Embaru
7 reviews liked by Embaru
Crymachina
2023
"999 roses surround me. No matter how many times I am reborn, I will always remember you."
Ever since I finished Crystar last year and later heard news of this game's announcement a few months later, it'd be safe to say that Crymachina has been my most highly anticipated game for the past year. And now that it's finally out in English, did it meet my expectations? While I do have a few small problems with it, I would still say yes, absolutely.
Crymachina's story, first and foremost is one of love. While that may sound like a simplification, I'd still say that the love the protagonists share for eachother and their will to live on for the sake of the ones they hold dear is what's at the very core of it.
A strong part of what sets Crymachina apart from Crystar is it's setting. Taking place 2000 years in the future, it is one that absolutely revels and takes advantage of the post apocalyptic Sci-Fi themings in a very unique and interesting way, even if by the end it felt more like a vehicle for the plot more than anything (which I didn't mind.) It explores plenty of space related concepts such as the Fermi Paradox and the dark forest hypothesis and while all the scientific jargon thrown out can feel confusing at first (especially with how much of it is dumped on you), for me personally it never got to a point where it was too much.
Some people might be put off by how fast the plot goes by in Crymachina, which is largely cause of how little gameplay fluff it has but for this kind of high concept story it feels just right, even if it means sometimes you'll have twists thrown at you one after the other, with some being less important than others.
As for the characters, I think Crymachina might have some of the best I've seen in a JRPG. While the main cast is very small, with only 4 members, they all feel extremely human and real, which only makes their struggles against those who would think they don't deserve humanity feel all the more touching. While I mentioned that the cast is driven by love, this is something that gradually blossoms instead of being immediate. The protagonist Leben initially wakes up confused into the world of the game, being driven only by her hatred of humans and love of machines but by the end, the singular thing that's motivating her is her love for Enoa, whom she wholeheartedly would do anything for. Ami and Mikoto in contrast are together from the start, however we only get to see them be more intimate with eachother as the story progresses and as things keep getting worse we get to see just how much each of them would risk for the other. Enoa is honestly my favorite character in the game; her development from only being able to see herself as a cold machine despite her extremely human display of emotions to realizing that she does infact posses a very kind human heart was one of the highlights of the game for me.
I think the only real problem I had with the plot outside of the pacing sometimes is that due to the game overall being less reliant on depressing backstories and whatnot like Crystar was, there are very little flashbacks containing Hajime Ueda art, which were some of my favorite parts of it, so for that to be largely absent here was a shame.
Something I do want to point out though is that while it is true that the two games aren't necessarily related plotwise, they do share alot of thematic roots even if they end up going in completely different directions with them; as such, I feel like playing this with prior experience of Crystar does improve it as there are multiple moments where it feels like Crymachina is purposely tampering with expectations of players who have played the former first, especially at the start.
For the gameplay, I honestly don't have much to say about it. I appreciate that stages now feel properly designed unlike the mostly hollow labyrinths that Crystar's were, but that doesn't mean much with how quickly they take to clear. The actual combat is fine too, even if it mostly just relies on mostly dodging enemies so you don't get oneshotted. I honestly wish the gameplay loop was more prevalent in this as at most you'll be spending 90% of the game reading and the other 10% playing which contributes to the plot feeling like it has no brakes but like stated before, it thankfully manages to make it work for the most part so it doesn't bother me too much outside of just being a slight nitpick.
The last thing I'd like to talk about is the music. Just like Crystar's, it was composed by Sakuzyo but unlike the former it's used in a much better way. Whilst Crystar does have it's share of good OSTs, they largely only get to play once, meaning most of what you hear during the game is just the same few monotonous battle themes, further contributing to the sense of repetition that the game very much suffers from. Crymachina though, thankfully doesn't fall into this trap, with the music as a whole feeling much more vibrant and never falling into the same pitfalls regarding it's usage that Star did. I think the biggest highlight of all though, are the vocal themes. All of the boss fight music + inserts are sung by Enoa (CV: Hikaru Tomo) and they're all honestly so beautiful and great at defining the identity of the game (this can apply to Enoa's character as a whole too) that I honestly couldn't imagine it without them.
While this wouldn't be my favorite Furyu game (Caligula 2 takes that spot), I still think Crymachina goes above and beyond in surpassing it's predecessor and crafting quite possibly one of the best queer stories I've experienced. If you like yuri media whatsoever then I would wholly recommend you play this.
Ever since I finished Crystar last year and later heard news of this game's announcement a few months later, it'd be safe to say that Crymachina has been my most highly anticipated game for the past year. And now that it's finally out in English, did it meet my expectations? While I do have a few small problems with it, I would still say yes, absolutely.
Crymachina's story, first and foremost is one of love. While that may sound like a simplification, I'd still say that the love the protagonists share for eachother and their will to live on for the sake of the ones they hold dear is what's at the very core of it.
A strong part of what sets Crymachina apart from Crystar is it's setting. Taking place 2000 years in the future, it is one that absolutely revels and takes advantage of the post apocalyptic Sci-Fi themings in a very unique and interesting way, even if by the end it felt more like a vehicle for the plot more than anything (which I didn't mind.) It explores plenty of space related concepts such as the Fermi Paradox and the dark forest hypothesis and while all the scientific jargon thrown out can feel confusing at first (especially with how much of it is dumped on you), for me personally it never got to a point where it was too much.
Some people might be put off by how fast the plot goes by in Crymachina, which is largely cause of how little gameplay fluff it has but for this kind of high concept story it feels just right, even if it means sometimes you'll have twists thrown at you one after the other, with some being less important than others.
As for the characters, I think Crymachina might have some of the best I've seen in a JRPG. While the main cast is very small, with only 4 members, they all feel extremely human and real, which only makes their struggles against those who would think they don't deserve humanity feel all the more touching. While I mentioned that the cast is driven by love, this is something that gradually blossoms instead of being immediate. The protagonist Leben initially wakes up confused into the world of the game, being driven only by her hatred of humans and love of machines but by the end, the singular thing that's motivating her is her love for Enoa, whom she wholeheartedly would do anything for. Ami and Mikoto in contrast are together from the start, however we only get to see them be more intimate with eachother as the story progresses and as things keep getting worse we get to see just how much each of them would risk for the other. Enoa is honestly my favorite character in the game; her development from only being able to see herself as a cold machine despite her extremely human display of emotions to realizing that she does infact posses a very kind human heart was one of the highlights of the game for me.
I think the only real problem I had with the plot outside of the pacing sometimes is that due to the game overall being less reliant on depressing backstories and whatnot like Crystar was, there are very little flashbacks containing Hajime Ueda art, which were some of my favorite parts of it, so for that to be largely absent here was a shame.
Something I do want to point out though is that while it is true that the two games aren't necessarily related plotwise, they do share alot of thematic roots even if they end up going in completely different directions with them; as such, I feel like playing this with prior experience of Crystar does improve it as there are multiple moments where it feels like Crymachina is purposely tampering with expectations of players who have played the former first, especially at the start.
For the gameplay, I honestly don't have much to say about it. I appreciate that stages now feel properly designed unlike the mostly hollow labyrinths that Crystar's were, but that doesn't mean much with how quickly they take to clear. The actual combat is fine too, even if it mostly just relies on mostly dodging enemies so you don't get oneshotted. I honestly wish the gameplay loop was more prevalent in this as at most you'll be spending 90% of the game reading and the other 10% playing which contributes to the plot feeling like it has no brakes but like stated before, it thankfully manages to make it work for the most part so it doesn't bother me too much outside of just being a slight nitpick.
The last thing I'd like to talk about is the music. Just like Crystar's, it was composed by Sakuzyo but unlike the former it's used in a much better way. Whilst Crystar does have it's share of good OSTs, they largely only get to play once, meaning most of what you hear during the game is just the same few monotonous battle themes, further contributing to the sense of repetition that the game very much suffers from. Crymachina though, thankfully doesn't fall into this trap, with the music as a whole feeling much more vibrant and never falling into the same pitfalls regarding it's usage that Star did. I think the biggest highlight of all though, are the vocal themes. All of the boss fight music + inserts are sung by Enoa (CV: Hikaru Tomo) and they're all honestly so beautiful and great at defining the identity of the game (this can apply to Enoa's character as a whole too) that I honestly couldn't imagine it without them.
While this wouldn't be my favorite Furyu game (Caligula 2 takes that spot), I still think Crymachina goes above and beyond in surpassing it's predecessor and crafting quite possibly one of the best queer stories I've experienced. If you like yuri media whatsoever then I would wholly recommend you play this.
'Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke' is the coolest sequence of words ever arranged together in the English language and nobody can convince me of otherwise.
This review contains spoilers
"Inside the butchered goose was nothing but it's bloody entrails.
Those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have.
That is the moral of this tale. But if you ask me, it's a silly one. A woman seeking to better her life? Who did so at her own peril?
And I wonder if I were her..
Would I have done the same thing?
Would I then be the one scorned?
If that's the case, I..."
Labyrinth of Galleria is an interesting game. While I initially did not hold much interest towards it as the previous entry in the Majo series before it, Refrain did not engage me that much in the few hours of it I tried, once I had actually opened Galleria it took very little for me to be immediately immersed into it's world.
Right from the very first scene, we're thrown into an story that while seemingly simple at first glance, gradually becomes more complex as the mysteries behind Galleria Manor and the labyrinth that rests underneath it begin to unravel. Before I talk more about the plot though, I would first like to discuss the gameplay, as that is foremost the crux and foundation of the game before the story.
Galleria's gameplay is very similar to Refrain's, only with there now being several QOL improvements, with the biggest one being that there is now 15 classes instead of 10 to choose from, giving the player a much more varied set to build their party off of.
However, that is where the similarities with Refrain end. Unlike Refrain, which had very standard dungeon design by DRPG standards, Galleria opts to go in the opposite direction, with it having rather more unorthodox design choices that distinguish it from it's predecessor, for better or worse. The most noticeable of these is the procedurally generated dungeons that are laid within the back half of the game. Despite how length consuming these might get (with the post game version of it being a whole 3k+ floors long), I never particularly found much issue with them, as I found the struggle in having to venture through them thematically relevant to the game's plot, especially in the case of the last one. What I moreso had an issue with is the game's insistence on backtracking. This usually isn't a problem for me in games, however in Galleria I honestly found it to be a pain in the ass purely cause of how obtuse and confusing dungeons like Narthex and Apse are to navigate when you're made to come back to them in the second half of the game to obtain random loot that the plot dictated as important. Regardless of my issues with it, I still found Galleria's dungeon crawling to be a rewarding experience that was worth my time.
There isn't much that I have to say about the combat system as I found it to be satisfactory enough, only that while it is fun at first, grinding in this game gradually starts to feel like a chore more than anything cause of how excessive it is, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not vibing with it.
The last real thing I have to comment on is the requests. Oh god, the requests. For part 1 of the game, you're required to do every request listed to get a certain item, or else you will be locked into the bad ending. This in itself I didn't find too bad, as most of the loot required for the requests in this part of the game are very common to find and you should find that any leftover requests will be dealt with rather quickly. No, what I really have an issue with is the requests in part 2, specifically Bocklin's.
For part 2, none of the requests are required for completion except for Bocklin's who you first meet in Narthex B7 in part 1, and who tells you to meet him again once the time is right. Completion of his requests is required in order to unlock the true ending as well as obtain items that will weaken the final boss, as without them you're basically powerless to it. This would be fine by itself if it wasn't for the fact that his requests for procuring such items in the first require you to obtain extremely rare loot that can take HOURS of your time to even find. This was the part of the game that frustrated me the most, as it was completely dependant on luck, and as such if you didn't find the loot on your first trek of a dungeon you would have to go back there again and again until you did. Once again, I do not blame anyone for thinking that this segment of the game is bullshit, because it is.
Overall, whilst Galleria's gameplay has alot of flaws to it in my eyes, it was all worth it in the end because of what I am going to discuss next; the story.
"Remember the past, present, and future... Remember your presence exists today, yesterday, and...tomorrow..! Right, you should be well aware of it now. You are ever present and nowhere present. You exist nowhere and everywhere."
The plot of Galleria largely follows the journeys of Eureka de Soleil and Nachiroux, two protagonists who much like the sun and the moon, are complete opposites of eachother, yet end up being drawn towards one another regardless. Eureka is happy go lucky and optimistic to a fault, to a point where she will help literally anyone if they ask her to, even if what she's being made to do is morally questionable, simply because her upbringing in an extremely strict family made her too scared of being thought of as useless to say no. Nachiroux, in contrast is the prime example of a shut-in; with her often pushing away people like Eureka and her mom away from her because of how much she can't stand to be with them due to her standoffish nature. Behind this mask though, is a very kind person that cares about both of the afforementioned people alot.
The reason why I brought these two up first is cause for me they were the focal point of Galleria's story, with me having endured through all of the trials and tribulations that the gameplay has purely to see them get a happy conclusion. That isn't to say I found the other plot elements to be subpar, no, far from it. I also thoroughly enjoyed plot threads such as the relationship between the main antag of the game Cecilia and tortured artist Bisto, whose tumultuous actions can be said to be what kickstarted this series of events in the first place. There is also the Moon Society, the secret group of witches who serve both as Nachi's mentors and friends as they struggle to fight against the phenomena that threatens to annihilate their world. From it, I found the relationship between Kitcat and Eureu (the Alstella world version of Eureka as well as the Oracle) to be especially touching. There is obviously much, much more to pick apart and analyse here, but these are just some of the examples that touched my heart personally. The last main thing that I would like to remark upon is Fantie, the player insert character for this game. Generally I find insert characters in games to be cheap and lazy, but Galleria does it perfectly. The way Fantie is handled within it's role to the plot is through it being an impartial observer in the form of a green slime lantern that follows Eureka and Nachi on their journey as well as commanding the Witch Brigade of puppets, which ensures that the player is given agency in the plot, but not too much that it feels like self gratification as is the case with self insert characters in other games.
"But this unparalleled scene of despair... after everything you've witnessed, doesn't this seem like a starting point toward hope to you now?"
At the end of the day Galleria is a game about overcoming struggles. It is a game about overcoming an impossible future, about slicing the goose open to reach the best conclusion possible no matter what it takes. And that is exactly why despite my complaints about it, the unforgiving gameplay it has is extremely fitting for this type of narrative. Just as Eureka is made to endure thousands of years to save Nachi, so does the player have to struggle for hours in the 3651 floor postgame dungeon, to see that happy ending come to light no matter what. And that is what I find so beautiful about Galleria.
"Let's go see the flowers when you wake up... It's a promise."
Those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have.
That is the moral of this tale. But if you ask me, it's a silly one. A woman seeking to better her life? Who did so at her own peril?
And I wonder if I were her..
Would I have done the same thing?
Would I then be the one scorned?
If that's the case, I..."
Labyrinth of Galleria is an interesting game. While I initially did not hold much interest towards it as the previous entry in the Majo series before it, Refrain did not engage me that much in the few hours of it I tried, once I had actually opened Galleria it took very little for me to be immediately immersed into it's world.
Right from the very first scene, we're thrown into an story that while seemingly simple at first glance, gradually becomes more complex as the mysteries behind Galleria Manor and the labyrinth that rests underneath it begin to unravel. Before I talk more about the plot though, I would first like to discuss the gameplay, as that is foremost the crux and foundation of the game before the story.
Galleria's gameplay is very similar to Refrain's, only with there now being several QOL improvements, with the biggest one being that there is now 15 classes instead of 10 to choose from, giving the player a much more varied set to build their party off of.
However, that is where the similarities with Refrain end. Unlike Refrain, which had very standard dungeon design by DRPG standards, Galleria opts to go in the opposite direction, with it having rather more unorthodox design choices that distinguish it from it's predecessor, for better or worse. The most noticeable of these is the procedurally generated dungeons that are laid within the back half of the game. Despite how length consuming these might get (with the post game version of it being a whole 3k+ floors long), I never particularly found much issue with them, as I found the struggle in having to venture through them thematically relevant to the game's plot, especially in the case of the last one. What I moreso had an issue with is the game's insistence on backtracking. This usually isn't a problem for me in games, however in Galleria I honestly found it to be a pain in the ass purely cause of how obtuse and confusing dungeons like Narthex and Apse are to navigate when you're made to come back to them in the second half of the game to obtain random loot that the plot dictated as important. Regardless of my issues with it, I still found Galleria's dungeon crawling to be a rewarding experience that was worth my time.
There isn't much that I have to say about the combat system as I found it to be satisfactory enough, only that while it is fun at first, grinding in this game gradually starts to feel like a chore more than anything cause of how excessive it is, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not vibing with it.
The last real thing I have to comment on is the requests. Oh god, the requests. For part 1 of the game, you're required to do every request listed to get a certain item, or else you will be locked into the bad ending. This in itself I didn't find too bad, as most of the loot required for the requests in this part of the game are very common to find and you should find that any leftover requests will be dealt with rather quickly. No, what I really have an issue with is the requests in part 2, specifically Bocklin's.
For part 2, none of the requests are required for completion except for Bocklin's who you first meet in Narthex B7 in part 1, and who tells you to meet him again once the time is right. Completion of his requests is required in order to unlock the true ending as well as obtain items that will weaken the final boss, as without them you're basically powerless to it. This would be fine by itself if it wasn't for the fact that his requests for procuring such items in the first require you to obtain extremely rare loot that can take HOURS of your time to even find. This was the part of the game that frustrated me the most, as it was completely dependant on luck, and as such if you didn't find the loot on your first trek of a dungeon you would have to go back there again and again until you did. Once again, I do not blame anyone for thinking that this segment of the game is bullshit, because it is.
Overall, whilst Galleria's gameplay has alot of flaws to it in my eyes, it was all worth it in the end because of what I am going to discuss next; the story.
"Remember the past, present, and future... Remember your presence exists today, yesterday, and...tomorrow..! Right, you should be well aware of it now. You are ever present and nowhere present. You exist nowhere and everywhere."
The plot of Galleria largely follows the journeys of Eureka de Soleil and Nachiroux, two protagonists who much like the sun and the moon, are complete opposites of eachother, yet end up being drawn towards one another regardless. Eureka is happy go lucky and optimistic to a fault, to a point where she will help literally anyone if they ask her to, even if what she's being made to do is morally questionable, simply because her upbringing in an extremely strict family made her too scared of being thought of as useless to say no. Nachiroux, in contrast is the prime example of a shut-in; with her often pushing away people like Eureka and her mom away from her because of how much she can't stand to be with them due to her standoffish nature. Behind this mask though, is a very kind person that cares about both of the afforementioned people alot.
The reason why I brought these two up first is cause for me they were the focal point of Galleria's story, with me having endured through all of the trials and tribulations that the gameplay has purely to see them get a happy conclusion. That isn't to say I found the other plot elements to be subpar, no, far from it. I also thoroughly enjoyed plot threads such as the relationship between the main antag of the game Cecilia and tortured artist Bisto, whose tumultuous actions can be said to be what kickstarted this series of events in the first place. There is also the Moon Society, the secret group of witches who serve both as Nachi's mentors and friends as they struggle to fight against the phenomena that threatens to annihilate their world. From it, I found the relationship between Kitcat and Eureu (the Alstella world version of Eureka as well as the Oracle) to be especially touching. There is obviously much, much more to pick apart and analyse here, but these are just some of the examples that touched my heart personally. The last main thing that I would like to remark upon is Fantie, the player insert character for this game. Generally I find insert characters in games to be cheap and lazy, but Galleria does it perfectly. The way Fantie is handled within it's role to the plot is through it being an impartial observer in the form of a green slime lantern that follows Eureka and Nachi on their journey as well as commanding the Witch Brigade of puppets, which ensures that the player is given agency in the plot, but not too much that it feels like self gratification as is the case with self insert characters in other games.
"But this unparalleled scene of despair... after everything you've witnessed, doesn't this seem like a starting point toward hope to you now?"
At the end of the day Galleria is a game about overcoming struggles. It is a game about overcoming an impossible future, about slicing the goose open to reach the best conclusion possible no matter what it takes. And that is exactly why despite my complaints about it, the unforgiving gameplay it has is extremely fitting for this type of narrative. Just as Eureka is made to endure thousands of years to save Nachi, so does the player have to struggle for hours in the 3651 floor postgame dungeon, to see that happy ending come to light no matter what. And that is what I find so beautiful about Galleria.
"Let's go see the flowers when you wake up... It's a promise."
Drakengard 3
2013
Gaming has had an immense amount of tragedies ocurring upon this medium over its 6 decades existence, but the absolute worst of them all is 100% the fact that I unfortunately REALLY liked this game.
Signalis
2022
They have since patched in enough room in my inventory for the 5th star
game so good it saved twitter.com
https://youtu.be/J-L8VzdCdzk DUDE I WANNA JERK OFFFFF I WANNA JERK OFFFFFF AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!.