The art of the “Let’s Play” – a look at CrystalFissure’s commentary videos

“Hello everyone, CrystalFissure here.” These are the words that you’ll hear at the beginning of almost every one of YouTuber CrystalFissure’s videos. CrystalFissure is a South Australian YouTuber who has over 19,000 subscribers and covers primarily older video games, but also branches out to real life skits/vlogs, music and more.

A common definition of a “Let’s Play” is the following: A style of video series documenting the playthrough of a video game, usually including commentary by the gamer. A Let’s Play (commonly referred to an LP) differs from a video game walkthrough or strategy guide by focusing on an individual’s subjective experience with the game, often with humorous, irreverent, or critical commentary from the gamer, rather than being an objective source of information on how to progress through the game.

CrystalFissure begin LPing in 2010, starting with a Let’s Play of Spyro the Dragon, one of his favourite games. Shortly after, he began LPs of Ape Escape and Monsters, Inc. Scare Island. All three of these games were released on the original PlayStation. What makes CrystalFissure’s LPs so popular among fans who follow the niche of classiv video games is his level of knowledge about the topic at hand. Yet this is also blended in with random commentary about his life, friends, school (when he was still there) and much more. For example, he has almost an encyclopedic knowledge of the Spyro the Dragon series, and you can hear how passionate he is about those games when Let’s Playing them.

There is definitely an art in balancing relevant commentary to do with the game and off-topic commentary that allows you to get to know the author of the video too. CrystalFissure toes this line well and is probably a big reason as to why he has as many subscribers as he does.

Beyond PlayStation games, he has also covered PlayStation 2 games and even PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 games. He has talked about in the past wanting to cover more than one console so he can market his channel to a wider audience. While having a niche audience is important and even rewarding, covering newer games with his signature style is something that he has tried to do and has even had some success doing so.

YouTube as a platform gives a voice to people who may not have planned to speak in public. It emphasises and in many cases rewards people who want to talk about obscure topics. CrystalFissure is someone who gets this opportunity to do this through his videos.