Crystar was one of my FAVORITE games of the last couple of years. From a mechanical standpoint, it really SHOULDN’T have been. The combat is clunky, the environments are repetitive, the animation is not great. I won’t say it’s a mess, but it definitely feels like a lower-budget experience. But the story was so interesting, the characters and the performances from the actors were so compelling, and the music was so gorgeous, it forced its way into my favorite games list. So when I had an opportunity to take a look at the follow-up from FuRyu, called Crymachina, I was super excited. Having now played several hours of the game, I wouldn’t call this a definitive and full review, since I still have a ways to go, but I want to give my honest and earnest impressions.
Crymachina is Crystar on steroids. Visually, it sees quite a bump up from its predecessor in terms of graphical fidelity. Gameplay wise? It might as well be from a different planet. The action is fast and frantic, there’s real challenge built in here, and each encounter has the opportunity to be a nail biter. In terms of the music, it sits comfortably alongside Crystar. It’s got a LOT going for it. But there’s a significant problem with this game that is keeping me from making it a real recommendation. What is it? We’ll get there.
First off, let me tell you about the story. You play a German high school girl named Leben who is dying in a hospital bed of some unknown ailment. The next thing you know, you’re standing in a futuristic landscape, and there’s an angel floating in front of you. She insists she’s not an angel, she’s a machine, and she has more or less resurrected you into an android body called an E.V.E. See, Leben died from her illness, and apparently humankind went extinct a few months later, but in that intervening time they were able to launch a bunch of high-tech machines into space in order to preserve humanity and one day bring it back. The little angel girl, named Enoa, well, she’s one of those high-tech machines, called a Deus ex Machina. Leben has been brought back now specifically because she is “the Chosen One,” which sounds a little goofy coming from a serious and analytical robot, but whatever. She’s the one who will be able to gain enough “humanity” in order to be recognized by all the machines as truly human.
So the story mixes and merges a lot of really interesting sci-fi ideas and explores fun philosophical ideas, like the Fermi Paradox and the Simulation Theory. I’m not ACTUALLY into philosophy myself, but I do enjoy the sort of popcorn-philosophizing that a lot of games and movies do. I want to think, but I don’t want to think THAT much, and Crymachina does a good job of making that happen. The characters are fun, and there are a bunch of optional “tea party” scenes where you can watch them talk about various things happening in the story. It’s a great opportunity for character and world building, and on top of that, the game rewards you for watching those scenes with points that you can use to upgrade your characters. I love when games mix in gameplay benefits with character development, it’s such a smart way to encourage players to engage more fully with the story.
It’s definitely not the story itself, per se, that I have an issue with. So what about the gameplay?
Well, like I said, this is about as different from its predecessor as you can get and still be a part of the same, loosely connected series. You’re equipped with a melee weapon that also doubles as a gun, so you’re able to launch attacks from far away and then zoom in close to follow up. Dashing is quick and responsive, and the name of the game is to either dash or block at the precise moment an enemy attacks. It can be difficult to read enemy tells, because your own attacks are so fast and distracting, but you’ll eventually start to get it down. In addition to your main weapon, you can equip two auxiliary pods that float along behind you. Think the pods from Nier Automata and it will give you an idea. The difference here, though, is that you can equip different chips into the pods to cause them to use different abilities. There appears to be quite a lot of customization you can do in general, which, I’ll be honest, is a bit much for me. I’m not a menu-fiend, I prefer customization to be quick and simple so I can get back to the game. But there’s nothing wrong with this system. Another thing it shares in common with Crystar is the fact that you can collect enemy… sentiments, maybe? Personalities? It’s weird. When you defeat powerful enemies, they’re called Cherubim, by the way, but when you defeat them you get whatever human personality was embedded in them. This is similar to what you would collect in Crystar, and the items you can gain from these things will help you in battle.
It’s not the gameplay that’s keeping me from recommending Crymachina. Graphically, like I said, it’s a big upgrade over Crystar, though the environments are all very desolate-scifi-space station-samey, if I’m being honest. And the animations are still not great (especially the walking animations, HOO boy). But those aren’t really problems for me either. So if the gameplay is great, and graphics and animation are fine, then what’s my big dumb problem?
Okay, let’s get into it. My issue with Crymachina is that it’s just not fully localized. What do I mean by that? Here’s what I mean: A game is fully localized if I am having the exact same experience that a player in Japan had when they played the game. This means all the text is translated from Japanese into English, and all the voicework is dubbed or redone in English, as well. Crymachina does NOT have an English dub, despite the fact its predecessor did, and a pretty darn good one, at that. This one was published by NIS America, whereas Crystar was published by Spike Chunsoft. But it’s not as if Spike Chunsoft is known for always producing English dubs whereas NIS America isn’t. In fact, NIS America does fantastic dubs for the Ys and Trails series. It never even occurred to me to think that Crymachina would be dub-less.
There are multiple problems I have with a partial localization like this. For one, particularly in an action game, it’s extremely difficult to read what the characters are saying in the corner of the screen when battles are frantic. Japanese players had the luxury of being able to hear what was being said, which gives them a richer experience than I’m having. Also, there are a few times where there’s spoken dialog but no accompanying text to translate. When this happens, how am I supposed to know what they’re saying? Are we just okay with not knowing?
Look, I fully understand that this will not be an issue for everyone. I think outside of Japan, a lot of us have grown accustomed to partial localizations, or maybe we’re even just grateful to get a game at all, so we don’t have any desire to hold developers and publishers to this standard. But I think regardless of where we live or what language we speak, we deserve to get the same experience as other players.
I get it, I’m in the minority here. But nothing sucks the wind out of my sails more than turning on a game I’m excited for and finding out there’s no English dub. This would have at the very least been a top 5 game of the year for me. Exactly what I’ve come to expect from a FuRyu title and a successor to Crystar. So you should take that to mean that, if you’re not a giant dweeb like me and don’t care about sub vs. dub, and you’re otherwise on board with a cool sci-fi story and intense android action, then Crymachina is very much worth a look.
And I AM going to finish it, because the story has hooked me and the gameplay is fun. I’m just left feeling disappointed by what COULD have been.