Metascore
60

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Mar 5, 2021
    90
    This is an absolute must have for fans of the franchise, but also a fantastic game for those new to the series. Multiplayer and crossplay both work incredibly well, and offering both an inexpensive full version and a free lite version means everyone can play together, regardless of their device or budget.
  2. 80
    Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered brings back a beloved GameCube classic for a new generation, and while the game is virtually the same, new additions to the core experience make for an amazing remaster.
  3. Aug 26, 2020
    80
    Although a little marked by time, the graphics and sound improvements are successful. The magic of the title still operates as much even after sixteen years, not to mention the multiplatform side making the title more accessible. In short, whether or not you missed the original, this remaster, certainly not flawless, remains an adventure that we invite you to (re) live alone or with someone.
  4. Aug 26, 2020
    75
    The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition does not reach the level of an MMO or Monster Hunter World, but it offers an adventure unique in the series. Playing in the company of your friends is the best way to experience this job. However, if your acquaintances aren't interested, I think you'd better keep raising money for another game.
User Score
4.5

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 94 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 94
  2. Negative: 55 out of 94
  1. Aug 29, 2020
    3
    No local multiplayer, online play limited to dungeons and region-locked (cannot co-op in towns, join the same caravan, on experience the worldNo local multiplayer, online play limited to dungeons and region-locked (cannot co-op in towns, join the same caravan, on experience the world map events as a group) and only the host's progress is updated after a dungeon, making it tedious to play the game from start to finish with a group of friends, and content that could be experienced as a group on GC is now unavailable.
    Load times are also worse than the Gamecube version and some bosses have framerate drops that weren't present on the GC version.
    It's serviceable if you wanted to play the game solo because they added some quality of life improvements to solo play, if you don't mind worse frame rate and loading times than the GC ver, but cannot recommend for multiplayer play, especially if you were planning on doing the entire game with a set group of players.
    Full Review »
  2. Aug 28, 2020
    8
    "If SE ever patches in local multiplayer I will come back and edit my review back to a 10." - Me, Just now

    The hardest review i've ever had
    "If SE ever patches in local multiplayer I will come back and edit my review back to a 10." - Me, Just now

    The hardest review i've ever had to write both because of the points I have to dock and not being sure how much to dock. Crystal Chronicles is my favorite videogame of all time; that is to say, the original Gamecube release is. You can imagine my immense shock when the remaster was announced and it felt like someone at Square Enix snuck in to my house to find out what game to add next to their line up.

    FIRST, the good. Crystal Chronicles core gameplay is ever faithful. The only true RPG Party Game i've ever played, running these dungeons with friends is memorable and you still form amazing memories. The sound track is BEAUTIFULLY remastered, the visuals are starkly upgraded, and the high res models make me realize details in the original designs I never noticed before. If you never played the original the storytelling, incredible level and boss design, and overall presentation are what make this game a gem.

    The new content is great, the challenge dungeons are a good edition and essentially add thirteen new dungeons to the game built around high level characters. This fixes a pitfall of the original where, after your first playthrough, knowing how to get everything quickly means by year four you're way overpowered. Now you take those busted characters in to brand new challenging content.

    Unfortunately, in the end, CC: Remastered is a slighty worse take on the original. A slightly worse take on a 10/10 can only be an 8/10 right? The problem is how the multiplayer works. Not just the lack of local multi, which is huge, but also the lack of being able to truly share this adventure. Friends can only join you during dungeons via online co-op. Only the host gets Myrrh, only the host gets letters, and at the end of the day only the host can partake in the road events and memories. The sensation of going on an adventure is gone in that way.

    Another side effect of this is how hard it is to level all the profession families. Where as before you'd effectively be leveling four at a time, you can now do one at a time. Since you only get letters when you get Myrrh maxing out an entire village would take 40 years where it might normally take 10 or less. Little problems like this are numerous and all of them could easily be solved by adding local multi.
    Full Review »
  3. Aug 31, 2020
    1
    If you're feeling nostalgic, just pop on a Youtube collection of the soundtrack, which remains a classic.

    Even for Square, who's been
    If you're feeling nostalgic, just pop on a Youtube collection of the soundtrack, which remains a classic.

    Even for Square, who's been screwing up most of their ports for like fifteen years at this point, this one's egregious. The whole point of this game is the multiplayer. To play 4 players, you need four Switches, four online accounts, and four copies of the game to play 4 player simultaneous. (I understand local multiplayer is similarly broken). OK - I have three friends with the first two, and we agreed, for nostalgia's sake, to grab the third. Huge mistake, shoulda read the reviews.

    To be clear, there's basically no reason to play this game without the multiplayer. (Without the nostalgia goggles, if I'm being honest, there aren't a whole bunch of reasons to play it at all.) In any event, our foursome loaded up the game, and... in a game expressly about adventuring together, there's no way to adventure together. You can run a single dungeon together, after which point you can either run it again, or break up the party. Oh, also, only the host gets credit for beating the dungeon, so if you want everyone to advance you'll have to have player 1 host the dungeon, finish it, break up the party, then REPEAT 3 TIMES FOR ALL OTHER MEMBERS OF YOUR GROUP. Oh, and if you remember the towns, where all your characters had their own little hub that each of you could visit, and you shuffled equipment and crafting? Hope you like doing that completely on your own.

    I'm not a "demand a refund" guy but this was egregious enough that I looked up the Nintendo eShop refund policy (no refunds, confirmed). I'm also not a "post a negative Metacritic review" guy, but this was infuriating enough that I actually made an account. Square should be legit ashamed.

    At least there's (strange, off-putting) voice acting, though.
    Full Review »