The Avatar
02-05-2006, 02:35 PM
Developed by: Square Enix (http://www.square-enix-usa.com)
Reference Site: Nintendo Games Page (http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1539&)
Genre: Role Playing Game
Memory Blocks: 22
Players: 1 to 4
Release Date: Feb 09, 2004
This game is a contradiction. That is the best way to describe Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. It is such a great game, yet at the same time, it is also a very bad game due to certain restrictions that Square Enix had decided to adopt. Ultimately, this game is either a love it, or hate it affair.
The world is covered in a noxious fog called Miasma. This fog will kill anyone who enters it. The only things that can hold the Miasma at bay are special crystals. Towns are built around the protective aura of these crystals. But the crystals get drained very quickly and every year a party of adventurers must venture out into the wilds to collect a magical liquid called Myrrh. This liquid will recharge the crystals power for another year, thus keeping the towns safe.
The Myrrh can only be collected from special trees that exist at the end of dungeons and are always protected by a huge boss guardian. Reaching each of the trees will become a challenge that gets harder each year as you venture further and further from your village.
GRAPHICS Score:100%
The graphics in this game are beautiful to say the least. Square mainly use watercolour palettes and shading in this game, and it works brilliantly. It has an effect, when combined with the musical tunes, makes me reminisce about my childhood for some strange reason.
All the monsters look cool, and when you whack one (be it with magic or your whacking stick), the animations are hilarious. The Boss monsters are richly detailed and very smooth in their movements. The characters themselves are animated beautifully and give a great "kids touch" to this game.
The world designs are terrific, which is what you would expect of any Final Fantasy game. The cut scene transitions have so much detail in them, the miasma flows, the reflections, its quite simple a masterpiece of drawing. The game really stands out with the special effects. You can tell that much work and sweat had been poured into the special effects like water reflections and spells. This game really shows what the GameCube is capable of.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:89%
I love the music in this game. Actually, the musical score in any Final Fantasy game is always very emotional and well developed. In this regard, FF:CC is no different. The introductions to each level are beautiful and put you in such a reflective mood. The narrator is a chick and she always manages to talk about passages and poems that were told to her in her youth. They set the scene for the level brilliantly.
Sound effects are very effective. There is a chucky thwacking sound when you smack some upstart troll upside the head, which is what we all want in any game. Monsters all scream and carry on in a funny manner, and you can even watch them talking to each other from a distance. Great spell effects all round here.
On the downside though, the main menu music is more annoying than getting a speeding ticket from an ugly female cop. Why an ugly female cop? Well, I suppose that's a personal thing because I have a little thing for chicks in uniform, and when a hot little cop asks me if I knew what speed I was going, I always get a little hard. And I don't mind paying for that....err, anyway, the menu music is very annoying and always starts of the same way. There is no option to turn it off, and it grates on my nerves every time.
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:80%
At first, this game will have you fixated by its beauty and design. Finding all the artefacts to boost your character is also fun. However, because your character doesn't level up, once you have all the artefacts and all the most powerful weapons, the thrill of the game will slowly evaporate.
The levels are all the same and though the layouts and enemy difficulty will vary each year, ultimately, there isn't enough difference to keep it interesting. The solution that I use, as I'm such a Final Fantasy fan that it almost hurts, is that I play the game for a short and intense period of time, then leave it for a few months before returning. This is hard and requires more self control then you would imagine, but can be achievable if you're as ADHD as I am!
Multiplayer gaming will make this game last much longer as its so much more fun with other people. However, due to Square Enix's retarded decision to force GameBoy Advance usage in multiplayer, finding people to play this game with is very difficult.
MULTIPLAYER Score:75%
Oooh, this is where the game falls down as it really was a bit too clever for its own good. You can only play multiplayer with a GameBoy Advance attached to the cube. And, not only that, you need a GBA for EACH player! Great little gimmick, however, unless you have four friends with GBA's and are willing to spring for the conversion cable, you're not likely to see much multiplayer gaming here.
This presents a big problem, as the game is great with four players. In fact, the game actually gets better exponentially with the amount of players playing.
However, there have been many little tricks that have been added into increase the multiplayer experience and make it unique for the game. For example, when playing multiplayer, each person gets a secret mission objective at the start of the level. By getting a high rating in this mission objective, you get to have first pick of any artefacts that were recovered after the level is completed. Nice. And the challenges are quite varied, from attacking with weapons only, to casting certain spells, to opening chests. Makes multiplayer more fun and very unique when you're competing against your friends while trying to co-op at the same time.
Fusing spells can be really tricky in multiplayer. The only way to cast higher and more powerful spells in multiplayer is to cast them at the same time, and in the same area with other players. The timing can be a bit of a problem, especially when your friends are idiots who cannot seem to get the gist of a countdown. I mean, honestly, how freaking hard is it to release a button on three??! Apparently, that's too complex a task for the furrowed browed neanderthals that I call my friends.
CONTROLS Score:98%
Controlling your character is easy and fighting even easier. The game almost has a "dumbed down" feeling to it because everything is so straight forward. The menu system with the GameBoy Advance is great and very quick to use. Also, while you're messing around with your character's setup in the menu, your character on screen will automatically follow whoever has the chalice.
Which brings us to the chalice. This is a great little invention to keep the party together, but was implemented in the most stupid way. Someone has to carry the bloody thing. This means in any four person party, one person has been rendered useless. Like a horny chick in a gay mans club, there is no point to it. Why did the developers not make an NPC hold it, just like inside the single player version??! The protective aura of the chalice forces the other characters to stay with the person holding it otherwise the Miasma will start to drain health. The range of the chalice is also very small, and most of the time, people end up dying against boss because of having to remain outside of the range of the chalice to avoid greater damage.
ATMOSPHERE Score:100%
This is a Square Enix Tittle. It is a Final Fantasy tittle. What the hell do you think the atmosphere is like?!! No, really. Name me one game with more attention to detail and more effort put into creating a living realistic experience that draws in a player. You can't do it, can you? No, so shut it. I give 100% without any hesitation whatsoever.
On a side note, the cutscenes while adventuring on the main screen are great. They are entertaining and build the storyline very well. It seems that instead of having random monster encounters, FF:CC has random cutscene encounters. A very, very nifty trick.
PROBLEMS
One of the biggest problems I have with this game is not being able to keep the items you find in each dungeon. At the end of an adventure, you can one select on Artefact that you find to keep and that's it. I wouldn't have minded this so much, if Square Enix had bothered to come up with a decent explanation as to why this is. Why do the characters drop the powerful spell crystals they find in dungeons? Why do they need to keep finding them each level? Well, I'm waiting?? Its all well and good if you're a fighter, but what about mage class characters, which I have a tendency to use. Half the time we are useless until we find a bloody crystal to cast spells with, and then we lose them again to have to repeat the freaking easter egg hunt over and over again?!! Seriously, it drives me bananas.
Okay, I've harped on about the GameBoy Advance connectivity issue and forcing consumers to buy GBA's to play multiplayer. And, lo and behold, I will rant some more. To any SQUARE ENIX staff that may read this (however, unlikely) STUPID STUPID STUPID! You people really shot yourselves in the foot with that one. Nothing pisses off consumers faster then forcing them to do what you want. You should have included a controller option allowing users to simply use the GameCube controllers rather then being Nazi's about it. Assholes.
Now, moving onto the minigames. FF:CC has one minigame that can be unlocked by finding little rats* and getting stamps from them. This is a great idea, however, there is only one minigame to play, yet you have around seven different sets of stamps to collect. Why not make seven different minigames to correspond to the stamps? The minigames can only be played in multiplayer mode and consist of a simple caravan racing game. Quite boring if that's all there is. Maybe if they had bothered to include some more variety then it wouldn't have been an issue with me.
Ahh, another thought, there is no area in this game where you can pit your characters against each other. Its co-op all the way baby, and that's just silly. Why not make a specific arena, and even hide it in a secret location where you can belt the crap out of each other to see who's character is the mightiest? Bragging rights of the most powerful player would have been nice if they included this function, but once again, it was left off. Why?? I would love to interview one of the developers, just to ask him/her what the hell were they thinking at the time.
ScreenShots
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-1_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17994&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-2_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17995&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-3_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17996&c=209)
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-4_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17997&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-5_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17998&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-6_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17999&c=209)
Graphically, this game burns every other GameCube game into ash.
OVERALL Score:88%
I finally settled on 88% as the overall score. The problems I can forgive because of all the merits this game has. But, if you don't have a GameBoy Advance and a conversion cable, then this game will not rate as well with you and not be worth the purchase price. Nintendo stuff is very cheap right now, so its cheap to buy these accessories for the it.
This is either a love it or hate it game. I highly recommend this game for anyone looking for a challenging multiplayer game, yet for die hard fans of the Final Fantasy series, I have to ask you to stay away from this tittle as my ears can only stand so much bitching before they start to bleed. Don't expect any of the character development and customisation that was available in past titles. Don't expect to even keep items you find and discover during your battles.
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles really showcases what the GameCube is capable of. And it does it very smoothly with great gameplay and wonderful multiplayer aspects. However, the game is only skin deep. It could have had so much more going for it, if Square had developed more content. More items, some extra quests, more minigames, and more customisation of characters.
*Comment from Twitch: For anyone who hasn't played the game the "rats" to which The Avatar refers that give you stamps are Moogles.
Reference Site: Nintendo Games Page (http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1539&)
Genre: Role Playing Game
Memory Blocks: 22
Players: 1 to 4
Release Date: Feb 09, 2004
This game is a contradiction. That is the best way to describe Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. It is such a great game, yet at the same time, it is also a very bad game due to certain restrictions that Square Enix had decided to adopt. Ultimately, this game is either a love it, or hate it affair.
The world is covered in a noxious fog called Miasma. This fog will kill anyone who enters it. The only things that can hold the Miasma at bay are special crystals. Towns are built around the protective aura of these crystals. But the crystals get drained very quickly and every year a party of adventurers must venture out into the wilds to collect a magical liquid called Myrrh. This liquid will recharge the crystals power for another year, thus keeping the towns safe.
The Myrrh can only be collected from special trees that exist at the end of dungeons and are always protected by a huge boss guardian. Reaching each of the trees will become a challenge that gets harder each year as you venture further and further from your village.
GRAPHICS Score:100%
The graphics in this game are beautiful to say the least. Square mainly use watercolour palettes and shading in this game, and it works brilliantly. It has an effect, when combined with the musical tunes, makes me reminisce about my childhood for some strange reason.
All the monsters look cool, and when you whack one (be it with magic or your whacking stick), the animations are hilarious. The Boss monsters are richly detailed and very smooth in their movements. The characters themselves are animated beautifully and give a great "kids touch" to this game.
The world designs are terrific, which is what you would expect of any Final Fantasy game. The cut scene transitions have so much detail in them, the miasma flows, the reflections, its quite simple a masterpiece of drawing. The game really stands out with the special effects. You can tell that much work and sweat had been poured into the special effects like water reflections and spells. This game really shows what the GameCube is capable of.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:89%
I love the music in this game. Actually, the musical score in any Final Fantasy game is always very emotional and well developed. In this regard, FF:CC is no different. The introductions to each level are beautiful and put you in such a reflective mood. The narrator is a chick and she always manages to talk about passages and poems that were told to her in her youth. They set the scene for the level brilliantly.
Sound effects are very effective. There is a chucky thwacking sound when you smack some upstart troll upside the head, which is what we all want in any game. Monsters all scream and carry on in a funny manner, and you can even watch them talking to each other from a distance. Great spell effects all round here.
On the downside though, the main menu music is more annoying than getting a speeding ticket from an ugly female cop. Why an ugly female cop? Well, I suppose that's a personal thing because I have a little thing for chicks in uniform, and when a hot little cop asks me if I knew what speed I was going, I always get a little hard. And I don't mind paying for that....err, anyway, the menu music is very annoying and always starts of the same way. There is no option to turn it off, and it grates on my nerves every time.
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:80%
At first, this game will have you fixated by its beauty and design. Finding all the artefacts to boost your character is also fun. However, because your character doesn't level up, once you have all the artefacts and all the most powerful weapons, the thrill of the game will slowly evaporate.
The levels are all the same and though the layouts and enemy difficulty will vary each year, ultimately, there isn't enough difference to keep it interesting. The solution that I use, as I'm such a Final Fantasy fan that it almost hurts, is that I play the game for a short and intense period of time, then leave it for a few months before returning. This is hard and requires more self control then you would imagine, but can be achievable if you're as ADHD as I am!
Multiplayer gaming will make this game last much longer as its so much more fun with other people. However, due to Square Enix's retarded decision to force GameBoy Advance usage in multiplayer, finding people to play this game with is very difficult.
MULTIPLAYER Score:75%
Oooh, this is where the game falls down as it really was a bit too clever for its own good. You can only play multiplayer with a GameBoy Advance attached to the cube. And, not only that, you need a GBA for EACH player! Great little gimmick, however, unless you have four friends with GBA's and are willing to spring for the conversion cable, you're not likely to see much multiplayer gaming here.
This presents a big problem, as the game is great with four players. In fact, the game actually gets better exponentially with the amount of players playing.
However, there have been many little tricks that have been added into increase the multiplayer experience and make it unique for the game. For example, when playing multiplayer, each person gets a secret mission objective at the start of the level. By getting a high rating in this mission objective, you get to have first pick of any artefacts that were recovered after the level is completed. Nice. And the challenges are quite varied, from attacking with weapons only, to casting certain spells, to opening chests. Makes multiplayer more fun and very unique when you're competing against your friends while trying to co-op at the same time.
Fusing spells can be really tricky in multiplayer. The only way to cast higher and more powerful spells in multiplayer is to cast them at the same time, and in the same area with other players. The timing can be a bit of a problem, especially when your friends are idiots who cannot seem to get the gist of a countdown. I mean, honestly, how freaking hard is it to release a button on three??! Apparently, that's too complex a task for the furrowed browed neanderthals that I call my friends.
CONTROLS Score:98%
Controlling your character is easy and fighting even easier. The game almost has a "dumbed down" feeling to it because everything is so straight forward. The menu system with the GameBoy Advance is great and very quick to use. Also, while you're messing around with your character's setup in the menu, your character on screen will automatically follow whoever has the chalice.
Which brings us to the chalice. This is a great little invention to keep the party together, but was implemented in the most stupid way. Someone has to carry the bloody thing. This means in any four person party, one person has been rendered useless. Like a horny chick in a gay mans club, there is no point to it. Why did the developers not make an NPC hold it, just like inside the single player version??! The protective aura of the chalice forces the other characters to stay with the person holding it otherwise the Miasma will start to drain health. The range of the chalice is also very small, and most of the time, people end up dying against boss because of having to remain outside of the range of the chalice to avoid greater damage.
ATMOSPHERE Score:100%
This is a Square Enix Tittle. It is a Final Fantasy tittle. What the hell do you think the atmosphere is like?!! No, really. Name me one game with more attention to detail and more effort put into creating a living realistic experience that draws in a player. You can't do it, can you? No, so shut it. I give 100% without any hesitation whatsoever.
On a side note, the cutscenes while adventuring on the main screen are great. They are entertaining and build the storyline very well. It seems that instead of having random monster encounters, FF:CC has random cutscene encounters. A very, very nifty trick.
PROBLEMS
One of the biggest problems I have with this game is not being able to keep the items you find in each dungeon. At the end of an adventure, you can one select on Artefact that you find to keep and that's it. I wouldn't have minded this so much, if Square Enix had bothered to come up with a decent explanation as to why this is. Why do the characters drop the powerful spell crystals they find in dungeons? Why do they need to keep finding them each level? Well, I'm waiting?? Its all well and good if you're a fighter, but what about mage class characters, which I have a tendency to use. Half the time we are useless until we find a bloody crystal to cast spells with, and then we lose them again to have to repeat the freaking easter egg hunt over and over again?!! Seriously, it drives me bananas.
Okay, I've harped on about the GameBoy Advance connectivity issue and forcing consumers to buy GBA's to play multiplayer. And, lo and behold, I will rant some more. To any SQUARE ENIX staff that may read this (however, unlikely) STUPID STUPID STUPID! You people really shot yourselves in the foot with that one. Nothing pisses off consumers faster then forcing them to do what you want. You should have included a controller option allowing users to simply use the GameCube controllers rather then being Nazi's about it. Assholes.
Now, moving onto the minigames. FF:CC has one minigame that can be unlocked by finding little rats* and getting stamps from them. This is a great idea, however, there is only one minigame to play, yet you have around seven different sets of stamps to collect. Why not make seven different minigames to correspond to the stamps? The minigames can only be played in multiplayer mode and consist of a simple caravan racing game. Quite boring if that's all there is. Maybe if they had bothered to include some more variety then it wouldn't have been an issue with me.
Ahh, another thought, there is no area in this game where you can pit your characters against each other. Its co-op all the way baby, and that's just silly. Why not make a specific arena, and even hide it in a secret location where you can belt the crap out of each other to see who's character is the mightiest? Bragging rights of the most powerful player would have been nice if they included this function, but once again, it was left off. Why?? I would love to interview one of the developers, just to ask him/her what the hell were they thinking at the time.
ScreenShots
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-1_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17994&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-2_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17995&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-3_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17996&c=209)
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-4_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17997&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-5_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17998&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-6_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17999&c=209)
Graphically, this game burns every other GameCube game into ash.
OVERALL Score:88%
I finally settled on 88% as the overall score. The problems I can forgive because of all the merits this game has. But, if you don't have a GameBoy Advance and a conversion cable, then this game will not rate as well with you and not be worth the purchase price. Nintendo stuff is very cheap right now, so its cheap to buy these accessories for the it.
This is either a love it or hate it game. I highly recommend this game for anyone looking for a challenging multiplayer game, yet for die hard fans of the Final Fantasy series, I have to ask you to stay away from this tittle as my ears can only stand so much bitching before they start to bleed. Don't expect any of the character development and customisation that was available in past titles. Don't expect to even keep items you find and discover during your battles.
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles really showcases what the GameCube is capable of. And it does it very smoothly with great gameplay and wonderful multiplayer aspects. However, the game is only skin deep. It could have had so much more going for it, if Square had developed more content. More items, some extra quests, more minigames, and more customisation of characters.
*Comment from Twitch: For anyone who hasn't played the game the "rats" to which The Avatar refers that give you stamps are Moogles.