Crystal Project

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This review was requested by the amazing Jamie and His Cats in lieu of a contest prize. Long story. In any case, you have him to thank for the review!)

Crystal Project is a Turn-Based JRPG released on PC in 2022 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2024. The game’s eShop page claims it is “a non-linear JRPG where you are the maker of your own adventure”, though I have to admit, at first this seems like a load of exaggerated bluster.

The visuals certainly don’t help matters. Crystal Project uses pixel art characters on blocky, Minecraft-esque 3D landscapes, which comes across as amateurish and unimpressive. Even worse, this game’s story and characters are paper-thin and not at all interesting.

However, I can’t say the presentation is all bad – the game’s folk and synthesized soundtrack (apparently selected from Creative Commons tunes) is outstanding, with extremely catchy tunes. Some standouts include Woodland Murmur, Across the Plains, Deliverance, Onward, Guilt, Division Blade, Through the Woods We Ran, Part Two, Westward… I could keep going, but suffice it to say that this soundtrack is outstanding, and it really reveals how lazy some game-makers are when they recycle the same dozen or so fair-use songs I’ve heard in countless games instead of doing a little searching for genuinely great music they could be using instead.

The combat system here is directly lifted from Final Fantasy V, and… you know, I have trouble complaining about that – that game’s job class system was impeccable, and Crystal Project wisely makes finding the large crystals containing new job classes one of its primary goals in the game, and adds some clever mechanics like the Threat system, where enemies prioritize which party members to attack based on who they perceive to be the greatest threat.

This leaves exploration to talk about, and it is arguably the game’s biggest strength and its greatest weakness. Crystal Project, while not an Open-World game, is very open-ended, with players set loose to explore as they please, only limited by parts of the landscape they cannot scale. As mentioned before, this game uses Minecraft-style visuals, and players soon learn to keep a watchful eye out for parts of that landscape that are just a few blocks tall and able to be jumped up to reach new areas. In fact, one of the more enjoyable parts of the game is finding that jump you can juuuust barely make, leading to a previously-inaccessible area. The game even adds to this by later introducing mounts that act as Metroidvania-style traversal upgrades, letting you jump higher, farther, or otherwise explore areas you couldn’t before.

Of course, I did say this was also the game’s worst quality too. The lack of even vague or suggestive hints at where to go can make it frustrating when you don’t know where to go next, or where you even can go. And the lack of scaling enemies can make for nasty difficulty spikes when you wander into an area the game didn’t plan on you going to next, particularly some of the bosses, who can effortlessly demolish you even if you fared well against the normal enemies in the area. Plus, while it’s a joy to exploit the game’s Platforming to reach new areas, the platforming itself is pretty bad, particularly because the game gives players almost zero control over the camera – you can tilt it slightly, but one for a brief moment.

Still, despite its flaws, Crystal Project is an absolutely superb Turn-Based JRPG, provided you’re looking for the right things. If the reason you enjoy RPGs is due to the magnificent stories, the great characters, and impressive visuals, you will be sorely disappointed with this game, as it is terrible when it comes to those things. However, if your favorite parts of RPGs are exploring a large world and finding hidden treasure, or building up and customizing your party of adventurers to take on enemies in battles that have some good depth to them without being overly-convoluted, accompanied by a great soundtrack, Crystal Project may just be exactly the game you’re looking for.

tl;dr – Crystal Project is a Turn-Based JRPG that definitely has its shortcomings – the graphics are extremely unimpressive, the story and characters are virtually nonexistent, and the lack of direction can leave you feeling lost and lead to massive difficulty spikes. However, despite all of these flaws, this is an immensely satisfying JRPG, thanks to its excellent job class system, great combat, liberating exploration, and gorgeous soundtrack. As long as you can overlook the bad stuff and focus on the good stuff, this game is absolutely worth playing.

Grade: B+

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