Cris Tales Original Soundtrack

Cris Tales made a name for itself as a hand-painted JRPG built around a clever trick: you can see the past, present, and future of a scene all at once, and this soundtrack is the score that carries that idea from screen to speakers. If you played the game and remember the melodies that swelled when Crisbell first stepped into Crystallis, or the way the music shifted as timelines bent around her, this is that music, packaged up to keep or revisit on its own.

How it plays

Cris Tales itself is a turn-based RPG where combat and exploration both lean on its central time gimmick: enemies and environments can be pushed into the past or future, and your party’s choices ripple forward to change what a town or a character looks like later in the story. The soundtrack was written to underscore that structure, so you get themes tied to Crisbell’s journey across the four Kingdoms, the shifting moods of her companions like Matias and Willhelm, and the tension of facing down the Time Empress. As a standalone release, there’s no gameplay to speak of here, it’s the audio layer of that experience, meant to be listened to on its own terms rather than triggered by button presses.

Who it’s for

This is an easy recommendation if you already finished Cris Tales and want the music without booting up a save file, or if you’re the type who likes game soundtracks as background listening while you work or drive. Fans of classic JRPG scoring in the vein of the games Cris Tales draws from will probably find plenty to like in how it blends whimsical, fairy-tale instrumentation with heavier, more dramatic cues. If you’ve never played the game and have zero interest in turn-based RPGs, though, there isn’t much reason to grab this specifically, it’s a companion piece, not an introduction to the world.

Is it worth grabbing?

For anyone who’s spent time in Crystallis, yes, this is a nice keepsake that costs you nothing but a library slot. It’s the kind of freebie that sits quietly in your collection until you’re in the mood for it, and there’s no downside to adding it since it’s not competing for your attention the way a full game would. If you haven’t played Cris Tales, it might be more useful as a preview of the game’s tone than as something you’d listen to cold, but it still costs nothing to find out. Either way, claiming it now means you’ve got it whenever the mood strikes.

Quick facts

Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG (soundtrack tied to the Cris Tales game). Developer: Dreams Uncorporated, SYCK. Publisher: Maximum Entertainment. Platform: PC. Original release date: July 20, 2021.