Crystal Defenders stages consist a top-down view of a maze showing the path that monsters will be traveling. Stages are played in 31 waves (or levels) of enemies that enter the maze and walk along the pathway towards the goal. The goal of the game is to protect the crystals from enemies by strategically placing troops of various jobs alongside the pathway to defeat the enemies and preventing them to leave the map. If the enemies manage to escape with 20 crystals, the game is over. Players can also summon Espers at the cost of some crystals to either cause damage to all enemies on screen or give status ailments to all characters. The game was originally known as Crystal Guardians and released into three separate chapters W1, W2, and W3. W1 chapter starts off with the Soldier, Time Mage, Archer, Thieves, Black Mage, and White Monk jobs. W2 introduces the Berserker and Dragoon jobs and adds “crystal power” element to increase the power and speed of the player’s characters. W3 introduces the Fencer, Flintlock, and Tinker jobs however removes the Soldier and Archer jobs previously introduced in W1.
The Wii version is divided into R1 and R2 chapters and offers a new ranking system via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, however R1 chapter offers less characters than the initial Crystal Defenders in order to be easier for first time players to learn the mechanics.[18] R1 contains the same jobs introduced in Crystal Guardians W1 including the dragoon job introduced in W2. R2 contains the same jobs in Crystal Guardians W3 and offers crystals feature previously introduced in Crystal Guardians W2.