Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time
A triumphant return from a monster-infested forest marks the completion of the 16-year-old hero’s coming-of-age ceremony. However, the hero’s joy is short-lived as a young village girl is found to be afflicted by a mysterious illness known as “crystal sickness.” Determined to obtain the cure, the hero steps out of the secluded village for the first time, only to discover a world in which crystals are merely artifacts of the past and no longer exist…
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Staircase movement action sucks
Remember block graphics? Like when Fry becomes Futurama’s savior when Space Invaders attack? No diagonal lines allowed, just staircased blocks? Ok, that’s what you get in this game if you try to move NE, i.e., go N, go E, go N, go E…. With practice leaning on the Plus arrows, you can do it fairly quickly. But, gosh heck, Final Fantasy ONE — the FIRST FF game EVAH — solved this problem on the Game Boy Advance! And Nintendo DS can’t do that?! Maybe it’s better on the Wii, but in my aggrieved opinion on the NDS, this game should be rated N for Nobody.
5 Stars Fun Game, Reminded Me Of Zelda Somewhat
I bought this game when I finally realized it wasn’t turn based as are the Final Fantasy games I had played previously. I didn’t know how I would like it, but decided to gamble. I hate multiplayer games, so this review is only for the single player experience. I really like this game, and have spent many hours playing through it. The controls are a bit tough, but I got used to how to control the game pretty quickly. What I liked most about the game is that it is similar to zelda where you go into a dungeon (or temple, ruins, etc.) and fight monsters and solve puzzles to move from room to room, with a big boss fight at the end. The story line in my opinion was fun, though I guess not the best ever. I didn’t think it was quite as horrible as some people are saying. This is actually one of my favorite games I have for my DS, and I am now going to buy the first crystal chronicles game for the DS, ring of fates.
4 Stars Best as portable cooperative multiplayer
I’ve have been looking for a cooperative multiplayer game that is family-friendly for quite a while. My kids are all in elementary school, so an E rating is much preferred. Cooperative is also a must because there is enough sibling rivalry without a chosen form of entertainment making it worse. Plus I have a soft spot for role-playing games. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time is the latest game in our search.
The FF:CC series has made strides in this category but is far from perfect. The first game (on Gamecube) was fun but required so much investment in gameboys and connection cords that assembling a decent party was expensive and rare. Plus, everyone had to stay on screen and trying to have a preschool daughter understand that concept only resulted in her frequent death and tears.
FF:CC Ring of Fates was an improvement. It was expensive despite waiting for the costs to decrease enough to outfit the entire family. The portability on Nintendo DS was a big help for those long car trips. And the ability to pick up players was essential for getting my daughter through the difficult jumps and problematic camera angle. However, magic wielding was a hassle and solo adventuring ho-hum.
That brings us to FF:CC Echoes of Time. It is a notable improvement on Ring of Fates for both single and multiplayer formats. However, there are definite pros and cons to this game. Having shelled out for a copy of both the Wii and DS versions, I would 100% recommend the Nintendo DS over the Wii unless you just don’t have access to one. The graphics and the juggling of screens on the Wii is irritating.
Game Features:
COOPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER–the game industry just doesn’t make enough of these types of games (in the non-zombie/mutant/soldier killing style). Puzzles are much easier with more hands and minds. And the bosses go down faster. Plus people can actually specialize with multiplayer.
FF:CC Echoes brings home the money for multiplayer co-op. It’s easy to start a party at any save point (usually at the start of every quest section, just prior to a boss fight or in the main town). The drop-in, drop-out function works smoothly. You can have parties with local wireless for people in the same room or work over Wi-Fi for friends or strangers.
Parties can be 2-4 players with any DS hosting as long as everyone has a copy of the game. Unfortunately, there can be a bothersome lag when visiting someone over Wi-Fi. I haven’t checked over Wi-Fi more locally, but when I partied with a friend halfway across the country, the lag bordered on unplayable for timing jumps. There are still competitive mini-quests for fun. And the squabbles over dropped items/money hasn’t been fully eliminated.
If you don’t know anyone with the game, you can create and gear your own party of non-player characters. Unfortunately, they’re very dense, getting lost, jumping into lava, not healing you. Their only redeeming features is that they make killing faster and they don’t steal your loot.
GEAR/ITEMS: FF:CC has a good system for leveling up players, gear or magic. It seems like someone or something bumps up at least once in every room. Materials can be crafted into better gear. A few materials can be purchased or won in the mini-games.
Every town seems to have a stage where you can primp and posture and admire yourself close-up. Or make your party members admire you since it enlarges on their screen too.
There are ways to customize gear and recycle old gear to improve new ones. The game also has a gear “storage” system if you grow attached to something and want to use it for another character. One of my sons loves to squeeze every last attribute out of an item, so this aspect of the game will keep him happy for some time to come.
FIGHTING/MOVEMENT: Okay, I’ll say it right now, I hate the perspective in FF:CC. With the controller, going any direction besides the main 4 can be a pain, especially if you have to time a double jump-ed special attack. There are too many walls you can’t see around because the perspective is fixed. My kids seem to have less trouble than I do (and they *are* better players) so maybe it’s just me. The fact that one player can pick up another and jump them through the zone has been a lifesaver for the very young (my daughter) and the very old (no comment).
Magic casting is better than Ring of Fates because you have a mana bar and no longer have to collect the mini spell-balls. It’s still takes an extra step to change spells, especially on the Wii. I wish the targeting system would lock on a person rather than trying to follow a character around with a ring of colored light. It’s a hassle to try to heal a fellow party member when they’re running away from monsters.
Overall, the kids are enjoying this game a lot. I will have to probably fork out for another copy so no one is completely left behind. Dungeon crawling has some cute puzzles mixed in with the fighting. Communication with people over Wi-Fi is limited to a set number of sayings, though you can design your own. It’s rather cumbersome to search through the menus to say “wait one second” before attacking a monster.
ADVANTAGES: excellent cooperative multiplayer RPG, good balance of puzzles and dungeons, smooth local partying
DISADVANTAGES: horrible perspective, mediocre single player and storyline, dreadful LAG over Wi-Fi (hope it improves; told Super Smash Bros Brawl had a lot of online lag when it first started), expensive to buy for the family
2 Stars Strong multi-player, painful single-player experience
This game could have been really great, but I have to be honest… it isn’t anywhere near as fun as it should be. The hype promised Diablo-like multi-player dungeon crawling, and to a certain extent, that is true, but the overall implementation is lacking, especially the controls. For each good thing going for this game, it seems to have at least one equally bad feature that actively impedes my enjoyment.
FIRST THE GOOD STUFF:
+++ GRAPHICS: Fully 3-d graphics with a bright and lush color palette. One of the best graphical showcases on the DS.
+++ SOUND: Quite good, which isn’t a surprise since Square-Enix take pride in the music in their games.
+++ MULTI-PLAYER: The multi-player options are solid and connecting to friends is easily done either through local wire-less access or through Wi-Fi internet connections, allowing up to four players to play at once. In this respect, the game is a winner in ways most DS games completely fail. You can invite other players to your game, jumping fairly seamlessly from one-player to multi-player in seconds. More games should do this. I can’t emphasize enough how awesome this is. Oh, and you can play with players who own the game on the Wii… a very nice touch but not one that I will likely use. A lot of thought went into the multi-player, and it shows.
+++ LEVELS: Lots of levels and dungeons to explore with a variety of environmental puzzles. None of it is mind-shatteringly amazing, but the level designs are still quite good.
AND THE PROBLEMS…
— THE CONTROLS: If there is one thing that ruins a game quickly, it is poor controls. The controls in this game are stiff, unresponsive, and unnecessarily complicated. Aiming magical attacks is slow and kind of sloppy. The magic stacking system is important to gameplay and is a really cool idea, but the controls required are actually a little too awkward to ever make it feel natural. Because of this, combat for anyone other than melee characters can feel slow. Additionally, since the game utilizes an isometric 3d perspective for all of the levels, the controls quickly cause hand fatigue because you will spend a lot of time holding the small DS directional pad diagonally. Narrow ledges and platforming jumps are made much more difficult than they should be due to the stiff controls.
— INVISIBLE WALL SYNDROME: This game suffers from invisible wall syndrome for no good reason. Some areas you can get to easily while others are inexplicably blocked off by an invisible wall. Annoying, but not a deal breaker.
— COMPUTER AI IS TERRIBLE: Your companions in single-player mode are appallingly stupid regardless of what AI settings you give them. Most of the time they seem to stand there and do nothing like a small squad of abnormally large-headed anime cheerleaders watching their football quarterback getting ganked in the school parking lot by the opposing team while he tries to stack footballs. It’s actually easier to just get rid of your team-mates and go it alone.
— TERRIBLE STORY: I’d describe it, but then I’d have to think about it. Luckily, you can skip any story scenes if you want, so this isn’t a deal breaker either. I’ll tolerate a bad story if the multi-player delivers good fun.
— SINGLE PLAYER MODE: The above problems honestly make the single-player mode almost impossible to enjoy for any length of time. A complete shame…
I read several professional reviews that sang praises to this game before I decided to make a purchase, and I’ll be honest… I feel lied to. Almost none of them mentioned the controls to any degree. There is always the chance that I am just some drooling moron possessing 7 thumbs and a pinkie per hand and am incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, but I’ve played far more sophisticated games without suffering this much difficulty. If the controls wouldn’t have been so frustrating (or if the DS had an analog joystick), I probably could have given this game 3 or possibly even 4 stars just because the multi-player is so well done. As it is, I can only recommend this game if you have other friends that also plan on getting this game for the multi-player.
Buy/More Info
PS3 Games Adventure Big Boss, Block Graphics, Coming Of Age Ceremony, Diagonal Lines, Echoes Of Time, Ff Game, Fight Monsters, Final Fantasy Crystal, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy Games, Fun Game, Game Boy Advance, Multiplayer Games, Mysterious Illness, Player Experience, Space Invaders, Temple Ruins, Triumphant Return, Village Girl, Wii
