Crystalis

Crystalis takes place in a post-apocalyptic world,[2] in 2097, one hundred years after "1997, October 1, The END DAY", when a global thermonuclear war began that reverted civilization to a primitive, medieval existence populated with fierce mutated creatures.[4] Science and advanced technology have been abandoned, with the survivors deciding to study the ways of magic.[4][1] The survivors of the destruction built a floating "Tower" to prevent any future cataclysms, as its occupants would have the power to govern the world, due to the Tower's weapons systems.[4] A man known as Draygon, however, revived the forbidden ways of science and combined them with magic.[1][2] With these skills, he controls the world's last remaining military power and seeks to conquer what is left of the planet by attempting to enter the Tower.[4]

The protagonist awakens with no memory, but, guided by four wise sages, gradually learns that the world is sinking into turmoil, due to the Draygonia Empire's destructive influence.[4] Entrusted with the Sword of Wind, he seeks to aid Mesia, another survivor from his time, and to combine the four elemental Swords of Wind, Fire, Water, and Thunder into the legendary sword, Crystalis.[4] Together, they must defeat Draygon before he uses the Tower to achieve his evil ambitions.

The anonymous male protagonist (named SNK by default in the NES version, Simea in the Game Boy Color version) and his female accomplice, Mesia, are scientists who were cryogenically frozen, to be released when the tower began to activate.[4] The protagonist is assisted by four sages named Zebu, Tornel, Asina, and Kensu, primarily in learning magic spells and gaining information about the world and the quest.[1] They are encountered frequently throughout the game, and the player can seek their advice using the telepathy spell.[4][1] In the GBC version, the sages are each responsible for creating one of the four swords:[1] Zebu for Wind, Tornel for Fire, Asina for Water, and Kensu for Thunder. The original game does not mention who forged the ancient swords.

There are also four recurring boss characters, "Dragonia's Finest Four". Comprising this group are: General Kelbesque, Sabera the Witch, the Swordsman Mado, and Karmine the Wizard. Each of them has a distinct elemental weakness and, with the exception of Karmine, each is encountered twice during the adventure.[5] Though not the final adversary in the game, Emperor Draygon is the ultimate antagonist and the root of all of evil in Crystalis. After defeating his false self, the hero encounters the real one and reveals his true, dragon-like form. After defeating the real Draygon, the hero gains access to the Tower for a final showdown[4] with a machine called DYNA.

Nearly ten years after the game's initial release, Nintendo, with licensing from SNK, re-released Crystalis for the Game Boy Color on June 26, 2000. This version, however, is a significantly different game, exemplified by a different opening sequence. The nature of the Tower's origin and its purpose were fundamentally altered, with the Tower now being a weapon created by the game's antagonist, and the protagonist has been elevated to a hero of ancient prophecy destined to save the world.[4] This story sequence was used in the instruction manual for the NES version.

Other major changes include an almost completely new soundtrack, re-translation differences (for example, Draygon is now known as Dragonia, as in the Japanese version) and rewriting of story-items and events[8] (Kensu's Body and the dialogue in the Dwarven village, for example). The game now has a different final sequence too: in the original, after defeating Draygon's two forms in the pyramid, a character named Azteca dies and then the players travel to the flying tower to fight the final boss DYNA, the computer controlling the tower. In the Game Boy Color version, the players go to the flying tower directly (which has been shortened compared to the original). Once inside, the players fight DYNA and then fight Draygon's two forms. The re-ordering of these last battles caused Azteca's death scene to be excised from the game. Also, a digital voice was added to state the name of each sword upon discovery.

Unlike the original version, enemies are not immune to certain elemental swords.[4] The lower resolution of the Game Boy Color screen, compared to that of the NES, results in a field of view smaller than in the original, making the GBC port more difficult;[9] some enemies can now attack the player from off-screen.

SNK re-released Crystalis for the Nintendo Switch on November 13, 2018, as part of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection.[10][11][12] This collection, including Crystalis, was released in 2019 for Sony PlayStation 4 on March 19,[13] for Xbox One on May 2,[14] and for Steam on June 7.[15] The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam releases of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection mark the first time that Crystalis, a game once exclusive to the NES, has been made available outside of a Nintendo console.