Developer : Nintendo
Release date : March 12, 2004
Synopsis :
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is an action role-playing game developed by The Game Designers Studio and published for the GameCube by Nintendo in 2003 in Japan; and 2004 in North America, Europe and Australia. A remastered version for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Android, and iOS was released in August 2020. A spin-off of the Final Fantasy series and beginning of the series of the same name, Crystal Chronicles was the first title in the franchise to be released for a Nintendo home console since Final Fantasy VI in 1994.
Players take on the role of adventurers who travel in a caravan gathering mystical fuel for crystals which protect the world’s settlements from the destructive Miasma. The single-player campaign has the player escort the vessel carrying the crystal’s energy, defending it from enemies and solving puzzles to progress. Multiplayer, which uses Game Boy Advance units connected using the console’s link cable, has up to four players protecting the vessel.
Deciding to partner with Nintendo for game development following severe financial problems created by the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, franchise creator Square formed the Game Designers Studio as a shell company to develop for Nintendo hardware without impacting games for Sony platforms. The development team wanted to create an accessible gameplay experience focusing on multiplayer. The music, written by Kumi Tanioka, made extensive use of medieval and Renaissance musical instruments.
Upon release, the title was positively received by journalists, and was nominated for multiple awards. Reaching high sales positions in Japan and the West, it went on to sell over one million copies worldwide. The remastered version saw generally mixed reviews, with many faulting the change to online-only multiplayer, and by-then dated gameplay mechanics. Subsequent entries in the Crystal Chronicles series have released for Nintendo consoles, beginning with Ring of Fates for the Nintendo DS.
Crystal Chronicles takes place in an unnamed fantasy world inhabited by four races. The player takes control of a caravan hailing from the village of Tipa, in which members of the world’s four races come together to help its mission.: 6–7 : 38–41 1000 years before the game’s events, the world’s sustaining Great Crystal was shattered by a meteorite carrying an alien lifeform called the Meteor Parasite. The Parasite generated a poisonous vapour called the Miasma, which kills anyone it touches. Fragments of the Great Crystal ward off the Miasma from surviving settlements, but require renewal using myrrh, an energy harvested from magical trees using magical vessels protected by dedicated caravans. : 6–7 The Tipa caravanners go on missions across the world to gather myrrh, learning the world’s history from travellers and characters found in other settlements.
The caravanners eventually reach the home of the Carbuncles, an ancient race who guided the world’s races to the Great Crystal fragments before going into hiding. After hearing of their adventures, the Carbuncles direct the caravanners to the source of the Miasma, asking them to destroy the Meteor Parasite. The caravanners fight the Meteor Parasite, but before they can kill it are transported to an unknown realm. There they meet Mio and her evil counterpart Raem, metaphysical beings born following the Great Crystal’s destruction. Raem attacks the caravanners, merging with Mio to increase his power, before being finally destroyed. Mio and Raem separate and fade away, then the caravanners are sent back to Mount Vellenge to destroy the wounded Meteor Parasite. The world is freed from the Miasma—allowing the four tribes to begin rebuilding civilisation—and the caravanners return home.
Source : Wikipedia
