10. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (series)

The Crystal Chronicles games have had just as many shifts and changes as the mainline Final Fantasy games, but I still have a lot of fondness for that original 2003 GameCube adventure. It was a four-player cooperative action game that centered on a caravan of adventurers traveling to new, dangerous lands. The battle system was simple, but the cooperative element made it so players would have to take turns carrying a protective vessel while others fought enemies, or they’d have to drop it and stand their ground in a small space. It might sound frustrating on paper, but it kinda ruled, and made Crystal Chronicles feel like a communal adventure.

The trouble was Square managed to complicate that first game in a new, annoying way by requiring all players to connect a Game Boy Advance to the GameCube instead of just using standard controllers. Remember when Nintendo thought having to buy whole other game systems to use basic features was cool?

After Crystal Chronicles’ debut, the subseries tried different genres like city building in My Life as a King and tower defense in My Life as a Darklord, but it all came screeching to a halt with 2009’s The Crystal Bearers, which was more of an action game and wasn’t received particularly well. That original game, however, is still something pretty special. — Kenneth Shepard

Read more: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Doesn’t Fix What Needed Fixing

Purchase From: Amazon