This was confirmed by the game’s official Japanese Twitter account, where it explained that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered local co-op was scrapped due to “development reasons.” Apparently, the development team had to choose whether to focus on offline co-op or online co-op, and ultimately decided to pursue online instead “so that more people can play.” Why both options couldn’t be offered like is seen in many other multiplayer games wasn’t really made clear, unfortunately.
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While the lack of local co-op in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered is disappointing, the bright side is that players can still play with their friends without everyone buying their own copy of the game. It’s been confirmed that there will be a free-to-play version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered that includes the first three dungeons. And if those players connect with someone that actually owns the game, they can access the rest of the dungeons, too. It may not scratch quite the same itch as local co-op would, but it still makes the co-op functionality in general accessible to more players.
It’s important to note that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered supports cross-play, so players don’t even need to be playing on the same system to experience the online co-op together. This should make playing co-op in the game as painless as possible despite the lack of local co-op options.
Of course, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered will feature some other enhancements as well. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered has improved visuals, music, and new dungeons, so even those that have played the original extensively may still want to consider checking out the remaster, local co-op or not.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition launches on August 27 for iOS, Android, PS4, and Switch.
MORE: What is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered?
