Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

July 12,2008 - When Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was released a few years ago on the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo fans rejoiced as it marked the return of Final Fantasy to Nintendo’s consoles. While it wasn’t a part of the flagship series, Nintendo fans took it as a sign of good things to come. However, while the game had its flashes of brilliance, it was unappreciated due to the fact that in order to maximize the experience, four GBA’s along with four GCN-GBA Link cables were required. As a result, the game featured a forgettable single player experience. Now Crystal Chronicles is back with Ring of Fates for the Nintendo DS and while its wireless connectivity could make for entertaining multiplayer experiences, the developers put their focus on the single player component, making it one of the more fresh and interesting experiences to be had on the DS this year.

The game is a story about love, friendship and everything nice, giving it a better feel than most of the stories that simply revolve around vengeance. Ring of Fates puts you in the role of Yuri, a young boy with a keen sense of adventure. Yuri also has a twin sister in possession of a magical crystal that none of them realizes the true power to. Like any young duo hungry for adventure, their actions often get them into trouble, and when tragedy strikes their beloved father, Chelinka gets seriously ill, causing Yuri to attempt to grow stronger every passing day while taking care of his twin sister. He doesn’t want vengeance, but in order to protect the people he loves, he has to put a stop to the evil done by the red crystals. In order to do so, Yuri and friends travel the world in search of these crystals to put an end to evil once and for all—so yes, it’s a dungeon crawler.

It’s true that dungeon crawlers have been losing their style as of late due to stale gameplay, but Ring of Fates is a big exception. The combat system starts off as a hack-and-slash, but it features a lot more variety as you progress through the game. On top of that, it’s not just about killing every monster you see either. There are a lot puzzles very similar to that of the Zelda games where you have to use abilities that only certain members in your party have in order to progress through each dungeon. For example Alnalheim, the magic user, can make invisible blocks appear with his staff while, while Gnash, a character equipped with a bow, can shoot targets that activate certain machinery. Each character also has the ability to jump, which adds sort of a platforming element to the dungeon exploration. It also allows the dungeons to become more creative as you progress through, especially after you come across Gnash—who also has the double-jump ability. Each of the abilities has you switch from using the touch screen and buttons, which can get annoying at times, but it’s the only way to make full use of what the DS has at its disposal.

Like all dungeon crawlers, the end of each dungeon has a boss fight. While they can be taken down by simply slashing at them, each boss’ red crystal is its weak point when exposed. The developers did a good job making each boss differ in difficulty, and there were quite a few times where some of our players just couldn’t figure it out. This isn’t one of those games where you discover a new ability and then use that new ability to kill the dungeon’s boss. Actual thinking is required if you’re not going to simply slash away, and it really adds a good element to this stale dungeon crawling genre.

In addition to the main game, there’s a multiplayer mode that you also have the option of playing via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The missions can be played with one player, but it’s a lot more entertaining and manageable with more than one person. There isn’t much to do other than clear out dungeons and fight each other though. It would’ve been nice if the main game could be played cooperatively, but that isn’t the case. Either way, it’s good to see developers other than Nintendo make use of the online service.

The game’s graphics look awfully similar to that of the DS remake of Final Fantasy III, but the characters are a lot bigger and show more detail due to the fact that everything is zoomed in a bit more. The game features high quality cutscenes using the ActImagine video codec, further adding to the nice video experience. The game has some jaggies here and there, but that’s to be expected. Other than that, the artwork looks great and while there is a kiddy feel to it—that’s just the charm of Crystal Chronicles.

Ring of Fates sounds as good as the game looks. The soundtrack properly goes in tune with every moment in the game, and while voice acting may be annoying to some, it does a good job at getting the point across. The sound effects are reminiscent of just about every Final Fantasy game before it, so that doesn’t exactly bring the value down. The game simply sounds great.

Ring of Fates does what Crystal Chronicles couldn’t do (make the game worth playing alone). The original Crystal Chronicles featured a gimmicky but robust multiplayer experience, but Ring of Fates’ multiplayer experience is nowhere near that of the GameCube game. That being said, it’s true that there’s no consistency that gives Crystal Chronicles an actual identity in the RPG world. But even at that, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is an entertaining adventure that everyone should try. It’s short at about 20 hours, but the fun to be had makes it all worthwhile. This is probably the best dungeon crawler available on the DS.

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