A new tidbit has been revealed regarding the remaster of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and it's something that fans might not be too excited about. The game's official website recently described how online multiplayer will work, allowing players to play together across all available platforms, whether it's the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, or Android. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered will also let players transfer their saves across the different systems. However, some fine print hidden at the bottom of the page additionally denotes that players will only be able to match up with those in their own region. Despite the easy accessibility and cross-platform play, the game will lock you to whatever region you bought it in.

And if you were expecting to play Crystal Chronicles Remastered locally, that's a no-go as well. Square Enix won't be including that as a feature for the game, as they feel it is better suited to an online experience.

*In online multiplayer mode, a player will only be matched with others in the region specific to player’s software.

Source

 

[tabzer]

you really think a 20 year old mediocre final fantasy spinoff is a good candidate for this type of market analysis?

Not only that, but it's easier for them to terminate data centers/servers based on the least profitable. Are you really going to stand by your premature conclusion?

I know nothing about this game, but you can still, for example, buy it on the North American eShop while in Europe in order to play with your North American friends, right?

Yes. But you won't be able to play with with your European friends (unless LAN play is on the table). So you have to choose who is more important to you.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Okay, I guess that’ll prevent lag.. but it’s kinda shitty to stop people from trying..

And if you were expecting to play Crystal Chronicles Remastered locally, that's a no-go as well. Square Enix won't be including that as a feature for the game, as they feel it is better suited to an online experience.

… Why? The best part of it originally was the local co-op..

 

[tabzer]

Okay, I guess that’ll prevent lag.. but it’s kinda shitty to stop people from trying..

… Why? The best part of it originally was the local co-op..

You guys are not getting it region locking doesn't prevent lag; it reinforces it. Instead of being paired up with people who are physically located near you, you will be paired with people, across the world, who have the same region copy as you. Online fighter games are starting to adapt to this fact, but it is still a problem at large.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Really disappointing to hear. Give the players the choice to have a lagfest, if they want. It's 2020, people have friends across the world. I'm not affected by the region lock, but I've lost a lot of interest in the game through this.

It's not like we couldn't just, oh, IDK, play the original with friends via streaming with Parsec and its Arcade feature that supports standalone Dolphin.

Region locking can get nuked to shit in 2020 as far as I'm concerned!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

You guys are not getting it region locking doesn't prevent lag; it reinforces it. Instead of being paired up with people who are physically located near you, you will be paired with people, across the world, who have the same region copy as you. Online fighter games are starting to adapt to this fact, but it is still a problem at large.

This is why you introduce rollback...

 

[Kioku]

Okay, I guess that’ll prevent lag.. but it’s kinda shitty to stop people from trying..

… Why? The best part of it originally was the local co-op..

Well, for same system (couch) coop? It required up to 4 GBA systems and their respective cables. This gave each player their own screen for the menus and what not. I think it'd be a bit harder to make that work on a modern port.

 

[tabzer]

This is why you introduce rollback...

That might fool some people! But when Dissidia came out for the PS4, it wasn't region locked based on the software, but based on the registered country of the profile using it. It was a mess because it couldn't use rollback. Being (quasi)region locked and relying on net-delay compounded the lag issue into such a horrible experience.

I like when games can let you choose your location for connection purposes, without changing the language of the game. (Rocket League, SFV, Tekken--I believe, and others)

 

[Ericthegreat]

strange choice, i wonder why

JP ONRY

 

[leon315]

BTW, haven't played Monster hunter yet, is that regionlocked too?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Lack of couch coop is one thing.. But it sounds like we won't even be able to play over local wireless or even LAN.

Omitting LAN play is sadly kind of the norm these days. That said, besides some unfortunate places like Cuba, everyone has some form of internet connection in order to do online matchmaking, and beyond that, the connection is most likely done directly user to user, so the experience is mostly the same as a direct LAN connection, the only time you'd run into issues is if your internet went down and you couldn't play. Kinda sucks in the few cases where you don't have an internet connection though, such as on plane trips. I could see a few friends/family members with Switches and FFCC being a great way to make a plane trip go by quickly, but eh, there are other games to play.

 

[Kioku]

Omitting LAN play is sadly kind of the norm these days. That said, besides some unfortunate places like Cuba, everyone has some form of internet connection in order to do online matchmaking, and beyond that, the connection is most likely done directly user to user, so the experience is mostly the same as a direct LAN connection, the only time you'd run into issues is if your internet went down and you couldn't play. Kinda sucks in the few cases where you don't have an internet connection though, such as on plane trips. I could see a few friends/family members with Switches and FFCC being a great way to make a plane trip go by quickly, but eh, there are other games to play.

See, I'm not really a fan of normalizing the removal of local play. Whether or not people have internet isn't the issue here. It's that you have to connect to the internet just to play with friends or family. Even if you're in the same home.

Also, no... P2P (User to User) is not the same as LAN. On any possible level. The amount of latency introduced can hinder the experience on a lot of games.

 

[Issac]

A low fidelity map on the GBA and constantly having your stats on display isn't a good enough reason to ditch local co-op. It could be solved easily with today's higher resolution screens, and small button triggered boxes that pops up over your character or whatever.

 

[eyeliner]

This probably isn't a move to enhance user experience. Just consider how many people who live outside of their native country that might be interested in the game. It is likely that this move is meant to help SE in their demographics analysis in order to determine which kind of titles are most profitable per region for their marketing of future, more expensive, projects.

If they were interested in creating lower latency, they'd pair people base on actual latency, and not keeping language/cultural barriers artificially intact at the expense of a more efficient connection.

I'm not really inclined to believe it has to do with a market analysis standpoint. They can just filter IP's and find the region where a player is for all of that, just like they prevent you from playing with people in other continents. Telemetry data goes a long way.

I'd like to try this game, as I hear some good things about it, but guess what? Most of my gaming friends are from forums. Worldwide. I don't have a single bit of motivation to get this one as it is.

For a game almost specifically designed for multiplayer, slashing the potential match-making doesn't bode well for the game's longevity.

Thanks to helping me save money, Square!

 

[PiracyForTheMasses]

Region locking is the sensible thing to do. Wish more games did the same.

 

[Arras]

a player will only be matched with others in the region

The wording kind of implies this is only for random matchmaking, not playing with friends, in which case this is not an issue at all. Trying to minimize ping when you're playing with randoms is something all games do. As for local co-op, it's unfortunate but probably just a business decision. Not enough people use it to justify programming in all the UI and other stuff related to it (it would likely be a fair amount of work). It's not ideal but if you only have one console, you can just use the phone version to join a friend as long as you have an internet connection. Unless it's confirmed somewhere that this region matching is the case even when you're specifically trying to invite certain players, this just seems like bad clickbait?

 

[Silent_Gunner]

See, I'm not really a fan of normalizing the removal of local play. Whether or not people have internet isn't the issue here. It's that you have to connect to the internet just to play with friends or family. Even if you're in the same home.

Also, no... P2P (User to User) is not the same as LAN. On any possible level. The amount of latency introduced can hinder the experience on a lot of games.

I feel this. I have an older brother who, along with his wife, are trying to cut down on expenses, and they're considering cutting the Internet bill and just using their phones as wi-fi hotspots. IDK how a wi-fi hotspot handles compared to a traditional Internet connection as I never considered trying it out before, but let's just say that if Parsec lags like hell on this, hoo boi, because trying to play games locally, especially on a PC even if it's in an ITX case, can be a hassle to transport even compared to a traditional console! Not to mention COVID lockdowns and other shit like that.

 

[Rail Fighter]

Ok, I will get a japanese vpn.

 

[GbaNober]

Ouch no Local play, that's disappointing.

 

[The Frenchman]

People complaining about no local play, there never was, that was the point of the GBA connectivity, play it on switch face to face.

People importing the japanese physical copy will be limited to that region... that is bad though

 

[Ryab]

strange choice, i wonder why

This remake is just getting one bad thing after another. First they say there's no local play. Now there's region locked online?

 

[SilverWah]

Region locked online?
I smell delay based netcode...