Post by Andrew on Feb 18, 2004 2:05:33 GMT -5
Hold on folks, seems I got a little long winded here.
First thing's first, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is NOT a Final Fantasy Role Playing Game. It’s a Fantasy themed dungeon crawler with some Final Fantasy elements in it. That means the level up system is different and there’s not as much of an epic story compared to other Square games. But not liking it because of that is the same as not liking Nintendo’s Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga because it’s not the same as Super Mario Brothers 3.
With that out of the way, I can say this game rocks.
Here’s the setup: The land is covered in deadly Miasma gas, and your only protection is through the magic crystals which slowly run out of power. So once a year you jump into your town’s caravan and travel to different levels, work your way through them, defeat the boss, and gather a drop of that super special crystal refreshing water from the super special tree. Every few years a level’s tree will get another drop of water, as well as a few more enemies to guard the levels. So far I’ve seen the land divided up into six areas with at least two levels per area. Some areas can’t be accessed every year, either.
Now enough about the setup how does this game PLAY?
Very well, I must say. Most of it is pretty simple. You can scroll through your short list of actions, a button to do those actions, and a button to pick stuff up. But it’s this simplicity that makes it fun, I think. It’s a lot of running around enemies and dodging their attacks until you can time your shot just right, whether it be charge up weapon or a magic spell you picked up. Getting all that set up and getting used to the menu system is the only thing that gets a taking used to. The levels so far have seen a lot of visual variety, and a good amount of game play variety. Every level has a boss fight, and those are great. Though as you level up they can get easy, and a lot of them have a simple fire while dodging attack strategy.
If you know something about this game, you’re probably wondering why I haven’t mentioned the multiplayer yet. After all, the big deal behind this game is that if you want to play multiplayer in this game, each player need to use a Gameboy Advance (regular or SP) to do so. One player only needs a Gamecube controller (and a GBA if you want to see the level’s map). After seeing how much room the menu takes up in one player, it was a VERY smart move to have all that action take place on a small personal screen while your buddies fight away.
As of now, I have yet to play it in multiplayer. None of my friends nearby own their own GBA, so I’m stuck with single player. And actually, that’s a lot of fun. Remember that Miasma gas? Well, the reason you can run around the levels is because you have a radius safe zone emulating from the crystal chalice. In multiplayer, one of the characters has to carry that bucket where you need to be. In single player, a roly-poly Moogle carries it from you, and it’s almost always right were you need it to be. Or if you want a little more fun, trying carrying it yourself and have the fun of dropping and fighting then picking it up to move again. In some ways, multiplayer will be more hectic because you need to hope that your one friend doesn’t cast his Blizzard spell before you cast Blizzard and mess up the resulting combined spell Blizzarda while your other friend dodges some attacks while trying to keep everyone else in the safe bucket area. Man, now I wish I could do that.
But single player IS fun. It’s a different kind of fun then the multiplayer fun looks like it is. Best of all, if you do find a friend who’s been playing the game, you can get your characters together in the same caravan and kick butt together. There’s nothing like running through levels to gather some stuff to sell, find a new artifact to keep and the end of the level, and watch ogres dance before blasting them with your double saber shot. Oh yeah.
First thing's first, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is NOT a Final Fantasy Role Playing Game. It’s a Fantasy themed dungeon crawler with some Final Fantasy elements in it. That means the level up system is different and there’s not as much of an epic story compared to other Square games. But not liking it because of that is the same as not liking Nintendo’s Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga because it’s not the same as Super Mario Brothers 3.
With that out of the way, I can say this game rocks.
Here’s the setup: The land is covered in deadly Miasma gas, and your only protection is through the magic crystals which slowly run out of power. So once a year you jump into your town’s caravan and travel to different levels, work your way through them, defeat the boss, and gather a drop of that super special crystal refreshing water from the super special tree. Every few years a level’s tree will get another drop of water, as well as a few more enemies to guard the levels. So far I’ve seen the land divided up into six areas with at least two levels per area. Some areas can’t be accessed every year, either.
Now enough about the setup how does this game PLAY?
Very well, I must say. Most of it is pretty simple. You can scroll through your short list of actions, a button to do those actions, and a button to pick stuff up. But it’s this simplicity that makes it fun, I think. It’s a lot of running around enemies and dodging their attacks until you can time your shot just right, whether it be charge up weapon or a magic spell you picked up. Getting all that set up and getting used to the menu system is the only thing that gets a taking used to. The levels so far have seen a lot of visual variety, and a good amount of game play variety. Every level has a boss fight, and those are great. Though as you level up they can get easy, and a lot of them have a simple fire while dodging attack strategy.
If you know something about this game, you’re probably wondering why I haven’t mentioned the multiplayer yet. After all, the big deal behind this game is that if you want to play multiplayer in this game, each player need to use a Gameboy Advance (regular or SP) to do so. One player only needs a Gamecube controller (and a GBA if you want to see the level’s map). After seeing how much room the menu takes up in one player, it was a VERY smart move to have all that action take place on a small personal screen while your buddies fight away.
As of now, I have yet to play it in multiplayer. None of my friends nearby own their own GBA, so I’m stuck with single player. And actually, that’s a lot of fun. Remember that Miasma gas? Well, the reason you can run around the levels is because you have a radius safe zone emulating from the crystal chalice. In multiplayer, one of the characters has to carry that bucket where you need to be. In single player, a roly-poly Moogle carries it from you, and it’s almost always right were you need it to be. Or if you want a little more fun, trying carrying it yourself and have the fun of dropping and fighting then picking it up to move again. In some ways, multiplayer will be more hectic because you need to hope that your one friend doesn’t cast his Blizzard spell before you cast Blizzard and mess up the resulting combined spell Blizzarda while your other friend dodges some attacks while trying to keep everyone else in the safe bucket area. Man, now I wish I could do that.
But single player IS fun. It’s a different kind of fun then the multiplayer fun looks like it is. Best of all, if you do find a friend who’s been playing the game, you can get your characters together in the same caravan and kick butt together. There’s nothing like running through levels to gather some stuff to sell, find a new artifact to keep and the end of the level, and watch ogres dance before blasting them with your double saber shot. Oh yeah.