Well I think Square set CrystalBearers to fail.
I remember first hearing about Crystal Bearers and seeing the launch trailer at E3 2006. I almost wet myself the game looked like a true sequal to CrystalChronicals. CrystalChronicals was one of my favorite GameCube games, I loved linking up some GBA's and playing four player with a couple buddies. The core game was also very satisfying and it held its own against my Nintendo dominated library.
But then they showed another trailer, with a new protagonist and totally new gameplay. GamePlay that I say resembles more of an action/adventure title then that of a realtime RPG. It didn't sink in with the first trailer that the game was taking a whole new route, I still thought it was going to be a real time RPG with some new features and a new protagonist.
But then the gameplay trailer was shown and the announcement came that Crystal Bearers was going to be a single player title removing all the co-op gameplay that made Chronicals so addictive. Then they showed the battle system and it doesn't look anything like Chronical's, this dissapointed me beyond belief. The game looks like its goal is to challenge the likes of Zelda, which it cannot possibly do!
Now the announcement that the game will last only 15 hours, and the release date on boxing day just after the Christmas rush and I have to say I can't see this title breaking 250K. It's not true to the CrystalChronical's formula, its only fifteen hours and it launches right after the holiday's. Who is going to buy this title?
The only people who will buy this title are the fanboys, the die hard Final Fantasy fans who buy everything with Final Fantasy in the name. I plan to rent it and see how good it is before buying it and I bet their won't be a large number of sales considering it's launching in the wake of Christmas with a diluted control scheme!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
