Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition

 PlayStation 4
User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 38 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 38
  3. Negative: 18 out of 38

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  1. Latorn
    Sep 2, 2020
    4
    The charm of the original has been stripped bare from this remaster. Do yourself a favour and download the new free version of FFXIV instead.

    Crystal Chronicles had its flaws when it launched on Nintendo's gamecube, but the co-op was unforgettably fun. Setting out together, making progress together, and returning to towns to see families and growth has been stripped away. You won't even    The charm of the original has been stripped bare from this remaster. Do yourself a favour and download the new free version of FFXIV instead.

    Crystal Chronicles had its flaws when it launched on Nintendo's gamecube, but the co-op was unforgettably fun. Setting out together, making progress together, and returning to towns to see families and growth has been stripped away. You won't even get a letter after helping a friend in their world and if you plan to play in a group of four, you will be playing the same dungeons four times over to make progress.

    Even simple things like continuing to help your friend progress in their world is unavailable, and instead after each multiplayer session the lobby needs to be closed and remade.

    I was very excited for this remaster, but disappointed with the souless imitation we recieved. FFXIV truly is the last bastion of quality Final Fantasy.    … Expand
  2. Jjkiz
    Sep 10, 2020
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Critical Review of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition. Square Enix re-made this title with the same
    Concept for Game Cube, have it be the most expensive game to play. The initial cost is $29.99, then additional $50.00 in DLC puts this at $90, per person. On top of that there is no central management system. Bought this game on PS4, and want to play on iOS? Fork over more cash. Speaking of iOS, while you are figuring out how to try multiplayer, watch your iPad or IPhone continue to play the opening movie, again and again. So that was frustrating, so now I am just going to play the game I bought on PS4 Pro. I am one of those geeks that changed out the hard drive for a 1 TB SSD. And helped with larger games like FF7R, or FF XV. No help here, get ready to continue to looking a now loading screen up to 60 seconds in some areas. Wait until you play the Moschet Manor level. Now loading every time you pass through a door. The timing of the game is off, in the first level River Belle Path, you will be laying a key down and by the time the sequence completes enemies will possibly knock you down 2-3 Health bars. The AI for Mog not dependable. In areas like Rebena Te Ra in single player mode, Mog is not going to help you open multi step doors that require magic. After painting him over and over again, I finally gave up and completed the level with out the chest. And as everyone else has complained there is no couch co-op play, so cross that off the list. Finally the end of the game. This is where you know this was just upscaled by AI. With out spoiling the end game, just be ready for seizure inducing cut scenes. I think the ideas was to be cute and magical while on a bad mushroom trip. Post game there are dungeons that still affected by miasma (even though you cleared the world of it). The challenge levels are brutal on single player mode. This is when I decided I was done with the game. Finally the trophies/achievements for the game are lame, only 9 and no Platinum trophy for PSN. 5 of the trophies are possible to obtain on the first play through (3 of them are missable). With the other 4 coming on post game play through. This game was announced to come out in early 2019 along side other Final Fantasy titles going cross platform. I am not sure what SquareEnix did in the extra year+ with the title, with it being a “Remastered Edition” but it was not released in a cohesive, playable state for the price tag it begs.    … Expand
  3. MNecromancer
    Nov 23, 2020
    1
    This game was built around the coop. To not have your fellow travelers in your home town is so desolate and weird. Nobody wants to play this pseudo coop where you can't actually go through the whole game together. I really regret this purchase.
  4. SinDevilTrigger
    Sep 9, 2020
    1
    They really downgraded this game's multiplayer to dungeon crawling only and called it a remastered edition. Game is bad, and I'm not complaining about the damn servers. I don't care if the servers are buggy. I want to play this game with a real caravan. Where we share a progression, we share cutscenes and traverse through towns together.

    Save your money. Game Cube's version is superb in    They really downgraded this game's multiplayer to dungeon crawling only and called it a remastered edition. Game is bad, and I'm not complaining about the damn servers. I don't care if the servers are buggy. I want to play this game with a real caravan. Where we share a progression, we share cutscenes and traverse through towns together.

    Save your money. Game Cube's version is superb in every way.    … Expand
  5. Vetalja83
    Sep 1, 2020
    2
    where is the platinum trophy?This feels like a quick cashgrab.what a disappointment
  6. Legacy1567
    Sep 12, 2020
    1
    Definitely one if the worst games ive ever played. Youll find better stories in a oay to win mobile game. Multiplayer ruins the game. It should be called loading screen simulator.
  7. tortusw
    Aug 30, 2020
    4
    I'm so disappointed by this remaster.

    If you played the original FFCC on GCN you'd know that it's almost great, but flawed in one major way, which is the clunkiness of its multiplayer. There was some negativity around the original when it came to expectations. The name "Final Fantasy" causes players to expect a certain type of turn based RPG, and this is not it. This is a spin off which    I'm so disappointed by this remaster.

    If you played the original FFCC on GCN you'd know that it's almost great, but flawed in one major way, which is the clunkiness of its multiplayer. There was some negativity around the original when it came to expectations. The name "Final Fantasy" causes players to expect a certain type of turn based RPG, and this is not it. This is a spin off which uses more of a beat-em-up action rpg style combat. While it's technically playable solo, it's just not fun to play on your own. It feels lonely, the levels and puzzles are clearly designed to be tackled by a group of friends, and the combat system isn't deep enough to keep you entertained for a whole game when playing solo. But the one big flaw of the GCN version was the multiplayer requiring a lot of hardware and setup.

    This remaster was a chance to fix that one major flaw. And they really failed. There's no local/couch co-op like the GCN version. Instead it's online only. The online multiplayer in the remaster is limited to dungeons only. The ability to create 4 characters with your friends, all from the same hometown, and travel together in a caravan across the game map is completely gone. All you can do is travel to a dungeon on your own and then connect online with 3 friends via a cumbersome friend code system, or 3 random people. You can then run that one dungeon together, but then you separate once it's over. If you're playing with friends, you'll all have to disconnect, then travel to the new dungeon alone offline, then connect again with the 3 friends to run the next one. Not only is this multiplayer bad, and worse than the original, it's also poorly explained. You'll stumble through creating "lobbies" without ever being told you're doing so, and then get punished for "creating too many lobbies" if you try to reconnect after getting kicked by a bad connection.

    In the multiplayer mode, whether playing with friends or strangers, only one player can be the "host." Only the host receives myrrh, the story collectible explanation for why you're traveling, meaning only the host progresses toward completing a "year" in game. Guests do receive artifacts, which are basically what level up your character, which does give some incentive to replay old dungeons. But expecting every person to host every dungeon at least once is expecting too much out of replayability. Yeah, sure I'll go back to an old dungeon a second time, maybe a third. I am not running every dungeon in the game 4 times. Additionally, only the host player gets mail from their family at the end of a dungeon, while all the guests have to sit there and... watch. You can't leave the instance, you can't do anything, you're just stuck watching as the host player navigates menus that you can't even see.

    There's technical problems as well. I had a lot of noticeable slowdown when playing offline in certain dungeons when there were a lot of enemies or effects on screen. When playing online, the slowdown and lag are even worse. Loading times are long, and pop up very often. Every time you go in and out of a town, or hit one of the random story events that can happen on the road, you're hit with a loading screen before and another one after. This was my experience on the Switch version, which I know is not as powerful a console as the ps4, but still, it's a gamecube game from 20 years ago. It should not be huge chore to load.

    This game was delayed, which is something I'm generally in favor of if it helps the end result. But even now it still feels unfinished. It's possible it will be patched, but I don't have high hopes. Some of these decisions are too fundamentally built into this version to be easily corrected.

    The biggest problem with this game was just the decision making. They took a Gamecube game that was built entirely around couch co-op and then decided in the remaster to remove the couch co-op. The online multiplayer that was offered instead has less functionality than the original's couch co-op, leaving you with a game that will feel like a solo experience with occasional pop-in from some random strangers online who you can't speak to. That solo experience is lonely and not very engaging, and will just leave you wishing you had friends next to you who could actually join you on your journey.    … Expand
  8. Pommelz
    Sep 2, 2020
    0
    Actually, I wanted this game for years, and even with the multiple delays I was still very exciting without even a bad word. If it would be released half a year later, I would still be fine with it.

    First things first, I played this game when I was 12-14 with multiple friends, and it was great. The only downside of the GCN version was the hard setup with one link adapters and one GBA    Actually, I wanted this game for years, and even with the multiple delays I was still very exciting without even a bad word. If it would be released half a year later, I would still be fine with it.

    First things first, I played this game when I was 12-14 with multiple friends, and it was great. The only downside of the GCN version was the hard setup with one link adapters and one GBA per player. It was really hard to get all that equipment as a child, but it was still doable and me and my friends enjoyed it so much.

    I was really looking forward to the switch release, and since I live with 4 flatmates, this was the perfect time to relive this moment. I mean, the game is a cooperative experience, the gameplay alone is okay-ish but the magic is missing. Even the design is clearly for multiple players. Okay, I gathered my people really excited to finally enjoy FFCC on the switch many many years after the original, to figure out there is no more local multiplayer. Even during the singleplayer start there's something missing, usually it would show all the characters, but it's only you alone. We discussed if we should get the game for the other switches(everyone has one) but after doing research, we decided against it, because you can only invite friends for dungeons and can't really travel together. The game is about travelling together and to live adventures with your friends, both was executed poorly.

    Honestly, Square Enix, I had so high hopes, and I am so heavily disappointed. I bought your games for years over and over, and you still didn't learn after other poor remakes to listen to your audience. I will never do the same mistake again, I would consider this remake as disappointing as warcraft 3.

    I'd rather enjoy my memories than go back to the remake, even doing the hassle with multiple emulators would be more enjoyable for me than this game.    … Expand
  9. EsperOne
    Aug 28, 2020
    3
    The names Square Enix, Squaresoft and Final Fantasy used to be synonymous with quality.

    This remaster is just the latest evidence that things have long since changed.
  10. Sultanayaz
    Aug 29, 2020
    4
    I had big hopes for this game since i haven't played the original, i was excited for the multiplayer and the dungeons, levelling up my character and farming materials to create my equipments. But unfortunately, the game was dull, boring and even the multiplayer was not that special. This game game should have been remade, not remastered

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 40 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 28 out of 40
  3. Negative: 6 out of 40
  1. Cubed3
    Nov 9, 2020
    40
    It pains to criticise this remaster so harshly, because there was a great fondness for the original title that sprang to life if local multiplayer with friends was taken advantage of. Square Enix has shown little desire to give Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles the makeover it deserved, however, and its many dated issues only become more apparent next to the removal of local multiplayer and region-locked online play. There is still a case for chancing it with friends that enjoy dungeon crawlers and can deal with the limitations, but beware of the strange control schemes and tedious gameplay.
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  2. RPG Fan
    Oct 2, 2020
    75
    It’s too bad the journey can feel so aimless and disjointed at times with the mixed storytelling and the cumbersome mechanics that stick each component of gameplay together. It can be occasionally exhausting to navigate through the menus, swapping in different spells and items constantly as you beat on your foe for a good 30 minutes. I really wish Square Enix would give it the fair shake it deserves with modern conveniences, instead of dredging up dated gameplay mechanics that overshadow a wonderful, mystical little world. Still, getting to play a family-friendly tale with my daughter does make up for a lot of this, and if you can get some friends together, it could be the same for you.
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  3. DualShockers
    Sep 25, 2020
    60
    It’s a shame many quality-of-life improvements that could have been made to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles aren’t present in this Remastered Edition.
    Read full review
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