GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles vs FINAL FANTASY IX

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is an RPG game from The Game Designers Studio (2003) while FINAL FANTASY IX is a JRPG open-world game from Square Enix (2016).

Quick answer: FINAL FANTASY IX has the higher Metacritic, 84 to 80.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

2003 · The Game Designers Studio

80Metacritic

FINAL FANTASY IX

2016 · Square Enix

8.1GamingPickz Score

$20.99

Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

What each one is

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is filed under RPG. In contrast, FINAL FANTASY IX under JRPG and Open-World.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is an action role-playing video game developed by The Game Designers Studio for the GameCube. It was released in 2003 in Japan and 2004 in North America, Europe and Australia. A remastered version for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Android, and iOS was released in August 2020. A spin-off of the Final Fantasy series and beginning of the series of the same name, Crystal Chronicles was the first title in the franchise to be released for a Nintendo home console since Final Fantasy VI in 1994.

Description from Wikipedia

FINAL FANTASY IX

Selling over five million copies since its release in 2000, FINAL FANTASY IX proudly returns on Steam! Now you can relive the adventures of Zidane and his crew on PC !

Description from its Steam store page

Story, characters and reception

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Plot

Crystal Chronicles takes place in an unnamed fantasy world inhabited by four races. The player takes control of a caravan hailing from the village of Tipa, in which members of the world's four races come together to help its mission. One thousand years before the game's events, the world's sustaining Great Crystal was shattered by a meteorite carrying an alien lifeform called the Meteor Parasite. (Wikipedia)

Reception

Reception Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu praised the game's fairytale aesthetic and unconventional treatment of the RPG genre; journalists Shane Bettenhausen, Jennifer Tsao and Kevin Gifford Electronic Gaming Monthly each gave the game high praise for its innovation in gameplay and graphical style. Eurogamer s Rob Fahey gave the game a near-perfect score, noting the clear production values and calling it "one of the best action RPGs" he played; his only… (Wikipedia)

FINAL FANTASY IX

No Wikipedia detail on file.

At a glance

Final Fantasy Crystal ChroniclesFINAL FANTASY IX
GamingPickz Score—8.1/10
Steam rating—Overwhelmingly Positive (95%, 14,266)
Critic aggregate80/10084/100
PriceUnknown$20.99
Install size—7 GB
Steam DeckUntestedplayable
Released20032016
DeveloperThe Game Designers StudioSquare Enix

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles vs FINAL FANTASY IX, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Final Fantasy Crystal ChroniclesRPG game
    FINAL FANTASY IXJRPG open-world game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Final Fantasy Crystal ChroniclesNo descriptive tags
    FINAL FANTASY IXJRPG, Story Rich, Fantasy

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Final Fantasy Crystal ChroniclesMetacritic 80
    FINAL FANTASY IX ✓Metacritic 84

    Metacritic's critic aggregate, from the game's Wikipedia reception where it was never on Steam.

  4. Content and scale

    Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles—
    FINAL FANTASY IX14,266 reviews · 3 add-ons · 7 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Final Fantasy Crystal ChroniclesUnknown
    FINAL FANTASY IX$20.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

FINAL FANTASY IX takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The better reviewed of the two: FINAL FANTASY IX (Metacritic 84)

Where they differ

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is also

FINAL FANTASY IX is also

JRPGStory RichGreat SoundtrackFantasyRPGClassic

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. FINAL FANTASY IX is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and 3 for FINAL FANTASY IX. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and FINAL FANTASY IX in scope?

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles lists little scope data. FINAL FANTASY IX has drawn 14,266 Steam reviews, ships 3 add-ons and installs in 7 GB.

Is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles or FINAL FANTASY IX better?

Neither carries enough reviews for us to score it reliably, so we do not call a winner. The table above shows what each does have.

Which is cheaper, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles or FINAL FANTASY IX?

One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.

Should I get Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles or FINAL FANTASY IX?

FINAL FANTASY IX has the higher Metacritic, 84 to 80. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

All comparisons

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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