3.5/5 ★ – Diluted_Thought's review of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Remastered Edition.

Lets take it back to 2003. I remember walking into game stop and upon a purchase I was a given a book that cataloged a ton of games that were either coming out or had already released on the Gamecube. When I say book I mean this had a # of pages that wasn't just a throw away piece of paper that I was used to. I flipped to the RPG section were they mentioned "Tales of Symphonia", "Skies of Arcadia". "Baton Kaitos" and "Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals". What a line up. This was what originally got me interested in the title but I never bought it for a number of reasons. 1. This was made to be a multiplayer game, with solo being an option, but I didn't know anyone interested in playing this game. 2. The GBA connection just confused me. 3. The reviews of this game weren't exactly shining. 4. It wasn't nearly as interesting or edgy looking as any Final Fantasy on Playstation 1 or 2. 5. I never found it on sale. It felt like a bit of throw away title to be honest and so I just never picked up. Fast forward 2 decades later and I finally play the demo on my Switch for the remastered version. That was enough for me to go, "ok I guess I'm just gonna buy this thing". After a glance around Amazon I found the game and ordered it. Funny thing was the game arrived at my house and I found out that it was the Japanese language version with no option for English. I laughed out of frustration but I decided to give it a go anyway. Surprisingly the game was simple enough to understand that I was able to play with little issue although I did have to take notes on what the spells were. The game quickly back a "cozy game" for me as the action wasn't very quick, in fact, it was fairly slow but also enjoyable and the character designs were so anime and childlike that it simply felt like a kids game. The soundtrack also helped calm me down a lot as it was full of gorgeous melodies. I should add that it was an amazing listening experience! Something I was not expecting. Despite playing for 40 hours and 43 minutes this game took me 4 months to beat considering my busy work schedule and other life situations making this game feel FAR longer than it should. Also I was not expecting the final level of the game being as long as it was since you basically have to fight 3 bosses one right after another plus some really lengthy cut scenes. Still, I enjoyed my time in this beautiful little world and I'm glad I finally got to play "Crystal Chronicals". Now if only they would remaster "Skies of Arcadia"....