The machine did indeed, cry.

Crymachina is a spiritual successor to Crystar, carrying over plenty of the old game's systems, ideas, and staff which would make old fans feel at home right away but also give them an entirely different experience that often times feel like the complete opposite of Crystar. While this can possibly be a bit of a turn off for returning fans depending on how much they expect this game to be like the other, I believe that anyone going into the game with an open mind would find this different experience to be a very enjoyable, lovely, and emotional experience.

Mechanically, the game is a gigantic leap from the first game in pretty much every aspect. The character models are very high quality and animated very well, accurately depicting their really unique and expressive designs by Rolua. The graphics themselves are also very good and shown off a lot in the really flashy, unique, and very enjoyable combat system which can get quite challenging too. The game also has a different gameplay loop from Crystar, now offering very short linear stages that always ends in a boss fight with all playable characters having their own differing playstyles and offering a nice degree of customization in the form of assistive gear that you call up during combat to cover different situations like hitting from afar, granting impenetrable defense, starting launch combos, etc. Although, the map designs definitely don't feel as expressive as they used to be, which is fairly understandable given the entirely opposite setting with a "grounded" spaceship interior as opposed to Crystar's colorful depiction of purgatory.

The aspects that really took me by surprise though would definitely be the characters and story with how they really went in a different direction from everything I expected. Despite the game still having plenty of really dramatic moments and intriguing mysteries, the game in general has a much lighter tone for a majority of the time compared to Hayashi's previous works. I often found myself with a grin or giggling every time we're shown the characters interactions, whether its among the main 4 or with the rest of the interesting side cast. I also did not expect, but very much appreciate, how hard they went into the sci-fi aspect of the story and setting with a very refreshing far-future world done so well that it really pulls you into the entire thing. The story's various twists and surprises were all handled really well too and kept me hooked the entire time with how well they've put their own crazy spin to the classic concept of machines gaining sentience and emotion and how far those would take these machines whose sole purpose and reason for creation were to simply obey commands they were given.

Admittedly though, the game sadly doesn't hit the emotional highs that I've gotten from Crystar which I feel is a bit of a shame but I'm perfectly fine with considering everything else the game handles really well. It was everything I didn't expect it to be but still really left the best impression on me given what the game was openly going for, and for that it deserves all the praise I can give it and really makes me more excited for the future projects Hayashi will hopefully have which I will definitely be there for.

GOTY.