Crystal Chronicles is more like Mario Party meets Diablo than Final Fantasy and is one amazing multiplayer game.
User Rating: 8.8 | Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (w/Game Boy Advance cable) GC
If you don't have at least one friend with a GBA, then you don't need to read any more - this review isn't for you. This review is for those of us with a GBA and friends with GBAs. If you have the necessary equipment and people, let's move on. You use your GBA as your controller, which gives you an extra screen just for you. This screen will be used to manage your inventory, equipment, letters and your map. You can use items or change equipment without interupting the rest of the party - your character will just follow along with the group. You swap between the TV and your GBA screen with a quick tap of the select button, so you don't have to worry about inadvertantly doing things on the wrong screen when you are looking at the other. The other function of your GBA screen is to show your map, this is where teamplay really gets working. Everybody gets a different map, one person has the layout of the level, another person has enemy locations, another treasure locations and the last person gets to see hints on defeating enemies. This fosters a lot of communication between players in the pursuit of treasure and getting out alive. Another aspect that fosters teamplay (and is of constant controversy) is the crystal chalice AKA "the bucket". The world is covered in a dark mist known as Miasma and your job is to collect crystal liquid that will protect towns from the mist - you collect the liquid in "the bucket". This bucket also forms a bubble around your party to keep you safe from the Miasma, if you step outside of the bubble you will take damage. That said, somebody must carry the bucket, you can take turns or set it down whenever you like, but be careful of enemies who will force you from the bubble or move the bucket. Instead of moving seamlessly from town to town, you will move on a map and then enter the towns or dungeons like levels. Each area is self contained and can be done as many times as you'd like. The farther you progress into the game, the harder the enemies get in all areas. Players create their characters based off of four races and have only minor control over their attributes. You customize your character with weapons and armour that you find or synthesize with the simple crafting engine. Everytime you enter a level, you have to find new magic in the form of magicite. Once you pick up and equip magicite in a level you can use it as many times as you'd like. Generally a team will want to designate a healer to pick up the healing magicite, this person will usually fall back from the fight and continuously heal their party. Magic combos can be performed when different players cast spells together. If they cast the same spell, like Fire, then they will form Fira or Firaga. If the players cast different spells they will find spells like Holy and Gravity. Overall, the game is very fun if you can round up the people and GBAs but the single player game is lacking. My room-mates and I logged 40 hours of 4-player questing and it was some of the most enjoyable gaming in years. If you can't round up the equipment you should look into Secret of Mana for the SNES or Champions of Norrath for the PS2. All 3 offer different dungeon crawling experiences with FFCC being the most light-hearted and teamplay-oriented. 
