Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a spinoff title that was released for the Nintendo GameCube in August 2003 in Japan and in early 2004 in North America, Europe, and Australia. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is the first Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy VI that was released for a Nintendo console. The game was developed by Square Enix's shell company, The Game Designers Studio, and published by Nintendo.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a spinoff and thus a departure from traditional Final Fantasy titles. The game supports up to four players. The game is set in a semi-apocalyptic world where people must live their lives in refuge from a poisonous miasma surrounding much of the world. The miasma is pushed back by particularly Magical Crystals, although they are not perpetual in their magic, and must be periodically recharged with Myrrh. The adventure of the game is in yearly caravans that set out to collect Myrrh to protect their townspeople.

A remake, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition, is scheduled for a worldwide release for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android on August 27, 2020.

Development
In 2001, following the financial failure of the feature film ''Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Sony purchased a stake in Square, amounting to 19% of shares. After considering their still-poor financial situation and wishing to keep their staff from leaving, Square decided to begin developing titles for Nintendo consoles once again. Sony, whose rivalry with Nintendo had softened with the appearance of Microsoft's Xbox on the console market, agreed to the partnership on the condition that it would not impact development of titles for the PlayStation 2. This resulted in the creation of a shell company named "The Game Designers Studio".

Development of the new project began in late 2001. The title was developed with the aid of Q Fund, a fund set up by Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi to help first-time developers for the GameCube and GBA consoles. During the game's development in 2003, Square underwent a merger with Enix to become Square Enix, although this did not affect the development of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.