NESpresso: Game Reviews \ GCN \ Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals

Game Stats
System: Gamecube
Genre: Adventure / RPG
Players: 1-4
Memory used: 22 Blocks
Playtime: 00:15 / 50:00
ESRB Rating: Everybody (6+)

Notes:
• GBA-GCN compatible
• GBA's required for multiplayer

Final Fantasy returns to Nintendo with this unique adventure game where you & your friends travel the world to keep your town safe from the mysterious & deadly fog that blankets your world.

In Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals, the world is covered in a myserious & deadly fog called the Miasma & each town protect themselves by using giant crystals. However, the protection provided by the crystals only last a year & requires myrrh to renew the crystal's blessing. The people who journey across the land belong to Crystal Caravans in search of myrrh trees, which produces small ammounts of myrrh every two years or so. Each caravan holds a special item called the Crystal Chalice which holds the myrrh that's collected from the trees & protects the caravan from the miasma

As the game begins, you (& your fellow villagers) have just turn of age to travel with the Crystal Caravan & it's your job to travel the land, fill the Crystal Chalice & keep your town safe from the miasma.

Square holds nothing back when it comes to graphics as they beautifully render everything with the game with stunning worlds & fairly realistic monsters. One downside with graphics is that everything (except the towns & the river passage) is covered with fog except the relatively small area around the Crystal Chalice. This means that everywhere outside the Chalice's range will appear somewhat hazy as well as slightly discolored (either brighter or darker than normal), so something that you may have seen before may be harder to spot once you get it within range.

One potential annoyance is that you may periodically see a strange colored ring appear within the outermost boundaries of the chalice. This is because the chalice's protective range is spherical & anytime the chalice's elevation changes (usually on mutliple level areas), the uppermost & bottommost range of the chalice will change, which will be reflected in the new rings. This can be hazerdous to some of your player's health as they may be restricted to such a tiny area that it's nearly impossible for them to move without leaving the protective boundary.

The graphics on the GBA (when you play in multiplayer), are fairly basic as you'll mostly see all the menus on the GBA. When you're in a battle area, you may be given a special map to aid you by showing you where the treasure or where the monsters are located. If you're planning on playing in multiplayer mode, make sure that you have adequate lighting if somebody is not using a GBA SP or expect to get some players to complain that they can't see what they're doing.

The sound is traditional to a game like this, except for the opening credits which includes a nice song. The music perfectly fits the area where you're in, including the boss battles which have a darker & a little faster tone than normal. The only part where the music sucks is when you must travel through a miasma stream because all you hear is howling winds (I think it's winds... it could be the miasma that's causing the sound since it's concentrated in that area).

A Priceless Look at Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals

If you're a Final Fantasy fan, you probably don't have a lot of Nintendo stuff. Here's a rough look at how much it would cost you & your friends to everything you'll need to enjoy a 4-player journey.

Nintendo Gamecube: $100
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals & a MC-251: $80
4 GBA SP's with GBA-GCN links: $440
Overall cost to fully enjoy this game: $620 + tax or about $175 / person (w/ tax)

Based on the per-person cost, it's probably best to let everybody buy their own GBA SP & GBA-GCN link & pitch in $50 for the system & game.

The controls for Crystal Chronicals are special designed to work for the Gamecube controller (for single players) & the GBA, after the software has been uploaded to them (for multiplayer). You'll use the L & R buttons to rotate between your available commands (which you've set before your group sets out in an area) & use the command with A. B is used to pick up items that you'll find on the ground & select/Y is used to pull up your personal menu. The start button is used only to pause the game. The controls are a little akward as you have to pull up your command menu every time you want to change an item you want to use & that you can only use one command at a time, but you'll get use to swapping commands in & out once you're set. In single player mode, you use the X button on the Gamecube controller to get your moogle assistant to take care of the Crystal Chalice. If you are playing by yourself, DO NOT USE MULTIPLAYER MODE as you will not get the moogle assistant to help you!!!

The gameplay for Crystal Chronicals is HEAVILY GEARED towards multiple players. The game's difficulty is jacked up when you play solo because you have to fight every monster & solve every puzzle without anybody to assist you as some of the puzzles have hazerdous solutions when you're alone. The only assistance you get is a moogle that'll carry the Crystal Chalice for you so that you can keep your hands free. In multiplayer mode, not only that you get assistance within the levels (as you're not the only one fighting), you also receive maps for the area on your GBA the one downside with multiplayer is that somebody is going to be forced to carry the Chalice.

In multiplayer mode, you must talk to your fellow party members as nobody will have everything (including maps & items).You will most likely have to delegate jobs within your party to make your explorations more enjoyable, however, you should periodically rotate jobs as nobody will want to be the full-time Chalice Holder because they can't partake in the battles (& the spoils from them).

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals is a great get-together game if you have everything to play it. The game is pretty open-ended & supports a pick-up game ideal. Even though each memory card can only save 4 slots & 8 characters, you can bring in other characters from other memory cards so you don't have to be restricted to the guy that has the save file. Again, I stress that this game is HEAVILY GEARD TOWARDS MULTIPLE PLAYERS that solo players may want to pass up on this game.