Recently I wrote up a blog about how and why I'm going back to try out Gamecube titles I missed from the previous console generation. One of the games I've never played and decided to pick up was Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles.
In the blog I let everybody know that not only is Crystal Chronicles (CC) a game that I never played, but the fact I'm playing it is the first time I've ever played a game with the Final Fantasy (FF) name in earnest. When I was just starting out gaming around the age of 7 (Level 7, if you want to use your imagination and make everyday life a little less boring) I tried out the original FF on the NES for an hour or two, couldn't make any sense of it, and gave up. So fast forward to 2012, I'm a level 23 in this game of life, and the screenshot above, the one of the CC title screen, is the first FF title screen I've seen in quite a long time. So keep in mind, I'm not a fanboy of the series, I know nothing of the lore, languages, art, music, or the history of the series and the differences between each game. While the gaming world was creaming itself over FF VII in 1997 I was completely oblivious, content, and off playing Turok Dinosaur Hunter, Goldeneye 007, Starfox 64, Alien Trilogy, and Tomb Raider II among others.
So I've been playing Crystal Chronicles for the past couple nights and I'm a little over 90 minutes into my single-player playthrough. Before I even booted the game I went through my pre-game ritual of reading through the manual to see what I could find. A lot of the little kiddies out there probably don't even understand what I mean by manual anymore. These days game manuals are about 11 pages long and the number of siezure warnings oft outnumber any kind of useful data an average manual use to contain. I was pleasantly surprised to see that CC's manual was over 40 pages long and told me pretty much anything I'd want to know. I read about the setting/backstory, interface, menus, combat, the terminologies (like moogles, miasma, myyr, etc) were explained to me in simple concise fashion, and the different races were shown, explained, and compared. At the very end of the manual there's even a few pages for the player to leave notes. Notes kids, those use to be a thing! You know, back when you had to learn how to use pens, pencils, calligraphy, etc lol?
After going through the manual I hopped right in, created my character, and started exploring.
I spent a few minutes choosing a name and gender for my character, looking at all the races, appearance options, and family trades. My character is a cute female Selkie named Hope who has a family of Blacksmiths. Your home is in a little village called Tipa, but you can change the name if you want. The villiage my character Hope comes from is now called Eridanus
I'm not going to pretend like the Selkie's huge boobs were a non-factor, but there's other reasons I like the Selkies. They are agile, have longer range for focus attacks, and because of their appearance and backstory they are more sexy and dangerous than the other races
The concept and logic of the crystals protecting villages from miasma, and the need to collect myyr to replenish the crystals makes enough sense to me. It's simple enough to instantly wrap my head around, but it has just enough depth to it to make it a little interesting and give my journey some purpose
I leave Eridanus to start my journey and this motley crew is the first group of people I run into. So this cute little fluffy thing over there is a moogle huh? Guess what his name is? It's.....Stiltzkin, as in a reference to Rumple Stiltzkin lol! The moogles in this game keep calling me kupo. I didn't understand at first, but I caught on after I saw how he used it in his sentences. At this point all I know is that Stiltzkin is ridiculous, moogles are cute, and I think I'm gonna like this game, kupo ^_^
So Stiltzkin introduces me to my own personal moogle, named Mog, and he takes us off to a beach to quickly learn the combat among other things. It's a quick, optional tutorial, and I was done before you could say chubby fluff buddy, kupo
After the tutorial I went into my first level, River Belle Path. It was here that I put my combat skill to the test and saw what the system was like when you put it in practice, and boy did I suck. I was playing the game with bad timing, not dodging attacks or projectiles, and in no time at all I had died 3 times and had to start over from the beginning of the level each time. I decided there must be more to this, and so I finally figured out what a Phoenix Down is and how usefull it can be. Phoenix downs in this game are basically lives. In Mario you get lives in the form of mushrooms and 1UPs, in Fable lives are called Resurrection Phials, and in Final Fantasy they are called Phoenix Downs. Pretty badass name for a player life if you ask me.
At the end of River Belle Path this crabby little guy tried to get real tough on me, but by the time I fought him I knew all about Phoenix Downs, shaking & baking to avoid attacks, and I wasn't going to let him make a jabroni out of me
At the end of the first level I looked through my loot, sent my father a message through the moogle mail...and, wait did I tell you moogles deliver mail? Well, moogles deliver mail, kupo! There's a mail-moogle that waddles on up to you, and I even think he hops up into your arms lol. The last time I remember a game having a mail-man like that it was the weird mail-man from Zelda games that comes up and goes "Ta da!". Moogle-mail is much cuter
After River Belle Path I went onto some Mushroom Forest level for more loot and myyr gathering goodness. It went pretty smooth and I didn't die once. I got much better at understanding spell fusions, exploiting enemy weakness, using cure spells, eating food for HP, and teaming up with Mog to combine spell attacks. One thing I noticed while I was wandering around in the Mushroom Forest is that the environment art is quite beautiful. The surface of the environment is very organic and juicy in appearance, and for me it brought back horrible flashbacks of the level Cortana from Halo 3 where you move around the Flood infested High Charity and everything around you breathes, oozes, and jiggles in the most disgusting way imaginable. The Mushroom Forest wasn't that disgusting but it definitely made me look around to make sure no Flood were around. What can I say, old Spartan habits never die.
At the beginning of each level there's a nice little cutscene and narration. Usually I'd get bored of anything melodramatic keeping me out of the action, but these little scenes have a nice atmosphere, they're brief, and I don't mind
See what I mean about the organic texturing on the surface? Some of it's scaly, bubbly, and some is even furry
The boss at the end of the Mushroom Forest had a few more attacks than the crab boss in the first level. He shot up spikes out of the ground, used a slow spell, exhaled poison gas, pulled you in towards him with wind, and he surrounded himself with projectile spitting plants. This Mushroom Forest boss was a big, nasty, round creature with lots of eyes and a mean set of teeth. It immediatly reminded me of the Beholder from Dungeons & Dragons. If there's anybody out there who understands that reference, high five, kupo.
It's the Beholder incarnate! If you don't believe me, look at this next pic...
I rest my case lol. Boy is he friggin' pissed
To round up this first impression of Crystal Chronicles, I wanted to gush and smile over my favorite aspect of the game so far. The moogles. I've never seen a moogle or understood anything about them till I started playing this game, and I love them. Mog is like my own little Pokemon that I take with me on my adventure and he helps me out in battle and everything. For any of the Final Fantasy fans out there, do moogles show up in some of the main Final Fantasy games?
Japanese artists and writers sure know how to make things fuckin' cute! I love my puppy companion in Fable 2, and playing fetch with puppies in Zelda Twilight Princess was pretty neat, but these moogles following me around are one of my new favorite things. They almost give Pikachu a run for his electric money, but Pikachu is king.
Last night before I saved my game and ended the playsession, I found a moogle house and took some time to paint, wash, and trim my moogle lol.
You can paint him! You can get him to waddle around, lay down, get up, and everything as you paint, wash, and trim his fur. How much more adorable could this game get
So what games are you playing, kupo? KoA: Reckoning came out recently. Anybody out there balls deep, or ovaries deep, in that?
I wanted to throw this together in time for the weekend and take a writing break for a few days. Keep your eyes peeled though because next week I'm going to be bringing a new entry to my Guilty Pleasures series, which I started back in December when I detailed the game The Hobbit. The series isn't exactly back by popular demand lol, but I honestly have a ton of fun writing those things out and showing you guys games I love playing and explaining why they matter to me.
So I'll ask again, what game are you playing guys and how's the game going? Have a good weekend, kupo!
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