Crystal Chronicles Has the Best Final Fantasy Music

Does Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, a game long forgotten in the Final Fantasy series, have the best soundtrack of all of the games? Brian thinks so. Let him convince you.

[andrineslife]

Oh boy do I like seeing passionate people talk about the things they love.

[Mizuru]

BUSTS DOWN THE DAMN DOOR

I'M SO HAPPY THAT SOMEONE ELSE LOVES THIS GAME AND THE MUSIC OF IT. It is the ONLY Final Fantasy game that I still remember every single song to. All of them. It's such a good soundtrack and I could go on and on and on about how much I love each and every track. I'VE FOUND FAMILY.

[treyolathecrayola]

THIS GAME EXISTED FOR OTHER PEOPLE TOO?! I THOUGHT IT WAS A CHILDHOOD DREAM. I LOVED THIS GAME AAAH

[akiinmoonlight]

They should remaster it for Switch...

[nightingem]

I love Brian videos like this!! He’s so passionate and knowledgeable and engaging!!

[JoshFTL]

I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS THANK YOU

[Belleuchtung]

The editing on this video is superb- the battle overlay in the random battle bit and the "identifying rings" bit were both hilarious. Good job whoever edited this (Brian or Clayton, I'm guessing)! Now, on-topic, Nobuo is a fantastic composer, but almost all of Square's other composers are just as good as him, and not just Tankioka. FF13, for all its faults, has my favorite video game soundtrack, period, and that one was composed by Masashi Hamauzu. Square's just got really good contacts in the realm of game music, all around.

[RyanCG]

Seriously, Crystal Chronicles music hits my nostalgia harder than any other soundtrack. Every single song is just so evocative of the levels you find them in and they take me right back through my Gamecube memories.

[thefinaljoke]

There's literally no reason I could hate you for this video, because Crystal Chronicles has my favourite video game soundtrack of all time. This OST literally never gets kicked out of my playlists and there's barely a week when I don't listen to at least a couple tracks. It has so many memorable songs, the instrumentation is insanely good and unique and the music is full of little nice details. I love the Final Fantasy games (FFIX is probably my all time favourite game), but what Kumi Tanioka did with this soundtrack still leaves me speechless.

[opekamma]

That unskippable opening scene at the very beginning of this game was ONLY tolerable every time bc of the music that got stuck in my head for years after as a kid. It put me enough into the mindspace of the game I was about to play that my tiny adhd butt didn't get up and do something else and forget I had a game on the TV entirely.

[Hannah-xhcc]

Brian’s really leaning into the “whimsical joyous pixie” brand here 🌱

[connor]

I have been trying to tell people this since it’s release in the early 2000s. I purchased the cd from Japan and have played the cd so much it has eroded to dust. Bought another and that one was used so much until it no longer worked. The music feeds your soul and literally makes the game AN EXPERIENCE❣️ I have been waiting for the remastered for so SO long.

[TIkTakz]

FINALLY I've always said this game had my favorite Final Fantasy music of all time and it's nice to get some validation on this

[crome]

I literally bought Crystal Chronicles when I was 10 solely because I loved the soundtrack. 13 years later, it's still my all time favorite video game soundtrack, and has influenced many of my writing projects. Kumi Tanioka is AMAZING

[caraminez]

Why would you say something so controversial and yet so brave?

[PhaseTheProphet]

hypotenuse

The one that always sticks out for me is Final Fantasy Tactics. The fact that it's clearly midi tracks or something might turn people off, but similar to how CC's music reinforces its setting, Tactics' music accentuates the dramatic character interactions in a way that I haven't really seen in other FF games. Like, Uematsu's work is fantastic, but Sakamoto's music had me buying into the premise more than I usually do with fantasy games in general. It's hard for me to put a pin on why, but I think it may just be that Tactics almost has the appearance of a stage drama like King Lear and the composition sounds like something you might hear if a story like that were turned into a musical. It's hard to describe, but I've loved it since I first picked up the game.

[thebookpotato]

The music from this game has been in my head since I played it way back as a teenager. A week doesn't go by when I don't hum or whistle one of the tracks.

[AuRelixRa]

I would love to see a Crystal Chronicles game for Switch. This is such a great video!
Edit: oh my god it’s HAPPENING!

[DanJF]

I thought I was the only one who appreciated this soundtrack! I always go back and listen to it. It is one of my favorites!!!

[Hallblithe]

I’m so delighted by this video! I agree wholeheartedly, and have (quietly) held this opinion this for years. Of all the Final Fantasy soundtracks, this is the one I’m most likely to play while working at my computer or doing household tasks like cooking (I’ve even been known to put selections from it on as dinner music when entertaining guests!), many of its themes are in heavy rotation in my regular absent-minded whistling repertoire, and it’s among the first albums I’ve used to introduce music to my infant son. I initially came it it from a slightly different angle—I’d been an avid ‘early music’ listener for years before hearing this score, so I was already a great fan of crumhorns, recorders, and the like—but it warms the cockles of my heart to see someone else who’s loved this music as much as I have. And like you said, that’s no slight against Uematsu (or Sakimoto, whose works I also adore)—it’s just doing a different thing!