I am writing this quick note from up in the clouds on June 18th. When I will actually get to somewhere with internet to post it, I don’t know. I’m on a plane now (Midwest Airlines, they give us fresh baked cookies!) heading from General Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee to SEA-TAC in Washington State for my summer job. I will have my computer with me, but internet access on the Olympic Peninsula at the summer camp where I work is very, very limited. I may be able to access it once per week, if that.
Hope everyone has a great summer and thanks for reading so far!
Sean
P.S. I posted a link to another blog you may find interesting. The author is a friend of mine from my Seattle days. Take a moment to check it out!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Final Fantasy: My Life as a King Review
I recently purchased Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King on WiiWare, the buy-then-download game service that just debuted on the Wii. I decided to inaugurate my game review skills with this game. This review was originally written for Gamespot and can be found here: http://www.gamespot.com/wii/strategy/finalfantasycrystalchroniclestheyoungkingandthepromisedland/player_review.html?id=576822. If you are gaming inclined, it may be a game to look into. I have enjoyed it so far.
Here's the review:
-------------------
OK, so the game is pretty good. This game, like almost any other game, isn't perfect. Keep in mind that this is the first time a game like this has been made, at least by Square Enix.
When I first read about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (MLAK), I was immediately reminded of a very minor gameplay mechanic from Final Fantasy: Tactics (FF:T). In FF:T, you have the ability to send members of your clan on side missions that remove them from your party for a certain amount of time while you continue on the main storyline. Eventually, the clan members return either with the pomp of victory or the agony of defeat. To make a full game using just this mechanic would be a disaster, so Square Enix took that mechanic and made it the core of the gameplay for the RPG-City Builder My Life as a King.
The RPG aspect of this game does a pretty good job. It is clear that Square Enix put a lot of effort into making a role-reversal for your character, going so far as to include turn-by-turn accounts of the battles your adventurers engage in (while this may initially seem like a gimmick, it gets very useful when you hit a wall in a dungeon and can look up exactly what went wrong to adjust your next venture). All of your initial adventurers start as level 1 warriors, blank slates for you, the king, to write on. Each day you can either send your adventurers off to gain XP or to complete a behest. A behest is like a royal order - you can issue a behest that your explorers head out and map a dungeon (giving you tactical advantage against monsters in that dungeon) or send them off to face a dungeon boss. While occasionally other behests can be made (you can order a city-wide holiday, for example), these will be the main two behests you make. As you progress through the game and unlock more options, your gain the ability to order your minions to change jobs. This is one of the stumbling blocks of the game: to have your adventurers change jobs, you have to use up a whole behest. If you only have one behest (eventually you gain the ability to issue more than one a day, but that may take a while), you basically waste a day in order to have one or two characters change from one job to another. This problem is solved by your handy ability to end your day at any time by shaking the wiimote and selecting "End Day." Just like a standard FF character, your adventurers level up and as king you must make sure that they head into a dungeon that matches their skill level.
The city builder aspect is somewhat lacking in customization, but adds to the overall RPG experience. Don't buy this game if you are looking for the next Sim City. Your kingdom starts out an empty slate with sets of glowing green squares placed in city-block layout all about. To build, simply stand on a square and the shake the Wiimote to call up the building options (eventually, you get to demolish buildings using this same method). Your selection of buildings starts out with just a house. Eventually, as your adventurers explore the surrounding dungeons, you unlock more buildings. With each new building comes a new job, set of skills, set of items, etc. This adds to the overall RPG experience in that you start out simple, but branch out as the game progresses. Yes, the houses you build are the same 3 house models over and over, and your initial set of buildings is very limited, but if you are getting hung up on that, you aren't taking a holistic view of the game.
While the RPG and City Builder portions of the game hold up well, the remainder of the gameplay seems somewhat lacking. There are many minor issues that range from superficial details to truly irritating. Among the most irritating is the story, which is an absolute mess. I won't spoil any details, but suffice it to say that the high standard of story that Square Enix has held itself to for the past 8 years fell flat on its face. In one memorable cutscence, the storyline contradicts its own timeline twice! After many of the cutscenes, I found myself more confused over when the different events in the timeline happened. (SPOILER HERE) Even more irritating is the fact that the main characters seem unfazed by the corrupted of the crystal which provides the power to build the city. In the cutscene mentioned earlier, we find out that the crystal contains the life-essence of evil, and that their using it for construction causes the evil to get stronger, and they just keep chugging along using it. At least, that's how I managed to interpret the utterly disastrous storyline. (SPOILER ENDS HERE)
There are also several minor issues in the game, the most obvious being the lack of instruction, especially when it is needed. In order to build some of the buildings, you need to partake in special missions. The game never actually tells you this. I wasted 10 days sending my adventurers out on standard XP building missions before I figured out what the next step was. This isn't helped by the sometimes strange comments made by the townspeople. For example, the townspeople will tell you that 'all you need to do to declare a national holiday is click on the castle and issue a behest' well before you unlock that as an option. They will also talk about the benefits they are receiving from buildings they seem to think are in the city even if you have not unlocked that building for construction. I consider myself a well experienced gamer, but when townspeople start telling me to do things that don't yet exist in the game and no in-game instruction pops up to give more details I got frustrated. But, if a gamer is aware of this going in the negative effects are less.
Visually the game does well, save for the temporary lag that seems to occur whenever you build a new building. There is a nice vantage point that gives you an overview of the city and after you have built it up a bit, the view of the different rooftops and architecture can be spectacular. The city itself isn't so big that it takes forever to walk from place to place, but still provides the feel of a frontier kingdom. There isn't much variance in the building models for the individual building types, but since you will only have one (MAYBE two) of each building, it shouldn't be a problem. Most noticeably cookie-cutter are the houses, but in reality most houses in a neighborhood look the same anyway. In order to add a little variation (and to entice you to part with a few more Wii points), Square Enix has downloadable packs that vary from 100 points for an outfit for the king (useless) to 300-900 point building packs that give you different benefits. None of these are necessary, but are very helpful. The problem is that, after all is said and done, you have spent $30 on a game that was only supposed to cost $15, and while the game is good, its negatives begin to add up.
BOTTOM LINE: The important aspects of the game (the RPG and city builder) do a fairly good job, the game has enough minor issues, such as a confusing story, that add up to make it ALMOST worth a lower score. This is an example of a game's good qualities truly making up for it's problems. If you are interested enough in the game to read through this review, go out and buy it right now. You will enjoy it. For the rest of you: give it a shot, just make sure you know what you are buying and don't expect perfection. This game shows very good potential and with further revising and expansion of the mechanics, a sequel would be very fun indeed.
Here's the review:
-------------------
OK, so the game is pretty good. This game, like almost any other game, isn't perfect. Keep in mind that this is the first time a game like this has been made, at least by Square Enix.
When I first read about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (MLAK), I was immediately reminded of a very minor gameplay mechanic from Final Fantasy: Tactics (FF:T). In FF:T, you have the ability to send members of your clan on side missions that remove them from your party for a certain amount of time while you continue on the main storyline. Eventually, the clan members return either with the pomp of victory or the agony of defeat. To make a full game using just this mechanic would be a disaster, so Square Enix took that mechanic and made it the core of the gameplay for the RPG-City Builder My Life as a King.
The RPG aspect of this game does a pretty good job. It is clear that Square Enix put a lot of effort into making a role-reversal for your character, going so far as to include turn-by-turn accounts of the battles your adventurers engage in (while this may initially seem like a gimmick, it gets very useful when you hit a wall in a dungeon and can look up exactly what went wrong to adjust your next venture). All of your initial adventurers start as level 1 warriors, blank slates for you, the king, to write on. Each day you can either send your adventurers off to gain XP or to complete a behest. A behest is like a royal order - you can issue a behest that your explorers head out and map a dungeon (giving you tactical advantage against monsters in that dungeon) or send them off to face a dungeon boss. While occasionally other behests can be made (you can order a city-wide holiday, for example), these will be the main two behests you make. As you progress through the game and unlock more options, your gain the ability to order your minions to change jobs. This is one of the stumbling blocks of the game: to have your adventurers change jobs, you have to use up a whole behest. If you only have one behest (eventually you gain the ability to issue more than one a day, but that may take a while), you basically waste a day in order to have one or two characters change from one job to another. This problem is solved by your handy ability to end your day at any time by shaking the wiimote and selecting "End Day." Just like a standard FF character, your adventurers level up and as king you must make sure that they head into a dungeon that matches their skill level.
The city builder aspect is somewhat lacking in customization, but adds to the overall RPG experience. Don't buy this game if you are looking for the next Sim City. Your kingdom starts out an empty slate with sets of glowing green squares placed in city-block layout all about. To build, simply stand on a square and the shake the Wiimote to call up the building options (eventually, you get to demolish buildings using this same method). Your selection of buildings starts out with just a house. Eventually, as your adventurers explore the surrounding dungeons, you unlock more buildings. With each new building comes a new job, set of skills, set of items, etc. This adds to the overall RPG experience in that you start out simple, but branch out as the game progresses. Yes, the houses you build are the same 3 house models over and over, and your initial set of buildings is very limited, but if you are getting hung up on that, you aren't taking a holistic view of the game.
While the RPG and City Builder portions of the game hold up well, the remainder of the gameplay seems somewhat lacking. There are many minor issues that range from superficial details to truly irritating. Among the most irritating is the story, which is an absolute mess. I won't spoil any details, but suffice it to say that the high standard of story that Square Enix has held itself to for the past 8 years fell flat on its face. In one memorable cutscence, the storyline contradicts its own timeline twice! After many of the cutscenes, I found myself more confused over when the different events in the timeline happened. (SPOILER HERE) Even more irritating is the fact that the main characters seem unfazed by the corrupted of the crystal which provides the power to build the city. In the cutscene mentioned earlier, we find out that the crystal contains the life-essence of evil, and that their using it for construction causes the evil to get stronger, and they just keep chugging along using it. At least, that's how I managed to interpret the utterly disastrous storyline. (SPOILER ENDS HERE)
There are also several minor issues in the game, the most obvious being the lack of instruction, especially when it is needed. In order to build some of the buildings, you need to partake in special missions. The game never actually tells you this. I wasted 10 days sending my adventurers out on standard XP building missions before I figured out what the next step was. This isn't helped by the sometimes strange comments made by the townspeople. For example, the townspeople will tell you that 'all you need to do to declare a national holiday is click on the castle and issue a behest' well before you unlock that as an option. They will also talk about the benefits they are receiving from buildings they seem to think are in the city even if you have not unlocked that building for construction. I consider myself a well experienced gamer, but when townspeople start telling me to do things that don't yet exist in the game and no in-game instruction pops up to give more details I got frustrated. But, if a gamer is aware of this going in the negative effects are less.
Visually the game does well, save for the temporary lag that seems to occur whenever you build a new building. There is a nice vantage point that gives you an overview of the city and after you have built it up a bit, the view of the different rooftops and architecture can be spectacular. The city itself isn't so big that it takes forever to walk from place to place, but still provides the feel of a frontier kingdom. There isn't much variance in the building models for the individual building types, but since you will only have one (MAYBE two) of each building, it shouldn't be a problem. Most noticeably cookie-cutter are the houses, but in reality most houses in a neighborhood look the same anyway. In order to add a little variation (and to entice you to part with a few more Wii points), Square Enix has downloadable packs that vary from 100 points for an outfit for the king (useless) to 300-900 point building packs that give you different benefits. None of these are necessary, but are very helpful. The problem is that, after all is said and done, you have spent $30 on a game that was only supposed to cost $15, and while the game is good, its negatives begin to add up.
BOTTOM LINE: The important aspects of the game (the RPG and city builder) do a fairly good job, the game has enough minor issues, such as a confusing story, that add up to make it ALMOST worth a lower score. This is an example of a game's good qualities truly making up for it's problems. If you are interested enough in the game to read through this review, go out and buy it right now. You will enjoy it. For the rest of you: give it a shot, just make sure you know what you are buying and don't expect perfection. This game shows very good potential and with further revising and expansion of the mechanics, a sequel would be very fun indeed.
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