Crystal Project gives FF5 vibes with a lot of platforming

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Published on January 18, 2023 7:02:51 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXe4yCdkeG8

Game:

Crystal Project (2022)

Duration: 6:52

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7

It's honestly maybe too much platforming.

I have such mixed feelings about this game, and I have absolutely no idea if I would recommend it. At the same time, I think that this game is a very good fit for some people and I think it deserves some attention. (also yes i know this game came out like a year ago, my backlog is very long and it's a problem)

Crystal Project is exactly what it says on the tin: a game that takes Final Fantasy 5 RPG elements and combines it with a largely non-linear open-ish world. The end result is something that hews surprisingly close to Bravely Default 2 if there was less plot and almost no guidance on what the hell you're supposed to be doing.

First and foremost I have to address the difficulty curve because it is bananas. Crystal Project goes for the quality-over-quantity philosophy with random encounters, so there isn't a ton of fighting, but the random enemies you do fight are surprisingly powerful. This is set against a very inconsistent boss difficulty that spans from total snoozefest to whoops-you-got-one-shot-turn-1. As a result, a lot of late game bosses heavily reward bespoke party building and really cheesy builds.

That being said, the combat is really satisfying. Turn economy is very important in crystal project and the game rewards using your options efficiently. The battles are challenging enough to be satisfying, and there's mercifully little grinding (CP rains from the sky once you get about a quarter of the way through the game). I have a huge soft spot for games that let me build jank nonsense with class comps, and Crystal Project does afford a surprising amount of freedom there, although there are a few classes that do feel overly restrictive (looking at you Ninja).

The other big thing that might be either a deal breaker or a selling point for folks is the openness of the game. Crystal Project's primary progression gating is through mounts, which unlock different forms of traversal. Other than that, the game does not at all care what order you do things in and will rarely give you guidance on what to do next. Also, because gating is navigation based, there is a ton of sequence breaking that can happen by doing some clever jumps every once in a while. I think that Crystal Project goes a little bit too far with it's non-linearity and I've definitely found some times where I was completely lost and had no idea what I was supposed to do. I qualify that by noting that I'm not at all an open world person. I beelined through the most vanilla progression path in Elden Ring to get to the end as fast as i could without griefing myself.

So that's Crystal Project. I can't really recommend this to a lot of people because the combination of the game's difficulty and the openness of it all makes it kind of overwhelming, but if you are the kind of person that thrives in that kind of nonsense, it really does do a great job scratching that itch.

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