What makes us human? Is it our physical bodies? Is it our consciousness and mental capacities? Some ideologies and philosophies bring up the idea that a “soul” is what truly makes us human. What happens if humanity uploads its collective consciousness to avoid mass extinction and leaves the reconstruction to Artificially Intelligent entities? Is the creation of a human by robots still a human? These, and much more existential questions, make up the heart of FuRyu Corporation’s story-rich JRPG: Crymachina. Serving as a spiritual successor to FuRyu’s 2019 title, Crystar, Crymachina takes many of the former title’s themes about loss, family and existence to create a poignant cyberpunk experience that takes players for a thrilling ride. Featuring fluid combat action alongside robust leveling systems, gorgeous aesthetics and a plethora of content, Crymachina feels like a complete package despite gameplay hiccups.
It’s the 21st Century. The entire world is succumbing to an incurable illness that has a 100% mortality rate. With about a third of the world’s population having died, human extinction is certain as wars break out due to resource scarcity. In a last ditch effort to save the human species, top researchers and scientists create Eden: a spaceship launched from earth that contains the personality data of all humans. The idea was that the ship would serve as a base of operations for designated AI to work on a project that would reconstruct humanity. Eight AI were each given specific tasks that would make up the whole endeavor. Two-thousand years later, success has occurred and the story begins. One of the main protagonists, Leben Distel, remembers her final moments laying in her hospital bed. Moments before death, she curses humanity and all the societal pressures that come with being human. It’s exhausting – keeping up with trends, being an active person in others’ lives, achieving your own goals. Because of humans, this world is ending anyway. For a moment, she closes her eyes…only to reawaken in strange surroundings, in a strange outfit, with a strange girl talking in her head. There’s not much time to explain right now, but the protagonist must make her way through these new sci-fi surroundings to get to safety.
This first area serves as the tutorial for new players. Combat controls are straightforward, but allow room for mastery which offers a challenge for more technical players. Through combos, charged attacks and sequential hits, you’re able to weaken enemies and launch them into the air for more combos and damage. It’s satisfying to juggle an enemy with a combo that climbs into hundreds of hits. Combat also provides dodge and parry mechanics for players that wish to master the playstyle. While none of this is mandatory for battles, there are high rewards for perfect dodging and parrying, like slowed enemy movement and increased attack speed. Eventually Leben links up with other fellow protagonists to form the story’s core team. You’ll eventually be able to play as all three, and each has different passive abilities that unlock with perfect dodge and perfect parrying. It’s a nice feature to see unique abilities in each protagonist, and it makes a lot of sense when they’re each unique in personality and attack type.
What becomes difficult in combat sometimes is being able to determine important prompts for perfect parry and dodging. Enemies will flash a bright pink indicator to show when an attack can be parried. The issue is that this indicator can easily blend in with animations, other effects and the general cyberpunk background. This leads to messy combat and can be difficult to delineate when in the thick of a fight. Additionally, larger boss battles may have more robust mechanics like area of effect (AoE) that are not always clear in what they do. For example, an indicator may appear on the floor to show the size of an attack, but it’s not clear if the attack has an after-effect. In fighting a larger boss later in the story, I was able to dodge the initial attack thanks to a visual cue on the floor, but there was no explicit indication that these attacks would ripple and pulse outward.
These are a handful of difficulties one may face during combat that keep gameplay from reaching its full potential. Combat is fluid and is as “spammable” as players want – meaning that one can actually take time to input attacks without the game feeling like a boring button spam-fest. This is always a huge concern of mine with action-RPGs since combat can feel boring when gameplay asks us to just press the same button over and over. I’ve found that Crymachina actually wants you to think a bit during combat, though – you can’t always get away with throwing yourself face first into an enemy and hoping a spam of attacks will defeat them. The game does actually want you to make use of parry and dodge. My only wish is that the timings for these were more clearly designed. Between this, and a HUD that feels busy to look at, the title does stumble in some of its combat aesthetics.
Alongside the melee weapon that’s the main source of damage, there are supplemental weapons called “auxiliaries” that provide support attacks. They float alongside the character in a NieR-esque way. The whole title has great aesthetics and its themes feel inspired by games like NieR Automata, Sword Art Online and Genshin Impact. There are a lot of different auxiliaries that provide range attacks, healing and even additional melee hits for maximum combos. A unique feature of the auxiliaries is their conditional “statements.” The entire story takes place between a virtual realm, similar to The Matrix, and also in the physical realm within the actual spaceship Eden. Through the story, you’re treated to programming jargon and theories that are actually grounded in some truth. Some of this is even extended to combat. In coding, there is a concept called “if statements.” If some condition is true, then some part of the code executes a task. It’s a fun nod to the game’s themes of computer science and sci-fi that also make sense in combat. For example, one kind of auxiliary may provide healing, but only if the current opponent is in a weakened state. Other auxiliaries perform attacks based on if an enemy has close enough proximity. This allows you to create some flexible loadouts that pair with any combat style.
In addition to changing auxiliaries, players are also able to change equipment and upgrade each protagonist. As players move through levels, they’ll find gear drops in side paths and optional fights that yield better equipment. There’s a balance that must be tended to, though, as you’ll need to verify the protagonists stay leveled so they’re able to equip new items. Once players guide Leben through the tutorial area, more story is unveiled and it’s discovered that she and the rest of the protagonists have been reconstructed by AI – two-thousand years after their deaths in the 21st Century. Leben, the misanthropic heroine quickly grows close and becomes family with Ami and Mikoto – two other girls that were reconstructed as well.
The story is rich, deep and often wholesome, as you further the story through little tea party dialogue events that show off the family dynamic (similar to Fire Emblem Three Houses, but without any relationship mechanics). Leben grows quickly attached to the AI responsible for their reconstruction, Enoa, as she prefers the straightforward nature of robots. Yet her companions’ warmth and friendliness show Leben that there can be hope in humanity. Characters are fleshed out and each have unique personalities. Ami is dependable, compassionate and cares deeply for her newfound family. Mikoto is slick, cool and uses her cinephile knowledge to find relatable movie quotes in serious situations. The girls are smartly written and have a lot of character depth that’s seamlessly integrated into the story. Even Enoa, who is an AI, cares deeply for her creations and views them as family too.
It’s learned that Enoa is the eighth, and final, AI created for the sole purpose of reconstructing humanity using uploaded personality data. Through various programming, Enoa is finally able to create a digital construct of a human millennia after their extinction. This construct, however, exists virtually without a physical form. Therefore, these personalities are downloaded into robot forms that can be leveled up and sent out on missions – it’s like a reverse Matrix. Our protagonists are already somewhat developed by the time they can be leveled as you don’t start from level one. Instead, they can be upgraded through different kinds of experience points that do different things. There are two kinds of experience points: ExP that increases the overall character level and EGO that increases sub-stats which affect combat efficiency. EGO gets stretched more and can be used for a few different things. It sometimes feels too stretched out as it not only upgrades characters, but also upgrades Enoa’s combat abilities that can be used to support your character through healing and burst modes.
These upgrades can cost a lot more because of how powerful Enoa’s support is. She can send down a concentrated fire onto an enemy, she offers healing and she can boost abilities for maximum combat capabilities that can increase attack power, attack speed and reaction ability. EGO can also be used as currency when shopping from a special vendor that appears in missions. EGO is used in a lot of ways that can sometimes slip the mind. For example, I found myself prioritizing the use of EGO when upgrading my characters and actually forgot that Enoa could be upgraded as well. It took me a while to even get around to actually buying something from the vendor because I also forgot to allocate EGO for that. The good news is that the game constantly hands out EGO with almost everything that’s done – especially through tea party events and boss battles. These currencies, ExP and EGO, feel like they’re more important for story purposes than actual experience.
Through the absorption of enough ExP, the digital girls hope to become “Real Humans.” Because they exist as virtual constructs, the rest of the system’s AI do not recognize their authority. This is a problem, considering the AI are running rogue on their own. It’s learned through story events that there’s something strange brewing in Eden’s system that only the protagonists can solve. The key is to acquire enough humanity through the gathering of ExP so that the AI will view Leben and the rest as authority. Enoa explains that all the AI follow the “Three Laws of Robotics,” as the AI have been programmed to follow human orders. If Leben and company can attain this “Real Human” status, then perhaps they can stop the warring AI and solve the mystery of what’s happening. It’s a detailed, and sometimes complex, story that can leave players feeling lost if they aren’t paying attention. Thankfully, the title includes documents and dossiers organized into an archive that can be found throughout the world that give more context to the story. There are even entries explaining important story elements and definitions. Despite this, Crymachina creates an amazing story that eventually ramps up and can leave one on the edge of their seat. Even with a robust story, the title also features a lot of side content and extra missions for players to explore on their own time.
Closing Comments:
Crymachina is a thrilling science fiction adventure that offers fast-paced action in a post-human dystopia. Millennia after human extinction, eight AI are tasked with the reconstruction of humanity. Through the story, you watch as the protagonists tussle with existential questions about life, trauma and what it means to be human. Poignant storytelling is peppered with beautiful moments about friendship and family. You can feel how high the stakes are through combat and gameplay. The action-RPG offers fluid mechanics that feel powerful and can be molded to fit most play-styles. With various upgrades and weapons load-outs, there are a lot of possibilities to explore. Gameplay does hit snags, as certain design choices could interfere with a player’s experiences. From difficulty seeing important indicators among the backdrop of sci-fi aesthetics, to some indicators not fully telegraphing effects, there are elements that could be better defined. Players may also find some story elements to be unclear, and may have to refer to the game’s notes to get a clearer picture. Those who can follow the deeply massive lore, however, will be rewarded with an amazing story that sees darker tone shift by the halfway point. Just when you think things can’t escalate any further, Crymachina reminds us that there’s no easy way to talk about existential philosophies. The title is deeply thematic in its science-fiction tones and makes nods to programming concepts deep into its DNA. What makes a “Real Human”? Jump two-thousand years into the future and find out.
