Deserves more respect and is a great looking game but still has it's downs
The game starts with a beautiful cutscene with top noch music. After the cutscene the game will be asking you what you want to name your town. After you name your town you can start to create your first caravanner. You can choose from four tribes, Clavats, Lilties, Yuke and Selkies. Each tribe has four differnt set of appearances depending on gender for your caravanner which is how you will be looking like the whole entire game. After you choosed your tribe you will name the caravanner and choose your family trade which are, fishermen, farmer, merchant, blacksmith, tailor, alchemist, rancher and miller.
After you got your character set you can finally start playing the game. The whole concept of the game is to collect myrrh so you can protect your village from being consumed by the deadly miasma. It's the cyrstal that keeps the miasma at bay but over in time the crystal diminishes. So caravans collect and carry myrrh in crystal chalices which also protects caravans from miasma. But in order to collect myrrh you have to find myrrh trees that are found in dungeons. But as the game progresses the stroyline gets alot deeper and much more interesting.
The gameplay is based on just slashing your enemies depedning on your tribe. Clavats use swords as their primary weapon and is usually seen more of a balanced tribe but still has the best defense and can use sheilds. Lilties use spears as primary weapon and have the highest attack, Yukes primary weapon is hammers but they are best seen as spell casters. Selkies primary weapon is duel shooters and are the fastest tribe with quicker focus attacks and longer range.
What makes the game very interesting is multiplayer mode. The mode is entirly based on teamwork and makes the game very fun. In multiplayer mode one person has to carry the chalice which kind of takes one man away. But also you have to combine spells to create more powerful spell. In single player mode is differnt you just have to combine the two spells you found in your command list. Also multiplayer mode the game is set in a harder level seeing as you have extra help. In single player mode you have a moogle to carry a chalice for you.
The graphics are top noch and one of the best looking games for the gamecube. The game is very smooth and shows shadows very good. I thought the tribes was very nicely done and looked pretty cool. The game doesn't give alot of artiistic feel but still looks awsome and is closer to realism graphics.
The sound is also great. I love the soundtrack and is pretty cool. The game gives alot of celtic music and has it's own rythem which is quite well done. I also loved the intro song and is one of square best song. I also recalled the song was also in FF10? But anyway I thought the sound is great and top noch even for Square.
The replay value can extand for as long as you like. You can keep on playing to make your caravanner the best and getting the ultimate weapon. Also you can always replay the dugeons and continue to play through years in the game. But of course if you don't like to play the dungeons all the time their is one side quest to find the princess. But it can start to get boring replaying dungeons and the game doesn't offer that much so it can start to get repittive.
The game isn't perfect and of course has it's done sides like most games. In single player mode you have the moogle carry the chalice. But after some time the moogle gets tired and starts to slow down. This can get fraustrating when your fighting a boss. Also it kind of stinks how you have to buy GBA cables to play multiplayer mode. So the game isn't perfect so but still is great in multiplayer mode. It can use a better storyline since it takes till your 5th year till you can start getting into the game.