Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Remastered Edition Reviews

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is an updated version of the GameCube action RPG offering new ways for owners to play together. RPGamer went hands on with the game to see how well it translates to the modern generation.

Now I'm wondering what anybody saw in the original in the first place. The controls and the combat are bad. The story elements are dull. The load times are excruciatingly long and frequent. And visually, it doesn't look very polished, which makes me wonder how this is a remaster. The menus, especially, are an eyesore to look at with giant glaring fonts and ugly textures. The horrible online experience isn't just the icing on the cake, it's like someone took a cake and threw it in a blender without putting the lid on. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered is a lot of things, but a classic is not one of them.

The atmosphere of Crystal Chronicles is charming and whimsical in both its visuals and music. The designs of the various races are creative and distinct, and the levels are all distinct enough to be memorable. The updated visuals are well-done and sharper than before, without removing the appeal of the original game’s style.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition, in its current state, is broken. It doesn’t play how it’s supposed to, or even how it was originally developed. The entire game can be played alone with no fuss, but that’s not what it was designed for. Crystal Chronicles is at its most fun when you’re exploring dungeons with up to 3 other people. The main draw of this remaster is online multiplayer. Unfortunately, online functionality was unavailable to me during the review period,...

Without much reward for playing single player-and an obtuse and difficult to navigate multiplayer system-Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition simply creates too many barriers to entry for the player to overcome. While the simple gameplay could be fun with an easier interface, the complicated multiplayer will likely only be enjoyed by the most hardcore of fans. Not an outright bad game, but certainly a difficult game to play.

Square-Enix’s remaster output across the current generation of consoles has delved into some deeper cuts from the Japanese juggernaut’s back catalog. We recently saw the likes of Final Fantasy VIII getting a pretty novel rework and one of the Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon titles that was overlooked on the Nintendo Wii was given new life on modern platforms. The first Crystal Chronicles title, a flagship for the Nintendo GameCube and the GBA Link Cable, is now more than 17 years old and prime for the full Crystal Chronicles Remastered treatment. Has Square-Enix done well carrying to the chalice into a new generation of consoles, or should this caravan have been left in the miasma?

Nostalgia can be a very potent emotion. Many times we hold a game on a pedestal because of the fond memories we have of playing as a child. Or perhaps we treasure the overall experience of playing certain games with friends. It’s this emotion that drives so many publishers to remaster older titles. Partially to bring these games to a younger generation, but they’re real motivation is to capitalize on the nostalgia of older gamers. Sometimes it pays off and pleases newer and older players ...

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a game that I hoped to love, but with all of its shortcomings in the Remastered Edition, maybe some things are just better left in the past.

2003's underrated GameCube spin-off now has a swanky iteration for modern consoles so let's revisit Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is still as fun as it ever was, but the new additions fail to make an impact and in some places, lessen the experience.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered recreates the original's flaws, and like before, it's best enjoyed as a multiplayer-only game.

Ultimately, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is a game that, mechanically, shows its age, and even its newest features don’t feel quite as modernized as they probably should. By that rationale though, maybe the game will end up being exactly what you remember it as.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered can only be recommended to the most die-hard of Final Fantasy fans, and only if they play in its single player mode. Those looking to play multiplayer with friends are going to be sorely disappointed.

Going into Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition I expected a fair amount of old-school design, and I wasn’t surprised to find that the story hadn’t been altered, but I never anticipated it would be in such a frustratingly poor technical state on PlayStation 4. Unacceptable loading times, lack of local co-op, and an arcane matchmaking system makes playing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles a terrific chore. A few simple quality-of-life improvements, even if it was just the removal or shortening of load times, would have gone a long way to gloss over at least some of Crystal Chronicles' shortcomings compared to the many other dungeon crawlers you could play in 2020. Unfortunately, the old-school frustrations that weren't addressed only serve to date everything else about it, especially the repetitive combat, almost completely depriving it of any sort of fun. I will be uninstalling this as soon as possible and I’m never looking back.