joshyface
this quirky little game on newgrounds. IntroCrystal Story start much like any other RPG. An evil character (a witch in this game) has stolen a object (the crystal of crystal story) and now the world is in peril. Who will save the world: a chivalrous warrior? Nope, it's a band of teenage mercenaries trying to make some extra dough. gameplay/mechanicsIn this exciting RPG, you traverse a dungeon (with the click of your mouse) filled to the brim with a monsters from Zombies to Phoenixes this game will keep you on your toes. The game itself has a traditional turn based system, but don't let this fool you it requires strategy.In the game, you control four characters each of which can be developed into three out of the four classes. The classes are fighter for your physical damage, rouge for status ailments, healer for healing and status curing, and mage for magical damage. The game progresses in a manner where each class is useful, as each has certain buffs and debuffs. Although, each character has unique moves per class. Phoebe, for example, is the only rouge that can poison, Making it fun to mix and match character combinations. The game has problems with balance, physical damage is much less powerful than magical damage. Each class has a good use and is useable in a party, but for the first time ever, tanks seem purposeless. 3/4 times your tank is not being attacked, and when he is attacked is dies almost as fast as the other characters. (I do not know how the health works, but I don't like it.) Mages should not have three-times as much mp, and the health almost the same. Also, mages deals 400+ damage on all the enemies whereas my fighter deals 200-300 damage on a single target.The game's ability system is simple, you put an ability point after each level up (or sidequest) into a class of your choosing. This system give the player the ability to mix and match classes. The only problem with the system is if you do not level grind (or mess with something like cheat engine), mixing classes will give you a weaker character that is not very efficient. All of the multi-targeting moves are at the end of a class-line. And near the end of the game, it is almost necessary for your survival to have certain multi-targeting moves. (i.e. haste all in rouge, heal all in healer, slow all in mage, etc) Despite the problems in the games balance, the ability system makes the game very replayable. Along with the the ability system, the games weapon upgrade system is basically purposeless. You can upgrade weapons to your level, but can equip any weapon you find in the dungeon regardless of your level. This gives your characters obscene power, when you find a weapon say 10 levels above you. (Which happens often, because you do not level every floor but the monsters do.) Boss fights are similar, but never are still fun. The game's battle system gives its self to many players because it let's the player choose how they want to play. You can focus on debuffing your enemy, buffing your characters, destroying everything at once, etc. The game is fun and even though the boss battles feel monotonous at times, it does not detract from the enjoyability of the game. Finally, the currency in the game is given out like water. Throughout the game, you can stock up on potions easily and without punishment since the weapons in the shop are dropped often by enemies. The game also has a mini-game that is basically bejeweled. Oh, and you have a pet slime that you can feed. story/charactersWithout giving much away, the characters are fun, and much like the game, do not take themselves too seriously. The interactions are funny and satirical, poking fun at many RPG archetypes. In terms of the story itself, it is basically what was said in the intro. You are hunting a witch in a dungeon to get money. You get two sidequest chains both of which are basically an excuse for Reuben, your spear user, to hit on girls. The game has a cute story, but if you are expecting something deep and compelling. You are not going to find it in Crystal Story. artistic valueThe game has a very unique art direction. In dungeons the game simple and cartoonish, but the character designs are actually sophisticated and well thought out; the menus are easy to use; and the music is beast. All that needs to said. Overall7.5/10 Good and fun, but has issues that should not be overlooked. It is a fun game, and worth a play-thro
wishfulthinking360
ounds interesting. I might just go try it
raf9900
However, I wouldn't underestimate the fighter. I think that some good buffing can turn them into very powerful units that can fight without having to worry on mana.But What's your strategy? To me, the rogue class is the best; buffing the scenario up has not failed me so far, and makes my fighter pretty powerful. In fact, I consider this little game very balanced. More balanced than some MMORPG's out there, at least. You can actually have one guy in each class as a valid strategy, and that's definitely a p
joshyface
So my setup is: Tristam (I think that is his name) is my fighter, Kaeli rouge, Phoebe healer, Reuben mage. In normal fights, I generally just go all out. Not too much strategy there. Cast high level skills to get rid of monsters easy. For bosses, it is a little more strategic. Phoebe is always on heal/mp patrol, meaning she makes sure my characters mp or hp does not get too low. (Only reason this is plausible is because money is water in this game.) Then my basic plan is, kill the minions first (if they have them), then slow the boss and haste all my characters, inflict sleep on boss (my favorite status ailment) while withering down his hp (reapply when needed), when sleep is on get magic up on Reuben. (actually this is generally on before that, but you get the idea.) RAPE RAPE RAPE. Oh and I should mention, when sleep gets on Kaeli goes on buff duty because haste is important, and tristam (who generally has magic attack and physical attack up) uses his only magic attack as a fighter (flame strike) because I don't want to wake the boss up. Therein making him even weaker. Also it is not an mmorpg it is just an
raf9900
My building isn't very different from yours: Tristam (yeah, you got that right) is a full fighter, Reuben is all mage and Phoebe is my rogue. Kaeli is mainly healer, but she doubles as a second rogue. I don't think I could fight at all without haste, either. I don't have sleep (yet), but apparently physiscal attack cancel this. In that case, It's going to be almost useless for me. That, and the fact that Kaeli doesn't have much free time in battles.But I mean, have you tried casting slice and dice with a magic-up tristam? Since it's a fighter skill, the damage multiplier seems to increase a lot with any bonus in magic. It deals more than Reuben would in the same conditions. And while he can do a little less than that to all enemies with blizzard, Phoebe can use poison nova to do about the same with damage+poison. And she's rogue. See why I like them so much?I don't know about you, but I still haven't succeeded in buffying a boss down in any way. I just pump positive buffs and get on raping him. In fact, boss battles are easier for me. I prefer one guy doing medium-high damage once a round than four guys doing medium damage every t
EternalLurker
oes the game not get interesting until level 10+ or something? I was dying of boredom by the third fl
joshyface
QUOTE (Raf9900 @ Sep 20 2011, 11:01 AM) quotecBut I mean, have you tried casting slice and dice with a magic-up tristam? Since it's a fighter skill, the damage multiplier seems to increase a lot with any bonus in magic. It deals more than Reuben would in the same conditions. And while he can do a little less than that to all enemies with blizzard, Phoebe can use poison nova to do about the same with damage+poison. And she's rogue. See why I like them so much?I don't know about you, but I still haven't succeeded in buffying a boss down in any way. I just pump positive buffs and get on raping him. In fact, boss battles are easier for me. I prefer one guy doing medium-high damage once a round than four guys doing medium damage every time.QuoteEndQuoteEEndDebuffing bosses is not suppose to be easy. The easiest one to get to stick is slow (also the most useful.) . Also, I like sleep (which only kaeli can learn) because it incapsitates the boss. BTW, the lower you get the larger the damage gap gets. Also reuben's second to last attacking skill is retardedly powerful. And it inflicts slow. quoteo(post=7899:date=Sep 20 2011, 02:25 PM:name=EternalLurker)QUOTE (EternalLurker @ Sep 20 2011, 02:25 PM) quotecDoes the game not get interesting until level 10+ or something? I was dying of boredom by the third floor.QuoteEndQuoteEEndI did not have a challenge until I was under leveled and had to fight evil bird things. Also you have not even gotten to a storyline boss fi
raf9900
EDIT - Lol, just unlocked enrage. That's what I call an impartial and civilized description. Here's the masterpiece:Enrage: FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...Yep, you read it right. THat's the description of the m
joshyface
ell near the end, reuben was doing zero damage with his physical attack for me. Although, he also had 110MP and if you spam his most powerful move that is 11 attacks. But the game gives you money like its candy. So there is no point why you shouldn't have like 50 eth
EternalLurker
QUOTE (Josh @ Sep 20 2011, 06:27 PM) quotecI did not have a challenge until I was under leveled and had to fight evil bird things. Also you have not even gotten to a storyline boss fight.QuoteEndQuoteEEndI understand that some horribly-paced games don't bother challenging the player for ages and ages, but it'd be nice if the beginning of the game could be interesting in other ways to make up for that. There isn't any depth to the chargen process given that everyone has pretty much the same tiny selection of options and you have no real control over their stat progressions, and inventories -- the only other form of character customization -- are doubly less customizable since: 1) items are randomly generated; and 2) you don't even fully get to mix and match half your inventory, since each character has specific weapons.So, since there isn't any depth to character generation, all you get is potentially in-battle depth via tactics, but you don't get to see that until far too late in the game. Great way to bore people to death before getting anywh
