Sunday, October 1, 2023

Krystal Plays With DEATH BATTLE!

                

Krystal, Harmacist of the Game Masters

Game Masters was created by Trivium Comics, it can be read on Webtoon



Welcome back to the blog! Time for something confusing. There aren't many blogs I have done that focus on abstract concepts and abilities, so it's time to do something a bit different. Not only is this one of the more complicated powersets I've covered here, but this is also one of the strongest characters I have featured on this blog… which is surprising given this series is mostly a gag-a-day type deal. Thankfully, my good pal NintendoRookie assisted me throughout the blog to help break down everything about Krystal. Without his help, I doubt this entry would've be nearly as polished as it could be. Along with that, I'm giving a SPOILER WARNING.

Background

"Welcome to̵ ̸t̶h̴e̷ ̷g̴a̴m̵e̶ ̸o̴f̷ ̶l̴i̷f̴e̷!"

Ray, Sadie, and Eli are a group of geeky weebs who play a lengthy campaign of a tabletop game called Monsters and Mazes. They're an unorganized and argumentative bunch, but they have a great time fighting monsters and doing quests in-game. All three play as fantasy versions of themselves in a self-made guild called the Game Masters. They frequently build upon their ever-increasing lore, sometimes even hosting campaigns within the campaigns they play. However, their game is about to become even more intricate when Sadie introduces a new NPC.

Enter Krystal, a traitless tutorial NPC who fills the role of the guild's healer. Krystal is... unique to say the least. She is blank-faced, always cheery, and highly impressionable, as Ray influences her to say a lot of stupid stuff. Despite being a healer, she massacres enemies way more than she does curing her allies. If her unpredictable personality wasn't bad enough, she's glitched. She constantly repeats dialog and it's usually a strenuous process to get her to follow orders. When the group first discovered her she was immobile outside of fights, so the squad had to drag her to their base like a statue. Why choose someone to join the party that's so difficult to deal with? They were short on a healer and Sadie brought up that there was a rumor about a buggy tutorial NPC. Since no one would want to deal with a glitch like her, she was free for the taking. The group found her standing idly in a dungeon, having allowed an under-leveled player to die repeatedly to a dragon (keep this in mind for later).

Over time, the trio taught her more about the world around them. Her vocabulary was expanded (for better or worse) and she was more active in aiding her friends. She even joined some of the campaigns they made as a chaotic evil player. The guild was trying their best to fix her glitchy nature and it seemed she was improving… but just as they reached a new status quo, the guild ran into a new NPC. It was another version of Krystal with black hair and a blue dress. Without warning, Krystal absorbed her. It was weird, but that's just how Krystal is, so group decided to not question it…… until she turned blue.


"I just wanted to be me again."

Krystal became an entirely different person. While she doesn't recognize the Game Masters anymore, she now has actual emotions and a personality. She's skittish and worrisome, but has some sass to her. To differentiate her from her buggy older self, they called her Crystal. While initially embarrassed to learn she's friends with a group of nerds, she appreciated them for bestowing her consciousness. Once more they help the healer learn new skills, only this time she grows more attached to her new friends. However, just as she's getting used to being a guild member, she starts to feel herself shifting back into Red Krystal.

To answer their questions and concerns, the Game Masters are visited by the mysterious Dr. Devo, a mad scientist who invented most technology in their world. He explains that all NPCs are emotionless recolors of each other because each one is a fragment of a single person: the one true Krystal. Coincidentally, the Red Krystal they recruited was the original version her copies came from. When Red Krystal absorbed Blue Krystal, she regained her consciousness. Unfortunately, she can't maintain this form for long and will forget everything she just experienced after fully transforming. She doesn't want to go back to being Red Krystal, but there's nothing she can do to stop it, slipping back into the buggy Krystal they knew and loved.

The more Krystals she absorbs the closer she becomes to becoming her true self again. As it stands, the only way to bring Crystal back is have Krystal absorb every NPC and become her true self. Since most NPCs are spread across dimensions, Eli elects himself to be the one to search for Krystals outside his world.

Life continues without Eli. Sadie, Ray, and Krystal complete quests, fight monsters, and get into other shenanigans. They miss Eli, but they know he's helping out the best he can. During this, Sadie experiences something odd. While rummaging through her abandoned solo campaigns, one seemed awfully familiar. The campaign had two characters: an under-leveled player who fought against an overpowered dragon, unable to escape… and a buggy healer who wouldn't heal him.

This was the exact situation Krystal was in when they first met her. Sadie made Krystal as a character in her campaign long before she ever met her. This prompts Sadie to question who… or what Krystal actually is. As they're figuring things out, Eli returns to his squad. The good news is that he succeeded in collecting every Krystal in a machine called the Atlas. Bad news is that he warns them that Krystal isn't what she seems. It is true that all NPCs used to make up a whole person…

But what they didn't expect was that this person was a goddess.

"Awe, I want to play too!" 

Meet the Original Krystal. She's a girl who dwells in a realm separate from the Game Masters made of pure thought. It was a lonely place, but she kept herself occupied by observing the campaigns of the trio as one would watch TV. Viewing their adventures made her happy and she wished to be a part of them. That's when she realized she could influence events in their world from her own. That's how she made Sadie make a character look just like her for her campaign. Realizing she could reach outside her world and influence the Game Masters, it dawned on her that she can play with them by crossing realms.

She jumped out her world in hopes of joining them, but her form was too much for their world to handle. Instead of traveling to the Game Masters, it led to the creation of new universes. Every character used in the Monsters and Mazes campaign, including the fictionalized versions of Ray, Sadie, and Eli, now have true sentience and individuality, able to make decisions on their own. Not even the Game Masters in real life are aware of this fact (Eli says, as the real life Eli and Ray geek out at how meta Sadie is making this campaign). This came at the cost of splitting into many traitless NPCs spread across the multiverse.

However, this isn't the first time Krystal split apart. This is thanks to a particularly wicked and dangerous version of Krystal. One so sinister and manipulative, that the Game Masters never realized that she inhabited Red Krystal's body this entire time…

Chaos Krystal, otherwise known as Chrystal.

"I am the reaper of universes! Practically a goddess! You're just a worthless underachieving failure!"

Chrystal is what Eli was trying to warn his friends about. The moment the cat was let out of the bag, Chrystal dropped her guise. This evil version of Krystal highly possessive of the Game Masters; all she wants is to go on fun adventures with them forever and ever. Now that her cover is blown, she'll do whatever it takes to take things back to how they were, starting with Eli. Turns out, the Eli that showed up isn't their Eli, but one from another dimension. Chrystal killed their Eli very early on. Not only that, but Dr. Devo reveals himself to be an Eli as well.

Chrystal reveals that a league of Elis formed across the multiverse to try and permanently stop her by fusing all the Krystals and forcing her back into her dimension, forgetting everything that happened. They did it multiple times in the past, but that only fueled Krystal's cycle of becoming attached to the Game Masters and wanting to join them again. As Chrystal sets her mind on hunting everyone down, her searching distracts her enough from keeping the Red and Blue Krystals in check, allowing them to break free and do some damage to her. Their arrival helps the gang attempt to push her back through the portal leading to her world, unleashing every Krystal Eli gathered.

Chrystal won't let up yet. She's dead set on never being alone again and having friends to play with forever. Every time Chrystal was forced back into her world, she was always full of anger and hatred, still craving destruction. Here, she expresses genuine pain and sorrow. The Game Masters changed her during the time spent with them. And this is when she exposes her ultimate goals: fusing time with the entire the multiverse into one bountiful moment for them to have everlasting adventures in. She was even planning on bringing the real Eli back to life after achieving this. All they need to do is destroy the Atlas and everyone who died can come back.

While it was a convincing deal, Eli wouldn't have wanted to come back to a world where Chrystal is in complete control of everything. His sacrifice meant that he trusted that his friends could succeed where he couldn't. And so, they sent Chrystal through the portal, with every Krystal following suit. Now back to her true self, but lacking all memories, Krystal is reminded of the Game Masters once again, but she gets the feeling that trying to join them will lead to bad things happening. Thankfully the gang had a solution to this: they built an NPC body for her to control from her world. Krystal couldn't have been any happier.

And so, the guild of the Game Masters is whole again. They still go on misadventures and get into all sorts of hijinx; only this time, Krystal can truly play with them…

Sadie, what the fuck were you on while making this campaign?


Equipment


To make things more organized, I will be combining everything used by all variations of Krystal in a single category instead of separating them. They are all technically part of the same character. Each one is color coded to show which Krystal has used these in the past. The codes are as follows:

Red Krystal
Blue Crystal
Chaos Krystal
Original Krystal

Gatling Gun

Who expected someone so cute and small to wield such a monstrous weapon? It's a magical weapon that is suspected to come from the future.

Gun





Futuristic Cannon

This weapon appears to be some kind of explosive cannon with five blasters and a scouter. It has amazing firepower, able to nuke a dragon in a single hit.

Giant Laser Cannon

Somehow she owns an even bigger version of that cannon, which shoots huge lasers instead of explosive ammo.


Knife-Guns

Crystal owns two translucent serrated knives that can shift between a knife and a gun form. She's far more comfortable using them as a knives, so she mostly sticks to using that.


Abilities


Weapon Generation

Krystal wields some heavy artillery, so she can summon them out of thin air and make them disappear when they aren't needed. It should be noted that Krystal has never been seen running out of ammo.

Self-Sustenance (Types 1 and 3)

Krystal doesn't need to sleep and can breathe in space. Chrystal has been shown to breathe in space too.


High Charisma (Charming and Fear Manipulation)

Her stats sheet that depending on the situation her high charisma stats can be used to charm others or instill fear in them.


Limited Absorption

To become whole again, Krystal absorbs other Krystals. The more she takes in, the closer she becomes to her prime state. It's most likely that this only works on other Krystals.

Gravity Manipulation

Don't mind her, she's just casually defying gravity.

Wing Generation

Krystal can sprout wings that emit a mysterious energy to fly around.


Sound Mimicry

I guess that's something she can do too

Soul Manipulation

She can remove peoples' souls from their bodies. The original Krystal has also fought beings from the spiritual plane.

Sensors

Another one of her unexplained and inexplicable powers. She has "sensors" that can supposedly gauge the power level of others.

Barrier Generation

Krystal can form crystal-like barriers in any position she wishes to block attacks


Power Suppression

Crystal can temporarily suppress particularly pesky abilities of others. It's not perfect, but it's good for stalling.

Statistics Reduction

Crystal can lower other peoples' stats to the best of her ability. Like her power suppression, it's only a temporary solution.

Intangibility Negation

As part of her power suppression, she negated Chrystal's intangibility (whoops, spoiler alert)


Glitch Generation

Whenever Krystal glitches out, parts of her body become pixelated. While they seem like natural sporadic bugs, each glitch foreshadowed that Chrystal inhabited her. When her true form is revealed, pixels constantly generate from her body.

Limited Parasitism and Possession

Since the beginning of the story, Chrystal has been dwelling inside Krystal. She has to be inside a NPC's body in order to control it. She can even take over the bodies of Krystals that were absorbed by the Atlas device and break out of it. Since the Red Krystal's body is the original Krystal body, Chrystal couldn't take full control at first, only gradually gaining control over time. This power might just be exclusive to controlling beings of cognitive origin. The only other being Chrystal has ever controlled was Chubs, the OC player character that Sadie made for her campaign.


Cosmic Awareness

You aren't safe from Chrystal. No matter where you are, she can snuff out the location of anyone across the multiverse. It seems like the only blind spots are only rare spots in the Trivium, the border between each realm in the omniverse.

Dimensional Travel

Chrystal has traveled from dimension to dimension annihilating universes wherever she goes. The original Krystal isn't confined to the Cognitive Realm either, as she likely traveled to the spiritual realm to fight elder gods. It's implied that the original Krystal can't travel to the physical world or lower levels of the Cognitive Realm without splitting herself.


Flight

Unlike Krystal, she doesn't need wings to fly.


Memory Manipulation

Chrystal can reset peoples' memories as easily as snapping her fingers. It's implied that she's only able to do it when making physical contact.

Intangibility

All types of attacks pass through her body.


High Intelligence

Chrystal has been thwarting the efforts of a league of literal geniuses trying to defeat her not just through her overwhelming power, but with intense manipulation, quick thinking, and crafty plans. She has been outsmarted multiple times in the past, as she has been sealed away time and time again. But every time Krystal breaks free, Chrystal will make it a hell of a challenge to put her back.

Energy Projection

Oh yeah, why not give her energy beams?


Physics Manipulation

When trying to track down the Game Masters, she temporarily suspended all matter in their universe

Quantum and Spatial Manipulation

Following the above ability, she cut off the universe she and the others were in from all other universes. Thus, nothing from other universes could be present within their universe.


Immortality (Types 1, 2, 6, and 9)

Being the equivalent of a god, it's certain someone like her would have immortality. Chrystal can live forever with everlasting youth, resists fatal attacks without the need of regeneration, and can hide in a person's body for as long as she wants. For type 6, all Krystal fractions (except the original body of Krystal) are likely able to inhabit each other via each other. Type 9 mainly refers to the Original Krystal, and how her true form is still deep in the Cognitive Realm while controlling her body in the Game Masters' realm.


Reality Warping

The original Krystal can control the reality of the Cognitive Realm, usually for wholesome stuff like making a bow out of thin air. However, by reaching to the bounds of her layer in the Cognitive Realm, she can influence the actions of people and the world in deeper layers of the realm, or even outside of it. This allows her to influence peoples' actions and thoughts from far beyond their dimension. It's also how Krystal controls her puppet body in the Physical Realm. Chrystal on the other hand uses it for much more malicious and destructive purposes.


Space-Time Manipulation

Chrystal's aim to make a world where she and the guild can have fun forever is easily accomplishable for someone like her. To do this, she'd compress time and the entire Game Masters cosmology into a single moment. This would contain everything everywhere all at once, which would lead to Eli resurrecting.


Abstract Existence (Type 1)

Krystal is a thought, one that anyone wouldn't be able to comprehend or think of without her influence. She hails from the Cognitive Realm, a world rooted in imagination and ideas. Specifically, she comes from an incredibly deep layer in the realm. Her existence is "too much" for any other layer of the Cognitive Realm that isn't hers, that should she try to enter a lower layer or even the Physical Realm, her body would divide and scatter across the multiverse. Not only that, but here mere presence caused every campaign of the Game Masters, which existed in the Cognitive Realm, to evolve from being mere ideas, becoming real independent universes in the Physical Realm.

Krystal Divisions

There is a finite, but great number of Krystals that exist across the multiverse once Krystal leaves the Cognitive Realm. Each one is as lacking in personality as the rest. The more they combine, the more personality they gain. I counted 46 Krystals in the panel where the Krystals are trying to push Chrystal through the portal.

Resistances



Techniques


N/A



The Three Realms and the Trivium


The omniverse of the Game Masters is divided into three quadrants: the physical realm, the spiritual realm, and the Cognitive Realm. In the center, the realms are separated by something called the Trivium. Beyond the entire omniverse is the real world where Sadie, Eli, and Ray play these games.

All realms are entire multiverses home to infinite dimensions. Each multiverse is layered, as demonstrated by the Cognitive Realm. The Game Masters hold campaigns within the fictional campaigns played by the group. Every time the Game Masters make a campaign, it then exists in the Cognitive Realm. The stronger the imagination that goes into it, the deeper it exists in the Cognitive Realm. This is how Krystal learned about the Game Masters. Layers upon layers of campaigns were made until they reached Krystal's world.

Feats


Overall


  • Her stats sheet shows that she has max strength and charisma
  • Gunned down a level 45 dragon who reached a high level because they killed a softlocked player named Chubs over and over. Krystal witnessed every single death before that, but did nothing to stop them before due to her buggy nature
  • Beat a rival guild in a kart race with her team
  • Saved the Game Masters from a werewolf chasing them
  • Obliterated the eastern dragon dwelling in a different tutorial dungeon
  • In previous lifetimes, Chrystal spread mayhem and carnage across all universes
  • Created the Game Masters' universe
  • Chrystal killed the Game Masters' Eli right before he could return to them and ruin her fun
  • Likely massacred a gang of goblins the guild was tasked to kill
  • Defeated several evil gods in a spiritual plane with her thoughts, while her body was in the Game Masters' realm
  • Scared off a group of eldritch beings that planned on taking over the world
  • Easily beat the inter-dimensional demon king Xonedraz in a fighting tournament

Strength





Speed


Durability


Weaknesses

  • When she's first recruited into the party, she was a glitch-ridden mess who was dead weight unless provoked to attack. Over time she came into her own.
  • Krystal couldn't infer the emotions of others, nor is she able to emote much either. However, that's irrelevant now that the ever-optimistic Krystal Prime is playing as her
  • NPCs aren't supposed to be fed, otherwise they'll puke out rainbow barf
  • The only way to truly beat Chrystal is to force her back into the original Krystal's home dimension with every single other Krystal extension. Once they're all back, it will trigger a fusion between all of them to become the original Krystal again.
  • Chrystal can easily control other Krystals, but if she loses her concentration, her hold over them gradually slips away too
  • While Chrystal is highly intelligent and manipulative, she's vulnerable to be tricked by smart enough foes

Matchup Potential


Krystal vs Altair (Game Masters vs Re:Creators)

(thumbnail by Vibe Check)

Vibe Check

The connections are as follows: Fictional characters (sorta in Krystal's case, it's complicated) who hold a lot of love and adoration towards their creators. But due to events that keep them from reaching their creators, they go on a quest to fuse the entirety of the multiverse, leaving endless destruction in their wake.

I tried watching Re:Creators, but I really couldn't get into it in the first few episodes. However, that doesn't stop me from really appreciating this matchup. From what I've been told of Altair, Krystal really matches her well. Apparently a lot of issues with Altair MUs come down to her opponents not matching her scale or resonating with her thematics well enough. While I'm not even close to finishing Altair's story, I really vibe with the general theme of the fight and Krystal seems to match her destructive scale.

I feel like the fight progression here would be interesting considering how the fight would be able to involve every iteration of Krystal. The fight could start with Altair fighting Krystal's puppeted body, then meta stuff happens and Altair winds up in the Cognitive Realm. She attacks Krystal, causing her to fall out the realm and split into her different selves. That's when Chrystal becomes the star of the show, increasing the scale of the fight to unseen heights.

If I had to say who I think wins, prooobably Altair? Looking into her VS Battle Wiki Profile, she seems to have some damn effective haxes Krystal doesn't resist. Then again, it's VSBW so take that with a grain of salt.

Krystal vs Sophia (Game Masters vs Persona)

(thumbnail by Vibe Check)

Vibe Check

This is the story of two amnesiac and emotionlessly yet cutely robotic girls who encounter, and join forces with a group of seasoned adventurers. Their primary objectives are to serve others, but while Sophia excels in offering assistance and wants to learn more in how to help others, Krystal is unfit for her job and doesn't seek to learn how to improve her ways. Over the course of the story, both begin to exhibit more humanlike traits and emotions and regain bits and pieces of their past. It is ultimately revealed that both were created by others (for Sophie it's her created as an AI, for Krystal it's a more meta influence to be created as an original character) out of loneliness, but are swiftly ditched and forgotten about by their creators. Both store an evil inside them due to being connected to (technically) another creation of theirs which could take over them in an instant, but are eventually able force themselves free from them and fight alongside their friends. Once all is said and done, they both spend their time with their creators and experience more of what life has to offer.

I should clarify that Sophia's takeover is a more minor aspect to her compared to Krystal's, whose body literally has inhabited an evil version of her the whole time and is ultimately the final obstacle (and like Krystal vs Altair, I'd like her to be really involved in the fight). And of course their exhibitions of humanlike traits are different considering Krystal became the more humanlike Crystal rather than developing over time like Sophia did.

That being said, I really love this matchup! I'm surprised Sophia doesn't have much discussion in terms of MU potential, though I guess people didn't give as much thought to P5 Strikers compared to P5 Royale.

I feel like this matchup would benefit the most from having Sophia fighting Krystal before she became whole again, fighting Krystal while inhabited by Chrystal. It could really exhibit Sophia's willingness to help Chrystal. Her working alongside Krystal and Crystal to make her realize that she doesn't have to be so lonely and destructive while in a cosmic scale battle just sounds like it could build up to a seriously emotionally charged ending.

As for who wins, I'm not confident in Persona scaling at all so I can't give a straight answer.

NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it

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