Crystalis

The Good
The story line of this game is a strong point. It's not especially original, but it is very prominent. There are many cut-scene narratives throughout. Your mission is of the save-the-world from the big-bad-thing type; where the final area is a hyper-technological tower floating in the sky.

There is something of an epic scope with all the areas that you progress through. You go through plenty of labarynthine dungeons, mountains, deserts, towns, a toxic swamp -- you even travel the sea upon a dolphin!

To keep things interesting there are several puzzles to solve -- though it can get annoying when you can't advance because of some obscure puzzle.

The Bad
The leveling up process, though not difficult, is very tedious. You must kill monster after monster... after monster. It is not a question of skill, rather one of patience. This underscores the greatest weakness of the game -- it is too easy if you take the time to level up by killing scads of monsters . The monsters are not very bright either, so there's not much joy in killing them.

The Bottom Line
This game provided many hours of entertainment despite some annoyances. Crystalis is firmly in the zelda-style rpg/action tradition, and anyone who enjoys that genre will likely enjoy this classic.