Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition Review

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles first released 16 years ago on the Nintendo GameCube and was especially noteworthy due to it being the first game to release on a Nintendo system since Final Fantasy VI back in 1994. It was a massive deal at the time and a chance for Nintendo fans to get reacquainted with the Final Fantasy series after missing out for a long time after it made its move to PlayStation. With Akitoshi Kawazu (of SaGa fame) as producer, it was to be expected that this game would be a large departure from the usual fare of the Final Fantasy series but even beyond those expectations, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles took on an identity of its own that hasn’t been repeated to date creating a love or hate situation. In the world of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, the world is plagued by a deadly miasma that has spread across the world. The outside world is uninhabitable save for the blessing of the Crystal that each town possesses and the portable Chalice that houses a smaller Crystal, allowing travel outside of towns. You assume the role of one of the four Races, Clavat, Lilty, Selkie and Yuke, and must become part of a Caravan that travels the world in search of Myrrh, droplets that will power the Crystal in your town for another year. The world is an interesting one and there is plenty of lore to help develop it, harkening back to a time when the world was not full of Miasma.

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Each race has one new preset for male and female.

From the outset you are asked to create a character and your choice will impact your playstyle greatly although you do have options for multiple characters. Clavats are more of an all-rounder and use a Sword and Shield as their weapon making them an ideal race for beginners. Lilties are all about physical strength and make up the strongest members of any Caravan with their Spears as their main weapon of choice. Selkies focus on more agile movements and have the quickest charge time for abilities of all the races while the Yuke are all about magical prowess and have quicker charge times for any magical spells you may cast. Remastered Edition adds a new character preset for each race (male and female) which is useful for players of the original that want to change up their experience a little although it is a little disappointing there’s not more choice. Your final choice outside of your name is what occupation your family will take and there is eight to choose from ranging from Blacksmith to Merchant and all are useful for netting some of the more exclusive items in the game. Here is where the first disappointment in Remastered Edition shows itself in the form of your town being only available in single player meaning that you’ll want to create eight characters, one of each occupation, to fully fill the town and get access to all of the benefits.

The gameplay loop is a simple one in practice but one that has a nice flow to it, as part of Tipa’s Crystal Caravan, you’ll travel along the world map to reach dungeons for which upon defeating the boss at the end of it, will produce a drop of Myrrh and three of these will bring an in-game year to an end. Along the way, you’ll have the chance to trigger random events with the other characters of the world where the story will gradually piece itself together and the addition of voice acting in Remastered Edition really helps to bring the story more to life. The quality is excellent and each encounter with another caravan or group of characters is enjoyable as you slowly learn more of the world around you and record it in your diary, the Crystal Chronicles. You can view this at anytime on the world map and even replay the event scenes if you wish, it is a good way to keep track of everything and it has a massive significance on the game.

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The characters have been touched up and the voice acting adds a lot to the game.

The meat of the game is the dungeons themselves and there is a large selection of them from the outset. They will start off as rather small dungeons but some of the later ones can be lengthy and start introducing interesting puzzles to access deeper parts of them. The combat is an action battle system in a pseudo top-down style, you do not have access to the camera but for the most part it will position itself overhead to give a better view of your surroundings. You can perform a simple three-hit combo by timing your button presses or a charge attack by holding down the attack button to cause a ring to appear at which point your Focus Attack is determined by your currently equipped weapon. There is a fair few of them and some are especially useful against the tougher enemies where a frontal assault may not be the wisest idea. More interestingly however, is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles’ unique magic fusion system, one that plays differently based on single player or multiplayer. As you defeat enemies and loot chests, you’ll obtain magicite in the form of the elemental spells of Fire, Blizzard and Thunder along with Cure, Raise and Clear and you can combine these to create new spells. For example, combine two Fire magicite for the Fira spell or combine Fire and Blizzard to create Gravity, a spell useful to bring airborne enemies to the ground. The intention is to begin casting the incantation to cause the target ring to appear and then overlap this with another player, however on single player, you can combine them in the menu to create the spells too, it’s a fun and rewarding system.

Once you reach the end of a dungeon, you will have to face off against a boss and these can range from incredibly simple bosses to some that involve more elaborate tactics. These appear to be easier in single slayer as in multiplayer you will need to designate someone to carry your Chalice and thus impact where you can move in the boss arena. Once the beast is felled, you will collect your drop of Myrrh and get the chance to receive and send letters to your family, gaining potentially unique rewards in the process. Here is where another of Remastered Edition’s bizarre changes come into play as the game is progressed via the collection of Myrrh yet in multiplayer, only the host will receive a droplet (and a letter) which in turn means any other players with you won’t be progressing their game. If you have the intention of playing the game start to finish with a friend or two, you will need to run each dungeon multiple times for its droplet of Myrrh, a strange choice to say the least. The other players will still get to choose an Artifact at the end of the dungeon (permanent stat increasing items) so it’s not a complete waste of time but it can get tiring running the exact same dungeon multiple times in succession.

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The gameplay is as fun as it ever was with a satisfying gameplay loop.

This brings us to the progression system in general as in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, there are no levels, just an Attack, Defense and Magic stat. First and foremost, you will increase these stats via the forging of equipment, done at either your parents’ establishment back in Tipa Village or at the various vendors found in the towns throughout the world. This will generally require a scroll, often found in chests, along with the necessary materials and Gil, a rather limited resource. Indeed, you’ll often find yourself short on Gil unless you complete the game’s only true side event at which point your troubles will fade a little and the fact that reaching certain regions of the world requires Gil, you’ll often be in the need to sell some unwanted items to make the fare. The second way are the Artifacts you obtain at the end of dungeons, you’ll get to choose one from a selection based on your Bonus Points (earned by fulfilling unique conditions) and any temporary artifacts you may have looted during the dungeon. There’s plenty to seek out and collect and as each dungeon has three cycles, each one becoming increasingly difficult, it gives you plenty of reason to run the same dungeons over and over again to become powerful enough to challenge the final dungeon of the game. As Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles uses a Year system, you can finish the game at any time past the fifth year although those unfamiliar with the game may need longer to boost their stats further. For my playthrough of Remastered Edition, I finished the game on Year 7 with a playtime of 20 hours however I was under geared for the final battles making for a more challenging end to the game. Do not let that dishearten you however, there is plenty to see and do in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Remastered Edition adds more to that beyond the end of the game.

So, all in all, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles remains the great game it was on the GameCube but what does the Remastered Edition add and are they good additions? Unfortunately, nearly all the new features fall flat and some even harm the experience which is a massive disappointment. As mentioned above, the addition of voice acting is a nice one and really brings the colorful cast of the world to life, all enhanced by excellent direction rather than the more lackluster voice acting in Square Enix’s Trials of Mana. Additionally, the characters and NPCs have had a nice rework and look a lot better than the original however for the most part, the environments haven’t been touched and their age starts to shine through, especially with the reworked characters traversing them. Finally, there’s a new Mimic system in place which, upon gathering the Moogle Stamps in each dungeon and town, will allow you to take on the appearance of important characters from the Crystal Chronicles series however these are limited to match your race only.

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Multiplayer is problematic across the board including all the hoops to jump through to access it.

Unfortunately, that is about where all the positive additions end and everything that does not work with Remastered Edition begins. To start with, the multiplayer, gone is the local co-op from the GameCube version and in is an online system which in theory should be useful. Unfortunately, there are so many restrictions in place that it makes playing multiplayer a chore, not least the fact that only the host will progress their game meaning you’ll need to drop in and out of rooms constantly if you’re playing through with a friend. You can access the feature at anytime from the main menu on the world map and from there, you can create a room that can be accessed by friends only or random matchmaking via the use of an invite code, reminiscent of Nintendo’s own Friend Codes which just creates an extra level of complication to endure. Once in a dungeon with a friend, there are even more restrictions such as the confusion around loot, most items are instanced for the player however the magicite drops are shared across both players. Stranger yet, each dungeon contains a hidden moogle house that will reward a stamp upon your first visit of them, unlocking new options for the Mimic system however in multiplayer, you’re barred from entering these moogle houses meaning you can only get the stamps in single player.

The other major new feature, and one of the selling points, is the addition of 13 new post-game dungeons that are described as more challenging than the rest of the game for more powerful rewards. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles’ gameplay loop is a fun one so having more loot to chase, and new dungeons is always an interesting hook however the execution is incredibly poor to say the least. Upon finishing the game, you can load your save file and you will discover some dungeons on the world map now feature an “!” on them, detailing them as one of the new dungeons. To begin with, you’ll only have a selection of these on any given day and they’ll reset daily meaning that if a particular dungeon has something you’re hunting, you may need to wait until a few days down the line to have another shot at it, a strange mechanic indeed. The dungeons themselves are also just a reskinned version of the regular dungeons with reskinned enemies that are slightly more aggressive. The first one for example, Falling Leaves Path, is the exact same layout as River Belle Path just with an autumn coat of paint while even the boss was a slightly more aggressive reskinned version of the regular boss. To say I was disappointed when I unlocked a Trophy for defeating a “new monster” is something of an understatement.

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The new dungeons are simple reskins of existing areas making them a huge disappointment.

As a massive fan of the original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, I was looking forward to how this game could be enhanced further however I was increasingly let down by all of the new features of Remastered Edition and only enjoyed my time with what was already there in the original. It is a pity as this was a chance to add some nice touches to an excellent entry in the Final Fantasy series and it feels like a missed opportunity.