Posted on: April 8, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS) / 2008 Square-Enix / http://na.square-enix.com/ffccrof/ /

I love that Square has cut down considerably the time that passed between the Japanese release of a Final Fantasy game and the English-language versions of the game. Where it may have been years between the release dates of the two versions, it is now only about 3 or 4 months. Another thing that is great about the Final Fantasy line of games is the fact that the stories make sense in the sub-title’s series of games (“Crystal Chronicles” here), but that individuals do not need to pick up the previous game to have an idea how to play the game or understand the story that is being told. The story for “Ring of Fates” provides individuals with more information regarding the events that took place in the original, Gamecube-only release of “Crystal Chronicles”. More…

The game play style is pretty intuitive; the action takes place on the upper screen, while accessing inventory and doing specific attacks uses the bottom screen. The same four races that were originally present during “Crystal Chronicles” are still present in Ring of Fates, while Magicite is needed to ensure that a character can cast spells. Where many of the general game play tenets are similar to that of practically any other RPGs, there are some nice variations to Ring of Fates that makes it a must purchase. The multiplayer option that is present is perhaps the best of these additions, allowing a number of people to contribute characters to a party. Contributing another strength to Ring of Fates has to be the soundtrack crafted by Kumi Tanioka. This soundtrack builds up and highlights action in all of the right places, while giving the gameplay and story a perfect backdrop.

While a character like Yuri seems to be cut from the cloth of any male protagonist in an RPG (not knowing what all ey is capable of, having to educate eirself through the game), the ancillary characters are much more spirited and interesting. Take Meeth, who is the cook for the town where the main characters reside. Due to eir height, ey is treated like a child, but Meeth has a level of ability that surpasses the other characters. The length of time that individuals will spend on finishing up Ring of Fates is fairly long given the limitations of the DS – given a few solid days of gameplay, the ending of the story will rapidly come up. A solid game.

Rating: 8.0/10

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