Here is how I believe they should handle the Crystal Chronicles series.

First off, drop the Final Fantasy name. It should be strong enough to stand on its own, and it potentially harms sales since people may see it as just another spin-off. Next should be examining why fans played and enjoyed the GameCube and DS games, and why they avoided Crystal Bearers. Make sure focus is on local multiplayer (that's not to say avoid online multiplayer), the players kicking ass, and most of all, fun -- do not focus on narrative, or other elements that takes control away from the player. Lastly, make a game that people will want to play a year from now. The used game market won't be a problem if you make the game worth owning and keeping.

One last thing. Try to adopt New Generation values. The IR is perfect for using spells, for example.

I think they almost got it right with Crystal Bearers. I think they should make the battle system more detailed, and maybe add multiplayer. I like the open world aspect of crystal bearers, just change the battle system to have a bit more depth.

From a sales perspective they should drop the Final Fantasy name, and market it at the right times, also have a definite release(Crystal Bearers release was everywhere).

Here's my idea. Make a Mana game instead.

Make SaGa instead of FF Gaiden. Make Ogre instead of FF Tactics. Reserve FF spinoffs for stuff directly related to the main games, like Crisis Core, Versus, Agito, Dissidia or remakes. The FF brand is already too diluted and as a result tainted imo, even to the point where spinning off Crystal Chronicles into it's own un-FF-branded series (something they did successfully with Mana way back, and they considered doing with Crystal Bearers actuall) wouldn't work

Drop the series. I don't get why there have to be so many spin-offs. We could have FFXIII and FFXIV out by now...

Just changing series won't help. They need to change how they develop their games, or else they'll just run more of their series into the ground like they did Mana.