Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles – My Life as a Darklord Review (WiiWare)
Evil never looked so cute. Or maybe cute never tried so hard to be evil. Whatever the case, cute clearly triumphs over evil in this fabulously entertaining tower defense game.
I have long been a fan of playing the dark side of things, especially when presented in a humorous light. Dungeon Keeper 2 hooked me, while Overlord cemented my devotion. FFCC – My Life as a Darklord only reaffirms that humor and evil are made to go together. Throw in some cute and it’s nigh irresistible.
Before downloading the game off the WiiWare site, I hadn’t really known what to expect. The game is listed as Real-time strategy, but I was hoping it would lean more to the Overload type of strategy. When I saw the actual tower I was rather dismayed. Clearly the game was broad labeled. It is tower defense to its core; a genre that suffers, in my opinion, from repetition.
But I needn’t have worried. The game has quite an interesting progression, leaving room for much variety, meaning it has captured my interest far longer then previous tower defense games.
Review
Release date: July 20 2009
Website: http://www.mylifeasadarklord.com/
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: Wii download (WiiWare)
Genre: Tower Defense (although the official website lists this as a Real-time Strategy Game)
Game play
Join Mira, the daughter of a retired Darklord, as she takes the family castle out for a ‘prove I’m evil’ joyride. What better way to prove ones supreme evilness then by defeating those pesky heroes!
The plan is to plop the family Darklord tower near a hapless village, throw wide the doors, and wait for the heroes to come trouncing in.
Play as Mira, who’s job it is the defend the dark crystal that resides at the top of the tower. Add new floors and populate them with monster minions to fight back the hoard of supposed do gooders.
It classic Tower Defense in that you set out your defenses and then its hands off, sit back and watch as the little defenders do their job. But it’s by no means time to walk away and get some hot cocoa. It is imperative to oversee and adjust the defenses as the mission progresses.
Add new floors to the tower and populate them with monsters that serve Mira. Each floor has a particular ability and can hold either two or three monsters.
Which floors to place and how to populate them is what the strategy is all about. Each Hero must stop on every floor not currently occupied by a hero, which gives a little wiggle room in emergencies. But there is no need to panic as every time the menu is opened the game pauses giving plenty of breathing room to strategize or take bathroom breaks.
Combat is classic rock, paper, scissors model, where you have melee beats ranged, ranged beats magic, and magic beats melee. This is actually one of the most important items to take note of, because setting up the wrong defenders can result in a swift defeat.
Each new mission begins with a set amount of starting resources which are used to purchase tower floors, monsters and monster upgrades. Since resources are limited, its important to keep in mind what sort of heroes will be visiting the tower. Thankfully each new town clearly lists what sorts or and how many heroes are going to come a conquering. Each defeated hero will kindly provide a nice new chunk of resources to be spent on tower defenses.
Each town victory (or loss, though less) will also give resources that can be used to upgrade your tower or monster minions. The beginning tower will only be able to hold five levels, but that quickly ends up being two short. Make sure the upgrade the tower relatively early.
As Mira progresses through the world by “liberating” various towns and bandit hideouts, more of her powers and minions will be unlocked, providing interesting new strategy facets.
World and Story
Set in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles timeline, the story revolves around a Darklord’s daughter who finds herself piteously short on respect. The game chronicles her journey to find Darklord legitimacy.
What better way to achieve this then to defeat buckets of heroes! And though our intrepid wannabe Darklord has the most evil in mind, she still finds herself defeating bandits after bandit, leaving most towns happier than before. This being evil thing is obviously harder than she expected.
Can she overcome her extreme cuteness and accidental heroic tendencies and give evil a chance?
Things that bothered me
-Inconsistency
While I do really like the rate at which new things are introduced into the game, the actually difficulty level of each of the town missions seems somewhat random. There is clearly supposed to be progression of difficulty within a section, but I have found it to be inconsistent.
-Menus
I wish there had been a more cohesive menu system. There was no real save option, which if available could turn the game into a save load experience. I get wanting to avoid that, but I have to admit, it really would have been nice to have a convenient save option every now and then. =)
Time played
Fifteen hours played. Two thirds of the way through and still quite committed to finishing. Its incredibly enjoyable, but I handle it best in small one hour parcels, which makes the completing a long and drawn out event.
Meaning the review, which is long overdue, will have to come before the end.
Mood Progression
Last Thoughts
Turns our evil is much more palatable when combined with humor and cuteness. =)
Tags: action, arcade, cute, final-fantasy, medieval, nintendo, strategy, Wii
