Ludography
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Where to get it

Crystal Warriors cover

1991 · Role-playing · Strategy

Crystal Warriors

Timed Sega exclusive

The continent of Tyramus has lived in peace for almost a century, thanks to the four elemental crystals of the kingdom of Arliel. However, peace is threatened by the invading armies of the Jyn Empire, led by Emperor Grym, who wants to use the four crystals to rule over Tyramus. Fortunately, Princess Iris can escape with one of the crystals and now the player has to protect her and the crystal and somehow find a way to drive back the hordes of Jyn.

Released
13 December 1991
Platforms
Game GearNintendo 3DS
Genres
Role-playingStrategyTacticalTurn-based strategy
Developers
—
Publishers
—
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Fantasy
Country
Japan
Age ratings
PEGI 7ESRB E10+CERO A
Languages
English

About

Crystal Warriors (アーリエル クリスタル伝説, Ariel: Crystal Densetsu; "Ariel: Crystal Legend") is a turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Sega for the Game Gear in Japan in 1991 and in Europe and North America in 1992. It was re-released for Virtual Console in 2013. A Japan-only sequel Royal Stone was published in 1995.

Keywords

  • virtual console
  • nintendo 3ds virtual console

Media

Crystal Warriors screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay of Crystal Warriors is similar to both the Fire Emblem and Shining Force series. The player forms a party of up to nine units to fight in each level. The player starts on one side of the map and an enemy force of up to nine units occupies a castle on the opposite side. The player must defeat the enemy force or move a unit on to the enemy castle entrance to complete each level.

Each level has terrain features which form bottlenecks or change the speed of units. The player controls specialized units belonging to a particular elemental group and most of the strategy revolves around the element of a given unit, its speciality and positioning. Each element is weak to one and strong versus another in a rock-paper-scissors system. Fire elemental units are strong against wind elemental units, while wind units are strong against water, and in turn water units are strong against fire.

Story

The game follows the adventures of the sorceress Princess Iris of Arliel. The evil Jyn have overrun her father's lands and stolen three of the four elemental crystals used to keep the peace. Her quest takes her through the lands of Arliel to fight the Jyn's elemental governors and reclaim the crystals before defeating Emperor Grym and his mysterious overlord. Aside from the introduction (and closing), there is no plot development in the game.

Reception

The game received good reviews upon its original release, including 4/5 from GamePro, 80% from Mega Fun (Germany), 80% from Player One (France), and 91% from Sega Force (Sweden).

In a retrospective review, Nintendo Life's Damien McFerran gave it an average rating of five out of ten stars, opining: "While a great many RPGs from the early '90s remain astonishingly playable even today, Crystal Warriors is an example of a relic from the past which really deserves to stay there." Jacob Whritenour from Hardcore Gamer was much more positive and wrote the game "deserves a remake."

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Game Gear13 December 1991Japan · North America 31 December 1992
Nintendo 3DS6 February 2013Japan · Europe 27 June 2013 · North America 27 June 2013

Editions and related releases

Followed by
Royal Stone

Games like this

Collections5 collections

Platform libraries

Publishers

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.