Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remasteredis under a month away from its scheduled release date and the fan response is at a low. The biggest culprit for fan ire is due toCrystal Chronicles Remasterdropping local cooperative play. As fans continue to criticize publisher and developer Square Enix for feature’s removal, the game’s director decided to explain why the controversial decision was made.
Destructoid’s Chris Carter was able to talk to Ryoma Araki, the director of theFinal Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered. Carter’s interview went over a lot of details about the game and he also took the opportunity to address the most pressing question fans have. Carter directly asked Araki why local multiplayer was dropped from the Remaster, a design decision fans consider a big mistake.
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Araki provided a lengthy response as to why local play, a fondly remembered feature of the original 2003 GameCube title, would not make a return in the Remaster. Araki says that despite local play not being a feature of the upcoming release, he believes players will “enjoy the same multiplayer experience they did back in the day” with the originalFinal Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.
Araki further elaborated that another big reason for the decision was due to the platforms thatCrystal Chronicles Remasteredwill release on.Crystal Chronicles Remasteredis coming to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android devices. Three of the listed platforms are handheld which Araki considers a means to emulate local play. With the PlayStation 4 version being the only “stationary” way to playCrystal Chronicles Remastered, those wanting the local experience can just bring the other versions over. With this in mind, local play would not have worked on all versions of the game, thus Araki and the development team opted to focus on cross-platform play instead.
To many fans, Araki’s explanation for the team’s decision won’t alter much of the ill will put towards the game. The question of local-play within theCrystal Chronicles Remasteredhas been a subject of much debate. Back in May, rumor spread thatCrystal Chronicles Remasteredappeared to have local playdue to a paragraph on the official page on the PlayStation website.
WithCrystal Chronicles Remasteredreleasing later this month, many of those initially excited to return to theFinal Fantasyspin-off have turned away from the title. Square Enix is gambling on cross-platform play to be the defining feature of the title with the publisher evenoffering a Lite version ofCrystal Chronicles Remastered. This will be a free-to-play version of the game that will hopefully allow players to emulate the same co-op feeling of the original without having to buy another version.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remasteredwill be releasing on August 27th 2020 for Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.
