Developer: Hudson Soft Publisher: Hudson Soft Release: 10/27/95 Genre: Action
Multi-platform games are a staple of the industry. After Nintendo’s stronghold on third parties was broken a significant portion of games during the 16-bit era hit both the Genesis and SNES. But the Turbo Grafx-16 was almost always the odd man out in America. In Japan the reverse was true; the PC Engine and Super Famicom shared many games. Popful Mail, Emerald Dragon, even the Neo Geo ports, the list goes on and on. Dungeon Explorer II was one of the few bright spots toward the end of the Turbo Grafx life but as a CD title few played it. Crystal Beans is a SNES remix of that game that should be great. But a number of baffling decisions make this a subpar effort overall.
Seeing as the original Dungeon Explorer is a Turbo exclusive the story removes all references to that game. As such the story is a bit generic now. The land of Grandol has enjoyed 100 years of peace thanks to the Miracle Gems which were used to save the world once before. But now an ominous cloud suddenly appears, shattering the peace by causing monster portals to spawn around the world. Even worse the 15 demons sealed by the Miracle Gems have been resurrected. With no other choice the King summons the Heroes of Light to save the world.
I hesitate to call Crystal Beans a port of Dungeon Explorer II. This is more of a cliff notes version of the game. While the general course of the story is the same there are no cutscenes, fewer story events, no voice acting and a lot of missing context. That was one of the few areas the game took advantage of the CD and it is disappointing so much has been removed. But the story is not the only thing that has changed.
First the good. The controls benefit from the SNES controller’s extra buttons. Every function has its own button which makes gameplay smoother. White and Black magic use the L & R buttons which is the best choice. Every class has a new melee attack that is unique per character. While it is useful for enemies that get too close it is useless otherwise, especially during boss battles. The SNES d-pad makes aiming and movement easier as well. These simple additions make the game play a lot better overall.
While the flow of the game is mostly the same there have numerous nips and tucks. There is no longer an overworld; you choose your destination from the map. This removal unfortunately makes an already straightforward game that much simpler. Some dungeons have been removed and the ones that are here have been redesigned. Every dungeon is smaller, with some being three or four screens long. There were a few side quests with special items and more importantly upgrades of every class but those are sadly no more. I suppose it makes sense considering everything else they cut. Without the side quests, experience, and special items there is no need to explore. I respect a game that gets right to the point but in this case it hurts Crystal Beans overall.
In light of all these changes you have a game that is short and easy. Magic potions are plentiful but wholly unnecessary as there are so few enemies. Monster generators are fewer in number and you will rarely see five enemies on screen. The boss battles are the only stickling point but that is due to their tactics. They love to trap you in a corner and crush you to death. But in spite of that I was still able to breeze through the game in under three hours which is surprising as the CD version was easily three times that length.
The one area you would expect a significant upgrade is the graphics. Unfortunately even that is a mixed bag. For the most part the art and dungeon tile sets are the same. The sprites and towns are new and are larger and sport a brighter color palette. This clashes with the original art in the rest of the game as they were exceptionally dark. Mind you the Dungeon Explorer games were pretty ugly overall but at least they were consistent in their ugliness. If they went to the trouble of creating new sprites and towns they might as well have gone all the way. At least there is a faithful recreation of the redbook audio soundtrack which is amazing considering the hardware gap. Usually synth rock does not fare well on the SNES and is the Genesis’ forte but the sound programmers have done a wonderful job adapting the tunes.
In Closing
Crystal Beans from Dungeon Explorer is not outright bad. But it is not as good as it could and should have been. This could have been a more easily accessible version of an obscure yet good game. Instead it is a confused mess that loses a lot of what made the original great and is lesser for it. While it would have been nice to see this one localized in truth we did not miss much; the better version came out even if it is hard to find.
