Crusaders Quest

Crusaders Quest Review

By, Herman Y.

Crusaders Quest is a free-to-play, online hero-collecting RPG developed by TOAST, the creators of Guardian Hunter and Drift Girls, and published by NHN Entertainment, a large Korean gaming publisher under NAVER Corporation. After its global launch on December 11, 2015, Crusaders Quest quickly rose to become one of the most popular RPGs on mobile devices with over 10 million downloads within 9 months of its release. Crusaders Quest is a game that immediately stands out from the rest of crowd with its incredibly charming and adorable 16-bit anime-inspired graphics and unique Match-3 combat system. While it still shares a lot in common with other hero-collecting RPGs such as stage-based progression and having many heroes to collect, its unique art style, combat, and even storyline, adds a new refreshing flavor to the genre. The game is surprisingly in-depth despite its simplistic appearance and offers tons of content that will keep players coming back for more.

A Journey to Rescue Five Goddesses
A mysterious witch has abducted five beautiful goddesses (protectors of the land) for her evil deeds and it is up to the player to rescue them. The world of Crusaders Quest is divided up into many stages among six chapters with each chapter containing 96 different stages for a total of over 500 stages in the game. The story plays a decent role in the game and becomes more interesting as the game progresses. There is a lot of character dialogue and interesting characters to meet along the way, including Sera, a spunky Forest Goddess in training, and Lednas, a compassionate but strict Captain of the Guard. Players play as a Mercenary Captain in charge of a party of Heroes (Heroes that can be collected and added to the party) that is suddenly thrown into the center of this conflict.

Each stage is quite short, lasting from 1-5 minutes, and features multiple waves of enemies to fight through. The final wave consists of a boss battle, often times with more than one boss at once, that range from powerful beasts to possessed warriors. Completing stages provide gold, experience, and potentially equipment and Heroes. Each chapter contains 4 maps and each map contains 24 stages, which is a lot more stages than in other similar games. Players will see the same background and environments for a rather long time but the monsters do vary every couple of stages and there are many different types of bosses. The 24th stage of each map features a large Boss battle that can be challenging to battle and unlocks a new Goddess in the earlier Chapters.

Graphics
Crusaders Quest greatly stands out from other games with its charming 16-bit art style. The game has an anime-inspired retro look and all of the Heroes, monsters, and environments are undeniably cute. Despite the pixel graphics, each Hero (and monster) still looks quite detailed with different attire ranging from plate armors to kimonos to magical robes. All the sprites also have a wide range of animations making them feel very alive rather than stiff, and each attack and skill is full of flashy effects and physics-based knockbacks. Weapons also vary in appearance and the armor of Heroes change as they become higher in ranking. In addition, the musical score has a retro and chiptune theme that fits the game perfectly. Overall, the world looks and feels very charming and delightful.

Match-3 Puzzle-Based Combat
Crusaders Quest features a unique Match-3 combat system not seen in any other games. During stages, players can have up to 3 Heroes in their party who automatically attack and move on their own, but players have control over their skills via Skill Blocks. Skill Blocks consistently appear on the bottom of the screen and pressing them will activate a skill for the respective Hero. When a single Block is selected, the skill deals 56% damage (of the Hero’s attack power), when two matching Blocks are selected, the skill deals 178% damage, and when three matching Blocks are selected, the skill deals 322% damage. Therefore, it is important to match up the Blocks to deal as much damage as possible which actually requires some strategy. Healing skills also correspond to the amount of blocks matched but heals instead of deals damage. Blocks cannot be moved so in order to match them up (assuming consecutive ones don’t appear), Blocks in between must be used up first. There are also Special Skill Blocks (that use Hero SP) that cannot be matched (can simply be activated for full damage) that activate Heroes’ special abilities. The combat is unique and actually quite fast-paced because everything happens in real-time and Blocks constantly appear making things frantic and intense in more difficult battles. Players can also select a Goddess to follow them a battle and activate the Goddesses’ ability by tapping the screen when the Goddesses’ bar is full (different Goddesses have different abilities).

Many Heroes to Collect
Crusaders Quest has over 200 unique Heroes to collect. Each Hero is one of 6 classes: Warrior, Paladin, Archer, Hunter, Wizard, and Priest. Warriors are melee fighters balanced in attack and defense with high physical resistance but low magical resistance, while Paladins are melee tanks with high defense and health and low attack power with high magical resistance and low physical resistance. Archers and Hunters are similar ranged strikers with high damage and low defense that can attack the enemy backline except Hunters have more armor than resistance while Archers are balanced in armor and resistance. Lastly, Wizards are ranged spell-casters with large AOE (area of effect) damage while Priests are ranged supportive healers with healing and damage reduction abilities. There are many Heroes to collect in each class and they all have different stats and skills, making each very unique not only in appearance but in combat. Heroes can be trained with pastries via the game’s baking system, equipped with hundreds of different weapons (each class uses different weapons), and promoted with Honor (gained from quests and retiring/deleting Heroes). Weapons can also be upgraded and special weapons can be forged with recipes.

PVP, Dungeons, and Additional Modes
Players can battle other players’ heroes in asynchronous combat in the Colosseum, fight through a variety of different dungeons, and participate in many additional modes. In the Colosseum, players are matched up against other players’ parties based on ranking and battle it out similar to in the single player mode. Players have full control over their party and the PVP battles can be quite intense especially if both sides are evenly matched. There are also single player dungeons that players can take part in that require Dungeon Keys and feature a wide range of different dungeons with varying objectives. Dungeons change every couple of days and some involve defeating enemies with special rules such as no skill chaining or surviving for a certain amount of time, and each dungeon has multiple “floors” with better rewards as players progress. Lastly, there are various other interesting modes including Nest of the Divine Beasts, which involve stages similar to the Story Mode but much more difficult with very powerful bosses, Fortress of Souls, which also like the Story Mode but with a lot more floors and is easier than Nest of the Divine Beasts, and World Boss, an endgame mode that features extremely powerful bosses that require skill and strategy to take down. These modes add a lot more variety and content to the game and can keep players entertained even after they finish the Story mode.

Cash Shop/In-App Purchases (IAP)
The in-app purchases in Crusaders Quest follow a similar model to most hero-collecting RPGs which revolve around the Gacha/Summoning system. With Jewels (premium currency), players can summon random 3-6 Star Heroes (of any class), random 2-6 Star Heroes of a specific class, and random 4-6 Star weapons. Jewels can also be used to purchase in-game gold and 2x Hero experience boosters. The Gacha rates aren’t very good so players will usually receive Heroes on the lower end of the spectrum, but lucky players can receive high ranked Heroes if they spend enough money. Players can also summon random 2-5 Star Heroes with Honor, obtained from quests and retiring Heroes. The game isn’t necessarily pay-to-win since players can upgrade all their Heroes to 6-Star for free with enough time (grinding and farming) but spending money helps speeds things up. Players can also get free summons from events, login rewards, and certain quests. Overall, spending money is not required but offer convenient advantages such as potentially rare Heroes and equipment and faster level progression. Having said that, there is a lot of grinding and farming to be done in Crusaders Quest in order to upgrade Heroes.

Final Verdict – Great
Crusaders Quest is an incredibly addictive game with charming 16-bit pixel graphics, a fast-paced Match-3 combat system, and many adorable Heroes to collect. While it does require quite a lot of repetitive grinding and farming in order to upgrade Heroes, Crusaders Quest feels very unique, simple yet surprisingly in-depth, and has lots of content making it a great mobile RPG that will keep both casual and hardcore players busy for a very long time.

Crusaders Quest Screenshots

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Crusaders Quest Videos

Crusaders Quest Links

Crusaders Quest Official Site
Crusaders Quest Google Play
Crusaders Quest iOS
Crusaders Quest Wikia

Crusaders Quest Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Android 3.0 and up / iOS 7.1 or later

Crusaders Quest Music & Soundtrack

Crusaders Quest Additional Information

Developer: TOAST
Publisher: NHN Entertainment
Platforms: Android, iOS
Release Date: December 11, 2014

Crusaders Quest was developed by TOAST and published by NHN Entertainment, the team behind Guardian Hunter and Drift Girls. Crusaders Quest was globally released on December 11, 2014 and was so popular that it reached 10 million downloads within 9 months (September 2015) of its release. On December 8, 2015, Crusaders Quest received the Google Play Editor’s Choice Award and released a large update including a new story chapter, 6 new weapons, and 36 new Heroes. Crusaders Quest is currently TOAST’s top grossing game. NHN Entertainment is also the publisher of the mobile games, Battle for the Throne and Derby King.