Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GameCube) Review

Brace yourselves, as this review is going to commence with some bad news for many of you. This game is nothing like the typical Final Fantasy games found on Sony's platforms. However, there is some good news in that this, the first Final Fantasy game to appear on a home Nintendo console since Final Fantasy VI, still captures all of the magic and true FF essence that has made the series the most popular RPG franchise in existence!

Everything about this game feels so different yet so familiar, from the plot to the action, the essence of Final Fantasy remains. As soon as you switch on the game and the music starts you realise that this is truly a Final Fantasy game - the wonderful, enchanting music that just floats serenely in the background, a staple of Final Fantasy through-and-through. Even the opening menu screen is identical in style to every other Final Fantasy game. However, once you start your new game the differences start to become apparent, for in this game you are your own, a single character and no more. Your entire history has not been pre-written by some skilled Japanese writer locked deep within a software studio. It is you, the gamer, who creates the majority of the game's story-related details. This level of choice is more akin to that seen in an online role-playing game, with you having to invent a name for your village and main character, choose your race and gender, as well as selecting some of your physical attributes.

Once you've made your selection the traditional opening Full Motion Video (FMV) sequence starts...well, not exactly. You see the opening scene is not actually FMV; it is actually a clever use of the in-game graphics. Despite some nay-sayers believing that this is not pure Square Enix, as it is made by the company's subsidiary named the Game Des!gners Studio, the company's touch is definitely present and correct here, with the game achieving the high graphical standards set by other recent titles in the FF series. Unlike some other games, such as Square's own Unlimited SaGa, Crystal Chronicles looks far better in reality than any of the screenshots can depict - it's a beautiful-looking game, of which the water effects are some of the best seen on a console to date.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles takes all of the common conventions of previous FF titles and turns them on their heads. Whereas in past titles the plot was laid in the vein of a storybook, dictating how you played the game, with progress only being granted when certain story arcs had been sufficiently completed and the entire experience feeling rather linear, FFCC differs greatly. Instead it has adopted a style more similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the GBA and FF X-2 on the PS2 - a less intrusive style that allows for a more open gaming style. As with most games in this genre, you start off with a simple minor quest, and it all goes from there. Before you know it, you are on an adventure to retrieve drops of "myrrh," a liquid that helps to fend off the evil "miasma" gasses that infect the world of FFCC. Each year, villagers set out on a quest to obtain the cherished substance, exploring polluted caves, mines and villages, infested with monsters and huge bosses.

The plot revolves around a world covered in the poison called miasma and the only thing protecting you whilst on your quest is a small chalice that creates a barrier for you to survive in. Dare to venture outside of this protective enclosure and you slowly take damage, stay inside and you gradually heal. Whilst in single-player this chalice is carried by an accompanying Moogle (a small, fluffy creature, the only real element of Final Fantasy that survives each ever-changing game) who follows wherever you go, and in multi-player this chalice is carried by one of the players. The player can drop it any time and similarly can have it knocked out of their hand at any time. The main qualm is that the chalice significantly slows the player down due to its apparent weight and awkwardness to haul long distances. This re-enforces the need for teamwork, working out a type of schedule for who is lumbered with the boring task of carrying the chalice and when to switch players. Sadly this means that there will always be one player having to sit around, not able to take an active role in fighting or collecting items. Perhaps including the option for a Moogle to carry the chalice would have been better, as in the single player mode, that way at least people would have had more choice in how to play through the game.

The magic system has also been customised to a great extent. Magic in FFCC is performed with "magicite." These magic balls can be obtained by defeating enemies or picking them out of treasure chests. They go into your command menu for use in battle and consist of the familiar spells such as Cure, Fire and Blizzard. Holding the magic button on the controller will bring up a cursor on the battlefield that you can hover over an enemy - let go, and the magic will be performed. Likewise, to Cure yourself or another party member, select Cure and hover the cursor over the player that needs healing. By "fusing" your spells you can create stronger ones - two Fires will make a Fira, for example. In multiplayer mode, communication is a key factor because performing more powerful spells is handled differently. Instead of fusing, two or more players can charge their magic attacks of the same type and place the cursors over each other to make an even more powerful spell.

One of the most impressive aspects of the game, something that is quite innovative for the series, is the "Level-less Level-Up System". Unlike other FFs there is no experience in Crystal Chronicles at all, not even any character levels. Unthinkable for a Final Fantasy game, yet it works, it definitely works sufficiently well. You start with a basic statistics line and the only way to empower yourself is to gain better equipment and collect artefacts. As you progress you can collect superior equipment to aid your quest, and defeating bosses at the end of each area rewards you with a different artefact. By replaying through stages, you can acquire rarer and better artefacts that increase your statistics for strength, defence and magic, or gain magic rings that let you perform specific spells without needing magicite. It is a simple system, but does the job well.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is certainly not the traditional RPG that fans of the series would have been hoping for, but so long as you know what to expect, this is a very enjoyable game. Whilst the most fun lies in the multiplayer aspect of the game, this is still a good single-player experience. It can get a bit tedious when it comes to having to replay through levels in order to top up the myrrh, but there is a lot of unique level designs with a fantastic Celtic-inspired soundtrack that fans of Zelda: The Wind Waker's musical score will adore to pieces. The story might seem a bit non-existent to begin with, but once you get to the later stages of the game, things open up a bit more and you get to see the deeper side of the world. Go into this game with an open mind, rather than expecting something as epic as traditional Final Fantasy games, and you will appreciate and possibly even fall in love with the magic of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.