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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord
Square-Enix's follow-up to My Life as a King is another WiiWare corker
Written by Chris Schilling, 07 August 2009
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King was one of two incredibly successful launch titles for Nintendo's download service (the other being LostWinds). It was very much the flipside to your traditional FF adventure - instead of doing the dungeoneering yourself, as the titular monarch you were left at home to issue behests for questers to do your bidding, building up a town and your relationships with its inhabitants. Rather than opt for a straight sequel, Square-Enix has taken a very different route, with a tower-defence game that's both a world away from its predecessor, but also streets ahead of the basic (and overpriced) Crystal Defenders.
PlayZine Issue 44
For our latest Final Fantasy coverage, click here to download PlayZine Issue 44 for free.You play as Mira, the daughter of the Darklord, antagonist from the original. You have to protect the Dark Crystal at the top of your tower from adventurers of various types - basically those you sent on quests in the first game. This is done by building floors of various types and filling them with monsters. Each floor has an Artifact which determines its type - from a spiked ball on a chain which does additional damage, to a Bravery Stove which increases the attack power of each monster on that floor. You need to choose monster types carefully - melee creatures are effective against ranged opponents, who are strong against magic types. Almost every stage adds a new element, whether it be a new floor type or monster, or a new type of adventurer to overcome, gradually building up the strategic options available to you just as it pits you against new troubles.
The pacing of the game is just about perfect, while its presentation has that typical Square-Enix sheen. It's surprisingly funny, too - it's fairly camp, occasionally wilfully bizarre, and has some engaging and amusing dialogue between stages. The splitscreen display offers a tactical overview as well as a more attractive close-up of the action, and the whole package is just incredibly charming. It's a pity the publisher has seen fit to withhold additional items, creatures and stages as flavour-adding downloadable content - particularly given the excessive pricing - but they're non-essential, and they can affect the pacing of the early game. One additional episode is worth the extra outlay, and you might be tempted to pick up an extra set of monsters, but that's all you'll really need.
And it's hard to begrudge shelling out a bit extra for what's yet another enjoyable and hugely addictive WiiWare game. My Life as a Darklord has that just-one-more-go appeal in spades, and with bags of levels to be getting on with - and some of the later stages getting fearsomely difficult - most players will get more than their money's worth here.
Final Fantasy coverage available in PlayZine Issue 44 - click here to download it for free!
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