Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (video game)

""Come, let us record your adventures in this journal. It shall be known as the Crystal Chronicles.""

The first game in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series, this was also the first Final Fantasy game made for a Nintendo system since the SNES. It was release on the Game Cube as an action RPG, but also famously required Gameboy Advances for multiplayer. The game sold well, but the requirement is considered a big reason it didn't sell better.

The basic plot is as follows: hundreds of years ago, the whole world became covered in a toxic miasma. If you breathe too much of it, you die. So how do the people survive? Turns out that special crystals have the power to repel the miasma. However, their power isn't endless: they must be replenished with myrrh about once a year. In order to survive, each town sends our their own "crystal caravan", to collect myrrh from myrrh trees (all inconveniently placed at the end of a dungeon) and then return home. Lather, rinse and repeat indefinitely.

The player is from a small village, called Tipa by default, but it can be renamed whatever they want. Characters can be any of four tribes/races:
 * Selkie: Appearing as humans with oddly colored hair, they are thieves from the isle of Leuda. They use racquets as weapons, and are the fastest of the four.
 * Lilty: A short race with reddish skin and leafy hair, they are proud warriors from the city of Alfitaria. They wield spears, and are the strongest race.
 * Clavat: The most human looking tribe, they are generally peaceful, and hail from the Fields of Fum. They use a sword/shield combo in combat, and have the highest defense stat.
 * Yuke: A mysterious race from Shella who never remove their helmets, so no one knows what their faces look like, or if they have faces at all. They fight with hammers, but are primarily spell casters.

The story is told in a non-linear fashion, with information given to the player as their caravan runs into others on the road, or talks to people in town.

"Striped Brigand leader: The Lilties have their heritage. The Yukes have their tradition. The Clavats have their unity. And what do Selkies have? Nothing."
 * Acquired Poison Immunity: De Nam thinks he can do this with Miasma by drinking the Miasma thick swamp water.
 * Action RPG
 * After the End
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can have 8 people in your caravan, but only 4 people can go into the dungeon areas at a time. This is justified by the gameplay mechanics, of all things; can you imagine trying to fit 8 people into the crystal chalice's tiny purification radius? It does cause one to wonder how the 4 people back at camp are managing to breathe though.
 * Back That Light Up: Playing with original GBAs means it's not always easy to see what is going on in your info screen.
 * Black Knight: Uses the trope name as an alias, to boot.
 * Charged Attack: The Focus Attacks, which are tied to the specific weapon being used. Some weapons will shoot blasts of energy, others make you leap to the target and perform a powerful attack.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: One recurring Yuke NPC is the aptly named Amidatty the Strange. You think he's a little off-tilt, but he may be more intelligent than he seems - one of your early encounters sees him having just been swindled into buying a stale loaf of bread at a crazy price, but he insists it's a model of the world, citing the mold that grows on it as representative of miasma.
 * Combination Attack: Basic magic spells can be stacked on top of one another for added effect (two Fire spells make a Fira {or Firaga with proper timing} attack, and spells of different elements can be combined to create a Gravity spell). The basic elements can also be combined with a Charged Attack for an elemental strike.
 * Comic Book Time: Years pass in-game but no one ever shows any signs of ageing.
 * Dying as Yourself:.
 * Fantastic Racism: It's said a couple times that Selkies used to be the designated Chew Toy race. In one cutscene, it's implied that they still are.
 * Fantastic Racism: It's said a couple times that Selkies used to be the designated Chew Toy race. In one cutscene, it's implied that they still are.


 * When you visit the single-race towns as the race that lives there, there are perks. You don't have to pay a Shella Mark to enter Shella, your pocket won't get picked in Leuda, etc.
 * Forgot the Call:.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four races.
 * Selkies are Sanguine, Lilties are Choleric, Yukes are Melancholic, and Clavats are Phlegmatic.
 * Fur Bikini: The lady Selkies.
 * Gainaxing: Every single female Selkie.
 * Horror Hunger: Raem.
 * Identity Amnesia: Happened to.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Selkies use lutes and racquets. See Final Fantasy IX for the inspiration.
 * Infinity+1 Element: Getting on your chalice.
 * Law of Cartographical Elegance: Justified. The world used to be filled with proper kingdoms and such, but the arrival of miasma destroyed most of them. Now only towns that have crystal shards can survive. There's also a limit to how much Myrhh there is every year, so only a limited number of towns are possible. And some die out...
 * Lost World: The region beyond the Memory-element miasma stream, containing the mystical Carbuncle city of Mag Mell and the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Mount Vellenge.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: ?
 * Moon Logic Puzzle: To finish the game's story, you must get the final element on your chalice, which requires that you cast spells on a series of tiny landmarks in the huge Lynari Desert. Gurdy's poem reveals the sequence, then gets trapped between all the other diary entries that don't tell you how to beat the game.
 * One Game for the Price of Two: Sort of. If you want to play multiplayer, you have to have a Game Boy Advance (and link cable) for each player.
 * Planet of Hats: Each of the four races have one, and precisely one, shtick. The Clavats are peacful farmers. The Lilties are each a Pint-Sized Powerhouse. The Selkies are all basically gypsies. The Yukes are intellectuals/magicians.
 * The Power of Love:.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Lilties used to be this, when they ruled the world.
 * Scenery Porn: It's known for having some of the best graphics on the Gamecube.
 * Selkies and Wereseals: There's a race called "Selkies". Unlike mythical Selkies, they are simply a humanoid race, with body paint and blue-green hair, with no apparent shapeshifting abilities. However, in their town, there is a Selkie who says something along the lines of, "We Selkies came from the sea, and one day we will return there."
 * Shielded Core Boss: Raem's true form. Only his tail is within attack range at first, but inflicting enough damage to it causes him to drop down to your level so you can fight him directly... until he resumes his former stance, requiring you to repeat the process throughout the battle.
 * Socialization Bonus: Hope you've got friends with GBAs and link cables handy for the original game because you'll need them.
 * Tragic Monster:.