I recently purchased a Nintendo GameCube with my income tax return along with this game, because I am a huge Final Fantasy fan. I already own a Playstation 1 and 2 with all of the other Final Fantasy titles, and I must say that I'm a little confused as to why Square-Enix decided to release a game to the Nintendo GameCube. The mini-DVD's just can't hold the same amount of data as the larger PS2 DVD's, so putting the extra features like speech and movies isn't really a possibility. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try.
I bought the game mainly because of the multiplayer feature. I saw on the back that it was one to four players. However, I made the mistake of not reading that to play more than one player, you need to hook up a Gameboy Advance for each player. This made me want to return the game, but with Wal-Marts rules, you can only exchange the game for the same title, so I decided to keep it.
So, after booting it up and watching the intro movie, I was actually surprised. It had nice music and nice video, so I started to feel a little anxious to play. Well, first I created my character out of four different races: Clavats, which specialize in defense, Lilties, which specialize in offense, Yukes, which specialize in magic, and Selkies, which specialize in agility. You can also choose male, or female, and one of four looks for your class. You also choose a family trade (which is new to me), which influences what you get free items or discounts in during the game. There are eight trades, but they're all about equal, I suppose.
After finally getting into the game and getting the feel of it, I was a bit impressed on one hand and depressed on the other. The gameplay was different, something like Kingdom Hearts or Zelda, something like that, but that doesn't bother me. The equipment system is new, and there's a new food system, where you have a favorite and least favorite food. Different foods heal your HP and give a temporary boost to a certain stat, somewhat like a potion in other Final Fantasies. You also have family rankings, where you send a reply letter to your family after defeating each dungeon. Depending on your reply and what you send back, your family will either begin to like or dislike you, effecting what your family gives you each year. The magic system is also new... You don't ever learn or gain any spells, you just find items that grant you the spell, which you only keep during each dungeon. This is sort of disappointing, but different.
Now, about some story. Basically, the world is covered in this "poison" called miasma. To counter it, each town has a large crystal which keeps the miasma at bay, but each year, the crystal has to be replinished with what is called myrrh, which is produced once every few years by a myrrh tree. You need to get three drops of myrrh from three different trees in three different dungeons to advance the game by a year. Also, in each dungeon, you will defeat monsters and a boss at the end of each dungeon to get an artifact that raises certain stats or other aspects of gameplay. There is a set number of artifacts you can possess, so your goal is to get them all. You can replay dungeons over and over again to get new artifacts, but you only get one drop of myrrh every few years. So basically, you'll be playing the same dungeon at least 2 or 3 times before you want to move on to the next, which can be boring.
I should also mention the chalice. You chalice is what you carry your myrrh in, and which keeps the miasma at bay. In single player, you, or your moogle, Mog, will have to carry it. If you carry it, you are slowed down and can perform no other action. If Mog carries it, he sometimes gets tired and makes you carry it, but not for long. Your chalice is also infused with one of the four elements, which you need to pass certain miasma streams, and which also grants you a little resistance to that element. Finally, there is a new feature, called fusing. You fuse different magics together to create new spells, like two fire spells create fira, a stronger fire spell, or thunder plus blizzard to create gravity, and so on. You can also fuse with other people, including Mog, if he is not carrying the chalice to create stronger attacks. What really lets me down, though, is the fact that in single player, if you do not have a Gameboy Advance, you can't see information on enemies, dungeon maps, and the rule you need in each dungeon to get the most bonus points which allows you to get better artifacts.
The gameplay is actually quite fun. As you fight enemies, you will gain items or gil, or temporary artifacts that disappear at the end of the dungeon. You can fight with regular attacks, focus attacks, or magic, with a simple system displayed on screen. In towns, you speak with people and buy and sell items, as you would expect. However, not much story ever seems to go on in each town, since most of what each NPC says is generic. Anyway, as you adventure around, you'll sometimes have encounters with other NPC's which is sort of what advances the story line. Each encounter will be added to your diary, which is read back to you at the end of each year, which can bring a little nostalgia each year, I guess. Most monsters you encounter are from previous Final Fantasies, so there's not much new there.
Graphically, the game looks nice, comparable to the PS2's graphics for the Final Fantasies. It however lacks the special FMV's, which were always awe inspiring on FFX and FFX-2. Also, the text when people speak to you is easily readable, but the name of the person is hard for me to read, but that may just be my TV. The sound effects are great, and the music is good, it just lacks the old style Nobuo Uematsu music. The intro song, however, is great, and really puts you in the mood. The controls are simple, but I find that there is some delay when doing attacks for some reason.
Overall, I think it's a good game that would definitely be worth owning if you have a Gameboy Advance and link cable (unlike me, presently) for each player. If you don't, at least rent it and see. If you're a die-hard Final Fantasy Fan like me, then by all means, buy it.

Recommended: Yes