Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 1991
(Luckily the game doesn't actually take place from the crystal's point of view)
Every so often someone who didn’t live through it will ask us older gamers why the Game Gear got toppled by the Game Boy. It was technically superior after all. It was in color and had a backlit screen plus sharper graphics. The answer to this is is of course complicated, but the key advantage the Game Boy had was games. The Game Boy had a large and interesting library of games with many exciting exclusives. Almost all of the key Nintendo franchises got at least one Game Boy exclusive. The Game Gear, however, has one of the most boring libraries in all of gaming. It is almost completely comprised of miniature versions of games already released for the Genesis. Outside of a few Sonic games there’s just not much to get excited about unless you like inferior versions of licensed titles. That’s why I really wanted to like Dragon Crystal. It’s something different on the Game Gear. It’s a classic roguelike in an era where those were rare especially on consoles. It’s hard to think of another one other than the similar Fatal Labyrinth released during the 16-bit era. Of course, it was released on the Sega Master System in Europe so it’s not a total exclusive, but it’s still more interesting than 8-bit Aladdin. Unfortunately, it has the worst type of flaw that any roguelike can have.
If you’ve never played a roguelike they work like this: you wander around in a randomly generated dungeon trying to get to the end without dying. There are usually levels to gain and equipment to find making them nominally RPGs, although they are often missing other RPG conventions like world maps and NPCs. The main hallmark of a roguelike is permadeath meaning that if you die it’s back to the start with a brand new level 1 character. Dragon Crystal doesn’t completely adhere to this parameter. It does have the potential for a few continutes. However, it doesn’t help the game become much easier. Dragon Crystal is difficult through and through. When difficultly is done right I find it to be an asset, but when it’s done wrong it can really ruin a game. Dragon Crystal definitely has too much of the wrong kind of difficulty.
But first the positives. I certainly like the way it looks. It’s a game where the maps are hidden, and uncovering them involves creaking along through colorful environments. In a genre where everything tends to look the same it’s nice to have a game with several different backgrounds and monster designs. Walking through giant smiling cacti instead of plain black backgrounds goes a long way. I also like that there is a good good amount of items to uncover. It encourages more exploration when there might be something new out there to find. Of course, identifying the items can be dangerous in itself because they are only listed by colors until you use them. Still, if the potions and books are found on the lower levels they are usually not fatal. I enjoy the game’s sense of style so that’s a point in its favor.
However, it all falls apart with the genre’s biggest flaw. Success in Dragon Crystal is almost entirely based on luck. All the equipped weapons, or at least through the twentieth floor where I hit a wall and couldn’t go on, are close range. The only ranged attacks come from items. There are some monsters that will pretty much destroy you if you don’t have ranged items. So if you haven’t found any along the way you are going to die. There aren’t very many item slots either, so you are not going to be able to stockpile a ton of them. You just have to hope that there are going to be some extra ones near the monsters. What’s worse is there are monsters on the higher floors that drain your stats on almost every hit. The only way to recover them is to find the right potions. This can be hard to do when strength has been reduced to almost zero and armor has been rusted. The only way to win is to find the right potions in the right place at the right time. And of course there are always plenty of monsters even when there aren’t plenty of potions. Also there’s no way to save on the original hardware. If you get drained in the final third of the game and can’t recover you are just out of luck, and it can take a couple hours to get there. Imagine playing the game for two hours only to have all your strength drained by a blue snail and having no way to recover. I don’t have to imagine because I lived it, and let me tell you it was not pleasant. Of course I was playing on 3DS where I was able to play with save states, but I think to actually beat the game I would have to save after almost every turn and reload if something bad happened. That’s not much fun either.
So if you had a Game Gear back in the early 90s and got tired of playing licensed platformers I could see buying Dragon Crystal. Actually it got very good reviews back in the day. However, I think it was more for the novelty than anything else. There just weren’t a lot of games like Dragon Crystal out there at the time. Today roguelikes are loved by indie developers and there’s just about every flavor of them on the market. I can compare Dragon Crystal to other games and see all of its flaws. I enjoy a challenge, but I don’t like a challenge that’s based on pure luck, especially when you can’t tell if your doing well or not until a couple hours in. The novelty is enough to keep it out of the red, but the best I can do is 37th right behind Galaxian. The best way to play it might just be to see how far you can get instead of trying to go to the finish, but that’s still not much fun. I’ll probably still try to beat it someday though. I’m just that kind of person.
Game Gear quality precentage: sadly 0/1 so far
1. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Galaga
5. Donkey Kong
6. Exodus: Ultima III
7. Pac-Mania
8. Wrecking Crew
9. Super Pac-Man
10. Pac-Man
11. Viva Pinata
12. Dragon View
13. Excitebike
14. Drakkhen
15. Arc the Lad
16. Clu Clu Land
17. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX
18. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
19. Metro-Cross
20. Double Dragon
21. Ice Climber
22. Gaplus
23. Dragon Spirit
24. Pinball (NES)
25. Ninja Golf
26. Super Soccer
27. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
28. Red Sea Crossing
29. Baraduke
30. Evoland
31. Tennis
32. Renegade
33. Hogan’s Alley
34. Gamma-Attack
35. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
36. Galaxian
37. Dragon Crystal
38. Cosmic Commuter
39. Hot Pixel
40. PocketBike Racer
41. Wild Gunman
42. Defunct
43. Gyruss (2600)
44. Looney Tunes Racing
45. Squidlit
46. Baseball
47. Birthday Mania
48. Bad Street Brawler
49. Burly Men at Sea
50. X-Men (HyperScan)
51. My Name is Mayo
52. Marvel Heroes
53. Ben 10
(Images are from vgmuseum.com)
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