What with Crystal Cronicles coming up...

[Kiyomi]

So it is bad yet it is addicting?

[Azurel]

It's not like it's horrible to the fact that I want to burn the cd, but it's just that after X-2, I've been expecting a better FF. That'll teach me to get my hopes up. If I had the money and the proper computer, I'd get FFXI, but I don't.

[Daijaga]

I feel sorry Azurel, this game is about one thing and one thing only. Multi Player. I fully expound all of the redundencies and flaws that Aurel pointed out about single player because they are mostly true. The camera angle can bite you in the ass some times, but its ok 90% of the time. The game play is redundant and even the enemies are in the same general places. Azurel was wrong about leveling though, you can only have each artifact once, but being as there are about 20 of each stat artifact ranging from +1 to +10 in potency, you cant get left too far behind. In addition to those, there are equpiment that you can customize your resistenaces to certian elements, and other artifacts that give you permanent spells, extra item slots, etc.

But none of this amounts to jack if the game isn't fun. I have played about ten hours into the single player on FF:CC and it is pretty boring, really hard, and pretty lame. I cannot fully impress upon you how fun this game is with at least three people. The joy of team work is what brings makes this game shine. I still vivdly remember a battle just last week - The thrill of a perfectly cast Holyra with two of your teammates, everyone letting fly thier spells in precisly the right sequence, just the right time (between 1.33 and 2.13 second) with two freeze shooting lizards on either side of you and then another on your team mate, the dragon's poisoning breath sending your health bar sprawlling into dismal one and twos. "Don't worry" Mack calls out, "I'll heal you, just keep wailing!" With out a second thought I send my lility into a furious three hit on the dragon's exposed head (only exposed as long as the Holyra's effect lasts, which is breif to say the least.) One heart, a half a heart, and suddenly the burst of green ligth surrounds me, refilling my heart guage. But now the dragon is incorpreal again, and our healer is low on HP. On top of that the chalice, the sole protect between us and the choking death mist - has been knockled to teh side, exposing my other team mate to it's poison while he's frozen.

On and on I could go, but from joint spell casting to spell-strike attacks (chrono trigger anyone?), this is a game that is seriously super ass fun.

With 3 or more people.

[Shino]

I finally played this game yesterday with Shandriz. It's a little annoying at first. But after I figured out that it was a timing based attack system and not the "push the button as fast as you can" attack system, it got a little better.

I'm annoyed at the whole "if you are not setup before a boss you are screwed" thing.

During a boss battle yesterday, Shan was the healer and I was doing the ass kicking. Well Shan died and I had a "Life" spell but it wasn't equiped in my commands. And because you have to use the GBA, there is no way to change your commands and avoid getting pounded at the same time.

That kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

The visuals are pretty good. The camera is kinda quirky, but not too bad.

I found that the first enemy encounter we had, there was one overpowering enemy. The large troll looking dude.

Anyway, more to come I guess. I have wondered if I wanted to get this game for a while now. Now I know... ehh... I can pick it up, but it won't be destroyed if I don't get it.

[Hoth]

Haha.. Blackmage and I have the same problems when battling the bosses and other creatures. Way more fun multi player. I always seem to pick those shord doods with the helmets to play as. They are quite fun.

[Blackmage]

Hoth Dies, Blackmage Revives, Rinse and Repeat. How a game goes with me and Hoth

[Shandriz]

It's not -bad-, it's just mind-numbingly boring to begin with. Before you get your act together, I mean. When I was playing with my brother, it was horrible simply because we weren't a good team at all. We just couldn't work together to get the whole thing going, and we kept dying, etc.

There are two things about this game that would probably have had me fuming if Shino-sama hadn't been there with his usual soothing aura yesterday. That stupid crystal thing you have to carry around (WTF -is- the point of having that anyways? They want you to learn how to fight enemies while incapacitated???) and the fact that there isn't much storyline at all. I -like- storyline. I like how most Final Fantasy games give you a plot and tell you where to go and what to do, rather than giving you a worldmap and saying "Here you go, have fun!". Not only that, but the worldmap doesn't have a whole lot of variety either. There are like four different areas at the most, two of which you can actually go to fight in, and only one of which has a difficult boss.

And then you have to do that OVER and OVER and OVER. Again, mind-numbingly boring. I'd have to say that if I ever played it in single-player, I might go nuts. Only worthwhile in Multiplayer because of the challenge of learning to work together. And to overcome the fact that somebody's gotta carry that damn crystal thing and everybody else has to run in circles around whoever it is so they don't die.

[Shino]

We had a good time playing it though. It's not too bad.

For me, just the way the controls are set up are a little annoying.

But I guess when you get used to it, it's all good.

Ulu tesso l' aster, gaer zhah natha mayar nindel l' er'griff sanrr Usstan inbalus natha bwael draeval zhahus p'wal Usstan zhahus jivvust ol xuil l' Ilythiiri!

[Hoth]

Thats the funniest thing ive heard all day! I totally agree. And BTW.. I only die so much because Black mage was like 80 somthing levels ahead of me.

[Daijaga]

Once again I cannot emphasis enough how much more dynaic the game is with three poeple. One is too much chalice work, two is half chalice work and have casting Life all the time. Three poeple splits up the chalice and healing nicly, allowing each of the three members to specialze more specifically and keep each player's chalice time to a mininum.

As for the repetitivness, I agree its there. And it supposed to be. I dont think the game was ment to break any ground, but it is visually presented very well, and the over way that the game is handled witht he carvan once a year thing is very endeering. Its like if Whinny the Pooh was a dungeon crawler. And dungeon crawlers are indeed designed to be a little repetitive and boring, but you level up your character and help out your teammates.

One thing I LOVE is the chalice. I think the chalice is the coolest damn idea ever. As a story element, it reminds you that there is nothing but death and poison surroudning you constantly. As a gameplay element, it keeps you on your toes and busy with mobility and tactics. Considering the limited amout of space three or four characters have on the screen to start with, the chalice really changes the face of a small battle field by forcing everyone to try to simotaniosly cram together yet stay apart to keep up overall attack power.

*dream* I really liked this game <3 Shame I traded it and my GBA in >_<