izigame.me

Now I usually don't do actual reviews for games, just leaving it at a joke or two and moving on. However, I think this is a game that warrants a proper review. As of writing this, I have just finished the main game.

Story
★★★★★
By far the highlight of the game. Without going into any spoilers, the story is what most compelled me to keep playing the game after the first two hours or so. Those first two hours are a little rough in my opinion, with a few jokes that didn't quite stick for me, but past that the writing is absolutely phenomenal, and has me already planning to replay this title at some point relatively soon. While many of the points following this may seem negative, I cannot stress enough how much the story is worth playing for, with one twist in particular being one of the most memorable and impactful I've seen in media, let alone a video game.
Gameplay
★★☆☆☆
This is where most of my biggest issues with Crymachina stem from. While the combat itself is... fun, if a little heavy on the button mashing, many of the attacks and all but one of the character's dashes feel a little slow and clunky, and I found there were multiple times where I was being hit while stuck in an attack input even though I was trying to dodge.
Secondly, you're going to need to be prepared to grind. While most of the game can be played through with relative ease only doing the main story, near the end the "suggested" (suggested meaning required, in this case, due to the very high changes in stats between levels) level for your characters and required exp to level up rises drastically. I'm fairly certain roughly 3 of my last 4 hours of the game were spent repetitively running the same missions to gather enough exp to progress.
There's also little to no tutorial, with most of the guides being hidden behind an in game manual that, admittedly, I skipped over reading. As such, it took me until I literally could not progress due to difficulty to figure out how to even level up my characters.
While it may seem like these issues would add up to an unplayable, un-enjoyable game, I think that is far from the case. While there are certainly problems with the gameplay I wish would be addressed, they aren't problematic enough to have made me want to stop playing, and I make it a point to not finish games that I'm not enjoying.
Audio & Visuals
★★★★☆
In general, the music and visuals of the game are phenomenal. The soundtrack by Sakuzyo is actually how I originally found out about this game, and I spent months listening to it on repeat before actually playing the game. Likewise, Rolua's work on the character portraits is stunning, bringing so much more life and emotion to the game beyond a "generic anime game". Likewise did the few animated sections of the game not fail to stun me; the artistic team behind them is clearly very talented and made it known.
The levels, while mostly similar in general aesthetics, are likewise wonderful to look at, and I never found myself growing tired of seeing the extensive mechanical interiors of Eden as I progressed through them. Each new area has enough variation as to feel distinct from the others, while still feeling like part of the same structure.
My one problem here is the character models. They feel a little off putting and rigid, even beyond what would make sense for a machine stylistically. They did grow on me somewhat, but certainly gave off an uncanny valley feeling that persisted through the entire game.
Overall
★★★★☆
I really, really wish I could give Crymachina five stars, with the story, art, visuals and general atmosphere deserving more than that on their own. However, the issues with the combat, while not particularly having enough of an effect to dissuade me from continuing, are too present for me to give the five star rating this game so deserves otherwise.
In a way, I wish this was an anime- there are clearly very talented writers and artists that worked on this game and I wish they had more time to shine through amidst the clunky combat and somewhat lacking character models. If you're looking for a combat focused ARPG, Crymachina isn't for you. Go play Scarlet Nexus if you haven't. But if you're ready to immerse yourself in a world and a story, and grow to care about a small, enjoyable cast of characters who play off of each other incredibly well, you'll love this game, and I wish you the best of times with it.
Also the lesbian robots were cool