Playing through Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition has been a great test of my long-term memory. I remember the pomp and circumstance surrounding its announcement, with magazines at the time playing up the historic nature of “Final Fantasy‘s return to Nintendo consoles.” I remember picking it up day one, buying into the hype, and making sure to get one of those cords that would connect my Game Boy Advance SP to my GameCube console. But that’s where my memory starts to get a bit fuzzy. Outside of the basics of it — couch co-op, four tribes, action RPG — I don’t really remember much about the game itself.
A few months ago, I bought a used GameCube off eBay. When I put in my old memory cards that had been in storage for a decade and a half, I found two save files for Crystal Chronicles. One had about two hours of play on it. The other had 40 hours. It was then I remembered one of my college roommates borrowed my console one month and beat the game before midterms. I started to wonder why he was able to make it through Crystal Chronicles, but I could barely muster half a Snyder’s Cut worth of playtime.
An hour into the Remastered Edition, everything started to sink back in, particularly why I quit so early into the adventure. While I still have a ways to go before I see the credits roll, I can confirm now that I was a stupid, stupid man for giving up so easy back then.
Source: Destructoid Review in Progress: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition