Crystalis — stories left

For their review of the Nintendo Switch emulated port of Crystalis in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Switch RPG noted that "Crystalis features one of the best soundtracks from the NES era".

In December 2005, Nintendo Power ranked the NES release of Crystalis at number 115 in a list of the 200 best games ever to appear on a Nintendo system, the "NP Top 200".

In a retrospective, Kotaku stated that "Crystalis has flaws, but makes up for it with bold strides in its narrative and gameplay". 1up.com called it a "hidden Gem" for the NES, and said it was one of the better games inspired by Zelda on the system, contrasting it with Willow, which they said was quite poor.

The port was given an 8.0 rating by IGN, however, which denotes an "impressive" game.

IGN criticized the game for being too linear and having a low difficulty level but praised its large world and visually detailed "cinema cutscenes".

GameSpot also gave the Game Boy Color port an 8.0, saying of the original NES release: "Crystalis sheer depth - and the quality of its presentation - was without peer, and it is still regarded as a milestone title in the [action RPG] genre".

The original NES version of Crystalis was praised for its advanced graphics, high quality soundtrack, and elaborate plot.

IGN criticized the game for being too linear and having a low difficulty level but praised its large world and visually detailed "cinema cutscenes".

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu,the game scored a total of 28 out of 40. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Family Computer Magazine,it scored 18.81 out of 30, as shown below.

The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam releases of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection mark the first time that Crystalis, a game once exclusive to the NES, had been made officially available outside of a Nintendo console.

IGN criticized the game for being too linear and having a low difficulty level but praised its large world and visually detailed "cinema cutscenes".