First Glance:
Final Fantasy with co-op, another entry in the Crystal Chronicles series.

The Short Story:
It’s the Final Fantasy universe so it’s got a decent storyline, fleshed out characters, and enjoyable game play. And being able to play with friends is always a plus. Single player can be a bit of a chore due to some of the puzzles requiring multiple “hands” but overall, a solid purchase.

The Score:
Dungeons are the meat of the game play and while the lower levels can be easily accessed and completed in a short period of time, without some help from friends, you’ll find later levels to be more time consuming. And, as with almost any Square title, you’re going to be investing some serious time to reach the end of the story. While multiplayer is the main draw, short solo play sessions are still enjoyable and so Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time scores a Busy Gamer 4.

Body of review:
You can always expect a story from Square’s Final Fantasy series and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time is no exception. While it isn’t as epic as the core Final Fantasy games, Echoes is still a good story on its own merits.

You’ll begin by creating your character which consists of choosing your name, your gender, and your tribe. Your tribe will affect certain combat traits, for instance, how good you are with a sword or with magic, while your gender affects… Well, whether people make fun of you for wearing makeup or not. The choices don’t actually appear to change game play drastically other than to affect your appearance.

I call this spell "Haha, eat fire!"

Once you’ve settled on how you look, you’ll begin your journey in a small village where you find yourself starting your coming of age ceremony. If I had a nickel for every time I had to kill a bunch of monsters to prove I was ready to be an adult…

Combat is mostly just pressing a button though as you advance in levels, you’ll learn new tricks with the different weapons available. As well, you have damage spells you can cast while in combat to shore up your melee skills or, if you so choose, to replace them. You’ll find some creatures are more resistant to melee while others are more resistant to magic. A good rule of thumb in Echoes is to manage a good mix of both.

Gear can level as you do and can even be modified to a certain extent to allow for some degree of customization as you play. You can find or purchase scrolls, essentially recipes or blueprints, which will allow you to construct different types of armor, weapons, and accessories as you travel the world.

While playing with friends is a big draw for Echoes, you can choose to go solo and hire henchmen. You’ll find portions of the game more difficult, particularly puzzles, if you go this route, however. While you can switch between your henchman to position them, you’ll find it difficult to keep them in place when trying to activate switches, for instance. In several puzzles, I found it very time consuming to actually position each henchman ever so carefully just to have one move out of place while I activated one of the switches.

"Bad Kitteh! That's mah pot pie!"

Boss fights are always proceeded by a short video highlighting their weak point. While it isn’t always immediately obvious what that weak point might be, the boss fights never failed to be entertaining. This is one area where playing with friends was definitely a plus as henchman could not be relied on to consistently attack the bosses in the manner needed to defeat them.

Death is handled quite well in Echoes. If you die, you become a ghost and can continue to follow your teammates about. Everyone has access to the spell which can bring you back to life so even if you’re playing solo, switching to one of your henchman can allow you to quickly bring your main character back to life. Doing so during a boss fight can prove to be challenging but well worth the effort in those instances where that last bit of firepower is needed.

While I can’t say this is the best entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, it’s certainly not the worst and if you have a couple of friends who already have the title, it may well be worth the purchase price.

Gritskrieg – End of Line