Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is an action/RPG collaboration between Square Enix and The Game Designers Studio, Inc.

It was first released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan in 2003, and in 2004 for the rest of the world.

The game is a spin-off of the Final Fantasy series and takes place in an unknown fantasy world inhabited by four different races. You are an adventurer with a small caravan (wagon train), and must explore and fight through a hostile world, trying to find special items and characters to aid your quest.

The biggest problem in this world right now is that travelling to the different towns is difficult because of a force called “The Maisma“. This intergalactic ‘bad fart gas‘ separates the paths between towns, and the only way to break through it is to use the correct element in your crystal, before then trying to push your way through it… Which is always a tense process, but visually spectacular.

Crystal Chronicles features real-time combat and exploration in the manner of the classic Seiken Densetsu Series, which is fitting because they’re both part of the same subseries.

Your initial quest is to find the special trees to get some “Myrrh“. And to build up your first few levels by fighting just the easiest of monsters. This means having to explore hostile territory. Thankfully, the view distance does give you some warning if anything is coming to attack you… Most of the time…

To collect Myrrh, you have to carry a special chalice with you. The chalice acts like a protective dome over your party. Stepping outside of this sphere of protection will cause you constant damage (similar to the dark/light mechanic in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes), so you want to avoid that at all costs. A shard of crystal floats above the chalice. This can be infused with an elemental power (either fire, thunder, water, or wind), and sometimes it needs changing. You can switch the element easily, whether you’re in-game or in a menu.

You have a companion “Moogle“, called “Mog“, who will help by carrying the chalice, and sometimes even fight for you. These “Moogles” are a race of friendly beings that appear in all games in this subseries. You can instruct Mog to pick up or put down the chalice, and you yourself can also carry it and drop it onto things (which is required for certain tasks, like Myrrh-gathering). When Mog is carrying the chalice, he will follow you around, which is the perfect configuration for exploration.

Rooting around the environment will turn up some treasure chests, which contain random money or item drops. Killing enemies will almost always produce a pick-up, too. And these need to be picked-up immediately, because they will sometimes roll away down the landscape.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is defined by the use of the “story event” – a trigger that starts an event based on your actions or in-game position. These events are mostly happy events, like passing other travellers and just talking with or watching them. Occasionally you’ll get a “bad” event that will start a fight, or lose you something, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time…

Combat is simple enough to get the hang of, and is mostly a button-basher. Timing your swerves and dodges correctly helps. As does attacking at the right time and from the right distance (and not being too greedy with your swipes). These are the key to your success…

Actions can also be chained together into short combination attacks, and equipping special weapons increases the damage you deal. Improved armour increases your defence.

Instead of an Experience Point (EXP) system, character attributes and stats are increased by completing challenges in each “dungeon”, which award skill points, and ‘Artefacts‘ that can be equipped to a character to boost their stats.

The caravan element, I would say, is fairly minor in this, compared to a game like Caravan Heart. The majority of the gameplay in Crystal Chronicles takes place on an overhead, three-quarters, isometric playfield, so is quite close to the action most of the time. You can’t fully control the camera (you get what you’re given in terms of viewing angles), and cinematic cut scenes play to tell the story all the time, but the combat does have a good feel to it and the various enemies and bosses are enjoyable to defeat.

The graphical effects in Crystal Chronicles are fairly incredible. The atmospheric coloured lighting in the environment is accented by sparks of light coming from the combat, and the game looks very pretty because of that. The overall ‘timbre’ of the colour palette is more towards realism, which does make the game seem a bit ‘drab‘ on occasion.

The gameplay, though, is most importantly excellent, with absorbing combat that gets gradually harder as you progress. There’s also an online multiplayer component to the game. Or: at least there used to be. It’s now gone, outside of fan support.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles sold over one million copies worldwide on the GameCube, so plenty of people have owned and enjoyed it. It’s a slick JRPG, with decent real-time combat and a rich world to explore. If you like the Mana/Seiken Densetsu series, then this game will definitely appeal to you.

More: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on Wikipedia