Seriously, though, it's a pretty good game, even if it gets a bit grindy at certain points (though actually not that grindy for it's day).
And for an early NES game, it's got some fantastic music that is, in my opinion, vastly unrecognized and underappreciated by the video-game music community
My minor quibble is that I don't consider Crystalis to be an early NES game. We're talking about an early 1990 Japanese release for Crystalis; the Super Famicom came out in Japan in late 1990.
That's 4 years after Legend of Zelda was released in Japan (1986). A lot can change in 4 years -- especially back then! Though to be fair, I don't really think of Legend of Zelda as an early NES release either. I usually reserve that definition for things like Donkey Kong or the original (pre-Super) Mario Bros.
But I agree otherwise: I thought Crystalis was fantastic -- especially for its time!
Well, actually, I forgot that the save button is hidden in the menu rather than attached to the Inns, like most later games did.