Developer: FURYU Corporation
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch
Release Date (US): October 24, 2023
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The moment I heard that CRYMACHINA was FURYU’s spiritual successor to one of my favorite PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch games, Crystar, I knew I had to demo it. (Seriously…if you haven’t given Crystar a try, then you need to do so. It is THAT fantastic.) CRYMACHINA is set in a future where humanity has become extinct, and artificial life forms called Dei ex Machina exist inside of an outer space structure called Eden with one goal: to restore humanity.
The biggest aspect that the CRYMACHINA demo shares with Crystar are the character models. Both games have very similar, well-defined character designs that are unmistakable for any other type of game series. They are quite detailed and they will just draw you in. While I won’t comment on the voice acting or story, as the demo is still a work in progress, I will say simply that I enjoyed what little of it that I saw.
Video taken from a developmental build of CRYMACHINA, and it may not represent the final product.
The real star of my CRYMACHINA demo though was the combat. There are multiple combat actions, and the game encourages you to try them all out and mix them into combos. There is your standard melee attack, your ranged attack, your targeted range attack, and the ability to launch enemies into the air and then use midair attacks. When an enemy is knocked down, you can then perform a finishing assault to do even heavier damage. All of this felt very intuitive to use, and I quickly got the hang of it to kill off enemies and (most importantly!) it didn’t feel stale. In fact, my only real issue was performing a perfect dodge evasion at the last moment to avoid enemy attacks. I just couldn’t read the attacks well enough to make the dodges happen, and I was definitely more than a little frustrated with it. To be honest, I ended up having to have the NIS America representative help me get it done so I could proceed within the demo.
My time with the demo was short, but overall? I loved it. I want to see more of CRYMACHINA, and I want to actually get my hands on the game. I loved FURYU’s prior title, and this one is an instabuy for me after playing my 14-ish minute hands-on demo.
Are you excited to give CRYMACHINA a try?
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