Crymachina Release date: October 27, 2023
Crymachina Media Type: Download, Blu-ray
Crymachina Genre: Action RPG, Fighting, Adventure
Crymachina Developer: FuRyu, Aquria
Crymachina Publisher: FuRyu, NIS America
With Crymachina , a new IP appeared under the NIS America banner. It’s an action RPG with a big story focus.
The story of Crymachina :
At the beginning of Crymachina you see the young woman, named Leben Distel, lying on her deathbed due to an illness. Shortly after the life leaves her body, she awakens again in a bizarre world, seemingly awakened by an angel. This angel turns out to be an AI named Enoa, who brought life back to life in a synthetic body. Leben is now equipped with weapons and defends himself against several mechanical beings until the powerful Ecclesia suddenly appears and Leben has to be saved by the young woman Mikoto, who has had to compete against these beings for a long time. But after Ecclesia is distracted by the appearance of other beings, the three of them can escape together to a safe place. Waiting for them there is the third woman, Ami, who, like Leben and Mikoto, were once human. However, humanity died out thousands of years ago due to disease. However, they had developed AIs that were supposed to resurrect humanity. To do this, however, the reawakened people have to defeat the so-called cherubim in order to get ExP, which makes them more and more human in order to be viewed as such by the machines.
At first the story doesn’t seem that interesting, but then it quickly picks up speed and has some successful twists, especially in the last two thirds, and also manages to pick you up emotionally. There are also the now typical collection files, which tell even more about the world and its inhabitants.
Take back your humanity:
In Crymachina you enter the individual zones almost like in a level selection. There you then walk through a mostly very narrow area, where there are often a few enemies waiting for you, until you meet a boss at the end. There are rarely branches that lead you to extra weapons, armor or secret bosses. If you defeat opponents, you will receive the aforementioned ExP or so-called EGO. With the ExP you can level up your characters outside of the levels, with all three sharing the total points, while with EGO you can level up extra skills or secondary stats. The latter determine, for example, what weapons and armor the characters can wear.
In combat, all three use a melee weapon, a ranged weapon and two shoulder weapons. While Leben is very fast, Mikoto is a little slower but stronger, while Ami is very slow but packs a lot more punch. But these are just the basic weapons. You can change them at any time. Personally, I found the different play styles very varied. The shoulder weapons can also vary between close and ranged combat, but have a certain cooldown. If you use them too often in a row without waiting, they will overheat and cannot be used for a short time. Between the different levels you always have to listen to conversations between the women, which make the relationships between them much more complex. In addition, you will always receive EGO points. You can also visit optional subareas. But you have to enter the target coordinates. You will find out about this through documents you find. These subareas are very good for training because they also contain extremely powerful opponents.
The world and sound of Crymachina :
Crymachina takes you to various virtual worlds, which mostly only consist of relatively light shapes. Every now and then there are smaller highlights. On the other hand, the characters and enemies are much more detailed. Some of the combat effects also seem very impressive.
The game’s background music is really well done. From calm to powerfully dark to more crazy sounds, everything is there to suit the situation. I played the game in the Japanese dub, which is really very good. Alternatively there is an English one.
The technical details:
Crymachina ran without any stutters during my test on the PS5. The game crashed for me once, but it saves itself very often, so combined with the fast loading times, it wasn’t that bad. The controls are easy to remember and the combat system is very nimble.
Conclusion:
Crymachina pleasantly surprised me. While the first hour didn’t quite grab me, the game became more and more interesting, especially because of the likeable characters. The gameplay is very fast and fun. Not everything is explained, but you can quickly find your way around. The graphics for the characters are very successful, while some of the areas seem very simple. The music and synchro are again extremely successful.
