story is quite bland and predictable
- Character animations look bad, especially when they are walking
- Random battle encounter rate and game difficulty cannot be changed
- Cut scenes cannot be skipped
- Dungeons are quite short
- The game in general, though it plays pretty good, doesn’t look very polished
- Quite pricey at $10, considering that the original from 3 years ago is priced at less than half that
RATING: 3/5 otherworldly Brave Bursts
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