Game Over For Crystal Chronicles Franchise?

Final Fantasy Union: "When Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles first appeared on the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2004 it was very well received. It allowed four people to take part in the action, but they had to play using Game Boy Advances, instead of Gamecube controllers. Despite these heavy requirements, the game still ended up selling well over 1 million units and Square Enix naturally thought they were on to a winner."

[somekyle]

What the feck, Square! If they make another one, that company will be completely stupid in my books.

People need to know about this, I should sell my books! ..xD

[qface64]

how is it the end of the crystal chronicles franchise when the previous games before this one have done some what good???
considering they have only been ds games up to this point

i personally prefer the original style

[Redempteur]

i think cristal bearers was a nice change .. it's actually a good game if you just give it a chance ( ring of fate and echoes of times were just awfull).

i think the cristal chronicles saga is a good one ... people are complaining when it's always the same thing yet this series of ff games tries something each game .

the first FFCC had kiler graphics , beautifull soundtrack and is very fun ..if you could find people to play with

the one on wii has a very good story and graphics up to date ..the gameplay is hit or miss but it really wasn't that bad at least the presentation was top notch .

SO i don't think it's game over yet ..

[iforgotmylogin]

dont over milk it lol if you doo the franchise becomes bland and lame

its not even that great man. i had the first 2 but i always felt something was missing. fun game but when you want a close to ffmain series expirence it needs to be better

to me cc= nintendo square and ff= sony square

as is nintendo square cant compare to sony square.

[ShawnCollier]

It's sad they have basically Mana-ized Crystal Chronicles. >.>

[mephman]

It seems so.

I still think the franchise has a lot of potential, they just are fulfilling it sadly.

[Sanrin]

I remember having a ton of fun to the first game, it's a shame the series has really gone down a notch from that. Maybe they should do some DS/Wii integration?

[Smacktard]

Maybe instead of just giving up on the franchise they should just make one that's a quality title with lots of time and polish put into it, instead of what appears to be a rushed product filled with glitches and bad gameplay.

[mephman]

Pretty much, although you'd think a game that spent as long in development as The Crystal Bearers would actually end up being pretty decent.

Maybe they should just move away from the Wii/DS and try it on either the PSP, or the PS3/360.

[na-no-nai]

well they did released it after the xmas holidays.
i still believe they should continue it. i would of brought it but unfortunately i was broke the whole time til maybe next month then i will get the game

[EvilTwin]

The last CC seems to be a love it or hate it game; after spending so many years in development, it became a jack of all trades and master of none. It got saddled with an unfortunate release date, to boot. It'll be too bad if Square cans it because they couldn't quite figure out what they wanted to do on Wii.

[kewlkat007]

......

[asdr3wsfas]

...so they can ruin it with another sequel.

The game went from a handful of well defined characters all with their own themes to a bloat of 40 unrecognizable characters that totally eviscerated dual and triple techs, part of the huge appeal of the first. All while pissing on the memory of Chrono and the first game (what happened to the original characters). And adding clunky, esoteric language from NPCs that don't act like people so much as oracles from the gods.

I hope square leaves this franchise dead. What they did to Magus in the new ending of the DS title made me realize why I stopped playing square games after FF9.

[hatchimatchi]

chrono cross wasn't all that bad.

[asdr3wsfas]

Maybe not as its own game, but when you ignore the deep character personalization, double/triple techs, eliminate the entire significance of the first game with the character's fates and then call it a sequel it is. That's begging for a comparison to a game that murders it on every account.

The writing is also horrendously abstract and faux philosophical in an attempt to appear deep and meaningful.

[knifefight]

I loved both DS games.

[TruthbeTold]

want a real Final Fantasy game. With FFXIII unable to come to Wii, the least SquareEnix could have done was give Wii owners a real RPG. Especially since the console is lacking in that dept. Nope. Instead they make a 1 player adventure game and slap the Final Fantasy name on it. I'm not saying it's a bad game, only that it's not what people wanted. Companies get so caught up in trying to figure out what the Wii audience wants that they've abandoned the tried and true to a fault.

Unless it's a game like Super Mario Galaxy or NSMB Wii, chances are you aren't going to hit that magical configuration that will lure all types of gamers. Even an extremely average, low budget RPG like Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World nearly sold a half million on the console so there is an audience. Square Enix just dropped the ball on this one. Just like Capcom did with releasing ANOTHER rail shooter. What do they expect?

'See it's Final Fantasy. It's got Crystals and Chocobo's!'

Uhm... No thanks.

[Mahr]

In all fairness to Square, the Crystal Chronicles spin-offs were always kind of quirky in the gameplay department. It's one of the few series filled with entries from both the town building simulation and tower defense genres.

Dragon Quest X will probably be a more traditional RPG experience -- assuming that it's far enough in development that they can't use Bearers as an excuse to renege on that one.

[Mahr]

Anyone else remember way back when it was first announced that the CC sub-series would be going to Nintendo platforms and the internet went completely *crazy* over that because it was perceived as such a major betrayal or whatever? It was even worse than the response to the whole XIII multi-platform announcement.

Fun times.

[asdr3wsfas]

The greatest sociological question of our times is why video game players act like crazy exs.

Crystal Chronicles dumped them for Nintendo, Nintendo left them for a rich older woman, and FFXIII demanded an open relationship. But it's ok because they swear Mass Effect was flirting at the register.

In all fairness crazy exs usually drop the bitterness sooner.

[Mahr]

"The greatest sociological question of our times is why video game players act like crazy exs."

I think you're forgeting that in many cases, videogames are the closest thing these people have to meaningful relationships.

"In all fairness crazy exs usually drop the bitterness sooner."

Well, it's not like games like Dragon Quest 9 can just go out and file a restraining order willy nilly. Those things are hard enough to get as it is.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Haha, it's doubtful to be honest. Even with the decline for Echoes of Time and Ring of Fates they're still some of SE's best sellers outside of the big three(main FF, KH, DQ). Crystal Bearers is the only one that's done badly, due to a genre shift and bad reception(many people think undeservingly).

Plus Nintendo is/did moneyhat them, kinda. Yamauchi personally requested for the creation of the titles shortly before he left and the development of the original was funded by Yamauchi's retirement money and was also a condition put to Squaresoft if they wanted a Nintendo software license.

EDIT: Also the development budgets aren't as high as they seem. Echoes of Time had very low development budget because it was made on the Ring of Fate's engine and in Crystal Bearers you can tell they had a low budget because of the fact there's only around three pre-rendered cutscenes and that they weren't able to change the lip movements for English.

[mephman]

Yes, but should they really be content with making games that just skim a bit of money off the top?

[SpoonyRedMage]

Are you saying the games don't make much money?:S

Just look at the sales of Square Enix's game outside of the FF, DQ and KH franchises and see how many of them this gen have matched Echoes of Time. The answer is not many, The Last Remnant did and TWEWY got close and some of their remakes/ports did. They've probably made quite a lot of money off the two DS games simply because they're so cheap.

Crystal Bearers is the only one that might not have made money, but most likely will in the long run and/or be subsidised by Nintendo. Seriously though if the CC games aren't worth making(at least on the DS) then SE is left with only a few games that are worth making.

Also, I forgot to mention it earlier. The CC series doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon and also doesn't seem dependent on sales because Akitoshi Kawazu has already discussed what the next installment will be and it will almost certainly be re-using one of their engines now that they have engines established for each type.

[asdr3wsfas]

Whenever I hear FF: Crystal Chronicles I think FF: Mystic Quest. The building games were very fun but honestly I can't shake the idea that these are third-rate efforts with different or dumbed down gameplay and the final fantasy name attached for sales. Like we're morons who can't tell these aren't true final fantasy games.

That's not a complaint so much as a reservation that makes me hesitant to buy them. I only got tactics after a rental and the story proved the game (tile based combat isn't as enjoyable for me). Unlike crystal chronicles you immediately know what you're getting from a tactics game. At least on the wii this monkier just says "smaller budget than the main series."

I haven't played a FF since 9, I couldn't finish 8 but I did like 7. After seeing what Chrono Cross did to the original I pretty much gave up on square. There's almost no way I can even take these games seriously. Hardly any double or triple techs? 40 characters with no personality beyond "I SPEAK IN ALL CAPS?" Pseudo magus subject to retcon and retarded magician persona? Forget that.

[tunaks1]

I like Crystal Bearers, it was a nice change. Visuals were really good, music was nice, overall a good quality game, its not up there with KH or FFXIII but it showed an initiative to innovate, the battle system wasn't the deepest but because the other elements of the game were really well done i didn't mind.