A Turn-Based Strategy game released in 1992 for the Game Gear. The plot, such as it is, concerns the continent of Tyramus — kept in peace for nearly a century by the power of the four elemental crystals of the kingdom of Alriel. However, King Lawrence and his knights end up killed by the hordes of the Jyn empire, led by the evil Emperor Grym, who wants to use the crystals to dominate Tyramus. You play as Princess Iris, the daughter of King Lawrence, holding the earth crystal — and it's your job to fend off the hordes of the Jyn empire, amass an army, and defeat Emperor Grym.
It was followed up by a Japan-only sequel, Royal Stone, in 1995.
Crystal Warriors contains examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Low Level Cap: The level cap is 9, which can be easily reached on some characters before the three-quarters point of the game. Level 9 characters can still gain EXP up to 9 points, but won't level up.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: You automatically lose if the enemy captures your base; however, capturing the enemy base results in an automatic victory. However, it's usually Awesome, but Impractical, as you don't get EXP or money from enemies still alive at the end.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The game won't let you equip a weapon or piece of armour that's weaker than the one your character is currently using.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You're limited to using 9 characters per battle.
- Artificial Brilliance: The AI is generally good at controlling its troops and exploiting holes in your defences, but round 14 stands out. The AI will deliberately keep you busy with its main offensive in the west of the map, then send its Water-elemental troops across the lake in the middle of the map to try and capture your base.
- Artificial Stupidity: On the other hand, the AI is pretty aggressive when it comes to its healers. It'll frequently send the squishy Nadar and Bane to directly attack your army, when their healing spells work from a long distance away.
- Blow You Away: Rangers and some monsters are Wind-element. However, Wind-elemental spells are more in line with Shock and Awe.
- Book Ends: The game begins and ends with a legend told by a storyteller, in the exact same manner both times.
- Can't Drop the Hero: Iris must be brought along to every battle.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The enemy team doesn't need to use Scan to see who your teammates are, and their mages have infinite MP.
- Crutch Character: Early on, wild monsters are useful to cover for your characters' weaknesses. However, they're sharply outclassed by later enemies, and aren't much more than meatshields past the early game. Fittingly, they stop spawning after round 14 is complete.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Every stage uses the same tileset, and all of the towns Iris visits look exactly the same.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Iris, magic users, and some monsters are Earth-element. Strangely, it functions as Non-Elemental in practice.
- Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Cyclos, living tornadoes, appear as weak monsters. They'll only hurt your characters (or enemies) by directly ramming into them.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats Wind beats Water beats Fire, while Earth is equal against any of them.
- Enemy Scan: The Scan spell can be used to reveal an enemy's class and stats before engaging them in combat.
- Everything Fades: When a unit or enemy is killed in battle, it disappears pixel-by-pixel.
- Evil Living Flames: Wisp, one of the wild monsters, is a living flame.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The three types of offensive magic, as well as (more roughly) the elements triangle.
- The Goomba: Morbi is the first and most basic enemy in the game, with only a melee attack and absolute baseline stats.
- Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Getting to the bosses is generally much harder than actually defeating them. While the bosses have high stats, they can still only act once per turn, which generally results in them getting surrounded and overwhelmed. Additionally, they won't move off their castle until your army gets close, so they'll usually be fighting alone.
- I'm Melting!: Instead of just collapsing like all other enemies, Emperor Grym appears to melt into the ground when defeated.
- It's Personal: Sophi's reason for joining Iris' army is that she feels obligated to avenge her brother who was slain by the forces of Jyn.
- Long-Range Fighter: Wizards are the only ranged units in the game. While they can attack foes from any range, having them fight close-up is inadvisable.
- Magic Knight: Iris is the only character who can use both strong physical attacks and healing/support magic, making her very formidable in combat.
- Magikarp Power: The Healer class has completely pathetic stats, so they need to be kept out of danger to effectively use their healing. Since the only way to gain EXP is by killing enemies, healers will almost never level up. However, if a healer is somehow raised all the way up to level 9, his stats will skyrocket; his HP and attack will be on par with the Final Boss's, and his defence will be significantly higher.
- Making a Splash: Some warriors, lords, and monsters are Water-element. However, magic that's Water-elemental uses ice instead of liquid water.
- The Man Behind the Man: Before the final level, Emperor Grym is revealed to have been nothing more than a puppet of the real Big Bad, Emperor Jyn.
- Monster Allies: Wild monsters can sometimes appear in stages. They'll attack your party members, but if defeated, they can be recruited, and each member can carry up to 4. They can be sent out in battle to attack in place of their owner. However, magic users can't make use of this feature.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: In some chapters, you'll be given a choice of two characters to recruit, but won't have enough spare money to hire both of them, forcing you to pick one.
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Nintendo Hard: Enemies are about as strong as your own troops, and must be revealed with the Scan spell, wasting time and magic. Additionally, their magic users get unlimited spells, letting them spam their powerful attacks as much as they want. - No Cure for Evil: Averted. Nadar and Bane know Heal, and they'll happily undo all of the damage done to a single enemy if not disposed of. Annoyingly, their Heal has the same massive range as yours, so they can do so from across the entire map if need be.
- Permadeath: Once defeated in battle, your troops are gone for good. This also applies to any monsters they may have.
- Player-Exclusive Mechanic: Your side is the only one that can recruit monsters.
- Playing with Fire: Some warriors, lords, and monsters are Fire-element. However, only wizards are actually seen using fire in combat.
- Redemption Promotion: Wild monsters get a stat boost after they're tamed.
- Useless Useful Spell: Sleep and Peace can only be learned by healers, which have better things to do than engage enemies in combat. Usually.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: The game ends if Iris dies.
- Unique Enemy: All of the most powerful monsters only show up once. Fenix only appears on round 10, Tut on round 11, Geni on round 12, and Tenta on round 13.
- You All Meet in an Inn: Each town's inn is where you can recruit new party members.
