Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (Nintendo GameCube, 2004)

I have been a long time fan of Final Fantasy games. I watched for years as my brother instilled in me the battle sequence, the looting and flashing numbers, even though it was from a distance. I, myself, have only played completely through titles 9 and 10. And upon seeing this title, I expected it to be very similar. The assumption was very wrong. In the two games that I beat I could command my allies to fight in a Very controlled, yet repetitive battle. The screen distorts, the enemies align across from me, and we take turns. Strategy is available. I win. The stories, twists, animations were superb. The tutorials were Logical. Upgrading weapons made sense and Most of all, the menus were easy to understand. However, This game is NOT user friendly to say the least. IF you play one player, and that is the only way I found out how, noting there was nothing telling me how to access a second controlled character, you will be at a loss quickly as I was. My ally, once I hired one, (good luck finding out the process) ran around aimlessly while he was needed to stand on a brick that accessed another path. Sure, I could switch from one character to the other and Make him stand on the brick but by that time the first character had run off. The battles were real time and confusing. Since I died, I was instantly switched to the ally. Since I still didn't understand the buttons, game over was assured. Looting was sad because the items disappeared quickly and the descriptions were lacking. One thing that I found absolutely no use for was a platform that I could stand on that made my character dance. I'm not sure why this was put in, again, nothing gave me direction about it. And as far as I could tell, I didn't get a health bonus. Lol. Practically, the only aspect that kept this game from not getting the one star that it has was the need to write about it. Overall, if I wanted to relate this to a game with the same failures that I Have liked, I couldn't. It doesn't sit well.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a very beautiful and original game developed for the Nintendo Gamecube. Although it may seem like a standard hack-and-slash RPG (and if you play single player, it is for the most part), it has clever storyline, intense boss battles, and a multiplayer mode that requires deticated teamwork. You need a Gameboy Advance and a GBA/GCN connection cable for each player in multiplayer, which is a very expensive requirement, provided most of you friends probably will not have one or both of these. The purpose of the GBA is to conrol each characters movements and provide a seperate screen to handle items and various radar abilities on.

As I said before, FFCC is a gorgeous game with highly detailed characters, enemies, landscapes, and magic effects. Although it is a short game story-wise, collecting all the strength and magic enchancing artifacts and legendary weapons can take a long time, expect to play 60 hours+ on a single character.

Pros: The whole game is beautiful and charming with an original story, the magic combination and seperate screens make it one of the greatest multiplayer experiences on the Nintendo Gamecube, intense boss battles.

Cons: Short story mode, artifact/scroll hunting can get very repetitive, if you want to play the multiplayer you'll probably end up having to buy some extra GBA's and cables, which is expensive.

"Why did you buy this product?"
I bought this game because I had the DS games of the Crystal Chronicles series, and ever since I've been playing those for quite awhile, especially Echoes of Time, I always thought to myself.... why DON'T I have the Gamecube Crystal Chronicles even though I played it before when I had it rented?
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"What do you like and dislike about the product?"
The Single-Player is alright although in order to level up your characters you will need to revisit dungeons quite often for Artifacts to boost your stats as you can only take one with you after clearing it. Yes, that is a lot of grinding but if you want to get the best out of this game, try the Multiplayer Mode, although you will need a GBA Systam + Nintendo GBA/GC Cable in order to play Multiplayer. It's fun and it should be even more fun with 4 players.

My dislike with the game... like I said, is having to revisit the dungeons over and over again if you're gathering Artifacts but it's not that much. If you're not doing this, then well... you might have trouble later on in the game so better get to gathering.
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"How does this product compare to others?"
*I'm only going to compare these to the DS Crystal Chronicles games as it seems most fitted.*

Being that this is the first Crystal Chronicles game, I can't really say much. The DS games overshadow it due to Echos of Time having Wi-Fi Multiplayer while Ring of Fates you can only do Multiplayer via wireless commutations. Still... you should pick this game up if you're into the Crystal Chronicles series. If you got friends you will enjoy this game more likely. If you don't, then try the DS games if you can.

good fun game that you can get together with your friends. Old now but still a good one. Play throw the levels, level up and betray you friend with the chalas (you'll know what I mean when you play) its all good. Even a fun single player game fighting and magic thats the name of the game. The game also has a good story.

It's not Final Fantasy. But at least it has moogles in it.
I bought it, thinking it was a Final Fantasy game. I was wrong. It's just a hack n slash with moogle burden. I love moogles, but they over do it with the concept of moogles. The battle genre is easy to figure out, but hard.

When you fight, sometimes you're characters get lost and become unseen, which means the bad guys are gonna kill you without u even knowing. The graphics are okay. The sound is okay. The storyline is ..... hmmm idk, the storyline is so confusing, I had to go online and read what the story was about, to understand.

If you're a final fantasy fan, then you'll be disappointed. If yer someone lookin for a hack n slash of a good time. Then this game might be you're best friend. But its by no means, a Final Fantasy game in anyway. It has the music, and some noticable characters, but thats it.