2-4-2004		8-8-2003
	3-12-2004		-

A strange mist called Miasma covers the world. Its toxins are deadly to the four races living here. Despite the toxic mist, the races have built several cities, which guard against the Miasma. But the crystals require Myrrh to keep the the crystals from falling dormant. This Myrrh can only be found in on a rare breed of trees.
Each city recruits a "Crystal Caravan" to get the Myrrh. These caravans carry with them a crystal chalice to collect the substance, and bring it back to the city. Now it falls upon you to do this dangerous quest.

Crystal Chronicles was released in 2004, to moderately good reviews. The return of Final Fantasy to the Nintendo System was long waited by the fans. But rather than getting what they hoped for, they got this title.
On the good side, the graphics for the game are fantastic for the Gamecube. The 3-D characters are rendered beautifully on the pre-rendered backgrounds. The color was bright, and easy to see. It was rather pleasing to the eyes, and not too overly drowned in darkness.
The music utilized more medieval and Renaissance musical instruments such as the recorder, the crumhorn and the lute. This made for a rather offsetting, but good experience, not seen in a Final fantasy title. The music actually fit well into Crystal Chronicles, and was easily hummed even after the game was shut off. Composer Kumi Tanioka described the use of this style of music as being a more rustic tone, that he visioned for the game. He seemed to hit it right on.

Ok, now the bad. Honestly I do not like this title. I have yet to even go to the first boss, without turning off the system. There are many many reasons for this. But I will try to keep it in the level, without adding too much personal bias.
Expectations: This is perhaps the biggest problem with the game. Fans of Final Fantasy, who were long waiting its return to Nintendo, were expecting something around the lines of perhaps IV and VI. Instead they were given the simplistic look, feel, story and gameplay of Crystal Chronicles. This was very disappointing to almost everyone. Most would agree the title does well on its own, but with the title "Final Fantasy" one expects a certain amount in the game, that Crystal Chronicles falls vastly short on.
Gameplay: For those who were yearning for RPG's on the Nintendo systems, which have been scarce since the time of the SNES, they were given instead a more action, dungeon crawler game with Crystal Chronicles. Fans were hoping for the more of the main Final Fantasy series with a more emotional storyline and traditional RPG style of gameplay.
There is little to no cut scenes in Crystal Chronicles, as well as little to no voicing. These two elements are major staples of the Final Fantasy series, and are actually something most fans look forward to seeing/hearing. With almost all titles having vocalization in the games on this generation of consoles (X and X-2 being Final Fantasy's big console games) there was disappointment in seeing Crystal Chronicles almost take a step backwards in this area. Not since VII has there been no cg cut scenes, and not since X has there been no voice overs.
The final critical downfall to Crystal Chronicles was the multi-plater aspect, which required up to 4 GBA's, as well as up to 4 connectors to the Gamecube. Not only was this expensive, but it was nearly impossible to find others to play the game with you. This made the multi-player aspect seem just a waste of time, as most who play Final fantasy, play single player. Though you can play this way, but it was highly publicized as being a multi-player experience. This probably offset a lot of fans who were wanting the single player RPG that Final Fantasy is noted for.
Despite the overwhelming bad criticism of the game, it did well in both sales and reviews. IGN gave it a 7.5/10, and Gamespot gave it a 8/10. It was also named the 42nd best game by Nintendo Power Magazine. It has managed to garner several spin off titles, and shows no sign of just disappearing into the oblivion of bad games.
Of all the titles found in Final Fantasy, I would have to say this is one of the worst, if not the worst of the series. I can only hope the sequels do the title better justice than this one did.