"Ignore those bad reviews! This game is really a masterpiece to behold!"

Its Zelda meets Final Fantasy. Square Enix must have spent alot of time and energy just to create such a masterpiece. I myself respect this, but I am not satisfied by the presence of people who bash this game simply because they may have not played it long enough to understand it or if they have no clue about their video history or if they're rude, arrogant, self-important cranks to begin with. Sorry to refer to such, but this game does not deserve such treatment. Looks like Square Enix decided to take a break from these turn-based RPGs and mixed Final Fanatasy with elements from games like Zelda, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana.
This is a very complex game. In order to understand it, you might consider playing it for several hours before you get the pattern down. But no worries! I will go into as much detail as possible with the game to let you some facts about it with this review of mine. When you get the game, I absolutely recommend that you use a players guide instead of blindly rushing into the game only to get yourself killed by the first boss.
Now lets get started shall we?

Story (7/10)

Ok so once upon a time, the world was in a era of peace and prosperity,when suddenly the crashing of a meteor unleashed a grave plague of miasma(hmmmm, i suppose it's a kind of radiation).The miasma is dangerous to people and has caused some of the creatures of the world to mutate while others died off and some where unaffected. People had to use crystals to ward of the miasma that are powered from a kind of substance called mryyh. To get the myrhh, people must search for the trees that hold this substance and of course, the path to the trees is blocked by hordes of monsters. The trees don't replenish their supply of myrrh for 2 years. People must top the crystal chalice that they carry the mryhh in order to replenish their crystal's power supply and hold of the miasma for another season.
Its not that much of a story, but at least it is one! RPG's do have to have a story in order to have a background, but since it isn't exactly an RPG, You really don't need to have a huge story that books have. So your character (or characters if you are playing multiplayer) is in a crystal caravan setting out to fill up his/her (their if you are playing multiplayer) chalice with myrrh in order to keep their villages crystals going. Not an impressive or enganging story though, but its still good.

Graphics (10/10)

Wonderful! Absolutely Incredible! Those are the only words i can use to describe this factor of the game. Ok ok, so I'll give a indepth description. This game really stretches out the Gamecube's graphical capabilities. Its rare to find a game with both beautiful graphics and awesome gameplay. Graphics, of course normally don't make a game, but it's a sign of dilligence and hard work poured into the game by the creators.

Sound (7/10)

I'd say average for the sound effects which are somewhat, a mix of cartooniness and anime stuff. For the music, it is somewhat soothing, but not something that could really blow you away like Final Fantasy VII or Sonic Heroes. I did expect much better from the boss music though. Other than that, I don't find much too interesting, but nothing painful either to say the least.

Gameplay (9/10)

At the beginning of the game, you have to choose your tribe, name your character, choose your character's gender, decide is you want to add anything else, (like steel visors or headbands and etc.)and lastly, choose your family occupation. It is, like everything else in this game, a complex process.
Thankfully, you have a chance to learn all the basics of the game in the beginning when you first set out. This includes, basic attacking, focus aattacks, magic, cycling through the command list, and etc.
What tribe you select influences your stats. Clavats are the normal looking humans with well balanced stats. Lilties are the baby-faced midgets specialized in physical combat. Yukes are the weird looking guys whose heads are shaped like a birds and are skilled with magic. Selkies are the blue hared people who are the more unique of the 4 selectable tribes. Whichever one you want is decided by how you like to fight. Of course they are all different in every way. Family occupations affect your family's capabilites. Like if your father's a blacksmith, he can forge weapons for you when you hand him over that materials and the scrolls (blueprints) of the weapon.
In the dungeons, you have chance to prepare your command list before heading in. The dungeons themselves are done much like them Zelda games ecept you don't have to find the dungeon maps, compasses, and boss keys and small keys. It does have those perpelexing puzzles though.
The dungeons are revistable and changes can occur when you revist them at certain times, such as more or new enemies appearing, new paths appearing, and of course, the bosses change too somewhat is some different way. The changes that occur depend on when you revist them. You won't get the most benefits from them if you just breeze through them without looking for any treasure chests or if you revisit them too early all the time.
Fighting enemies is simple as always. You can attack with your weapon by mashing the button till the #@!%h dies or you can douse him with a barrage of spells. For casting spells, environmental factors also will influence damage as well as the type enemy that is hit by it. So you can throw a vase full of oil at a goblin, then you can cast fire on him while hes on the oil and he gets TOASTED!! Awesome! You can fuse spells too create another, more powerful spell! SWEET! Spell fusion can be done using the command list or when two players cast different spells in the same area. You can also use focus attacks, which are basically charged attacks. Focus attacks are different, depending on the weapon equiped.
The multiplayer feature is a very very nice touch indeed. As long as you have at least a Gameboy Advance and a Nitendo Gamecube Game Boy Advance link cable for every person playing, you can all party together. Up to four people can play on the same screen together and working together! This is just too good. Playing by yourself is much harder than teaming up with a few friends. The bad part is the carrying the chalice gig. In single player, a Moogle carries it for you so you can fight and do other things. In multiplayer, a person has to carry the chalice. If you leave the chalices protection field, the miasma (radiation)will begin to slowly suck your life away. Doing such a thing is tedious, but the marvels that this game has far outweighs this problem. The game is a long one a playing with a friend is recomended
Status ailments do apply in this game and they can be caused by spells. Both enemies and you and your buddies can be affected by them. You can be a sitting duck if your frozen by an ice spell or stunned by an oncoming thunder spell and things can go bad if your caught on fire by a Fire spell. There are other status ailments, like poison, petrification, and etc. Another nice thing is the Phoenix Down. When its in your command list, Phoenix Downs can automatically revive you when you bite the dust. In multiplayer, when a player dies, they person turns into a ghost. Its funny somewhat as you can get infront of something and wave at it. LOL! Phoenixs Downs of course return a person to life.
The bosses are mostly things from the previous games, like the Malboros, (frighting beasts that never take breath mints and as a result have very very bad breath) Iron Giants (any person who has play a perhaps modern day Final Fantasy game can not have known about these mofos) and other such things. The enemies are also mostly things from the past, like ochus, sahagins, bombs (not those normal explosives you hear abou every day, but living and explosive masses of fire.) and those scary looking hedgehogs.
The crystal chalice is the thing that you have to carry about in order to protect you from the miasma in the dungeon. Carrying it is tedious in multiplayer, but it compells everyone to stay together. You don't have to worry much about the chalice if you are by yourself because you will have a moogle to help you out with things. When you place your chalice on a glowing pole, it changes its element. There are 4 elements: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. Changing the element of your chalice can mean the difference between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat because it provides you protection against cetain types of elemental attacks. (Might've saw that coming)You can tell which element its going to change to by looking at the color of the light on the hotspot.(Red=Fire,Green=Wind,Blue=Water,Yellow=Earth.)When a chalice's element is Fire, it reduces the damage you take from fire spells and prevents you from catching fire. When its element is Water, it prevents you from freezing over and adds extra protection against blizzard based spells. When its element is Wind, you can't be stunned by thunder spells and you'll have more resistance to the damage done from thunder spells. And lastly, when its element is Earth, it provides protection against petrification and poison statuses. You will need these elements make your life easier in the dungeons, but also to get through miasma streams that divide the world. Your chalice's element needs to match the miasma's element in order to get past the miasma stream. You won't get far if you bring the wrong element. Be warned as each year in the game, the miasma stream's element changes. If your chalice's element is wind for example, and the miasma stream's element is water, all you have to do is go to the world map, select the dungeon of the most recent chalice element change then all you have to do is change it to water. You don't have to reenter the dungeon at all! This interesting feature saves time and energy and the frustration of the possibility of dying
there.
Like all RPGs, this one has sidequests and random events as well as important ones that are quite rewarding.
In conclusion, the game play in this game just proves what Square Enix is capable of doing.

Replay Value (9/10)

The multiplayer feature adds alot here. And of course, the fact that the dungeons will become slightly different after you beat them is such a nice touch that it will just compell you to play it again and again....
No game is without its flaws, but this game has very small flaws that are few and are completely outweighed by the good stuff in the game.

In Conclusion:

This game is almost too good for words that can suffieciently describe the game. As I told you in my opening statement in this review, what you think about the game is not to be influenced by other people's opinions. Its yours, not mine nor those bad reviewers, nor is it those magaizine reviewers. Interested? Rent the game. Like it? Buy it! Don't like it? Keep it to yourself. Its better than getting flamed by people just because you hate it so much. I myself recommend renting it, but thats up to you.
This is such a good game. Simply put, Square Enix has created another masterpiece that is worth playing.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/09/04