Finale Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ech...

 

Finale Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time

            Finale Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time for the Nintendo Ds, from Square Enix, is the newest game in the Crystal Chronicles series. Just like the other Crystal Chronicles games you are still able to choose which tribe you would like to be from. There are the Clavats, which are skilled swordsmanship, Yukes, who are scholarly and are good at magic, Selkies that are quick and light on their feet, and then the Lilties, which are shorter and favor hammers and spears.   The story revolves around you the hero waking up on your sixteenth birthday to compete in a rite a passage. After going into the woods and defeating the monsters, including the huge one at the end,  you go into a forest clearing where there is a huge crystal floating over a pond. You meet Sherlotta and she announces you pass your test and gives you a crystal as a present. Before you even have a chance to savior your victory, you find out that one of the village girls has fallen gravely ill with Crystal Sickness which is an ancient disease that is caused by crystal that have long since left the world, but not really. This is when the hero set off on their journey and the game begins.

            The graphics in this game is pretty top notch even though it is on the Ds, where a lot of games can get blocky during game play. There are the cut scenes in the game that are masterfully done, but still have the option of skipping if you really didn’t want to spend the time to watch it. The dungeons are done very well, the only thing is you go back though each level twice, if not three times! They do vary slightly but still going though Fire Mountain level three times can get old very fast. Another draw back is that you can’t change the camera angle at all so you can miss things if you’re not careful.

            Even though you start off with a very basic look, the characters can become unique to you by the various armor you can buy or create, and a very fashion foreword moogle found in the town can give you character a new look every so often. (He changes your hair color!) You can create other party members to help you along your journey, or try and hire mercenaries to help you out. The draw back about that though is that a lot of the puzzles in the games need you to be able to be in two places at once, and even though you can switch back and forth from your characters, they tend to go following after you even though you want them to stay on the stupid button!

            The game play itself isn’t too bad nothing is too difficult, except may be the puzzles at times. When it takes you two hours to figure out how to move a crept from one side of the room to the other can be a little dishearten but it is still pretty reasonable. Though the later levels can get pretty long and you are on the verge of tears because the save crystal has yet to show up! Even while battling the major bosses if you die they give you hints to destroy the boss and they put you right back in at the end instead of starting over again.

            There is a multi player function to the game which is very fun. You have one player that is the host, whose story you will be advancing, while the other players are helping out the host.  They get to keep what ever items they pick up and the keep what ever level that they level up to while playing on someone else’s game. The only draw back to this is that the game can get kind of clichy and lag a bit if there is to much going on. There is also another way to play multiplayer or even single player with out advancing the game, and that is Quest Shop. It is full of mini games in which if you play and do well in you win money and items, none of them are to hard and are pretty fun to play.

            Over all Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time is a great game.  The story line is pretty clear and helps with the game not hinder, the graphics are what we expect out of Square Enix and is wonderfully done. The only draw back is that it is much easy to play as a multiplayer verses trying to be two people at once to advance the game. Over all I Give Echoes of Time for the Ds an eight out of ten!