finalark
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Link to original post: [drupal=1093]Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles[/drupal]
Roughly a year ago while I was on vacation I picked up a game called Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (FFCC for here on) for the Game Cube at a Game Crazy in the town I was passing through. When I saw this game the first thought that crossed my mind was not to buy it, seeing how it's a final fantasy spin-off. Not that I have anything against Final Fantasy, it's just that I kind of gave up on the series when the CEO of Square got too drunk during the Final Fantasy IX release party and hit his head on a coffee table causing him to forget that the Final Fantasy games are supposed to mix together excellent story telling with amusing humor and characters. But something caused the game to stick out I somehow ended buying it. So I come home and pop it into my Wii at the end of my little trip and I have to say, it was far from what I had expected.
FFCC can best be described as Square's version of Gauntlet in terms of game play. You run around from area to area going into various towns and then dungeons in which you go on a mass genocide and kill everything that isn't you until you get to the boss and kill him/her/it/potato. The game play is all in top-down perspective and you use the R and L buttons to flip through your command menu. When you kill dudes they sometimes drop Gil, forging items, food, or (on rare occasions) relics, which you can use at the end of dungeons in order to increase your stats.
When you start your game you are given a choice of race, gender and appearance. The first of which is the most important because FFCC drops the typical class system used in most FF games and what you're good at all depends on what race you use. FFCC splits up your typical selection of human, elf, dwarf and something-out-of-left-field into four different races. First, you have Clavats, who are the humans of the game and just like humans are well-rounded and are decent at just about everything. Next, we have the (I am so going to spell this wrong) Leatties. These guys are a race of proud warriors who could be called the dwarfs of Lord of the Rings put under the cuteness ray. And because they're dwarfs this means that while they suck big harry Kurribohs at magic they have bodies made of the same stuff that most FPS heroes are made out of and are stronger then the Governator. After this we have the Slikies (I think that's how it's spelled) who are this game's equivalent to elves because the race consists of many women and some very girly men. This race is made up of stealthy thieves and outlaws and for some reason this makes them good at ranged melee attacks. Now for the weird race we have the Yukes. I guess they're humanoid birds with little angel/bat wings on their backs and have helmets instead of heads. The Yukes are good at magic, but are terrible at melee attacks. The other two simply determine appearance.
Now for story, when I first fired this thing up and started my game I picked a male Clavat for my race and named my hometown Tyr. As soon as the actual game started I was quickly told that basicly something happened and the world has been screwed over by this deadly airborne stuff called Miasma. Each town has a crystal that needs precious Myrrh from Myrrh trees in order to protect the inhabitants from Miasma. So every year the unluckiest of all of the village's unlucky *******s is chosen to spend the rest of his or her life going into potentially deadly places in order to keep your village alive. The main plot on how Miasma came into being (and you eventually ridding the world of it) doesn't actually get rolling until the very end of the game. Meanwhile, the game keeps your attention by giving you little sub-plots that you'll run into through out your travels which really breaths life into the world that your playing in.
Okay, so far the game's good. Game play fun, story interesting. But I wouldn't be the critic I would like to think I am without pointing out all of the errors that the game makes. First off, the game gets way to repetitive way to fast because eventauly they run out dungeons for you to do and you have to go back and do the same ones all over again if you want to progress in the game. And speaking of progression, it's all random chance because the game only really progresses when the game gives you random events along the road which can make this game a pain if you want to see it through to the end. And why can't I sell my old armor and weapons when I get new ones? You can't actually go and buy armor and weapons nor do the monsters drop them. So if you want an upgrade you have to go grind like it's an MMORPG in order to get the right materials for the armor/weapon that you're trying to make. The later dungeons in the game go from challenging to Gamecube/Wii smashing frustration and to top of this rant of mine the multi-player that the game so proudly advertises is a joke. Yes, this game has multi-player in it but I think that the guys who were in charge of that must have been drunk with when the made it so that everyone who wants to play through the game in multi-player has to all have both a Gameboy advance and a Gamecube-to-gameboy connection cord.
If you have the attention span to have read through this wall of text up until this paragraph you'll be glad to know that this is where I'm going to tell you if I think it's worth picking up. This game may have a number of note-worthy flaws but it's still one of the funnest times I've ever had with a Gamecube game. And because this is an older game you'll probably find it for around ten to fifteen dollars used. If you ever find this, don't pass up the chance. Buy it and enjoy.
I give this game a 7/10.
Roughly a year ago while I was on vacation I picked up a game called Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (FFCC for here on) for the Game Cube at a Game Crazy in the town I was passing through. When I saw this game the first thought that crossed my mind was not to buy it, seeing how it's a final fantasy spin-off. Not that I have anything against Final Fantasy, it's just that I kind of gave up on the series when the CEO of Square got too drunk during the Final Fantasy IX release party and hit his head on a coffee table causing him to forget that the Final Fantasy games are supposed to mix together excellent story telling with amusing humor and characters. But something caused the game to stick out I somehow ended buying it. So I come home and pop it into my Wii at the end of my little trip and I have to say, it was far from what I had expected.
FFCC can best be described as Square's version of Gauntlet in terms of game play. You run around from area to area going into various towns and then dungeons in which you go on a mass genocide and kill everything that isn't you until you get to the boss and kill him/her/it/potato. The game play is all in top-down perspective and you use the R and L buttons to flip through your command menu. When you kill dudes they sometimes drop Gil, forging items, food, or (on rare occasions) relics, which you can use at the end of dungeons in order to increase your stats.
When you start your game you are given a choice of race, gender and appearance. The first of which is the most important because FFCC drops the typical class system used in most FF games and what you're good at all depends on what race you use. FFCC splits up your typical selection of human, elf, dwarf and something-out-of-left-field into four different races. First, you have Clavats, who are the humans of the game and just like humans are well-rounded and are decent at just about everything. Next, we have the (I am so going to spell this wrong) Leatties. These guys are a race of proud warriors who could be called the dwarfs of Lord of the Rings put under the cuteness ray. And because they're dwarfs this means that while they suck big harry Kurribohs at magic they have bodies made of the same stuff that most FPS heroes are made out of and are stronger then the Governator. After this we have the Slikies (I think that's how it's spelled) who are this game's equivalent to elves because the race consists of many women and some very girly men. This race is made up of stealthy thieves and outlaws and for some reason this makes them good at ranged melee attacks. Now for the weird race we have the Yukes. I guess they're humanoid birds with little angel/bat wings on their backs and have helmets instead of heads. The Yukes are good at magic, but are terrible at melee attacks. The other two simply determine appearance.
Now for story, when I first fired this thing up and started my game I picked a male Clavat for my race and named my hometown Tyr. As soon as the actual game started I was quickly told that basicly something happened and the world has been screwed over by this deadly airborne stuff called Miasma. Each town has a crystal that needs precious Myrrh from Myrrh trees in order to protect the inhabitants from Miasma. So every year the unluckiest of all of the village's unlucky *******s is chosen to spend the rest of his or her life going into potentially deadly places in order to keep your village alive. The main plot on how Miasma came into being (and you eventually ridding the world of it) doesn't actually get rolling until the very end of the game. Meanwhile, the game keeps your attention by giving you little sub-plots that you'll run into through out your travels which really breaths life into the world that your playing in.
Okay, so far the game's good. Game play fun, story interesting. But I wouldn't be the critic I would like to think I am without pointing out all of the errors that the game makes. First off, the game gets way to repetitive way to fast because eventauly they run out dungeons for you to do and you have to go back and do the same ones all over again if you want to progress in the game. And speaking of progression, it's all random chance because the game only really progresses when the game gives you random events along the road which can make this game a pain if you want to see it through to the end. And why can't I sell my old armor and weapons when I get new ones? You can't actually go and buy armor and weapons nor do the monsters drop them. So if you want an upgrade you have to go grind like it's an MMORPG in order to get the right materials for the armor/weapon that you're trying to make. The later dungeons in the game go from challenging to Gamecube/Wii smashing frustration and to top of this rant of mine the multi-player that the game so proudly advertises is a joke. Yes, this game has multi-player in it but I think that the guys who were in charge of that must have been drunk with when the made it so that everyone who wants to play through the game in multi-player has to all have both a Gameboy advance and a Gamecube-to-gameboy connection cord.
If you have the attention span to have read through this wall of text up until this paragraph you'll be glad to know that this is where I'm going to tell you if I think it's worth picking up. This game may have a number of note-worthy flaws but it's still one of the funnest times I've ever had with a Gamecube game. And because this is an older game you'll probably find it for around ten to fifteen dollars used. If you ever find this, don't pass up the chance. Buy it and enjoy.
I give this game a 7/10.
