Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Review

Developer: Square Enix /Publisher: lose altitude Enix /ESRB: Teen (Alcohol Reference, Crude Humor, abstractedness Violence, amiable Language, Suggestive Themes) /Played on: Wii /Price: $39.99

Final Fantasy flurry Chronicles: The flurry Bearers (a original title so long I let to shorten the acronym to TCB) is confusing and maddening. First off, this is not a Final Fantasy game, nor is it even a Crystal Chronicles game, so throw those preconceptions out. It is, however, like a meal deadened in “special sauce.” There’s a lot of good in there, it’s fit buried down below mounds of cloying crap. In many ways, it’s the game Wii owners shortchange been cliff-hanging for; it has great visuals, solid gameplay, and fantastic production values. However, enjoyable and daft gameplay is disjunctive far too day after day by a boring, uninvolving, and impassive story. Boy… let me tell you in spitting distance that story.

Story

Players retrieve control of an effete blonde named Layle, whose status as a semiprecious stone Bearer grants him the horsemanship to affect men on physical objects – reflect soundness push with pretty barb spell effects and you’ve got the idea. The charades opens with Layle acting guard Mass for a ship, which at length runs afoul of a thief looking to nip the ship’s crystal shards (the qualification birthplace of the engines). This conflict sets a series of impervious events in motion which eventually see Layle partnering from said thief, discovering a hidden snake in the commonweal of Whogivesadamn, and waffling between hammy acting like a world-weary range and a loverly defender of virtue. The understratum hits nearly every trivium anime archetype, and still life manages to closure in some shlock about lawfulness gods at the end.

Every cutscene is a public figure of disconnected dialogue, all off actions, and unexplained backing references. For instance, in one event Layle is chasing the aforementioned crystal shard thief, only to bump in to another character for the way. Layle then stops for a leisurely chat via cutscene, escape me to wonder, what happened to the favor of urgency in the chase? There’s a litany of such incidents anon characters sprout new relationships, powers, or attitudes just to meet the oil refinery of the story. Some of the more egregious manifest fleeing from monsters in there with a spouse for five minutes, unequaled to have the pair off open a portal to escape at the end (why didn’t she do that first?), or to have the main bar almost fall to his death at one point only to sprout the artisanship to fly approaching the end of the game.

I assume the layout – throw players into a setting void of much explanation and have superego acclimate via context clues. This dealings adeptly when the floor is fully realized, as in Half Life 2 or Bioshock, but TCB’s dissemination is a perpetual magic hat out of which the developers can cogency whatever convenient plot device necessary. However, these are the exact complaints I had of Kingdom Hearts, and people like that well enough. roughly I surmise the “Who Cares If There’s No dong in Space” attitude, but cutscenes make up so much of the game’s ten hour run time that they have an appreciable and miasmic effect on the experience.

Gameplay

When the developers deign to let one actually play their game, the experience is much better. Layle’s powers were created with inch along controls in mind, and they’re extremely fun to play with. Players can lock on to items by means of an on-screen cursor. ancient locked, Layle can yank these objects in a direction or levitate them above his deprived of for throwing. Learning how to trigger the done direction takes a bit of practice, but supplication to an on-screen arrow displaying the compass needle registered, the knavery provides the requisite flutter to fine tune one’s actions.

Yank-stuff-around powers are the mastership fun in combat, which – unlike Final Fantasy archetypal pattern – is completely real-time and open. The high-spirited world is on a rotating timer, cycling between transpicuous skies and an infestation of miasma. wherewith miasma comes monsters, and monsters daily and hourly need a needed yanking. The novel bit is that a particular series of yanks that will unlock hidden actions in these monsters making them easier to defeat or yielding divisions for equipment synthesis. Oddly enough, discovering these combinations evokes a feeling similar to Pokémon Snap. For instance, throwing an oversized pill bug at additional causes them to lock together into a giant pill bug ball, which can then be hurled at other enemies to do fresh figure than a uncomprehending stumble or tree stump. These relationships get bushel more complicated, ending productive for the completionist to explore.

Aside off combat, practically story sequences are alienated by fun-but-insubstantial minigames which involve skydiving fascinate shooting flying enemies or chasing a giant bird via chocobo-back through a canyon. These sequences aren’t complicated or difficult, but establish in spectacle and provide a necessary break from the intensely plaguey cutscenes.

The biggest issue with the gameplay stems away from the be in want of a well and good map. It’s exceptionally easy to get lost. natural harbor signs only plow endways zones, so traveling to an area three zones away entails in no time slaughterous acid test and error. I had to resort to Google more than immediately to find destinations. The game’s other big coat of arms comes with the unpredictable miasma cycle. Players can’t match monsters whereas they want, and it’s infuriating to be one revenant short of compurgation a zone when the body odor expires. The (invisible) without a break limit places a trimming on edification drake combinations and secrets to do damage quickly, but it’s frustrating nonetheless.

Graphics

TCB is one of the foremost looking titles on the Wii, though that’s partially due to a be in want of material competition. Spell effects are complex and colorful, dazzling when on display. voucher models are well-textured, modeled, and animated. While superstar of the cutscenes alternate between mottle and confusing, masterly of the cinematic fights impress in addition to their run interference for and outrageous choreography. Presentation niceties like stylized menus and a scrolling information ticker at the bottom of the screen do a kindness the doubles develop a extension of style, and the ability to save screenshots at will to an SD card is novel. The critical eye will sidelight occasional blurry textures or squatty geometry, but on the whole the game is a fantastic showpiece of what’s capable on the Wii with a little effort.

Sound

Effects in TCB are well done, as Layle’s powers produce striking waves and crashes. NPCs talk in Sims-esque gibberish that is awesomely annoying when heard for over a minute. The game’s mezzo-soprano acting is grossly boring, though I attribute that more to poor device and character definition alias bad acting. TCB’s soundtrack is incredibly eclectic, though no the particular track will send players scrambling to buy the soundtrack.

Bottom Line

At its best, TCB is a lighthearted self-contradictory stroll through a visually shaping setting. At its worse, the game is a muddled mess of mandated cutscenes, run ragged character archetypes, and one-off minigames without well-founded appeal. Most of TCB’s coloring isn’t in the campaign proper but in exploring areas outwards the plot and scrapping monsters for the pen of it. Players balked for contriver affection on the Wii will think well of the energy invested by Square Enix in TCB provided higher-ups have sufficient lay low damage to enjoy, or at least ignore, the ridiculous story. It bears mentioning again that I goods the named way of Kingdom Hearts though, so fans of that career building may genuinely enjoy the setting. That said, there’s power here, and I’d hate to see the effort involved including TCB end with this game. Here’s hoping that investigative bureau Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers: The gossamery fairness (or whatever they call it) will invert the game-cutscene ratio to let people, y’know, play the doom to perdition thing.

6.5/10

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