Crystal Warriors

n/a

US/EU JP
Crystal Warriors
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Sega M2
Developer: Sega
Peripherals supported: Gear-to-Gear Cable
Genre: Simulation
Number of players: 1-2
Official in-game languages: 日本語 English
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-12-13 ¥4,5004,500 G-3403 US 1992-04 $39.9539.95 2502 EU 1992-05 2502 EU (Classic) 199x 2502-50 UK 1992-05 £24.9924.99 2502 JP ▼ 2013-02-06 ¥286 (300)286 (300) US ▼ 2013-06-27 $3.993.99 EU ▼ 2013-06-27 €4.994.99 DE ▼ 2013-06-27 €4.994.99 UK ▼ 2013-06-27 £4.494.49
OFLC

Crystal Warriors, known as Arliel: Crystal Densetsu (アーリエル クリスタル伝説) in Japan, is a strategy game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Game Gear. It received a sequel in Japan, Royal Stone: Hirakareshi Toki no Tobira.

Story

Four elemental crystals maintain the balance of peace in the Kingdom of Arliel. The underworld Jyn empire have overrun the kingdom and stolen three of the four magic crystals. Princess Iris of Arliel, a sorceress, remains in possession of the last crystal, the Earth Crystal. She takes it with her on her quest through the lands of Arliel to defeat the Jyn.

Gameplay

Battle map and scene

Crystal Warriors is a strategy game with RPG elements, similar to the Shining Force games.

The player forms a party of up to nine units to fight in each round. The player starts on one side of the map and an enemy force of up to nine units occupies a castle on the opposite side. The player must defeat the enemy force by defeating all of its units, defeating its leader, or capturing the enemy castle (by moving a unit onto its entrance). Each unit has a class that determines its statistics and capabilities. Each round has terrain features which form bottlenecks or change the speed of units. The player and enemy army alternate turn phases where they can move their units in any order and order them to attack or cast spells. The turn ends when the player has ordered every unit. The identity of enemy units is initially unknown at the beginning of the round. They reveal themselves and their statistics, abilities, and elemental alignment when they attack or are attacked, or the player can use the Scan spell to reveal any individual enemy.

Whenever a player unit attacks an enemy unit or vice versa, a battle occurs. A battle consists of two bouts in which the units fight with melee weapons, spells, or monsters. The aggressor strikes first in each bout, then the defender takes a turn. Because of this, units risk taking damage each time they attack another unit (with the exception of mages casting offensive spells, which can only be retaliated against if the defending unit is another mage or adjacent to the mage). To avoid taking damage, units can try to retreat instead of attacking. Defeating an enemy earns 4 experience points for the victorious unit and drops gold for the party. Units only gain experience when the enemy unit is defeated. Units gain a new level for every 10 experience points, acquiring higher stats, up to a maximum level of 9. Units are defeated when they lose all of their hit points; death is permanent, and fallen characters cannot be revived. The game ends if Princess Iris is defeated.

Each unit belongs to a particular elemental group, and most of the strategy revolves around the element of a given unit, its specialty, and positioning. Each element is weak to one and strong versus another in a rock-paper-scissors system. Fire elemental units are strong against wind elemental units, while wind units are strong against water, and in turn water units are strong against fire. Earth-based units are neutral and have no particular strengths or weaknesses to other elements. The majority of the Earth-based units are mages or healers and have a low base defense, making them vulnerable to combat units.

Units can also defeat and tame monsters (which are also assigned an element) in each round and use them in battle. Monsters, though very weak, are useful to avoid elemental weakness (a Fire Lord, for example, can tame a Wind monster, and use it in combat against a Water Fighter, thus flipping the elemental advantage). They can also be used to spare their owner from taking damage. Like party members, monsters are permanently lost if they are defeated, but more can be captured in each battle.

After each round, Princess Iris enters a town. The town contains an inn where the player can save the game or recruit new units, a fortune teller that provides hints about the next round, vendors that sell new weapons, armor, and spells, and NPCs that talk to the player. The player does not have enough gold to hire all the available units or purchase all available items in a single playthrough.

The game includes a two-player mode available by connecting to another Game Gear via a Gear-to-Gear Cable. One player starts with Princess Iris and selects eight other team members from the recruitable characters found during the single player game. The other player starts with Princess Cham, an evil counterpart to Iris, and can select eight other team members from the standard Jyn forces. Any map can be selected as an arena; teams start on a fortress and the opponent's team members are revealed in the same way as the single-player version. To win, the player has to defeat the entire opposing force or take the enemy fortress.

Classes

Character status

• Princess—The class of Princess Iris. Good damage but mediocre defense. Can learn spells.
• Fighter—Attack unit with fair movement range and damage but mediocre defense.
• Lord—Attack unit with short movement range and less damage but higher defense.
• Ranger—Attack unit with long movement range but less defense.
• Healer—Defensive caster. Casts healing spells but very weak in direct combat.
• Mage—Offensive caster. Casts attack spells but very weak in direct combat.

Characters

	Iris
	Class: Princess Element: Earth
	Princess Iris is part of the starting party. She is the main character of the game, and the game is lost if she is defeated. She starts with the Scan spell and can acquire more throughout the game.
	Murak
	Class: Mage Element: Earth
	Murak is part of the starting party and starts with the Scan and Flash spells.
	Frye
	Class: Healer Element: Earth
	Frye is part of the starting party and starts with the Heal spell.
	Dayne
	Class: Fighter Element: Water
	Dayne is part of the starting party.
	Eldor
	Class: Lord Element: Fire
	Eldor is part of the starting party.
	Ratt
	Class: Ranger Element: Wind
	Ratt is part of the starting party.
	Zephi
	Class: Ranger Element: Wind
	Zephi can be recruited in the first town for 400 gold.
	Flare
	Class: Fighter Element: Fire
	Flare can be recruited in the second town for 800 gold.
	Sophi
	Class: Fighter Element: Water
	Sophi can be recruited in the second town for 700 gold.
	Romi
	Class: Mage Element: Earth
	Romi can be recruited in the fourth town for 1,300 gold and starts with the Fire spell.
	Oryon
	Class: Healer Element: Earth
	Oryon can be recruited in the fourth town for 1,400 gold and starts with the Heal spell.
	Elsid
	Class: Lord Element: Water
	Elsid can be recruited in the sixth town for 3,500 gold.
	Borm
	Class: Fighter Element: Fire
	Borm can be recruited in the eighth town for 4,000 gold.
	Tyris
	Class: Ranger Element: Wind
	Tyris can be recruited in the tenth town for 3,000 gold.

Weapons

Town

Weapon	Cost (in gold)	Equippable by
Rod	110	Mages, Healers
Sword	120	Lords, Fighters
Warclaws	150	Rangers
Estoc	Initially equipped	Princesses
Halberd	900	Lords
Falchion	900	Fighters
Warblade	1,900	Rangers
Claymore	5,800	Princesses

Armor

Armor	Cost (in gold)	Equippable by
Robe	80	Rangers
Cuirass	160	Princesses, Lords, Fighters, Rangers
Cape	60	Mages, Healers
Hauberk	3,500	Princesses, Lords, Fighters

Spells

Spell	Cost (in gold)	Mana cost	Effect	Used by
Scan	100	1	Identifies enemies.	Princesses, Mages
Heal	150	2	Restores an ally's hit points.	Princesses, Healers
Life	700	4	Stronger version of Heal.	Healers
Peace	300	4	Neutralizes enemy magic.	Healers
Dark	300	2	Deflects enemy magic.	Healers
Sleep	500	1	Puts an enemy unit to sleep.	Healers
Chant	200	1	Gives 10 magic points to an ally.	Princesses
Drain	1,500	8	Takes 25% of an enemy's hit points.	Princesses, Mages
Boost	200	8	Makes the next attack a critical hit.	Princesses
Cold	800	4	Offensive ability, especially effective against Fire enemies.	Mages
Frost	3,000	6	Stronger version of cold.	Mages
Fire	800	4	Offensive ability, especially effective against wind enemies.	Mages
Blaze	2,100	6	Stronger version of Fire.	Mages
Flash	900	4	Offensive ability, especially effective against Water enemies.	Mages
Bolt	3,000	6	Stronger version of Flash.	Mages

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Crystal Warriors	Crystal Warriors
English (US)	Crystal Warriors	Crystal Warriors
Japanese	アーリエル クリスタル伝説	Arliel: Crystal Densetsu

Production credits

• Original Characters Designed by: Kugatsu-Hime
• Planner: LLG
• Designer: Manabu
• Programmer: Totoyo, Yuichi.M
• Music: Macky
• Special Thanks: Masakaneco, Asohy, Goh, Tomarin, Cap.Elf, Ray
• Director: Hide

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Crystal Warriors/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1991-12: "December 1991" (1991-11-08)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

{{{{{icon}}}|L}}
Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 83 Consoles + (FR) 89 Computer & Video Games (UK) 81 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 65 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 76 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 70 Joypad (FR) 85 Joystick (FR) 85 Mega Force (FR) 80 Player One (FR) 80 Play Time (DE) 66 Sega Power (UK) PAL 93 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U 79 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 79 Sega Force (SE) 91 Sega Force (UK) PAL 63 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 81 Supersonic (FR) 64 VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) NTSC-U 80 Video Games (DE) 77

	78
Based on 20 reviews

Crystal Warriors

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU (Classic)
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, ZA (Classic)
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 35fa3f68 MD5 45e0159738cbbaaf9f2ef7cc2ad02fcd SHA-1 75a04fa483fccd12a52aa18e494d542f4486577f	256kB		Cartridge (JP)	8kB backup
?	CRC32 529c864e MD5 35d3fc09fcf22e35db4bac8cee9967f3 SHA-1 6b03183b7183de17ad6fbc9938599d3d18badc1a	256kB		Cartridge (US/EU)	8kB backup

External links

• Sega of Japan 3DS VC catalogue pages: Game Gear
• Nintendo catalogue pages: JP, US, UK