Game Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

Released in 2009 on the Wii, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is an action-adventure game. 

Taking place a thousand years after the original game, Layle is a Crystal Bearer. Layle encounters a mysterious Yuke who is using a Crystal Idol to absorb the ship's energy. And wants to use the Idol to revive parts for the crystal in the Ancient ruins. While investigating, Layle is framed.

The Crystal Bearers is a departure from the original game in different ways; the combat is real-time and focuses on single-player, it is also free-roaming and an action-adventure game. Although I feel there are still many elements that make it feel very RPG-like. 

I liked the graphics. The environments looked very nice. The voice-acting was pretty good as well. A few parts that sounded a bit awkward but I enjoyed the voice-acting. 

Layle was a good main character. I'm not sure why but I found it a bit surprising how distrusting people were of him simply because he is a Crystal Bearer. I liked the other characters as well except for Belle. She was highly irritating. 

There are many things I like about The Crystal Bearers; the main character, the free-roaming and the places you can explore are quite cool. And the story is pretty great as well.

But I greatly disliked the battle system. Layle is a Crystal Bearer with the power of telekinesis. And that is how you battle. You have no weapons. No other abilities. You can only pick things up. You may think that would make a battle easy. But no. No, it doesn't. I honestly felt battling in this game was extremely frustrating. I suppose the developers wanted to try something new but the battle system just wasn't good. Having only the power of telekinesis honestly made battling pretty hard. 

The Crystal Bearers is a flawed game. Some highly frustrating things in the game. But at the same time, it is also a really fun game and I feel, a good entry in the Crystal Chronicles series.

The ending also left it open for a sequel. Considering it has been 10 years since its release, there probably won't be one. But it would honestly be nice to have another game with Layle as the main character.

The Crystal Bearers is not a perfect game but it is an enjoyable one.