History YMMV / FlawedCrystals

* BrokenBase: For some, Steven and Jasper's characterization and their relationship is either faithful enough to the show or it's an excuse to [[RonTheDeathEater demonize Steven]] to promote their fantasy of [[DracoInLeatherPants Jasper being the star of the show.]]

* DoubleStandard: For the healing sequences, there is a focus on accepting the flaws or perceived flaws of the Crystal Gems. Stevonnie must tell them that it's okay for them to be themselves and that they're not as bad as their worst fears make them think they are. It is one of the main points in the game and relevant to the title. When [[spoiler: Steven gets corrupted,]] all the correct options from the Crystal Gems are to [[spoiler: call Steven out for his fantasy concocted in Rose's Room being selfish, twisted and morally repugnant.]] Doing anything else wastes a turn and at worst gives the speaking character a debuff. This is because the game is a HateFic for the canon ending of the show and [[spoiler: Steven's fantasy is made of the canon progression of events in the show.]]

* ThatOneBoss: The Lost, Pearl's corrupted form. Unlike most bosses who bring flunkies who are easy to deal with, she is backed up by the minibosses The Sun and Son of the Sun, as well as Satellites. The Satellites will often use One For All to take hits for The Lost and her two allies, and they are positioned in such an awkward way that it's difficult to specifically pick them off. The Sun helps out with hard-hitting attacks like Nova and Flare, while Son of the Sun can heal its allies or resurrect the Satellites, and both can set up [[DeflectorShields Thorns or Bubbles]] to stop your strongest attacks. The Lost herself is no slouch, with a high ATK stat, access to Quick Strike and Meteor to pick off squishier targets, and a full-party [[DamageOverTime Interference or Disharmony]] attack to cripple bulkier ones. And no, you can't just [[ShootTheMedicFirst take out The Sun or Son of the Sun]] as The Lost will immediately use Undying Memories to [[BackFromTheDead resurrect them to full health]].

** The final dungeon of Flawed Crystals has Steven's [[spoiler:ideal versions of the gems undergo Flanderization: Pearl is happy]] [[HappinessInSlavery being Steven's pearl]], [[spoiler:Garnet is split up so Steven can put them back together and Amethyst cares more about the Diamond's party than the defective Amethysts being shattered. The Movie has Spinel reset them, causing Pearl to be an obident servant, much to Greg's discomfort, Garnet is split up into Ruby and Sapphire, and Amethyst is reduced to a child-like state. Flawed Crystals has Steven want the gems to be Flanderized while in the Movie Steven is trying to return the Crystal Gems to their normal selves.]]

** Steven's controlling aspects. Flawed Crystals allows you to try and gaslight the gems during their healing sequences and [[spoiler: even [[MindRape try and rewrite Jasper's personality.]] The final dungeon has Steven's worst self showcase several puppets representing what ''he'' wants the Crystal Gems to be, much to their confusion and horror.]] Future has Steven decide to take up planting to cope with his friends moving on with their lives, naming the plants after said friends while expressing that they can't leave him. In both cases, it ends poorly for Steven. Flawed Crystals has [[spoiler:Steven corrupt due to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone his guilt and panic]] over his [[LotusEaterMachine Room fantasy]]]] while Future has a cactus turn into Cactus Steven, a monster who repeats Steven's problems with the gems who the gems have to fight, leading to Steven accepting that he messed up by being an awful role model and to [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint never tell anyone his problems again.]]]]

* BreatherBoss: As corrupted Peridot was designed and released first, she has fewer gimmicks and is significantly easier than the other bosses in the game. She only uses her single-target attack and respawns her {{Mooks}}. Even in the Rose's Room rematch, this is true. Compared to the crowd control of The Drowned and The Shattered being able to crack fallen gems, The Derelict is a simple fight. The only other boss rematch to be this easy would be The Bound.

* EpilepticTrees: The Perfect Crystal is stated to be a representation of Steven's guilt over the Diamonds being shattered and Rose tries to dissuade you from fighting it. However Steven never met Pink Diamond and the shattering of Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond and White Diamond was completely out of his hands. So either Steven believing that their deaths were his fault or Rose's memories must've leaked into Steven's mind in order for him to feel guilt over Pink's death.

* GoddamnedBats: The enemies in the Alpha Kindergarten have this annoying tendency to counterattack you whenever you damage them and the high encounter rate makes it tedious to deal with them when you're going back and forth trying to find the other keystones.

** Out of all the Room rematches, The Drowned is a surprisingly nasty upgrade from her role as a WarmUpBoss. Unlike your first bout with her, you have a full party which is both a curse and a blessing. While you do have more chances to strike due to being able to easily accumulate Star Points, this is made difficult due to The Drowned using her water clones to wear you down while she uses Mutilate to debuff her defence so her AttackReflector will deal more damage. Even when you get a chance to attack, your party members will take damage from her attacks, and she'll quickly replace any fallen clones to stall for time.

** For most of the game, Steven is very much like his canon self. The final dungeon puts a different spin on Steven's character by showing that the corruption has brought out his worst self. He takes on the form of his mother, who is portrayed as someone whose AllLovingHero persona beneath the surface is selfish, petulant and controlling and wishes to make the Crystal Gems what he wants them to be. To this end, he is willing to brush the Great Diamond Authority's actions under the carpet because he knew he couldn't forgive them and he cared about having a happy ending where everyone got along, rather than what the victims of the Diamonds actually needed.
** In contrast, Steven (as Stevonnie) himself is clearly traumatized and guilt-ridden and suffers from a major case of self-loathing and self-aggrandization. He hates Rose Quartz because he believes she was perfect and that he cannot live up to the expectations he had of her; his fantasy of her and Pink Diamond being the same person is his own attempt to justify his self loathing and inability to accept his mother's imperfections to himself, with him even acknowledging that such a thing is stupid and nonsensical when it's pointed out to him by the other gems yet choosing to backpedal anyway. Bismuth even points that Rose Quartz being Pink Diamond means that ''he'' is Pink Diamond which works with Steven viewing himself as controlling and selfish much like White Diamond.
** Just how much of Steven's corrupted state is actually himself? During the final dungeon, Rose Quartz is used to represent the part of Steven's mind containing his worst aspects yet Steven himself is guilt-ridden and scared when fused as Stevonnie. When the corruption finally takes hold, Steven becomes delusional and sees himself as perfect yet goes into denial when he realizes that he can't keep the gems in the room. Rather than try to shatter them, he decides to bubble them all and when called out by the gems for his selfishness and cowardice, Steven can only offer weak justifications before feeling guilty. This implies that Steven is still a good person, horribly tormented by his worst aspects and his own expectations. It finally takes Jasper getting through to him for Steven to finally let go and accept that he's just a child and that he can't save everyone.

* FridgeBrilliance: Aside from gameplay reasons, the reason the Room forces you to [[BossRush refight the Corrupted Gems]] is because Steven is trying to misguidedly "protect" the gems from the idealized versions that he doesn't want them to see, because he feels horrible and disgusted that the worst aspect of himself would want the Crystal Gems to change how ''he'' wants them to. The Perfect Crystal only exists due to a mixture of his experiences with Blue and Yellow Diamonds, Rose's memories of the Diamonds and Steven's own expectations of the Diamonds (having never met White and Pink Diamonds personally) with Rose-Steven's attempts to dissuade the party being an attempt to ignore the guilt and pretend that everything is fine. Defeating the Perfect Crystal is Steven showing that he's strong enough to face up to his guilt and his corruption, even if needs help to overcome it.
** Despite the final dungeon's premise of [[spoiler:the Diamond Days arc being Steven's coping fantasy, it's Rose who represents Steven's corruption and not Pink Diamond or Greg. Rose Quartz's gem is a part of Steven and Rose's legacy is where most of Steven's expectations of her originate along with his fear that the gems blame him for Rose's death and wants to be like her while resenting her for not being the perfect figure, he believed her to be. Steven has never met Pink Diamond and has no personal connections to her, and Steven has nothing against his father, leaving only Rose to be a viable candidate to represent his worst aspects.]]
** There are hints that Steven doesn't really believe [[spoiler: that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond are the same person. When confronted on how little sense RQ = PD is, Rose-Steven backpedals repeatedly and changes the subject. When Steven finally corrupts, he takes Rose Quartz's pink hair but none of Pink Diamond's traits. Lastly the Pink Diamond part of the Perfect Crystal has none of Rose Quartz's attacks during the fight with it unlike Stevonnie]].
** The Perfect Crystal being a shard fusion of the Diamonds makes sense; being a manifestation of guilt, it's portrayed as a fragmented mess. Further still, it drops a Flawed Crystal which implies its "perfection" is an illusion; if it really was perfect, it would be a Paragon and not a shard fusion.
** The Perfect Crystal is portrayed as using phantoms of each Diamond to attack the party. Pink Diamond using Rose Cut is supposed to tie into Steven's fantasy of Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond being the same person and her attacks only exist to support the others, Yellow Diamond's attacks being named after math terminology represents Yellow's logical perspective of other gems and represent her being the main opposing force, Blue Diamond's attacks represent her sorrow and supporting Yellow by debuffing your party and White Diamond's attacks represent her sheer power compared to all other gems and her tendency to rarely step in herself.
** The final battle is different from all other fights because using the Talk function is important and that the wrong decision will cause you to become debuffed. In other words, it's a fusion between the regular battle system and the healing sequences which is fitting considering that [[spoiler: Steven is a fusion of a human and Rose Quartz's gem.]]
* FridgeHorror: If all of Homeworld has been corrupted by the shattering of all 3 Diamonds, then it's likely that the planet has been overrun by corrupted gems and that civilization there has been irreversibly destroyed. It's likely that not even Steven could heal them all even if he wanted to.
** The Homeworld ending implies that [[spoiler: Steven is becoming corrupted]] and that his intention to save the corrupted gems there are anything but noble. If the game's main ending is any indication of what [[spoiler: Corrupted Steven]] is like, it's possible that he'll become another White Diamond-like figure.
** One of the bad endings has Steven [[spoiler: bubble all of the Crystal Gems, keeping them [[AndIMustScream safe forever.]] If they're trapped in Rose's Room forever with a now Corrupted Steven and nobody can leave, then it's likely that Connie's days are numbered since he no longer needs her because he considers himself "perfect".]]

** For detractors of this game, Steven's [[CharacterDerailment change in character]] during the final dungeon can easily be interpreted as him being the AuthorAvatar of the developers, who as noted in the Developer's Commentary liked Steven's characterization but hated the direction he took in the Diamond Days arc and Steven Universe Future. To quote the Artist's Statement section on Steven: [[invoked]]
--->'''A Friendly Irin''': I'm gonna double down on this: Rose's and Jasper's assessment of Steven in the Room is completely accurate to his canon counterpart. Canon!Steven is a terrifying, awful person and no one but the diamonds deserve to suffer his twisted, possessive, controlling idea of "love".\\
Which is a shame, because I liked Steven right up until [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E18ASinglePaleRose The Twist]]. This is probably because I, quite reasonably I think, saw his immature and myopic behavior as flaws he was supposed to grow out of, and not reasons to root for him. In ''The Darkness Between Stars'', I dealt with this disconnect by just completely ignoring his canon characterization and basically declaring him to be a different person more in line with his early behaviour and the trajectory I thought his character was heading. But ''Flawed Crystals'' was always going to be about more directly facing the specific character issues in canon, and so I knew I had to address this to be completely satisfied. Steven must answer for his crimes.
* AngstAversion: A lot of fans who otherwise enjoyed the game immediately lost interest in the final dungeon due to how it handled its relation to the show, most importantly Steven's character, which many considered a mean-spirited overexaggeration for a game that handled him well prior to that point.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: While the premise of a ''Steven Universe'' fangame that focuses of the darker aspects of the show isn't an immediate dealbreaker for most, the fact it opens with a complete dismissal of the show's core message and continues that until it reaches a peak in the final dungeon, where [[spoiler:Steven's character is completely derailed and the Diamond Days arc is treated as a delusional fantasy]], usually serves as a major turn-off for those who would otherwise be interested in the game.

* BrokenBase:
** Between those who consider its AlternativeCharacterInterpretation and altered continuity BetterThanCanon and an alternate take worth playing in its own right and those who find it incredibly spiteful, mean-spirited, and generally missing the point of the series by portraying as overly dark and edgy.
** The final dungeon gets the absolute brunt of this. Was the plot twist of the Diamond Days arc being [[spoiler: Steven's fantasy]] an interesting way to deconstruct some of its problems, or was it a [[HateFic mean spirited, petulant and hateful fantasy]] designed to [[{{Irony}} replace a reality the writers couldn't handle]] (much like [[spoiler: room Rose Quartz and Steven during the final dungeon]]?
** For some, Steven and Jasper's characterization and their relationship is either faithful enough to the show or it's an excuse to [[RonTheDeathEater demonize Steven]] to promote their fantasy of [[DracoInLeatherPants Jasper being the star of the show.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: This game tries to do this for the Steven Universe fans who weren't happy with the Diamond Days arc with the following:
** Steven's characterization before that arc is kept while the final arc involving his characterization during that arc is treated as [[spoiler: a delirious nonsensical fantasy twisted by his corruption due to Steven taking the truth poorly.]]
** The Diamonds end up shattered by the Crystal Gems early on, satisfying those who hated them and felt they were let off the hook for their actions (despite never actually being forgiven for their actions canonically). For those who feel cheated that Steven and the Crystal Gems never actually got to fight the Diamonds directly, [[spoiler:they can fight the [[{{Superboss}} Perfect Crystal]] which is a shard fusion of all 4 Diamonds]], which also satisfies those who hated Pink Diamond for effectively causing most of the canon plot to begin with.
** The game allows you to have all the Crystal Gems as party members, which is great for fans who feel that Peridot and Bismuth got shafted after their plotlines were finished. Also for Jasper fans who wanted her to have a redemption arc, she's also the first party member you get and [[spoiler:also key to getting the good/best endings.]]
** The final dungeon can be seen as this for those who didn't like the canon ending. [[spoiler: the canon events in the final arc are reinterpreted as Steven's fantasy and during the final boss, the Crystal Gems actually get to be important during the final battle instead of being put out of commission.]]

* ThatOneBoss: Pearl. Unlike most bosses who bring flunkies who are easy to deal with, she is backed up by the minibosses The Sun and Son of the Sun, as well as Satellites. The Satellites will often use One For All to take hits for Pearl and her two allies, and they are positioned in such an awkward way that it's difficult to specifically pick them off. The Sun helps out with hard-hitting attacks like Nova and Flare, while Son of the Sun can heal its allies or resurrect the Satellites, and both can set up [[DeflectorShields Thorns or Bubbles]] to stop your strongest attacks. Pearl herself is no slouch, with a high ATK stat, access to Quick Strike and Meteor to pick off squishier targets, and a full-party [[DamageOverTime Interference or Disharmony]] attack to cripple bulkier ones. And no, you can't just [[ShootTheMedicFirst take out The Sun or Son of the Sun]] as Pearl will immediately use Undying Memories to [[BackFromTheDead resurrect them to full health]].

* FridgeBrilliance:
** Despite the final dungeon's premise of [[spoiler:the Diamond Days arc being Steven's coping fantasy, it's Rose who represents Steven's corruption and not Pink Diamond. When confronted on little sense RQ = PD is, Rose backpedals repeatedly and changes the subject. When Steven finally corrupts, he takes Rose Quartz's pink hair but none of Pink Diamond's traits. All of this implies that subconsciously, Steven doesn't actually believe that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond are the same person, and this is supported by how weak his idealized versions of Peridot and Lapis are]].

** Even Rose's attempts to keep the player away from the Perfect Crystal makes sense when you realize that fighting the Perfect Crystal represents Steven's willingness to face up to his guilt and Rose's dismissive remark after that violence won't solve everything is actually Steven subconsciously hinting that he actually wants to deal with his issues despite consciously denying them when pointed out to him. It's also a neat hint on what you actually have to do to get the game's best ending: [[spoiler: to have the party call Steven out rather than forgive or agree with him.]]

--->'''A Friendly Irin''': I'm gonna double down on this: Rose's and Jasper's assessment of Steven in the Room is completely accurate to his canon counterpart. Canon!Steven is a terrifying, awful person and no one but the diamonds deserve to suffer his twisted, possessive, controlling idea of "love".
--->Which is a shame, because I liked Steven right up until [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E18ASinglePaleRose The Twist]]. This is probably because I, quite reasonably I think, saw his immature and myopic behavior as flaws he was supposed to grow out of, and not reasons to root for him. In The Darkness Between Stars, I dealt with this disconnect by just completely ignoring his canon characterization and basically declaring him to be a different person more in line with his early behaviour and the trajectory I thought his character was heading. But Flawed Crystals was always going to be about more directly facing the specific character issues in canon, and so I knew I had to address this to be completely satisfied. Steven must answer for his crimes.
* AnticlimaxBoss: Despite Jasper being one of the strongest non-Diamond gems in canon, even being called the Ultimate Quartz, she's an absolute joke when you [[spoiler: fight her on the bad ending route after forcing her to choose between her Diamond and her friends with Corrupted Steven being the only challenge left.]]

* AngstAversion: A lot of fans who otherwise enjoyed the game immediately lost interest in the final dungeon due to how it handled its relation to the show, most importantly Steven's character, which many considered a mean-spirited overexaggeration for a game that handled him well prior to that point.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Depending on who you are, you might not like the premise of a Steven Universe fangame that focuses of the darker aspects of the show and that's okay. The final dungeon is where most of the writing's criticisms emerge because it treats the Diamond Days arc as non-canon and ironically can be seen as CharacterDerailment, the very thing the developer's commentary claimed the game was trying to fix. [[invoked]]

** Steven's characterization before that arc is kept while the final arc involving his characterization during that arc is treated as [[spoiler: a delirous non-sensical fantasy twisted by his corruption due to Steven taking the truth poorly.]]

** The final dungeon can be seen as this for those who didn't like the canon ending. [[spoiler: the canon events in the final arc are reinterpreted as Steven's fantasy and during the final boss, the Crystal Gems actually get to be important during the final battle instead of being put out of commission during the final battle.]]
* AngstAversion: It's known that not everyone was happy with the final dungeon and the way it chose to resolve things despite how the game ultimately ends on a positive, uplifting note. Interestingly enough, this is only isolated to the final dungeon, likely because its sandwiched between the rest of the game which wasn't this bleak despite some dark elements and the good/best endings which fall under EarnYourHappyEnding.
* BreatherBoss: As corrupted Peridot was designed and released first, she has fewer gimmicks and is significantly easier than the other bosses in the game. She only uses her single-target attack and respawns her {{Mooks}}.
** Even in the Rose's Room rematch, this is true. Compared to the crowd control of The Drowned and The Shattered being able to crack fallen gems, The Derelict is a simple fight. The only other boss rematch to be this easy would be The Bound.
* BrokenBase: Between those who consider its AlternativeCharacterInterpretation and altered continuity BetterThanCanon and an alternate take worth playing in its own right and those who find it incredibly spiteful, mean-spirited, and generally missing the point of the series by portraying as overly dark and edgy.
** The final dungeon gets the absolute brunt of this. Was the plot twist of the Diamond Days arc being [[spoiler: Steven's fantasy]] an interesting way to deconstruct some of its problems or was it a [[HateFic mean spirited, petulant and hateful fantasy]] designed to [[{{Irony}} replace a reality the writers couldn't handle]] (much like [[spoiler: room Rose Quartz and Steven during the final dungeon]]

* FridgeBrilliance: Despite the final dungeon's premise of the Diamond Days arc being Steven's coping fantasy, it's Rose who represents Steven's corruption and not Pink Diamond. When confronted on little sense RQ = PD is, Rose backpedals repeatedly and changes the subject. When Steven finally corrupts, he takes Rose Quartz's pink hair but none of Pink Diamond's traits. All of this implies that subconsciously, Steven doesn't actually believe that Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond are the same person and this is supported by how weak his idealized versions of Peridot and Lapis are.

* GameBreaker: Discussed in the developer commentary, which states there was a dedicated effort to ''avoid'' turning Garnet into this as she was in ''VideoGame/AttackTheLight''. As seen in CharacterTiers, above, they may have overcorrected.

* AngstAversion: It's known that not everyone was happy with the final dungeon and the way it chose to resolve things despite how the game ultimately ends on a positive, uplifting note. %% Interestingly enough, it ends up (can someone please finish this sentence?

* Though [[spoiler:Steven]] was always intended to be easy due to being a PostFinalBoss akin to the Mother series, cutting out the planned [[spoiler:Rose-Steven]] fight meant that [[spoiler:Corrupted Steven himself feels quite underwhelming after the BossRush (and optionally the [[{{Superboss}} Perfect Crystal]]) His attacks aren't all that threatening with them being easily outhealed and while his HP is obscured, you can easily take him down and EarnYourBadEnding unless you decide to snap Steven out of his corrupted state. This is averted if you decide to get the early bad endings in which case the fight is borderline unwinnable.]]

* AngstAversion: It's known that not everyone was happy with the final dungeon and the way it chose to resolve things despite how the game ultimately ends on a positive, uplifting note. Interestingly enough, it ends up

* RonTheDeathEater: Steven's canonical actions are framed as a selfish desire to ignore everybody else's problems, avoid hard questions, and only get what he wants, but the good and true endings rely on the idea that Steven is capable of genuine growth and being a good person, and his worst traits are framed as the result of TheCorruption. WordOfGod confirms that this is their attempt to resolve Steven's early portrayal (which they genuinely liked) with his later actions.

* Though Steven was always intended to be easy due to being a PostFinalBoss akin to the Mother series, cutting out the planned Rose-Steven fight meant that [[spoiler:Corrupted Steven himself feels quite underwhelming after the BossRush (and optionally the [[{{Superboss}} Perfect Crystal]]) His attacks aren't all that threatening with them being easily outhealed and while his HP is obscured, you can easily take him down and EarnYourBadEnding unless you decide to snap Steven out of his corrupted state. This is averted if you decide to get the early bad endings in which case the fight is borderline unwinnable.]]

** Steven's [[CharacterDerailment change in character]] during the final dungeon can easily be interpreted as him being the AuthorAvatar of the developers, who as noted in the Developer's Commentary liked Steven's characterization but hated the direction he took in the Diamond Days arc and Steven Universe Future. To quote the Artist's Statement section on Steven: [[invoked]]

--->Which is a shame, because I liked Steven right up until [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E18ASinglePaleRose The Twist]]. This is probably because I, quite reasonably I think, saw his immature and myopic behavior as flaws he was supposed to grow out of, and not reasons to root for him. In The Darkness Between Stars, I dealt with this disconnect by just completely ignoring his canon characterization and basically declaring him to be a different person more in line with his early behavior and the trajectory I thought his character was heading. But Flawed Crystals was always going to be about more directly facing the specific character issues in canon, and so I knew I had to address this to be completely satisfied. Steven must answer for his crimes.

* Though it wasn't intentional, cutting out the planned Rose-Steven fight meant that [[spoiler:Corrupted Steven himself feels quite underwhelming after the BossRush. His attacks aren't all that threatening and while his HP is obscured, you can easily take him down and EarnYourBadEnding unless you decide to snap Steven out of his corrupted state. This is averted if you decide to get the early bad endings in which case the fight is borderline unwinnable.]]

* RonTheDeathEater: Steven's canonical actions are framed as a selfish desire to ignore everybody else's problems, avoid hard questions, and only get what he wants, but the good ending relies on the idea that Steven is capable of genuine growth and being a good person, and his worst traits are framed as the result of TheCorruption. WordOfGod confirms that this is their attempt to resolve Steven's early portrayal (which they genuinely liked) with his later actions.