Crymachina is a 2023 Hack and Slash Action RPG developed by Fu Ryu Corporation, and published by Nippon Ichi in Western Territories for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. It is a Spiritual Successor to Crystar.
The story of the game tells of a future where humanity is long since extinct. Long ago, twenty percent of humanity was wiped out by Centrifugal Syndrome a disease whose vector of transmission was unknown, and was universally fatal to all who contracted it. Not long after, the rest of humanity wiped itself out in a war for the scant few resources remaining on Earth. In space, a structure called Eden was created by the few surviving humans with the goal of reviving humanity. The Dei Ex Machina in attendance tirelessly research means to restore humanity, until Propator, the Deus ex Machina overseeing the rest of its kind mysteriously vanishes without a trace. The void left by its absence causes a war between the remaining Dei ex Machina.
The story begins with the protagonist, Leben Distel, in her deathbed, dying of Centrifugal Syndrome. As soon as she flatlines, she finds herself aboard Eden, now with a mechanical body. She is greeted by Enoa, the eighth Deus ex Machina in the form of a girl. She is told she is an E.V.E., an android inhabited by a resurrected human psyche. Together, with her fellow E.V.E.s Mikoto Sengiku and Ami Shido, they fight to restore humanity.
Tropes in this game:
- Absent Aliens: Eden has had no encounters with aliens despite centuries in deep space. Fermi's Paradox is even namedropped when the girls are discussing the lack of contact. The explanation is that the ship is intentionally running in a way to avoid contact with other life until humanity is ready to be restored.
- Arbitrary Head Count Limit: Only one girl can out on the field at a time. The justification is that Enoa can only power one and still work at a reasonable capacity. Flashbacks show that when it was just Makoto and Ami, she could power them both at the cost of heavy stuttering and glitching.
- Boss Rush: One occurs in the last stage. The trope aspects of "bringing the bosses back" and "the bosses are stronger" are justified by them being machinery that can be rebuilt and being rewired to ignore their hard-coded limits against attacking humans.
- Cast Full of Gay: Three of the four heroines are attracted to women. Makoto is more ambiguous.
- Gratuitous English: Makoto drops a phrase in English now and again.
- Grind Boots: The characters can ride along large pipes and wires in this manner.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Ami's E.V.E. body is modeled with a large flowing dress.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Ami is the most traditionally feminine of the group and the most openly gay.
- Non-Indicative Name: There's a group called the Trinity that has four members. This is eventually lampshaded.
- No Romantic Resolution: The teasing between Makoto and Ami ends with no definite conclusion.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Letheia is the only one of the Dei ex Machina who doesn't have some elaborate plan to conquer the space station, their goal simply being to broadcast an SOS every which way and hope some friendly aliens come to fix up the ship.
- Shipper on Deck: Makoto and Ami start shipping Leben/Enoa from the start.
- Shout-Out: One of Makato's English phrases is "Hasta la vista, baby." Though as she's a movie lover, it's more plausible for her to drop it.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Leben is the missing Propator.
- Translator Microbes: Leben is speaking in German while Makoto and Ami speak Japanese, each hearing it in their native tongue. Enoa is handling the translation between them all.
