Thank You NIS America for providing us with a review code!

There will always be stories that tackle the subject matter of human extinction and the methods to control that. The science fiction genre usually sends a select group of people in cryostasis to a far-off planet thousands of lightyears away to start civilization all over again—or something to that extent. Crymachina does something similar, but instead preserves the mind of the individual into what they call a Personality Data.

Two thousand years after humanity’s extinction due to a virus called the Centrifugal Syndrome, a former human female by the name of Leben Distel wakes up in an unfamiliar place after succumbing to her illness on her deathbed. She comes across three other humans by the names of Mikoto Sengiku and Ami Shido. The third “person” is actually a machine meant to resemble a human. She goes by Enoa and she is the eighth of the eight Dei ex Machina that were created to retain and instill specific human traits into people who are capable of becoming “Real Humans”. These special humans are referred to as E.V.E., and once they obtain enough ExP (also known as EVE x POINT) by fighting Cherubim, the E.V.E. can become Real Humans. There is honestly a lot to Crymachnia when it comes to it—so much in fact that within the game there is an entire glossary available that goes into its characters, setting, and worldbuilding.

Crymachina is an action RPG developed by FuRyu Corporation and Aquira (the latter mostly being known for their work on the Sword Art Online ARPGs on the PlayStation 3 and 4). For some of you out there that know, despite the naming, Crymachina has very little, if anything, to do with Crystar—another title that FuRyu Corporation had a name in. Moving on, Crymachina has three playable characters: Leben, Mikoto, and Ami. Leben is a fast-attacking swift character relying on speed and agility. Mikoto is a bit more of a balanced character with both reliable long and close-range options. Ami is the slow-moving character with huge damage but is susceptible to retaliation if playing haphazardly. The main loop consists of going into fairly linear stages that can last anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, heading back to the menu to watch cutscenes of the girls interacting with each other, and then heading on to the next mission. There are plenty of optional missions that are accessed through a code combination in the level select (many of these codes can be found in the archives section in the game menu) that hold powerful enemies and equally powerful gear.

Combat in itself is pretty basic. There are the standard light attacks and launcher attacks that lift enemies in the air which can also act as a heavy attack if you hold down the button. All three girls can equip auxiliary weapons on their left and right sides. Each character has a unique dodge that not only feels different but enables special effects when you successfully perform a perfect dodge (dodging a move just before it hits you). You also have a parry that can block and counterattack. I do appreciate that each type of dodge has unique attributes, but I do wish that they felt the same to execute. It can get awkward when you’re forced to change characters for a level and have to get used to a different feeling dodge all over again. Overall, it’s a serviceable system in a vacuum, but you also don’t do a whole lot of it, even when accounting for many optional missions. You earn experience from enemies and when you level up, you gain EGO which can be used to level up your substats such as hit rate, damage nullification or shortened cooldown on your auxiliary abilities. EGO can also be used to level up the various limited use abilities Enoa can use to aid you in battle.

Enemies are also pretty simple too. They have a handful of attacks at the very most. Some of these moves glow purple which means you can parry them. Strangely enough, only the purple attacks can be parried, but the parrying is also inconsistent. I ended up not relying on it except for the cases where you are required to due to special enemy mechanics. One thing I don’t like is that enemies are pretty aggressive when the camera isn’t on them, and passive when it is. Due to the lack of sound queues from enemies, this leads to plenty of cheap shots, some of which have the potential to end you at full health.

But the three things that annoyed me the most were the checkpoint system, the stage design, and how character levels operate. The checkpoint system is very annoying because the only checkpoints are at the boss at the end of each stage (and sometimes not even that). If you happen to die at any point before a boss encounter on most stages (and this also includes optional fights in said missions), you’re sent back to the beginning of the level. It doesn’t help that the level design is also very basic and straightforward with most stages consisting of straightaways and empty open spaces where you would think enemies would be located. The final levels literally consist of a corridor into a boss fight with absolutely nothing in between. Crymachina gives you a story-related reason as to why, but that doesn’t make it any less boring.

Now all of this could probably be forgiven from me if it wasn’t for how character levels act. Crymachia is a very stat and level-based game. You find that out quickly, but you never realize how bad it feels until much later on. If you’re anywhere from 5 or more levels lower than the enemies, they gain a massive evasion and defensive boost, so not only can you not hit enemies most of the time, but the moment you do, you’re dealing double-digit numbers while these enemies can have hit points in the tens of thousands. Except the damage/evasion penalties don’t apply to your auxiliary weapons, and these weapons are very powerful, easily doing thousands of damage when active. The main story missions don’t give you nearly enough experience to level up your characters as you’re forced to use all three of them so you end up getting vastly outleveled. The only way to prevent these evasion penalties is to stay on top of your level and keep a stat called composure high enough. Composure increases the chance your attacks hit higher-leveled opponents. It simultaneously feels like such a waste and a complete necessity because you stop gaining experience from lower-leveled enemies after a certain point, but once you are of equal level to your enemies, the composure stat becomes completely useless.

I know I’ve been complaining about the gameplay a lot, but there are aspects of Crymachina that I do enjoy. The character designs are what made me want to cover this title in the first place. When it comes to human characters, I do enjoy all of them. They have these doll-like appearances with large eyes and tiny mouths. Leben’s design very much reminds me of Usagi Tsukino’s (Sailor Moon) design with very similar hair buns and long strands of hair that come out of said buns. Leben’s appearance in fights takes a very mechanical design, showcasing her love for machines. Mikoto has a slim appearance with very long limbs, almost like a runway model. Her personality actually betrays her appearance when not fighting as Mikoto is a tomboyish cinephile who breaks into English metaphors every once in a while. While fighting, her design does look like it could come out of a sci-fi movie. Ami is wheelchair bound normally with the air of a princess, so her design in battle takes an elegant approach with a dress that comes from the Victorian England era (while also increasing her bra size by five whole letters or more). It acts as a contrast as Ami can be very brutal in battle, despite claiming she dislikes fighting. Our last main cast is Enoa, who takes a simple design of a young blond girl in a white sundress. Even the enemy designs are great from the Cherubim to opposing E.V.E. that can range from creepy to audacious. If only they put that effort into the visuals of the levels themselves. Most of them are bland in their visuals with a lack of diversity and interesting set pieces consisting of one major color and lots of empty space.

I also enjoy the voice acting and music. All characters are voiced in Japanese and they do a nice job. They inject playfulness in the lighthearted scenes while sounding anguished and in despair in the more emotionally devastating scenes. The soundtrack is very solid and holds a tone of variety. Like the glossary, there is a section in the menu where you get to listen to all the tracks in the game and it’s there from the very beginning. Usually, those things are unlocked when you beat the game. A lot of the music is electronic-based, but there are a few with vocals and a more orchestrated style too.

Even though the story and themes are good, I feel they aren’t told in the best way. There are dozens upon dozens of cutscenes that are just pure exposition for dozens of minutes on end. You listen to characters drone on about aspects of their world told in a way that feels like the characters are talking to you instead of each other. What makes it feel stale at times is that these scenes take place in the same three or four locations while the characters either stand or sit near-motionless. However, I did find the cutscenes where the main quartet interact and tease each other enjoyable. On the other hand, there is also an imbalance between character development. Leben and Enoa get the most development as the main cast as they are the two characters you first see. It does come to the detriment of Mikoto and Ami, who are pretty one-note and get little development. It gets to the point where they are nearly forgotten in the final cutscenes as they stand around awkwardly and have little to no interjection in what is even happening. The story beats do go into some interesting directions as to the true fate of the humans and what exactly caused it, and a strong connection with familial bonds and how people can make a family even if none of you are blood-related.

The Switch version, in particular, runs fine. The resolution isn’t at 1080p, instead somewhere between 720p and 1080p with a little bit of artifacting. It doesn't run at 60FPS like the PlayStation and PC versions do, but it maintains a steady framerate. There’s an irritating visual glitch that happens sometimes if a camera angle clips into a wall incorrectly. Additional effects will disappear for a moment but still be active. This unfortunately includes big AoE enemy attacks as well.

The morality of it all can get kind of crazy at times. Violence mostly consists of killing the non-human Cherubim, who are seen more as tools by the Dei ex Machina than living beings. While the player does fight other E.V.E., none of them end up dying in the end. There are some pretty violent cutscenes where one of the E.V.E. in the middle of a fight gets her head decapitated with blood oozing out of the neck area. And another cutscene, Ami’s more violent tendencies get the best of her and you see many blood splashes as she hacks away at a Cherubim off-camera. Language consists of the typical words like “a*s”, “h*ll”, “d*mn”, and “bullsh*t/sh*tty.” I also saw one instance of “godd**m” halfway through my playtime. Sexual content is definitely present as Leben and Mikoto do show some skin in their normal appearances being Leban's midriff and Mikoto's cleavage, while Ami’s battle form with the dress shows a lot of boob as those types of dresses do. Then there is Zoe, one of the antagonists and leader of the opposing E.V.E. that our quartet fights against. Her appearance is almost straight out of one of those ero-games where only a crotch plate and a thin fabric are the only things covering her private bits. Ironically, she has a “Christian-inspired” appearance sporting crucifixion crosses as forms of jewelry around her neck and ears. In general, there are a lot of Abrahamic religious themes in Crymachina from factions called “Childen of Adam”, to the fact that many of the characters are searching for a “Garden of Eden” while the Cherubim defend it. E.V.E. itself is a reference to Eve. These themes aren’t exactly portrayed in the greatest light, but Crymachina also makes it very apparent that only some followers of the Childen of Adam are corrupted and not the faction as a whole.

Things get a little complicated when it comes to the yuri content. The yuri genre tends to focus on homoerotic relations between girls as yuri can stand for “girls’ love” in Japanese. But the yuri genre isn’t always that. Sometimes it can be a platonic love focus between two or more girls. Crymachina in a way talks about both platonic and romantic love. Leben and Enoa’s budding relationship can really go either way. Ami and Mikoto’s relationship is way less ambiguous as Ami blatantly states she has romantic feelings for Mikoto, while the latter beats around the bush when it comes to it. Since Ami and Mikoto don’t get much development, their romance never goes beyond declarations of love and an embrace in the ending credits, and because of that, I’ll only take half the points off (out of four points in total) regarding “same-sex relationships.”

I really wanted to like Crymachina—I truly did. There are aspects that I like a lot, mainly the character designs and the premise of the setting but actually playing it feels like such a drag with baffling decisions for the combat. The gameplay loop effectively stays the same the whole way through, so the lack of progression in leveling up your character makes hour 1 feel no different from hour 10 or even hour 30 if you decide to partake in post-game missions. You never gain new moves or mechanics as the plot continues so this is an experience that is more carried by its 15 to 20-hour narrative. Your mileage may vary with that one but for me, I never felt a deep attachment to any of the characters. Crymachina ends up being another low-budget Japanese experience appealing to a specific niche. Some of you may end up loving it, but the average person won't.