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52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

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bizzgeburt:
10 - Crystal Warriors (GameGear)
https://vgcollect.com/item/8547

Hardware: SEGA GameGear w. modded screen

First thing I did when I started collecting GameGear cartridges was to look up all rpgs, and Crystal Warriors was one of the first GameGear-titles of that genre I ended up finding and purchasing. Playing it the first time in 2018, it kinda impressed me with it's graphics and Gameplay, but I didn't got to beat round 3, so … yea, I abbandoned it - up until now. One of the first actual pile-of-shame titles I can present to this challenge this year, thanks to many guides and walkthroughs I studied before this re-try.
As for all the games I play and review in here, I can only focus on the systems and games I personally own, which limits me on PAL-region releases only.

As I already mentioned, Crystal Warriors - or Arliel: Crystal Densetsu in it's original japanese naming - is a strategic rpg developed by Sega's Consumer Research and Development Dept. #2 (CS2) and was released in Japan in late 1991 and later in 1992 inside europe and the US.
The game shows a lot of resemblance with the first Shining Force title released on the Sega MegaDrive by that time and is also set in a fantasy world full of monsters and mages and castles and war.
This time the world itself isn't explicitly named, but according to the games introduction, the story takes places on a continent called Tyramus. Peace lasted a 1000 years, assured by the four elemental crystals of earth, wind, fire and water kept at their places within the just kingdom of Arliel, which the japanese original is named after. But this peace that seemed to last for eternity fell apart as the evil Emperor Grym of the neighbouring Jyn Empire decided to invade and conquer Arliel to claim it's powerful crystals for himself and his deeds. One fortress fell after another under the constant assaults from Jyn's fearsome forces consisting of all types of swordsmen, halberd-swinging lords and even mages, wizards and bloodthirsty werewolves led by Grym's loyal generals, all bearers if unique power and malice. Leaving land and peasants in agony and despair, the invasion also brought with it the occurance of grimy monstrous creatures all over the conquered territories, further threatening the lives of all of Arliel's innocent citizens. King Frederick of Arliel and his royal guard fell while bravely defending one of the crystals and soon all but one of the powerful relics were in Grym's clutches. That last crystal mysteriously disappeared along with King Frederick's daughter Princess Iris … the female pink-wearing, turban-rocking blue-eyed blond protagonist of this game, making her dead Daddy proud by massacring through Jyn's armies in order to regain all four crystals for Arliel to bring back peace again and so on...
Frankly, the four-crystal-plot ain't that creative at all even by the time Crystal Warriors was developed or released, and the crystals themselves don't really matter within the game in any markable way. The only aspect standing out so far is playing a heroine istead of a hero. The evil Empire invading a peaceful nation on the other hand seems suitable for a strategic fantasy rpg, though also not very innovative.

So the goal in this game is to overcome the Jyn Empire's armies in 16 different battles (rounds) either by defeating every single enemy unit on the map or entering the enemy's castle when it's unoccupied. Guess what: the enemy can take your castle too, to make it a little harder for you. Princess Iris herself acts as your own unit on the map, accompanied by up to 8 other playable units of various classes such as ranger, lord, mage or healer, essentially the same types of fighters the Jyn Empire pulls out it's sleeve. To add up to the threat the Jyn-forces mean to you, the dangers for your humble troups are further increased by different types of ferocious monsters, roaming especially earlier rounds. The two parties take turns in moving units and attacking their enemies across the map dividing the gameplay in offensive and defensive phases. The Maps themselves consist of numerous different terrain type tiles, some decreasing the amount of tiles a unit can travel within it's moving-phase, so traversing desert, narrow water or forests will slow down your units. When attacking or being attacked by a Jyn-fighter or monster, the perspective changes from the top view grid-like map into a sideview perspective of the actual encounter. Within this encounter, starting with the attacking unit, up to two rounds of ye good ol' round-based choice-menu-driven combat are exchanged. Everytime you defeat a enemy unit or monster, the unit delivering the deathblow gains 4 experience points and an amount of money differing according to the slain opponent. Every unit can level up to level 9 this way, which happens faster than you might suggest, leaving you mostly wondering about an equal experience distribution within your army than strategic usage of your troops. Besides the different fighter classes, the most strategically important aspect and key to master this game is the elemental system embedded into the battle: Every unit, even monster belongs to one of the four elements. Earth is neutral, water beats fire, fire beats wind, wind beats water ... the basic rock/paper/scissors stuff. You might rightfully suggest this to force you to give a good elemental mix to your fighting force. A feature I consider highly intriguing in Crystal Warriors is some of the classes ability to tame monsters when defeating them, being able to collect up to four different monsters to letting them fight for them during encounters. Again, those creatures also each belong to one of the four elemental groups, giving the tamer the opportunity to harm even units his own element is weak against. Eitherway, using the elements to your advantage is the core strategy to beat this game. Besides that, there are just a few cases in which the map itself dictates your movements. Anyways, almost every little "mistake" made by the player can easily end up in one or even more of you units being defeated ... meaning actually dead, never to return back, because once defeated, a unit is gone for good in this game. Summed up, all those aspects make a real good strategic rpg handheld title for many hours of gameplay. Being released in 91/92, this game is actually technically quite impressive for a GameGear cartridge.

Adding to the technical and gameplay aspects, the games' graphics are simply magnificent. Battle maps and towns are all drawn in colourful textures, even a bit detailed, albeit the limited capacities of the system. The visuals of fighters and monsters really shine in this game with every character having an own detailed colourful picture shown when the player selects them on the screen. The designs of the armor and fighters themselves is very cool and everything just looks amazing. The battle scenes, despite lacking any background graphics or pictures, are also presented with detailed animations and graphics, really showing of some of GameGear's colour palette indeed.

Music of the game is composed by MACKY, according to the credits. MACKY is an artist-name for a Dude called Yukifumi Makino, soundproducer for Sega CS and later head member of Sega Digital Media, which transformed into  Wave Master. He is credited with the sound programming and production of many Sega games, including many Sonic the Hedgehog titles. Crystal Warriors is a title he actually composed the score for.
Most of the pieces in this game deliver a lively, almost to-happy-for-a-war-game vibe, but all pieces are somewhat nice to listen to and not to boring despite all being loops of limited lenght. The only memorable piece of music I found is the battlefield theme 4, which plays in rounds 15 and 16. I actually posted it into the classic games -> retro games music thread here on VGC-forums, so feel free to take a listen. It kinda kept stuck in my ears.

Owning this cartridge for about 7 years now, I'm glad to have finally finished this game. At first it frustrated me with it's relentless difficulty, but once I got into it I found it to be highly enjoyable. Actually Shining Force for GameGear :D if you're into strategic rpg's like this, this is one your for commanding pleasure.

the 10th game finished this year ... better, than anticipated.  8)

telly:
Game 15 – Grandia (Switch) – 38 Hours

Grandia is a solid RPG from the PS1 era that has a lot of great things going for it. For my money, this is one of the best-looking role-playing games on the PS1. I just can't get over how beautiful the game’s use of 2D sprites over these intricate and detailed 3D models and environments. It’s a visual treat both in exploring the world, particularly towns which are bursting with personality, and engaging in the combat where the magic and attack animations are spectacular. Other small flourishes like the use of dynamic portraits during dialogue, with lots of fluid character animations, make it a very cinematic game as well. However, the voice acting was a little hit or miss to me. I do think it’s serviceable; the main issue for me was the adding of lots of dead air in between lines which made the deliveries feel more stilted and awkward than they were. I think for the time though, it's impressive. The music was a little inconsistent too. Some of the songs that play in dungeons in particular weren't that great. But, when a great song started playing, it fit the mood incredibly well. So you can see that one of the big draws for this game for me was its visuals, presentation, and overall polish that helped make a very engaging experience.

Now as far as the story goes, I thought it was OK. It wasn't anything particularly special it's a very cliche story with not a lot of surprises, but it got the job done and was entertaining enough. The game features a lot of cutscenes and again with the visual style of this game it made the story more enjoyable. The writing is pretty decent and again the voice acting helps drive home some of the more important moments. I loved the little moments where the groups shares a meal and conversation together before going to sleep, that really helped me connect more with the characters. I thought the characters were entertaining and I liked the budding romance between Justin and Feena, it felt very natural and believable.

Where I get a little bit more mixed feelings on is the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the combat system. The use of timed sequencing of attacks to cancel out your opponent’s actions on a timeline added a nice layer of strategy, and the leveling up system for different weapons and spells kept you engaged in your character's progress over the course of the game. The magic system is very deep offering you tons of utility for fighting, which was fun to experiment. With all that praise, I do also think that this game is very unbalanced both in terms of its enemy encounter rates, and the percentage of time that you spend engaging in the combat. Easily after around 18 hours in I was getting sick of clearing what felt like dungeon after dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, back-to-back-to-back, with very little story to break up the monotony. And with no side quests or mini games to speak of you will just be fighting for probably 75% of this game and it got very old. That great leveling up system that I mentioned earlier also became more and more tedious because you have to constantly be switching different weapons or focusing on different elemental attacks and because you change out several playable characters at least three or four times, the micromanaging started to feel repetitive.

While the game for me overstayed its welcome, I still felt a lot of satisfaction upon finishing it. This is a really decent RPG that I was glad to have experienced and I've heard the sequel is great as well, if not better.

bizzgeburt:

--- Quote from: telly on July 28, 2025, 12:17:24 pm ---Game 15 – Grandia (Switch) – 38 Hours

Grandia is a solid RPG from the PS1 era that has a lot of great things going for it. For my money, this is one of the best-looking role-playing games on the PS1. I just can't get over how beautiful the game’s use of 2D sprites over these intricate and detailed 3D models and environments. It’s a visual treat both in exploring the world, particularly towns which are bursting with personality, and engaging in the combat where the magic and attack animations are spectacular. Other small flourishes like the use of dynamic portraits during dialogue, with lots of fluid character animations, make it a very cinematic game as well. However, the voice acting was a little hit or miss to me. I do think it’s serviceable; the main issue for me was the adding of lots of dead air in between lines which made the deliveries feel more stilted and awkward than they were. I think for the time though, it's impressive. The music was a little inconsistent too. Some of the songs that play in dungeons in particular weren't that great. But, when a great song started playing, it fit the mood incredibly well. So you can see that one of the big draws for this game for me was its visuals, presentation, and overall polish that helped make a very engaging experience.

Now as far as the story goes, I thought it was OK. It wasn't anything particularly special it's a very cliche story with not a lot of surprises, but it got the job done and was entertaining enough. The game features a lot of cutscenes and again with the visual style of this game it made the story more enjoyable. The writing is pretty decent and again the voice acting helps drive home some of the more important moments. I loved the little moments where the groups shares a meal and conversation together before going to sleep, that really helped me connect more with the characters. I thought the characters were entertaining and I liked the budding romance between Justin and Feena, it felt very natural and believable.

Where I get a little bit more mixed feelings on is the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the combat system. The use of timed sequencing of attacks to cancel out your opponent’s actions on a timeline added a nice layer of strategy, and the leveling up system for different weapons and spells kept you engaged in your character's progress over the course of the game. The magic system is very deep offering you tons of utility for fighting, which was fun to experiment. With all that praise, I do also think that this game is very unbalanced both in terms of its enemy encounter rates, and the percentage of time that you spend engaging in the combat. Easily after around 18 hours in I was getting sick of clearing what felt like dungeon after dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, back-to-back-to-back, with very little story to break up the monotony. And with no side quests or mini games to speak of you will just be fighting for probably 75% of this game and it got very old. That great leveling up system that I mentioned earlier also became more and more tedious because you have to constantly be switching different weapons or focusing on different elemental attacks and because you change out several playable characters at least three or four times, the micromanaging started to feel repetitive.

While the game for me overstayed its welcome, I still felt a lot of satisfaction upon finishing it. This is a really decent RPG that I was glad to have experienced and I've heard the sequel is great as well, if not better.

--- End quote ---

I have the PS1-version on by backlog. I left off being in the desert on the entrance of the huge second 'secret' dungeon that I wanted to finish before continuing the storyline ... that was about 3 years ago ^^

I share your oppinion on this being a technically and graphically awesome RPG, and yea the leveling got repetitive fast. Thanks for the reminder, maybe I should restart where I left off and finally finish this game  8)

kashell:

--- Quote from: telly on July 28, 2025, 12:17:24 pm ---Game 15 – Grandia (Switch) – 38 Hours

Grandia is a solid RPG from the PS1 era that has a lot of great things going for it. For my money, this is one of the best-looking role-playing games on the PS1. I just can't get over how beautiful the game’s use of 2D sprites over these intricate and detailed 3D models and environments. It’s a visual treat both in exploring the world, particularly towns which are bursting with personality, and engaging in the combat where the magic and attack animations are spectacular. Other small flourishes like the use of dynamic portraits during dialogue, with lots of fluid character animations, make it a very cinematic game as well. However, the voice acting was a little hit or miss to me. I do think it’s serviceable; the main issue for me was the adding of lots of dead air in between lines which made the deliveries feel more stilted and awkward than they were. I think for the time though, it's impressive. The music was a little inconsistent too. Some of the songs that play in dungeons in particular weren't that great. But, when a great song started playing, it fit the mood incredibly well. So you can see that one of the big draws for this game for me was its visuals, presentation, and overall polish that helped make a very engaging experience.

Now as far as the story goes, I thought it was OK. It wasn't anything particularly special it's a very cliche story with not a lot of surprises, but it got the job done and was entertaining enough. The game features a lot of cutscenes and again with the visual style of this game it made the story more enjoyable. The writing is pretty decent and again the voice acting helps drive home some of the more important moments. I loved the little moments where the groups shares a meal and conversation together before going to sleep, that really helped me connect more with the characters. I thought the characters were entertaining and I liked the budding romance between Justin and Feena, it felt very natural and believable.

Where I get a little bit more mixed feelings on is the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the combat system. The use of timed sequencing of attacks to cancel out your opponent’s actions on a timeline added a nice layer of strategy, and the leveling up system for different weapons and spells kept you engaged in your character's progress over the course of the game. The magic system is very deep offering you tons of utility for fighting, which was fun to experiment. With all that praise, I do also think that this game is very unbalanced both in terms of its enemy encounter rates, and the percentage of time that you spend engaging in the combat. Easily after around 18 hours in I was getting sick of clearing what felt like dungeon after dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, back-to-back-to-back, with very little story to break up the monotony. And with no side quests or mini games to speak of you will just be fighting for probably 75% of this game and it got very old. That great leveling up system that I mentioned earlier also became more and more tedious because you have to constantly be switching different weapons or focusing on different elemental attacks and because you change out several playable characters at least three or four times, the micromanaging started to feel repetitive.

While the game for me overstayed its welcome, I still felt a lot of satisfaction upon finishing it. This is a really decent RPG that I was glad to have experienced and I've heard the sequel is great as well, if not better.

--- End quote ---

Nice work finishing this! FWIW, there were two "side quest" dungeons in the game but it offered more of the same: lots of combat and exploration. I think my issue with the combat was that it became really simple before too long because Justin and Feena became super powered by the time you get to the second disc.

I think you'll really like the second game if you liked the first.

bikingjahuty:
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) - ABANDONED

With everyone currently playing Donkey Kong Bananza on the Switch 2, I decided I'd go back 25-years and play I game in the DK series I haven't played in...well, 25-years. During the summer of 2000, I vividly remember renting DK64 from my local Hollywood Video and being pretty excited about it. I was a huge fan of the DKC games on the SNES, so I figured my love for this game would be similar despite it being in 3D and being a very, very different game overall. Funny enough, despite remembering this being a rental for me and even remember playing in my sister's room on her little CRT TV, I didn't remember much else beyond me getting to a desert themed level around the time I had to take this game back to the rental store. Replaying DK64 now, I kinda get why I have so few memories of this game and also why I don't look back on it fondly like most of the other classic DK games or Rareware games I played growing up.


My biggest reason for giving up on this game prematurely comes down really to two things. The controls and how bland this game feels. I'll start with the lessor of the two issues I had with it, which are controls that feel slow, unresponsive, and fairly limited at times. I particularly hated trying to do any sort of complex platforming or getting to a floating vine I needed to get to in order to swing some place. I mean, I was able to do what I needed to most of the time, but it was also a bit of a chore rather than something I actually enjoyed doing. The camera in this game is also fairly wonky and difficult to get right where you want it most of the time. But if these were my only real issues with DK64, I could have continued playing it. Unfortunately, the game just never clicked with me and left me feeling bored and unmotivated.


DK64 feels a bit like the leftovers of Banjo Kazooie mixed with Rare trying to do too much with this game, while also not giving it the room it needed to fully realize those ideas. For one, I found the stages that I was able to get to boring and just sort of bland. I think about the stages in Banjo Kazooie and how there was so much going on in them and so many interesting things to explore, but this game just feels flat and bland by comparison. Also, Banjo felt very focused and deliberate with what it had to offer, while this game just throws everything plus the kitchen sink at you and hopes you enjoy something. I know this game gets a lot of flack for having way too many collectibles, but its kinda of true. I also thought the use of 4 different Kongs to play as was a cool idea, but poorly implemented. It just felt like you were back tracking through the same levels too much in order to collect coins or bananas that you couldn't get as the other kongs. Also, while I couldn't say with 100% certainty, I swear this game borrows a ton of assets, both visually and audio related from Banjo Kazooie, which just sort of adds to the games blah quality. The game just feels bloated and uninspired.


I'm genuinely disappointed I'm abandoning a golden age Rareware game, and even more disappointed I'm abandoning a classic DK game, but this one is truly a step in the wrong direction for both camps. (7/30/25) - ABANDONED

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