"999 roses surround me. No matter how many times I am reborn, I will always remember you."

Ever since I finished Crystar last year and later heard news of this game's announcement a few months later, it'd be safe to say that Crymachina has been my most highly anticipated game for the past year. And now that it's finally out in English, did it meet my expectations? While I do have a few small problems with it, I would still say yes, absolutely.

Crymachina's story, first and foremost is one of love. While that may sound like a simplification, I'd still say that the love the protagonists share for eachother and their will to live on for the sake of the ones they hold dear is what's at the very core of it.
A strong part of what sets Crymachina apart from Crystar is it's setting. Taking place 2000 years in the future, it is one that absolutely revels and takes advantage of the post apocalyptic Sci-Fi themings in a very unique and interesting way, even if by the end it felt more like a vehicle for the plot more than anything (which I didn't mind.) It explores plenty of space related concepts such as the Fermi Paradox and the dark forest hypothesis and while all the scientific jargon thrown out can feel confusing at first (especially with how much of it is dumped on you), for me personally it never got to a point where it was too much.
Some people might be put off by how fast the plot goes by in Crymachina, which is largely cause of how little gameplay fluff it has but for this kind of high concept story it feels just right, even if it means sometimes you'll have twists thrown at you one after the other, with some being less important than others.
As for the characters, I think Crymachina might have some of the best I've seen in a JRPG. While the main cast is very small, with only 4 members, they all feel extremely human and real, which only makes their struggles against those who would think they don't deserve humanity feel all the more touching. While I mentioned that the cast is driven by love, this is something that gradually blossoms instead of being immediate. The protagonist Leben initially wakes up confused into the world of the game, being driven only by her hatred of humans and love of machines but by the end, the singular thing that's motivating her is her love for Enoa, whom she wholeheartedly would do anything for. Ami and Mikoto in contrast are together from the start, however we only get to see them be more intimate with eachother as the story progresses and as things keep getting worse we get to see just how much each of them would risk for the other. Enoa is honestly my favorite character in the game; her development from only being able to see herself as a cold machine despite her extremely human display of emotions to realizing that she does infact posses a very kind human heart was one of the highlights of the game for me.
I think the only real problem I had with the plot outside of the pacing sometimes is that due to the game overall being less reliant on depressing backstories and whatnot like Crystar was, there are very little flashbacks containing Hajime Ueda art, which were some of my favorite parts of it, so for that to be largely absent here was a shame.
Something I do want to point out though is that while it is true that the two games aren't necessarily related plotwise, they do share alot of thematic roots even if they end up going in completely different directions with them; as such, I feel like playing this with prior experience of Crystar does improve it as there are multiple moments where it feels like Crymachina is purposely tampering with expectations of players who have played the former first, especially at the start.

For the gameplay, I honestly don't have much to say about it. I appreciate that stages now feel properly designed unlike the mostly hollow labyrinths that Crystar's were, but that doesn't mean much with how quickly they take to clear. The actual combat is fine too, even if it mostly just relies on mostly dodging enemies so you don't get oneshotted. I honestly wish the gameplay loop was more prevalent in this as at most you'll be spending 90% of the game reading and the other 10% playing which contributes to the plot feeling like it has no brakes but like stated before, it thankfully manages to make it work for the most part so it doesn't bother me too much outside of just being a slight nitpick.

The last thing I'd like to talk about is the music. Just like Crystar's, it was composed by Sakuzyo but unlike the former it's used in a much better way. Whilst Crystar does have it's share of good OSTs, they largely only get to play once, meaning most of what you hear during the game is just the same few monotonous battle themes, further contributing to the sense of repetition that the game very much suffers from. Crymachina though, thankfully doesn't fall into this trap, with the music as a whole feeling much more vibrant and never falling into the same pitfalls regarding it's usage that Star did. I think the biggest highlight of all though, are the vocal themes. All of the boss fight music + inserts are sung by Enoa (CV: Hikaru Tomo) and they're all honestly so beautiful and great at defining the identity of the game (this can apply to Enoa's character as a whole too) that I honestly couldn't imagine it without them.

While this wouldn't be my favorite Furyu game (Caligula 2 takes that spot), I still think Crymachina goes above and beyond in surpassing it's predecessor and crafting quite possibly one of the best queer stories I've experienced. If you like yuri media whatsoever then I would wholly recommend you play this.