Crystal Story II on Steam actually comes with its predecessor, Crystal Story 1. Since I didn't play either, this review covers both games.

Crystal Story 1 graphics was simple and the story was shallow, but what carried the game was that you could customize almost every aspect of your character, and you had all the resources in the world to do so; you could upgrade different types of equipment to suit your characters, spam SP reset to play around with the different types of abilities that each character had etc.

What made Crystal Story 1 phenomenally engaging however, were the characters. You don't get a lot of cutscenes, the story was stupidly absurd, the characters were absolutely comical. It doesn't take itself seriously, the characters don't take themselves or the story seriously, and that makes the game both entertaining and engaging, a rare trait in a lot of games these days.

The characters in Crystal Story 2 didn't have this charm; the story was only a little bit more fleshed out than the first, but the characters took it much more seriously, losing the charm that Crystal Story 1 had. You couldn't respec your points, so if you had specialized your character as a physical damage dealer, you could twist and turn a little to make them deal magical damage later on, but it'll take a while. I feel that Crystal Story 2 had more to offer in terms of game mechanics, but in terms of how engaging the game was, I preferred Crystal Story 1.

That being said, this game is really cheap. Definitely good to pick up and have fun with.

Crystal Story II on Steam actually comes with its predecessor, Crystal Story 1. Since I didn't play either, this review covers both games. Crystal Story 1 graphics was simple and the story was shallow, but what carried the game was that you could customize almost every aspect of your character, and you had all the resources in the world to do so; you could upgrade different types of equipment to suit your characters, spam SP reset to play around with the different types of abilities that each character had etc. What made Crystal Story 1 phenomenally engaging however, were the characters. You don't get a lot of cutscenes, the story was stupidly absurd, the characters were absolutely comical. It doesn't take itself seriously, the characters don't take themselves or the story seriously, and that makes the game both entertaining and engaging, a rare trait in a lot of games these days. The characters in Crystal Story 2 didn't have this charm; the story was only a little bit more fleshed out than the first, but the characters took it much more seriously, losing the charm that Crystal Story 1 had. You couldn't respec your points, so if you had specialized your character as a physical damage dealer, you could twist and turn a little to make them deal magical damage later on, but it'll take a while. I feel that Crystal Story 2 had more to offer in terms of game mechanics, but in terms of how engaging the game was, I preferred Crystal Story 1. That being said, this game is really cheap. Definitely good to pick up and have fun with.