It’s such a great time to be a Super Nintendo gamer, with new games being released decades later, the revival of the defunct Japanese game satellite streaming service and forgotten ROMs getting unearthed all happening in the space of just one year. The pace at which Super Nintendo video gaming is gaining new content is just astonishing. To add to all the good news an adventure game previously only released in Japan way back on the 25th of March 1994 called “The Blue Crystal Rod” has just received a new fan translation patch. It is actually the final installment in Namco’s “Babylonian Castle Saga” series. The first game to start the series was “Tower of Druagga”, an arcade game from 1984, followed by “The Tower of Ishtar” another arcade game released in 1986 and lastly “The Quest for Ki” a platformer released in 1988 for the Famicom.
The final game in the series is a major departure from the previous games’ platforming pedigree in taking the form of an adventure game. The Super NES is a console system with very, very few adventure games and this is especially true for English region games. So it’s good news for fans whenever an a new adventure game is released whether in the form of a homebrew (like “Cronela’s Mansion”, to name a future example) or a translated Super Famicom game (like “Clock Tower”, to name a previous example). Adventure games are probably my favorite gaming genre so it’s great to get a new one for my favorite console. However this particular adventure game is technically, very basic for a graphic adventure. There are very few commands and there is no point and click interface. You walk around from first person view much like (the very dated) dungeons and dragon’s style games such as in “Eye of the Beholder”, “Arcana” and “Wizardry”. The story is told by interacting with very few NPCs and the world that you interact with is very bare and seriously unimagined. You only see commands when situations arise and you are given a list of actions to choose how your player’s character will respond. I would consider this a very bland graphic adventure game compared to the games I’m used to playing. Even for a NES / Famicom game it’s very bland, in fact there are several remakes of Famicom adventure games for the SNES which are far more complex than this game, such as “Famicom Detective Club Part II” and the brilliant, newly translated “Metal Slader Glory”.
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Having said all that you probably think this game is not really worth your attention but it does have a saving grace that I think does warrant it a chance for a playthrough. Adventure games are driven by the story and I think the bland design and style of the game is actually hiding a very good story. It is (very) loosely based on biblical history and goes back to the beginnings of time when the Euphrates river was the cradle of civilization. King Marduk peacefully ruled Babylim (Babylon) and the gods blessed the people with peace and prosperity which was sustained by the light of the blue crystal rod which was placed high in the heaven’s overlooking the city. However the Sumarian (Sumerians) another civilization living downstream of Euphrates near the sea was in constant conflict and therefore knew the art of war. When they heard that the blue crystal rod shined over the citizens of Babylin they decided to send an army to conquer them and seize the rod. Since the Babylin was a peaceful tribe they knew nothing of fighting and King Marduk and most of it’s citizen’s quickly succumbed to the Sumarian army led by the tyrant Balarant. To seize the crystal rod King Balarant enslaved the remaining Babylites and forced them to build a tower to reach the heavens (the Tower of Babylon).
However, Anu, the king of the gods thwarted the Babylites by striking the tower with lightning which destroyed it before they could get the crystal rod. But by this point the tower had already blocked the light emitted by the crystal rod which kept the old demon Druaga and his powers sealed up. He now was free an immediately used his magic to supernaturally repair the tower and steal the crystal rod. Anu was not pleased by the selfish and ignorant actions of humanity and abandoned them to have to clean up the mess they created by releasing Druaga. The hero of the game Gilgamesh was destined to marry the next Oracle of Ishtar. Even though faith in the gods by the people was shattered, the oracle Ki prayed daily to Ishtar for a solution and she responded to her by granting humanity a way to retrieve the crystal rod and return it to heaven thus defeating Druaga and returning peace to the land. Ki, failed at this task and was turned to stone by Druaga, so Gilgamesh prayed to Anu who was granted a magical armor and sword. With this he was able to fight Druaga, obtain the crystal rod and return Ki back to being a human. Now Gilgamash, together with Ki, is tasked with returning the blue crystal rod back to heaven.
That is just the backstory which you can see as a prologue at the title screen of the game. I believe it explains the events of the first 3 games in the series to set the context for the adventure. And so the quest begins to restore peace to the land by returning the crystal rod to heaven. I haven’t played through the game yet but I am sure that it’s not going to be an easy task. I know that all that explaining hasn’t said much about the actual game but at least no spoilers were divulged while still explaining what the game is about. Considering the back story is so complex, the game itself must have a really good story. So the fun part will be playing it through and finding out how the story ends when the blue crystal rod is returned and peace and prosperity as well as faith in the gods is restored to the people.
2 thought on “Super Famicom Game “The Blue Crystal Rod” Get’s Translation Patch”
This looks like a fantastic game. The character artwork reminds me a bit of Crystal Warriors on Game Gear. Its sad to hear its very limited but I would like to give this one a try someday. As an adventure game, is it mostly about using items on objects to solve puzzles?
Hi there Arkos and thank you for commenting. Crystal Warriors on Game Gear isn’t part of the Babylonian Tower series of games, but maybe it drew some inspiration from it which would explain the resemblance that you see. The Blue Crystal Rod is limited even in terms of an adventure game. Most of the game is limited to moving N, S, E and W, talking to NPC’s and choosing from several (usually two) choices of actions at specific times and situations. You don’t really have an inventory even though you do get items. When the time comes to use items you will be prompted for a choice to do an action with an item. I hope this answers your question. I haven’t actually played it very much myself so I can’t tell you much more than that but if you want to know more you can check out this 15 minute YouTube gameplay video of the translated version of The Blue Crystal Rod
This looks like a fantastic game. The character artwork reminds me a bit of Crystal Warriors on Game Gear. Its sad to hear its very limited but I would like to give this one a try someday. As an adventure game, is it mostly about using items on objects to solve puzzles?
Hi there Arkos and thank you for commenting. Crystal Warriors on Game Gear isn’t part of the Babylonian Tower series of games, but maybe it drew some inspiration from it which would explain the resemblance that you see. The Blue Crystal Rod is limited even in terms of an adventure game. Most of the game is limited to moving N, S, E and W, talking to NPC’s and choosing from several (usually two) choices of actions at specific times and situations. You don’t really have an inventory even though you do get items. When the time comes to use items you will be prompted for a choice to do an action with an item. I hope this answers your question. I haven’t actually played it very much myself so I can’t tell you much more than that but if you want to know more you can check out this 15 minute YouTube gameplay video of the translated version of The Blue Crystal Rod