Crystal Monsters

 DS
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. IGN
    50
    Mostly just a cluttered, clunky, unoriginal mess to try to get through.
  2. Official Nintendo Magazine UK
    43
    A shameless imitation of a game that's infinitely better in every department. [Oct 2010, p.94]
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  3. Nintendo Life
    70
    Although it might be almost sickening to Pokémon fans to see how similar this is to their beloved franchise, we can't really be too critical of it.

User Reviews

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User Score
2.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 5 out of 5
  1. ghorahn
    Jan 3, 2012
    3
    Let me summarize my first (and, truth be told, only) hour with this game: I started the game and tried the direction pad-based controls andLet me summarize my first (and, truth be told, only) hour with this game: I started the game and tried the direction pad-based controls and found them unresponsive and difficult to line up with objects or npcs. So, I tried touch-screen navigation, which worked better, but requires having the stylus in hand (which I didn't care for, come combat time). I got the little introduction to combat, and through that the chain and blocking mechanisms sounded promising. I did the little tutorial fight where you capture your second monster, although I was concerned that my a-button tapping (which, I admit, wasn't at all fast) got me a not-whopping 39% chance of capturing the creature (which I did). So, the next time I found myself wanting to catch something, I beat it down, used an essence core, then tapped my little heart out...and didn't catch it. And the essence core was gone from my inventory. Gah....apparently not tapping fast enough was going to use up the item I needed to catch something. And I supposed I'd have to buy new ones. Before long, I had no more essence cores and hadn't caught a third monster. Then I got to the first 'boss' fight....I level 10 monster against my L2 and L3 monsters. They were trounced. Clearly I would have to grind levels to get anywhere. But wait....(1) making grinding a necessity, (2) game mechanics that simply aren't going to work well for some players, and (3) losing inventory items when they're not successfully used...that's gotta be some kind of holy triumvirate of awful design choices. Nope, not playing that game any more. And I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Upsides: It looks alright. I'm sure there's an audience for the game, made of people that aren't too jaded to grind levels or buy more essence cores when you didn't manage to catch something. However, that audience does not include me.… Full Review »
  2. Luigibarqs
    May 21, 2012
    2
    Crystal Monters (also known as Monster Chronicle in Japan) is a DSi port of a japanese cellphone RPG game developed by Gameloft for Nintendo'sCrystal Monters (also known as Monster Chronicle in Japan) is a DSi port of a japanese cellphone RPG game developed by Gameloft for Nintendo's DSiWare service. The game can be generally described as a Monster Raising Pokemon clone and not a particularly good one at that. The main problem and the most obvious one is the horrible controls when moving on the overworld, the d-pad is unresponsive and delayed and holding any button while pressing a direction stops all movement completely. The controls are more responsive when using the touch screen to draw a path the player follows but this gets tedious and uncomfortable rather quickly (in my opinion). Interacting with NPCs and objects like item chests is also a problem, you collide with NPCs to talk to them and you press A in front of a chest to open it and claim the item. Sounds simple right? Not quite. Due to really small collision hitboxes on NPCs and item chest, unless you are perfectly aligned on the horizontal axis or vertical axis they will not respond to you at all. This gets especially annoying with NPCs since some refuse to stand still and if you collide with them on the wrong angle, your character walks around them as if they where a solid wall or solid object blocking their way rather than talk to them and it gets old fast when you fail to talk to an NPC 2-5 times before succeeding just to give information that may or may not be useful anyways. The third problem is the shops, when buying items, you can't see how much of a certain item you are already carrying which usually lead to buying too much or too little of an item type. You can also not sell items in you bag which due to other problems I will mention later is an issue. The Item menu is severely lacking as well, you can only hold 50 items total at a time (excluding key items which don't count) and since you can't sell items you don't need, you need to drop them and unfortunately you can only drop one at a time. Lets say you have 15 medium sized potions you need to dispose of, you need to drop each one, one at a time from your inventory and trust me its gets tedious and wastes a large amount of your time. The RPG battle system itself works decently but not great. Attack moves are split into a few catecories: damage single target (Chain), damage multiple targets, negative status effect single target, stats up single target, stats up multiple targets, stats down single target, stats down multiple targets, heal single target, heal multiple targets. There is also a variety of types with different strengths and weaknesses: Animal, Fire, Water, Plant, Wind, Rock, Light, Dark and Spirit. From what I have seen is that stat altering moves and negative status effects either do not work at all or cause such a minimal difference in gameplay its usually not worth worrying about which means its best to stick with damage and healing attacks mostly. The music and sound effects are indeed good overall but since the same ones are rehashed so frequently they can potentially wear away at your nerves and start becoming really annoying after awhile. The Visuals are surprisingly very nice to look at, especially in battles but the tilesets on the overworld lack variety and looks somewhat bland and generic overall. The story is about a kid that learns he can see monsters and wants to learn how to be the best breeder to discover them all, he is sidetracked when a tournament he enters is attacked by enraged super monsters and sets out on a quest to calm them down, during this process he learns of a criminal organization who plans to take advantage of these super powerful enraged monsters to take over the world. It's a pretty generic and forgettable Pokemon-like story overall. With nothing particularly interesting happening in it. Some of the games good points are side quests and missions you can go on to find rare items, stronger monsters and grind for money and experience and The breeding system where you can combine two monsters of different genders to make a new one, possibly with stats and moves inherited form their parents, the downside is that you lose both parents permanently after the breeding process. Excluding completing the monster encyclopedia and completing all the side quest missions, the game has pretty much little to no replayability at all due to its shortness and lack of multiplayer support. Without completing any side quest missions and not caring about completing the monster encyclopedia, it can probably be beaten in roughly 3 to 5 hours depending how much you grind for money and items and maybe 10 hours at maximum for perfect completion. I can not recommend this game at all, I feel ripped off due to its poor quality and general lack of content in comparison to the asking price for the game. There are far better RPGs and Monster Raising games out there, it would probably be best that avoid this one and not waste you hard earned money. Collapse… Full Review »
  3. ND-Bringer
    Oct 14, 2021
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Crystal Monsters, False-advertised Fakemon Failure. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the heavy weight contender for the worst RPG DS title. The game starts off with the main protagonist in a dream realm called..."Volcanic Mountain?" This place doesn't have hint of lava. This tutorial level has you name your character, choose your starter Brokenmon, fight a losing battle against discount Rhydon, and practice using abysmal movement controls. I can't believe how unresponsive the movement controls are in this game! Even grabbing items fright in front is a hassle to pull off! It's best to stick to the touch screen. Guide your character like a fairy with the stylus, it's far more forgiving than these tank controls. So in this society there are some people who can see monsters called the Neo-Seeds. And they use their powers for good and in tournament battles for fun. Unfortunately, some of the monsters are becoming aggressive because of some unknown evil! Which totally not the Pure Faction, despite the fact that they hate Neo Seeds and arrest people randomly. The story is pretty much a joke, it has the same problem Digimon World DS has. When you have a bunch of main characters with smiling sprites, it's hard to tell a good story. In the beginning level, you have to get your friend Bishop's magic stone back from Rudiger's street gang. And this just brings up more of the game's problems. After to you beat him up he never shows up in the game again. Not even after you beat the game. In the trailer it specifically showcases the opponents you're going to fight in the game, Rudiger being one of them. NOT ONCE do we partake in a monster fight! I guess I'll pronounce him and his chums dead at this point. It also shows the character you control in the line up. There's also this guy with red hair and a yellow scarf, I don't think he's even in the game. And since my character is in the line up...do I get to fight myself? And I am not kidding, in the trailer it showcases someone breeding a starter monster with the final boss monster to create a common monster. This can't be real! After grinding for a bit, I head to the tournament and I have to say, poor show. THIS is the only tournament in the game and it's freaking easy to complete. To think I struggled completing this game in the pass. The battle system consists of 3 on 3 monster fights. And remember, this is an RPG! Meaning one character can act as the White Mage and heal the party while the others attack. I haven't lost one fight in this game. Even over leveled, healing bosses well before me. You can also power up monsters by taking a picture of your face and stamping your face on them. It's so dumb that it makes people burst into tears laughing. I think it's fun to make my squad of cute and cuddly animals look like disembodied horrors, just in time for Halloween. The battle system is OK and paper, you can use timing based mechanics to strengthen your attacks and guard like in Super Mario RPG. There's a nice variety of attacks, only problem is I don't know what half of them do. They aren't given descriptions so I have to experiment in battle. If there's anything I like about this game deep down, its nice RPG game practice. Since nothing is really explaining you have to rely on your gamer instincts. And for the price of entry being a measly 5 bucks, I think it matches the game's level of quality. The main plot of the game is that you have to travel the land and defeat all of the elemental final monsters in order to stop them from attacking towns. Each level has at least a little variety, nothing to write home about, but I did have some fun teaming up with a fire fighter rescuing people from burning building while fighting off the attacking monsters. If the developers wanted to teach morals about how even those with super powers need a little help sometimes, I think they had something here. But even nice examples like this won't save the game. Even the climax is disappointing. Your defeated by Pure-Faction because, I don't know. I guess my over leveled team can't defend me. Your friend Connor releases you from jail only to betray you later to steal the rest of the Final Monster Essences. Pure Faction plans to use the Final Light monster's combined power with the Essences to eradicate all of the monsters in the world. But since the power is too great, it's too strong to control. And the final boss is pathetically to defeat. I'm using evolved monsters from I got around the start of the game and somehow there power is so great that the final boss didn't even get a turn to attack! This final battle is so lame, that it reuses the same boss theme that I've heard in like 13 other battles already. And to top it all off, no saving after the final boss, no post game content, and there isn't even a hint of music in the credits! Is this a joke? This is a distraction game. A game you just play to pass time and nothing else. Pathetically easy to complete and nothing but a Pokemon clone.… Full Review »
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