The Playable Tribes of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is an action-jrpg released on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2003. I like the world and design of the game and I wanted to talk about it. I've narrowed the scope down to just the tribes because I think I'd write up too much about the world in the game. I'll cover it briefly here anyways.

The world is covered in a deadly miasma but Crystals can stave off the miasma. The Crystals' power must be replenished with Myrrh which can only be found in dangerous dungeons. Towns send out Crystal Caravans to seek out and bring back Myrrh to their homes. You the player (and maybe your friends) join the Crystal Caravan of the town of Tipa (or whatever you named it) and go on an adventure. But before you can start, you gotta create your character.

There are four tribes to pick from: Clavat, Lilty, Selkie, and Yuke. Each tribe has their own stat proficiency and exclusive equipment they use. They each have 8 appearances to choose from: 4 male, 4 female. Now let's start with...




Left to right: Cowlick, Natural, Headband, Cap, Long Hair, Short Hair, Dark Coat, White Cap.

Clavats are the basic human race, the jack-of-all-trades. They use swords and shields to attack and defend. In the world of Crystal Chronicles, they are the most common of all the tribes. They are described as a kind and gentle tribe who dislike conflict. They're the pretty vanilla newbie tribe, what else can I say about them?

I like their designs, they're cute. The Cowlick appearance seems to be the default main guy look as he shows up on the boxart and some other official materials. I like the coats they wear. I think the striped shorts for the males are a little silly (in a good way.) My favorite appearance is the Cap (that's that first character I ever beat the game with). I also like how White Cap invokes the white mage from the mainline Final Fantasy.




Left to right: Bare Head, Horned Helm, Steel Visor, Buckethead, Bare Head, Blue Armor, Elegant, Red Mask.

Lilties are short humanoid plant-like people (note the sprouts on their heads) and, to me at least, they're kinda like dwarves. They have the highest Strength stat but suck at magic. They use spears and lances to attack. In the lore, the Lilty empire used to rule the world but when their mines ran dry, their empire fell apart. They're probably the best tribe to pick for your character, stats wise.

I dunno about their designs... they're too "cutesy" I guess? Their child-like faces kinda ruin their designs a bit, makes them look kinda ugly. It's probably why I like the appearances that cover their face like Buckethead. Also, I wish the male and female designs were more "equal." Why are the female armors more ornate than the males? I wanna play as a female Lilty with a Buckethead but I don't like the way Blue Armor look. Enough complaining, I'll share what I do like about their designs. They're stout and they wear heavy armor, and like I said they kinda remind me of dwarves. My favorite appearances have to be Buckethead and Horned Helm.




Left to right: Wolfie, Shark Eyes, Bandanna, Raccoon Tail, Wolfie, Raccoon Tail, Shark Eyes, Owl Head.

Selkies look similar to Clavats but their main difference is that the Selkie have brightly colored hair (as opposed to the Clavat's natural hair colors) and they wear fur clothing. Selkies are agile and have quicker focus attacks. Apparently they use rackets? as weapons? Is that what those are (I didn't know what they used until now)? Selkies are often thieves and because of this they're kinda scorned by other tribes. There's a Selkie town where if you talk to any of the npcs there, you'll lose money... unless you're a Selkie. I believe Selkies are another good tribe to play as due to their speed.

Appearance wise, they aren't my cup of tea. I can see them appealing to other people, just not me. I like that their appearances are named after animals. I don't have any favorites out of any of them they're just kinda... boring to me. I guess I'd pick the male and female Shark Eyes. I think if they leaned into the animal theming more and just straight up gave them animal ears or other features they'd at least be a little bit more interesting.




Left to right: One Horn, Bumpy, Long Beak, Black Mage, Spiral, Tulip, Spoon, Heart Top.

Saved the best for last, the Yukes are the strangest of the four tribes being the least human looking? They are always seen wearing armor... though in later games it is implied that the Yukes are possessing the armor. They are the tallest of the four tribes and have strange feathery hands. Yukes are focused on teaching knowledge and wisdom usually involving magic. The Yukes have strong proficiency in magic: they have the highest magic stat and quicker magic casting times. They use hammers as weapons, though given that they're magic users you're not gonna use it all that often. I like them a lot but gameplay wise I don't think they're the best. Using magic requires charging it and I'd rather just wack enemies instead.

Visually, the Yukes are my favorite tribe. They're so weird compared to everyone else. What do they look like under there? I find the gender differences to be very funny. I mean, the female Yukes have cone bras. Wh... what? Who thought of that? There's also a devil/angel dichotomy between the genders. Male yukes have devil-like wings and (not seen above) a little devil tail. Female Yukes have angel-like wings. My favorite appearance has to be Spoon (I'm not sure why it's named that, it doesn't look very spoony to me).


Well, those are all of the playable tribes in the game. I don't plan on covering the rest of Crystal Chronicles' world or the other games. I will tell you that the music is really good. I'll leave you with the song that plays in the first dungeon of the game:

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Images sourced from ffcrystalchronicles.tumblr.com