Crystalis

The Good
This game has a great artistic style to it, a rich color palette and quality music. The gameplay is addictively fun, the plot is rich with it's intertwining of technology and magic, and the landscapes are prime examples of 8-bit pixel mastery.

Combat is simple and enjoyable. 4 swords, 3 charge attacks, and a variety of styles of execution against your enemy hordes. While the monsters are mostly simple creatures marching towards you, the difficulty is increased by making you stand still to charge your sword, thus creating a system of bait and hit. Better yet is when your enemies are equipped with their own weapons.

For an added difficulty bonus, you can engage in faster pace melee combat by button mashing your attack rather than charging, making life and death much more prevalent than the defensive bait and hit.

The Bad
Too easy to beat and no hard mode, and not enough actual logic puzzles. Also unfortunate (though perhaps intentional) is cave mazes become very repetitive as all the walls look exactly the same. This becomes almost mind boggling, and would've greatly been improved with a bread crumb system.

But most importantly, no sequel!

The Bottom Line
Crystalis is a fast pace action orientated RPG with an excellent story line. Crystalis is timeless cult classic; a must play for all would-be gamers, developers, or artist

SNK's unrecognized masterpiece RPG provided the essential elements of character building and travelling now mirrored in contemporary games. It appears deceivingly simple, but was beautifully sculptured. In comparison to modern gaming, it can be seen as a fine-tuned crafted artwork, a minimalist approach that took more time to make it short and all the sweeter.