Crystal Ortha (Android) review "All hail greed!"

Over the years since I’ve started, ended and restarted the Kemco Khallenge, I’ve generally held the opinion that Exe-Create is the best of their teams — primarily due to how their games tend to be a step ahead of the rest as far as graphics and sound, while also having a better translation.

I’m starting to reconsider. The thing about Exe-Create that mars their efforts is how their games tend to blend together. Occasionally, they might try something different, but so many elements present in one of their releases will be found in multiple others. Meanwhile, Hit-Point at least makes the effort to differentiate their games. Sometimes, the result is complete garbage, but there are occasions when I find myself playing something that feels so superior to the last Exe-Create game I picked up that I feel foolish for considering that company to be Kemco’s finest.

A game such as Crystal Ortha. Now, to be perfectly clear, this is a good game by whatever standard allows one to refer to one of Kemco’s dozens upon dozens of short, cheap RPGs as “good”. As can be expected from one of these games, the same handful of monster designs will regularly get repeated. Also, the translation is a bit dodgy. Not so much in the “hard to understand what’s being said” sort of way, but because whoever’s in charge of that job seems insistent on making all characters come off like mega-excited children. You’ll have what supposedly is a high-drama conversation and it will fall flat because the dialogue is written in a “I don’t wanna give up! I gotta see this through!” way that just doesn’t feel like a conversation between a soldier-turned-mercenary and the daughter of a formerly wealthy, but now impoverished, family who is looking to regain lost prestige.

And, while we’re at it, there is a lot of that dialogue in this game, with many moments where party members have lengthy conversations. A couple times, you’ll have one of those long chats and then get immediately dumped into a boss fight. A tough boss fight, so there’s a good chance you’ll die and possibly find yourself having to get past that dialogue again in order to try again. Sure, you can just retry the battle after perishing, but if you feel you need to gain a couple levels, you’ll be stuck scrolling through text upon returning for another try with no way to skip past it.

On the positive side, Crystal Ortha is a love letter to greed. And I respect that.

Ross is that soldier-turned-mercenary and he’s barely getting by in life, taking all sorts of missions to make some coin and then hoping his benefactor actually pays him what he earned. He quickly meets Margaret, the daughter of that formerly rich family, and finds out she has a big dream: To find the Crystal Ortha. In short, crystals are valuable objects sought after by treasure hunters and the Crystal Ortha is a mythical motherlode that, if found, would make the person discovering it wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

Even if he’s a bit skeptical about the Ortha’s existence, Ross is intrigued enough to become Margaret’s bodyguard and the two of them travel the world, meeting a couple more party members. Tee is a treasure hunter who regularly hits on Margaret in a manner suggesting that “no means no” probably isn’t in his vocabulary. Marshma is a young girl who, via JRPG rules, is given permission to travel the world with the strangers her people just met. She’s also obsessed with dragons to the degree she dresses like one. Which isn’t as weird as it may sound, as it seems a lot of people in this game’s world do that.

Now, there are hints of a greater story out there. Of a conflict between dragons and of a past war where crystals were used to turn people into monstrosities. But for our characters, finding the Crystal Ortha and becoming rich as hell is all the motivation they need. Hell, when the final boss is beaten, there even is some dialogue that more or less says, “Sure we’re greedy, but look at what we accomplished because of that!” Like I said, I respect that. After all these years of controlling wonderful, altruistic heroes in these games, it was great to control characters I could relate to. People just trying to wind up filthy rich and if they save the world in the process, that’s cool, I guess.

I also respected a lot of what went into character-building and combat in Crystal Ortha. Like most RPGs, you’ll obtain additional strength and skills by fighting monsters to get experience to gain levels. However, you’ll also want to diligently explore towns and dungeons. Not only will you find items to craft equipment and equipment itself by doing so, but you’ll also regularly get items that permanently enhance your party. Over time, getting all those “+1% HP” and “+3% Attack” items does add up and with some of the foes you’ll encounter, the more you have your characters built up, the better.

This game also makes you have to choose which equipment and skills best suit you. As far as equipment goes, each weapon or piece of armor improves your attack or defense by a certain amount, but also has one or more additional effects. Maybe that sword will hit twice per round or also strike adjacent foes to the one you targeted. Or perhaps a successful hit will allow the party to regenerate some health. There is a pretty large amount of stuff you can craft or find and a key element to success is to give your characters equipment that plays into a good combat strategy.

Each character also gains a lot of combat skills, of which they can only equip five at a time, as well as a Carmina, which bestows some sort of passive effect at the onset of each fight. With only five available skill slots, you have to take a lot of things into consideration. Does it only hit one foe or multiple? Is it a damaging attack or will it only cause scratch damage to tough foes? How many skill points does it cost?

That last one is significant. Characters start each fight with 35 skill points and gain something like 13 or 15 per turn. A costly skill might cause great damage to enemies, but can only be used every few turns. Meanwhile, that cheaper skill might not be as powerful, but can be cast with regularity in a tough battle. You’ll also want to always be sure you have the ability to cast one of the healing skills when needed, so characters you’re using for that purpose probably shouldn’t be using those high-point attack skills too often.

Regardless of what Kemco company is making the game, I tend to find myself playing something where a lot of thought seemed to go into creating an interesting combat system, but I wouldn’t know for sure because it’s so easy to find a one size fits all strategy and rely on it consistently. With Crystal Ortha, that wasn’t the case until I was near the end. Any new equipment or skill could cause something to change, which kept me working and re-working my tactics, especially considering how many of this game’s bosses seemed to have nasty tricks up their sleeves to make those confrontations somewhat tense.

Another thing to compliment this game on is how side-quests were implemented, as it possesses ones a bit more complex than “find this item” and “kill a few of these monsters”! Of the eight in this game, only one is a time-waster, while the rest send you to places you can’t access if you’re just following the main story. And as an added bonus, the experience, equipment and skills you can obtain by doing them will prove to be a help when working to finish off your quest.

Crystal Ortha is a step above most of Kemco’s fare and actually feels like a fun mobile game instead of one that does little more than connect enough dots to be a familiar experience for RPG fanatics. While it has its flaws, such as a mediocre translation and the same basic monsters being repeated constantly, there’s a decent amount to like, such as a combat system that rewards players who get into customizing their team and a few pretty challenging boss fights. Don’t get me wrong — this game is no replacement for a high-quality game made by a company with legit money funding its efforts, but for what it is, it’s quite entertaining and provided me with a pleasant surprise where I actually enjoyed getting through it.

Staff review by Rob Hamilton (January 23, 2026) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.