What with Crystal Cronicles coming up...

[Daijaga]

Since with the reservation of Crystal Cronicles you can a shibby little Gamecube - GBA link cable for clean nothin', I thought it might bear repeating that Sonic Adventure Battle 2 is a great game that also takes advantage of this little used periphriel. And what with the new Sonic Heroes out - the price is just about right for picking up in the right stores.

[RuneLateralus]

...yes...

[Kid Icarus]

o_O; Shibby?

I'm confused really...Sonic Adventure 2 was only meh. Less buggy than SA1. I own two copies of it though.

[Shino]

Does anyone know if FF:CC is any good 1 player?

[GAAZ]

Peeny Arcade said it was decent one player but the real gold is in the multi-player.

[Shino]

I heard there is a way to trick it into using a regular controller instead of a GBA?

Anyone else hear that?

[GAAZ]

Well, in one player mode you just use the controller. in 4 player you need the GBA's cause that's where yer items are.

[Shino]

Right I heard there was a way around it. I'll research it and get back to everyone

[Kiyomi]

Crystal Chronicals *Twitch*Must feed FF addiction. *SpasmTwitch*

[Azurel]

BLEH

This game is not worthy of a Final Fantasy title.

It has the broadest of storylines which is take your caravan throughout the world and beat 3 boss battles. Rinse and Repeat, but go farther for those boss battles.

Battles are only fun with multiplayer (I would guess) BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE MORE THAN ONE GBA OR LINK CABLE. I'm the only game geek around these parts. Nobody I invite to my house to play games has even heard of a link cable, and I have to suffer for this game's marketing scam! Single-player battles are alright, except for your ring of protection that you have to stay in! In single or multi mode, you have to carry a thing around called a chalise that holds your drops of myrrh. Which if you know the game, refills the crystal at your home town. Now this crystal protects you from some kind of deadly fog that covers the world. Your chalise has a mini-crystal on it that clears out a ring (sphere if you wanna get specific) of the fog--miasma--and you are stuck staying in that ring or else your life gets drained. Now, this idea is ok, except for the fact that you generally walk on the edge of that ring, running outside of it occasionally because the moogle that carries it for you in single player doesn't keep close to you. Now I could only imagine how much worse this is in multi-player, because when a player carries the chalise, he walks about half the speed he normally would. Whereas the moogle keeps a rather close speed to yours. The moogle also gets tired of carrying it after a while and goes at half speed, asking you to carry it for a while. If you don't, you'll end up running out of the ring and dying. Now, after a couple of seconds of walking at half speed while your moogle friend rests, he wants it back! And of course you aren't going to say no, because while you carry the chalise you cannot perfom any actions, and it is extremely difficult to drop the chalise and attack while an enemy is already running at you.

Leveling up- this is done by beating the entire area, not enemy by enemy. You pick up things called artifacts that boost certain traits, give you more command slots, or hearts. Now, after you beat the area, you are given the option to choose ONE of those artifacts to keep as a permanent upgrade to your character. Once you choose that artifact, you can no longer use it for a permanent upgrade. For instance, I run through an area and pick up a Mage Masher artifact (magic +1) and some various other ones. Now I decide to "level up" (considering that there is no Level stat), so I run through the area again, picking up a Mage Masher and some other artifacts. I beat the boss and it allows me to choose my permanent upgrade. The Mage Masher will be darkened and I won't be able to choose that one as my upgrade. Now, that isn't that bad, but it doesn't allow for many level ups. You are also limited to the number of permanent upgrades your character can receive (making it so that you actually have to think about how you want your character to be come end of game), but that number is high so I won't complain about it. In multiplayer mode, you are given a score at the end of the mission. The score works as such: the game picks a random task whenever you enter an area and does not reveal that task until you have beaten the area and the scores are shown. Tasks can be such things as Don't Heal and Use Magic. Whoever out of the group gets the highest in that score gets to choose his permanent upgrade first, and I think stops the other players from recieving it, I don't know. This is also done on single-player, but you are the only one there, so of course you get the highest out of the only score.

You wonder around a map, one that has set paths and no random encounters. (which makes it a rather boring part of the game) Now on these paths, you do run into random events, many of which don't affect the game at all. You may happen to learn about happenings of your world, but it's not as if it matters because the storyline is too jumpy.

Camera Control: let's see...NONE AT ALL. The worlds in this game would be a lot nicer if I could see where I was running. You're character runs to the edge of the screen, and the camera is focused on the chalise, which is usually in the middle of the screen. You're left getting attacked by, let's not say hidden enemies because they are usually right in the middle of the path, you just can't see very well. A zoom out would have sufficed, but no.

Some saving graces:

Graphics. As in most FF titles, this one has been focusing on trying to make the game look and feel like something that could never happen in the real world. For instance, you have a glowy ring under your character. Now this, close-up, happens to be extremely nice looking, despite it's lack of usefulness. It also lacks that trademark cutscene that the makers of FF do so well in other games.

Weapon Upgrades. Although you don't get the blueprints or the materials for stronger weapons very often, I give props to any game that has a weapon upgrade system. Not like X-2, don't get me started on that one.

Character choice. You are given a choice of 4 races, male or female, and 4 hair/color/clothing options. Now this makes for unique people as the four races each have their specialized stat. (However, if you end up renting this from your local blockbuster and they don't have a game manual, not only will you not know what each of these breakdowns look like, but you will have no idea what the specialized stat is for each race).

Simplicity. It only takes a good 5-10 minutes to run through an area, beat the boss and return to the world map. Also, so far, the bosses require nothing more than to run into it's blind spot while its busy doing something (Such as charging for a spell or special attack) and pummel it with attacks, which would be by far easier in multiplayer. Now, that isn't always a good thing because who doesn't want a challenge, while at the same time, if you got 15 min to spend before you have to do something, you could always pick up FF:CC for an area or two.

It's also relatively addicting despite the redundancy.

anyone who has played wanna add to this, go right ahead.