a gold star for you simply for considering playing this game

crymachina is a little bit of a weird action rpg / visual novel hybrid. not terribly long on either count, but a drastic step up from crystar (which i will reference several times, don't really have much of a choice!)

so what exactly is crymachina? the loop of the game is : relatively short action stage, story event, discussions at base. by all account, the story is rather short and not terribly verbose - it says what it wants to say and gets to it rather quick. the themes are much like crystar (family, humanity and love and what those mean), but the biggest difference is the gameplay. unlike crystar, crymachina does not waste your time with endless, absolutely mindless dungeon crawling, and that allows the game to shine. which also lets every other aspect of the game shine. great performances from the VAs also help elevate the whole package.

the combat isn't on par with more "modern" combo games, but between the few moves you can pull off, it felt fun to me, and is not a button masher. if anything, button mashing will get you killed really quickly - the action stages are short and the focus is on bosses, and messing up on attacks means that half your health will simply disappear. to counter that, if you stay relatively on par with the level requirement and get a bit of gear, you will do equal damage and blast though the opposition. i was able to grind what i needed to beat the game within the 16 hours (with a bit of idling) it took me to beat this. it's relatively forgiving, which once again eased the burden compared to the ridiculous requirements crystar asked of you to beat the game.

i fully expect the type of person to pick up this game to enjoy it, but it isn't going to convert people who only play AAA offerings. it's much better than crystar on that front, thank god. if you crave more of the game, there's even a bit of post conclusion things to do!

at the end of the day, this is a furyu game, which means ambition and passion meets lower budget so a more restrained game. i do think the price is a bit daunting for the average person (i picked it up on sale myself) but i had a fantastic time with this game and might come back to it eventually for the extra things i have not done.

another gold star for you for reading this!

a gold star for you simply for considering playing this game crymachina is a little bit of a weird action rpg / visual novel hybrid. not terribly long on either count, but a drastic step up from crystar (which i will reference several times, don't really have much of a choice!) so what exactly is crymachina? the loop of the game is : relatively short action stage, story event, discussions at base. by all account, the story is rather short and not terribly verbose - it says what it wants to say and gets to it rather quick. the themes are much like crystar (family, humanity and love and what those mean), but the biggest difference is the gameplay. unlike crystar, crymachina does not waste your time with endless, absolutely mindless dungeon crawling, and that allows the game to shine. which also lets every other aspect of the game shine. great performances from the VAs also help elevate the whole package. the combat isn't on par with more "modern" combo games, but between the few moves you can pull off, it felt fun to me, and is not a button masher. if anything, button mashing will get you killed really quickly - the action stages are short and the focus is on bosses, and messing up on attacks means that half your health will simply disappear. to counter that, if you stay relatively on par with the level requirement and get a bit of gear, you will do equal damage and blast though the opposition. i was able to grind what i needed to beat the game within the 16 hours (with a bit of idling) it took me to beat this. it's relatively forgiving, which once again eased the burden compared to the ridiculous requirements crystar asked of you to beat the game. i fully expect the type of person to pick up this game to enjoy it, but it isn't going to convert people who only play AAA offerings. it's much better than crystar on that front, thank god. if you crave more of the game, there's even a bit of post conclusion things to do! at the end of the day, this is a furyu game, which means ambition and passion meets lower budget so a more restrained game. i do think the price is a bit daunting for the average person (i picked it up on sale myself) but i had a fantastic time with this game and might come back to it eventually for the extra things i have not done. another gold star for you for reading this!