The choice of whether to purchase this game or not boils down to your friends: and if they have GBAs and link cables...
Fortunately, that all changed when Final Fantasy Tactics was released for the Game Boy Advance. Shortly after its release, the GameCube received its very own exclusive Final Fantasy game, entitled: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Unlike its popular predecessors, there's no turn-based strategy involved whatsoever and its focus is entirely on pick-up-and-play multiplayer fun. In fact, some might say that Crystal Chronicles has more in common with games from the Gauntlet or Baulder's Gate series. In other words this is your basic hack n' slash action-rpg with the Final Fantasy touch, except for the absence of chocobos.
The story of Chronicles is as follows: a deadly fog called miasma has engulfed your world. Fortunately, you are protected from the miasma by giant crystals (located in the centre of every town) that must be replenished with myrrh every year. The catch of course is that the only place to retrieve myrrh is from the myrrh trees, which are scattered across the land in a variety of dungeons. The responsibility of retrieving the myrrh has been given to the youth of every town who must venture forth into the land in caravans protected from the miasma by a crystal chalice. Not only does the crystal chalice keep you alive whilst travelling through the miasma, but it also acts as a way to keep all the players together on screen, and not running off, only to get stuck behind a wall.
When the game begins you choose the name of your town, your character's name, your character's race, your character's sex, the clan from which your character is a descendant of (this basically chooses what you will look like), and your families occupation (blacksmith, farmer, alchemist, etc.) Choosing your race is obviously important as each race has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Clavats are the average, human-like race; the Selkies are the quick, agile female-looking human-like race; the Liltys are the short, strong, dwarfish race that look like they have turnips for heads; the Yukes are the tall, lanky, magic-using race that look like walking dragon-bird hybrids.
The big controversy over this game is the fact that in order to play the game in multiplayer mode, single players have to use a Game Boy Advance as their controller. This is obviously another one of Nintendos attempts to create a situation in which their "connectivity" can come in handy, and it does. If you ignore the fact that you need a few friends with GBA's and link then the connectivity really helps the game play. The GBA basically becomes a way of sifting through menus and such without pausing the game or by covering up a section of the screen. When a player switches over to the GBA to reach the menus, their player on screen becomes controlled by AI and basically keeps up with the group as to not be taken in by the miasma. The trigger buttons on the GBA allow the player to scroll through the different command slots where actions are placed such as attack, defend, items, and spells. When one of the command slots is selected, that action can be executed by pressing the A button. Unfortunately, this renders the defend command almost completely useless, as it becomes awkward changing between attack and defend during the heat of battle. Although the defend command becomes useless, it is not needed in battle and simply running from a foe's attack becomes all the defence one needs.
The game is basically broken into two parts; dungeon crawling and visiting towns, which serves as a means to gather more supplies and forge weapons for future dungeon crawls. When in the dungeons you and your team mates will have to battle a series of enemies, solve a few simplistic puzzles (there are a few challenging puzzles though) and fight a boss, in order to retrieve a drop of myrrh from the myrrh tree. The baddies come in all shapes and sizes, and greatly range in difficulty; even a swarm of enemies can be just as difficult as a few of the boss battles. One thing that makes Final Fantrasy stand out from other hack n' slash games, is the cleverly implemented spell fusion. When crawling through dungeons, enemies will often drop spell orbs after being slain. When placed in a command slot, they can be used by holding down the A button (which charges the magic spell) and then moving a circular cursor on the ground to the desired area of attack. Where the spell fusions come into play is when two or more players focus their magic attack in the same area. With the correct timing, this can unleash many different spells such as Holy, Gravity, or Curaga - all of which may be the weakness of certain baddies, and the key to a successful battle.
Every time a dungeon is entered, all the players randomly receive a map, enemy radar, treasure radar, or baddie stats, which are displayed on everyone's GBA screen. This encourages team-mates to communicate, warning each other of impeding danger or of an enemies weakness. Not only are radars randomly distributed amongst the players, but special bonus tasks are as well, which if performed correctly will give the player more points at the end of the dungeon. These tasks can range anywhere from Don't use focus attacks to Pick up items, to some as limiting as Don heal yourself. At the end of the dungeon, all the player's points are tallied up and the person with the most points gets first dibs of the artefacts collected in the dungeon. Each artefact upgrades the character that chooses it, either by boosting stats, gaining another command slot, or gaining another heart. Unlike other hack n' slash games, experience isn't gained from defeating foes, in fact, there is no experience at all. Player's can only be powered up by these artefacts (or by equipping better armour or weapons), which might have been implemented to create an environment where all players have reasonably equal stats, so those less skilled don't fall behind.
One major factor that comes into play during dungeon crawling is the crystal chalice. For the team to be able to move throughout the dungeon, someone must be carrying the chalice at all times. Unfortunately, carrying the chalice means submission of any actions (i.e. attacking, defending, and casting spells) other than dropping the chalice for someone else to carry. Although the chalice prohibits the carrier to perform actions, during battle, he or she can simply put it down and join in the fun. Another factor that comes into play during dungeons is the camera. Ultimately it does a very good job of keeping the action within its proximity, however, during boss battles it can become a problem when you find yourself behind the boss and out of the cameras view, which can lead to unwanted fatalities.
The story progresses though a series of randomized events that occur during your travels on the map, and as you might have otherwise been told, the story is fairly deep and does have a satisfying ending. The story revolves around the idea of memories. Your character will earn memories every time they encounter a random event on the map, finishes a dungeon, or talks to another character with information important to the plot. The memories are also automatically recorded in
your Crystal Chronicles or, your diary, which is displayed at the end of every year, while your whole town dances in the background.
If you play through the single player campaign, then you are accompanied by a flying moogle whose basic duties are to carry the crystal chalice for you (until it is tired and asks you to carry it for a few seconds) and to occasionally cast spells against your foes. However, the single player mode feels empty and dull after having played the multiplayer and becomes an average rpg-adventure game only worth a weekend rent.
The one area that Crystal Chronicles shows no fault is in the graphics department. This is by far one of the most visually mesmerizing games to ever appear on the Game Cube console. Everything from the particle and lighting effects of a specially timed spell fusion, to the refracted image of your character as he or she passes behind a giant crystal in the middle of a town. All the environments are beautifully designed with lush greeneries and spectacular water effects. Even the characters are all very well done and can be seen at their very best during the in-game cinematics. Not only are the graphics well done, but the sound is done just as well, with a cheerfully medieval-feeling score and great sound effects. For example, if you're in a village and you listen carefully, you can often hear the faint sound of running water, or mooing cows.
In the end, the choice of whether to purchase this game or not boils down to your friends: If they have GBA's and link cables (or are willing to buy link cables), then defiantly consider this game. However, if they are GBA-less then you might want to continue waiting for Final Fantasy XII.