The long awaited and anticipated release of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals has finally boiled down to a few mere days. On Febuary 9th, the game will hit stores in North America, and finally, FINALLY, owners of a Nintendo console will have the joy, nay, privilage of playing a Final Fantasy game.
But, as many of you know, this FF game is unlike any other. The game revolves around multiplayer action, and GBA/GCN connectivity. You can of course play and enjoy the game by yourself, and without a GBA, but, to truely feel this game and experiance it in all of its FF glory, you need a few friends and each of you need a gamelink cable, as well as a GBA.
This is quite a lot of money for one game, if you dont already own some of the components. But, luckily, I have a GCN, GBA, and friends (who have GBA's). All I need is a copy of the game, and a link cable, and Im all set.
The story of the game, if you are unfamiliar with it, is quite simple. You play a "hero" from your home village who sets off on a quest to find the rare and valuable Myrrh-producing trees. Each time you find Myrrh, it is added to your chalice. The Myrrh is so important, because it is only its magical glow that will keep you and your village safe from the poisonous mist, Miasma, that has engulfed the entire fantasy world. During each year the passes, you are required to find three Myrrh trees, and get their essence. Once you have used a Myrrh tree, it will be several years before you can reap its magical Myrrh again. So, each year that passes requires you to explore new areas.
In order to claim the rare Myrrh prize, you must defeat the Boss that gaurds it. Once the boss is defeated, it will drop 4 stat boosting artifacts. You can only keep one, so choose carefully. You will want the artifact that best suits what you want your character to be. In single player mode, you can have whichever one you want. In multiplayer, the hero with the most bonus points gets to claim their prize first.
Two more interesting aspects of the multiplayer game is the combining of spells, and the "radar specialization". Before delving into the powerful art of combining spells, its first neccesary to learn out the magic system functions in FF:CC. It is similiar to the materia system of FFVII. In order to conjure a spell, you will have to combine the "Magicite stones". In order to crank up the power of a certain spell, fire for example, you would need to place another fire stone next to the original one. In order to create new spells, you wil need to play around with the order in which they are placed on the command menu. There are 17 spells all together, and 6 components (stones) for producing the spells. In multiplayer mode, there are 38 spells, more than twice that of single player. In multiplayer mode, you wont be able to use your command menu to mix and create spells. Instead, you and your teamates will have to cast the appropriate spells in the appropriate spots to activate awesome abilities, and increase the power of your spells to cazy levels. The 6 components are blizzard, thunder, fire, life, clear, and cure.
Earlier I mentioned the special "radars." The radars are a great feat in connective gameplay, and I feel that it will make the game experiance even more enjoyable. Each time you enter an area, each player in your party recieves a random "radar" on the GBA they are playing with. Your radar may show you the location of treasure, or statistics about monsters. You will have to relay this valuable information to your team mates.
Earlier I breifly mentioned the myrrh "chalice". The chalice is a vial that your group must keep with you at all times. The chalice radiates the magical energy of "myrrh" and keeps the deadly Miasma fog at bay. One member of the tribe will need to carry the chalice, and when battle starts, they must sit it down to fight. If you wonder outside of the protective radius, you character will loose health, and eventually die.
In single player mode, a helpful little moogle named "mog" will carry your chalice for you. Located through out the world are "moogle nest", in which you can get rare "Mog Stamps" that unlock GBA minigames. Not really an awesome addition, but it will make the game more interesting.
The weapons system of this game is comparible to FFVIII. You cant actually buy weapons, instead you must find and purchase components, in which you will use to create weapons. Once you have all the appropriate items, you take them to the blacksmith, and he will forge a weapon for you.
The battle system, unlike tradition FF games, is not turn based. It is more comparible to games such as Gauntlet and PSO. There is no transition from normal gameplay to a "battle scene". Instead, you just walk up to an enemy and lay on the smackdown. When in battle, you can choose between a variety of attacks. You can press the A button for a basic attack (or tap in three rhythmic times for a combo) or hold down the A button to freeze your character in place and charge up a brutal focus attack. You will also have the option of using secondary weaposn, which you assign to certain command slots.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have magic. You can cast offensive magic by using a "target and charge" system similiar to the focus attacks, or use healing magic.
Before starting the game, you will be asked a few questions to "mold" your own character, because in FF:CC you dont have preset personalities like in other RPG's. Instead, you get to choose your tribe, gender, family trade, and certain physical looks. The two choices that will have the most effect on the game is your tribe and family trade. each tribe has four female "looks", and four male "looks". Your free to choose whichever one you want.
The four tribes are:
Clavats. Human like creatures that start with great defense and good magical abilites. They lack in the physical weapon strenght, though. They use blades, such as swords.
Lilty. The Lilties are small creatures that pack the most punch of any tribe. Although they are small, they have more physical strenght than any other tribe, but they are lacking in the magic department. They use spears, halberds, and lances.
Yuke. The Yukes have the best magic abilites in the game. Period. They are also the wielders of the hammers in battle, but they are lacking in defense and strength.
Selkie. They dont have a lot of strenght, but they can power up focus attacks very quickly. They use rackets, cudgels, and mauls.
The eight family trades are:
Alchemist
Blacksmith
Farmer
Fisherman
Merchant
Miller
Rancher
Tailor
Depending on your family trade, you will get certain deals on items and services pretaining to your family trade.
----------------------------------------------
Thats all for my preview. You can find the IGN one here:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/475/475...html?fromint=1
---------------------------------------------
Along with your comments/thoughts/feelings about this game, tell if your planning on getting it, and if so, what name/tribe/gender/trade your character will be:
Name: Vampyr
Tribe: Lilty
Trade: Blacksmith
Gender: Male
--------------------------------------------
After I get this game and play it, I will post a review.
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
Multiplayer games are great!
Linear Mode
