Crystar Brings The Emotion With A Switch Launch Trailer

'Give meaning to the tears'

by Thomas Whitehead Tue 29th Mar 2022

Crystar is an intriguing RPG from recent years, as it has battle mechanics centred around crying - apparently. Originally a PS4 exclusive, NIS America has stepped in to bring it to Switch.

Ahead of its release later this week we have the official launch trailer, at the top of the page. It follows the usual playbook, in some respects, with dramatic piano-led music and lots of dramatic voiceover clips that doesn't necessarily make much sense. It looks darn interesting, though.

Are any of you planning to pick this up at the end of the week?

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Crystar

Tom has been involved in the games industry for over a decade, mostly writing about it or struggling to sell Indie games. Loves reading, writing, hunting Capcom’s fiercest monsters and watching baseball.

1
Expa0
Tue 29th Mar 2022

"It has battle mechanics centred around crying - apparently"

I guess that's a selling point...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6RWiVRwoE8

2
CANOEberry
Tue 29th Mar 2022

Removed - trolling/baiting

3
UltimateOtaku91
Tue 29th Mar 2022

Hopefully this is one jrpg that actually runs well on the switch

4
Browny
Tue 29th Mar 2022

The character design and visuals are dancing in the uncanny valley for me.

5
GameOtaku
Tue 29th Mar 2022

Picking this up on my way home from work.

6
XenoShaun
Tue 29th Mar 2022

I cried when I saw NIS's pricing over here. Switch tax and all T_T

At least this one is being sold a little cheaper than the old PS4 version unlike most of their releases in UK.

7
Astral-Grain
Tue 29th Mar 2022

I like it when games focus on aspects we don't like to think about such as sadness, death, etc.

Oninaki is one game that did this very effectively - your job is to help the dead pass on to the next stage of their existence and at one point you help the ghost of a child try to help his parents get over his death, and the way this is resolved is by the player character killing the parents because they say they cannot live without their child and being alive without him is agony. It's a sad situation, but you begin to understand it and balance out the sadness with hope because the game implements sadness carefully.

Sad moments are powerful when you have contrast, but Crystar seems to focus only on sadness, regret, death, etc. and the repetitive gameplay gives little reason to keep on the journey.