The game that saw RPG giants Square-Enix take the Final Fantasy series back to Nintendo consoles, FF Crystal Chronicles, may not have been the standard RPG fans expected, but it gained enough of a cult status for CC to become a franchise in itself. The first of these follow ups is Ring of Fates on the DS, which carries on the spin off series with dignity, despite some niggling issues.
Ring of Fates may bear the Crystal Chronicles name, but on DS the experience is completely different. Rather than take all of the concepts from the first game, and attempt to downsize them, most of the gameplay has been revamped for the handheld. The game takes a more hack and slash approach this time round, despite the addition of leveling and experience points. This makes the combat a lot smoother, and faster paced on the DS, which helps to make it easy to pick up and play.
That’s not to say that you can get by with simple button mashing though, the magicite seen in the last game is also a vital part of both combat and the devilish puzzles on offer, which brings us to the first of the games problems. Your inventory is found on the touch screen, meaning that to select an item or magicite, you have to touch its icon on screen.On paper this seems fine, but in practice, selecting which magic you want to cast by using the X button can be troublesome in the heat of battle.
Add to this the need to combine magic on the fly, done through holding three buttons, while using the touchscreen, and soon you’ll become lost in your own hands. This only becomes an issue in the middle of the adventure, when the game is at its toughest, as by the end, the controls will be on their way to being second nature, even if they never really get there.
One of the things that the original Crystal Chronicles was built on was the ability to play 4 player multiplayer using Game Boy Advances. One of the few games to use this innovative feature, the other notable titles being Zelda; Four Swords, and Pacman VS, it was the best way to play Final Fantasy on the Gamecube. The problem came when you had to find 3 friends who each had a GBA, and a link cable, meaning that most people couldn’t experience the multiplayer game.This is obviously not a problem on DS, as while you each need a copy of the game, the wireless nature of the console means that you are much more likely to have the facilities to play. When you do find people to play with, you can play through a whole new campaign, taking you to the dungeons in the single player mode, but opening up the world a lot more. It’s unmatched on DS in terms of multiplayer.
It may not be online, but for Crystal Chronicles fans, it’s the experience that the Gamecube version didn’t pull off. Making you forget all about the problems the game has, multiplayer is the highlight of Ring of Fates, if you have friends that is.If you enjoyed the original Crystal Chronicles, then this is a sequel you are sure to enjoy. It has its problems, mainly the control issues the move to DS has caused, but as a multiplayer DS game, it’s unmatched. However, if you are only in it for the single player, Ring of Fates might disappoint. The Story is surprisingly well executed, and the puzzles are just hard enough to make them enjoyable, but at times it can become a confusing mess of touchscreen and buttons.
It’s a real shame that this is the case; it means that Crystal Chronicles fails to live up to the pedigree of the other FF titles on the platform. It isn’t bad in any sense of the word, but while its extremely polished on the surface (excellent voice acting on DS?), its fundamentals disappoint.
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