Crystal Project

Is it the greatest indie RPG of my lifetime?

I've seen this game mentioned several times over the last couple of years. The gameplay is lauded, and reviewers rave about how open ended the combat is. I finally checked it out, and the first thing I saw was how it's clearly a love letter to Final Fantasy. Crystal Project is a game about having jobs, mastering them, and combining them into one fantastic character. It's very FFV in that manner. The initial jobs are even just the same as FFI. And with those jobs, you explore an open world in search of crystals!

From there, though, it starts to hone its own identity. Exploration is an open world platformer. The camera is top down, so that's pretty standard, but it's the hopping you need to do that sets Crystal Project apart. Bridges can be jumped, cliffs can be scaled, and homes can be broken into by falling through their chimneys! There is no fall damage, so enjoy the open world! There are also some Metroidvania aspects with this too. You'll gain a ~chocobo~ quintar mount to leap further, a goat to jump higher, and an owl to glide. There's also a fish to explore the vast, deep sea!

This applies to most dungeons, but even those often have something unique about them. Swimming, ice puzzles, Zeldaesq... The dev tried and succeeded in writing love letters to his favorite games. Walking around is a fun experience, never knowing what you may find beyond this cliff or on the otherside of this wall. What treasure may be within that chest on the hill? Could it make my damage dealer better? And there are so many secret areas filled with secret bosses that drop or guard secret gear. It's an incredibly rewarding experience!

There are seventeen jobs in Crystal Project, all awarding a new job. But the "main story" only brings you to about nine. Some of those jobs are more hidden than others. And all of those jobs fit classic roles, but how they perform in them are vastly different. One is a single target healer, while another can be an AoE one. Do you want MP mages or AP mages? Do you want your tank to be a hybrid or a pure support? We've got multiple red mages and elementalists, folks!

And all the while, an assortment of whimsical, wanderlustful, and ominous sounds play during your seemingly aimless walkabout. A part of this feels sullen because it's all licensed music, but I'll let it slide for this. Crystal Project was developed by one dude over five years. Not everyone has access to all talents, and Andrew Willman might not be a musician? Seems plausible. But he does have damn good taste!

The story is, well...

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Gameplay: perfect. The amount of jobs, actions, and differing dungeons makes Crystal Project an engaging and fun experience. I spent fifty hours, and there's still more to do! 10/10

Sound: perfect. The music Willman chose to accompany his game world is astounding. It adds everything a game needs. 10/10

Art: perfect. I don't know how much art was in house or, like the music, licensed from stores, but I found it all to be as lovely as the music. The character sprites are abundant and fitting, and the battle effects are clear and plentiful! 10/10

Charm: perfect. Imagine an open world with no loading times and is interconnected in twelve ways, feeling alive with a few roaming NPCs. That's Sequoia! There are many mini games scattered across this place that further reward exploration! Crystal Project has that unknowable It Factor that's already making me want to replay it. And thanks to mods, I might do that! In fact, I shall,

Story: ...not perfect. I'm going to drop some SPOILERS here, so you may want to skip ahead.



There isn't really a coherent story here. Your party of four randomly appears in a peaceful meadow, and they begin their search for adventure. What adventure means is up to you, but there's an evil king trying to force his vision onto the populace. Whether you want to or not, you, in theory, end up facing this king for no apparent reason. This evil ruler disguised themselves as a trusted ally until the end, which is shocking, but why? It's never explained why this happens, and the ending is a total mystery. Our opponents poof away, with my favorite not even saying anything. It's implied that the king wants to be overthrown, or it's a wink to this being a video game, but I hate breaking the fourth wall.


END SPOILERS


I'm just confused and feel unrewarded, which is unlike everything else. While your party are mute mimes, at least the villains are interesting, even if the shock kinda feels meh. 5/10

I spent fifty hours on this playthrough, and I skipped a lot. There are so many super bosses and secret areas I didn't explore. I haven't even bothered with the quintar breeding. I walked around this world with my stuffed animals and had more fun than I've had in a long time. I seriously haven't had an experience like this since high school. And, fun fact, there are mods on Steam. I can add new jobs and even make the game more like Final Fantasy. I'm gonna do that and have a run with my FFI friends. Get the band back together! There are a lot of frustrating parts when it comes to the platforming and boas difficulty, but there are plenty of difficulty sliders and switches that can be adjusted. You can even start random and impossible/rouge-like games after your first run. There's so much to that that it makes up for the lackluster story and minor annoyances.

Crystal Project gets a fantastic 45/50 points. I cannot recommend this enough.

The game posits the question: "What is an adventure?". From there, you can seek out crystals, explore and uncover the map, fight bosses, find powerful gear, race fish, get a job, and maybe kill god. The amount of stuff to do in a game made by one dude is astonishing!