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PRE-GAME

Long ago, a deadly miasma swallowed up the world. Its touch was fatal and it killed many. The only defenses against the miasma are crystals that can purify their surroundings from the toxin. Once a year your “Crystal Caravan” must set off to gather myrrh and purify your town’s crystal for protection in the coming year.

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK: I’ve always loved Final Fantasy games and when I heard that there was going to be a port on a Nintendo console for the first time in ten years, I had to check it out!

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS: FFCC is graphically gorgeous to play. The game boasts a lot of detail in its dungeons, colorful characters, and dazzling effects (especially around water and the miasma streams). The camera in the game is a bit far back at times for the one player mode (since the game revolves around its multi-player feature) but has no major glitches or hang-ups in viewing what’s going on on screen.

The game controls are fairly simple. The L and R buttons scroll through commands and the A button executes them. This system allows you to customize the commands that you want your character to execute in the heat of battle. A circular cursor is used to aim your attack, and attacks and spells can even be combined for more powerful attacks if more than one player’s cursors overlap.

HOW IT SOUNDS: Between catchy flute tunes, rhythmic drumbeats, and even well placed bagpipes, the music in FFCC sets the mood and style of the game very well. The sound levels are appropriate for the mysterious feel of the music and the sound volume stays constant while fading appropriately when changing from area to area.

EXTRAS: The only extras to be found in FFCC come in the form of minigames…well…minigame. In the game, you can find hidden moogle houses and collect stamps. Once you match the stamp given to from one house by going to another, you can play the minigame, “Blazin’ Caravans”. The problem is, this is the only minigame you get for getting any stamp combination. The differences between each regurgitation are few and the minigame plays like a poorly made Mario Kart rip off.

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE: The cut-scenes in FFCC look as though they could have come right out of the game play, but are no less dazzling than the rest of the game. I also enjoyed that before each area, an unknown narrator tells you a story about, or describes the area, while the camera flies around it showing you a glimpse of what’s yet to come. The scenes before boss battles occasionally gave me an “Oh Crap” sort of felling and got me pumped for the coming fight.

BEST PLAYER: I played as a Clavat (Brown haired humans) and favor them for their high defense and ability to carry and use shields. My friend was a Selkie (Blue haired humans) and though he had no shield, he was a little faster and did back flips to dodge attacks rather then defend like I did. The characters all seem very balanced and picking your ideal character really comes down to which prominent stat you want the advantage of in combat.

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED: The game has no real cheats in it, but it helps to have a guide once you get to the Lynari desert. In this level, there are five spots where you need to use certain spells to activate an event. If you do not do this, you cannot beat the game. The game gives you a poem that hints to each one, but having to locate them all, do them in order, and use all the right spells for each one is a real pain. A guide/map for this part is very useful and would have saved me a lot of time.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT: Although it breaks the unwritten rule of all Final Fantasy games (the games never cross into each other’s universes), being able to play as small cute little versions of characters from other Final Fantasy and Square-Enix games would have been an awesome bonus. I can only imagine how much fun it would have been being able to replay the game as a smaller version of Cloud, Squall, or even a Chocobo (big trademark FF chicken). Not necessary in the least, but it would have upped the replay value and the number of added bonuses.

OH MAN! MOMENT: Some of the bosses in this game can get vicious after you’ve already beaten them a couple of times! I remember fighting the Marlboro (big angry Venus flytrap) boss about 10 times in a row before I defeated it. Once I got its health down, it would cast Blizzaga and either freeze or kill my character in one hit.

GLITCH ITCH: I couldn’t find any major glitches or errors in FFCC.

FAN SERVICE: Since this game is on the Gamecube and has a cute fantasy style to it, the best you’re going to get is some cleavage from the female Selkies…although I guess you could count those scary looking iron bras that the Yuke females wear. Sorry guys.

END GAME:

Now to start off, I think it’s worth noting that this game does NOT play like a traditional FF game. Anyone who picks this up expecting turn based combat, incredible out of play cinema scenes, and an elaborate storyline may be disappointed. FFCC revolves around combat in real time and doesn’t boast the kind of elaborate story you’d expect from an FF game. It’s likeness to other FF games

It’s also worth noting that the game pretty much revolves around its optional multiplayer feature. Usually, multiplayer features extend the playability and overall fun you get out of a game, but in FFCC it can be either a blessing or a curse. Unlike any other Gamecube game, FFCC’s multiplayer requires each player to have a Gameboy Advance and a $10 GCN to GBA cable. This is pretty inconvenient seeing as the game centers around the multiplayer option, and can get stale relatively quickly if you play alone. When I was playing alone, I got bored after about 9 hours. After I realized that I wasn’t embracing the game for all that it had to offer and that I had nothing else to play, I nagged my friend into buying the $10 cable for his GBA SP, and we tried out the mulittap. The game instantly became surprisingly fun.

The multitap requires a GBA and a cable because it uses the GBA’s screen as a map (something not included in the one-player mode). The map also changes based on how many other people are playing. If you can get 3-4 people together, you score a terrain map, a monster map, scouter of last monster defeated, and treasure radar (most useful in my opinion). All financial expenses aside, the multiplayer mode makes the game even more enjoyable to play and can make you obsessed with getting together with your buds every day to play it.

Another innovative feature the game boasts is that it lets you combine spells and attacks when more than one person is playing. Combining a spell with a physical attack creates a more damaging elemental strike, while combining two spells can create a stronger version of the same spell or an entirely new one. This is almost essential for boss fights when spells like stop and holy can make the difference between victory and defeat. Spells can be combined in one-player mode too, but you have to give up many necessary command slots where you could be storing phoenix downs (an auto-revive item) or food (health regeneration).

Something else that makes FFCC different from any other game I’ve ever played is that leveling up in the game requires picking up items called “artifacts”. This system works well, but may get a little annoying if you’re a hot-blooded gamer like me and would rather slice and dice your way to leveling up rather than having to worry about opening up chests

Overall, this is a fun little title and I definitely recommend it to anyone with the capacity to use the multiplayer feature. The one player mode is good, but being able to fight along side your buds or laugh when they get killed in combat just makes the game so much more fun. If you’re in the mood for some four-player fantasy fighting goodness, go pick up Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles today.

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