Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers (Wii)

This game bears both the 'Final Fantasy' and 'Crystal Chronicles' names, but is unlike any other title so far released in either series. In order to fully explain what this game is, it is best that I clear up any possible misconceptions.

First, there are no experience points, no level grinding, no party members, no magic spells (Blizzard, Fire, Cure, ect.) and no equippable weapons, as in the numbered Final Fantasy games. And unlike Crystal Chronicles, there is no real co-op multiplayer and not much in the way of dungeon crawling. The game shares little with its predecessors, and if you are finding this a little offputting then I implore you to keep reading.

What this game is, is a pure action/adventure in the vein of such classic series as the Legend of Zelda. You take the role of Layle, a Clavat with telekinetic powers which allow him to interact with people, inanimate objects and monsters using the Wii Remote's pointer. Holding the B button while pointing will latch on to the object of your choice, and with a flick of the remote, you can toss it in any direction, or raise it above your head to carry, throwing wherever you point with a press of B. This method of control works very well and is something that simply would not be possible with a traditional game controller.

Combat is in real-time, and enemies can be beaten by simply tossing them about. However, game will shower creative players with medals - rewards for finding imaginative ways of interacting with and quickly defeating foes. The battles are as interesting as you choose to make them and it is genuinely fun to discover how to provoke a Tonberry Queen into whipping out her chainsaw, or how to set off a Bomb and obliterate a group of Goblins with it. There is a time limit for clearing all the monsters in a given area, but battles can simply be retried if you run out of time, and you don't lose any items you may have picked up.

Outside of battle, there is a huge, practically seamless overworld consisting of about a dozen distinct areas to freely explore and many things to do, such as fishing, chocobo racing, and 'kickerbaul' which will keep you occupied for dozens of hours. Graphics are surely some of the best on the Wii, with beautiful artistic direction. The music is wonderful; incredibly varied with instrumentation ranging from bagpipes to electric guitar. The story is interesting, fast paced and concise - this is no 60 hour RPG, and can you can probably see it to the end in about 15 hours if you take your time - and kept me hooked through the superbly animated in-engine cutscenes and a likeable and well voice-acted cast of characters.

Personally, I only have a couple of problems with the game. The camera is a bit of a pain; it is controlled with the d-pad, and can be slow and unwieldy, requiring constant manipulation during battles. Also, when flicking enemies and objects around, I find they can sometimes go flying off in the opposite direction to that of which you intended. Battles themselves can be extremely chaotic, and as such there can occasionally be some slowdown when there is a lot going on at once.

But regardless of these issues, I enjoyed this game immensely from start to finish. It is exactly the type of game we need to see more of on the Wii - a fun, polished third-party effort that uses the Wii Remote inventively, and should satisfy the 'core' gamer while being accessible to more casual players without being 'dumbed down.' If you like action/adventure/sandbox type games then I would certainly recommend this game to you.

I have almost all numbered FF titels and was really happy with the release of a new FF on the wii as I don't (yet) own a PS3 (I will buy one soon for FF13).
The game-play needs some getting used to (it's not really fighting with spells or swords, it's about throwing around your enemies), but once mastered, it's much fun. Yet it takes out the creativity in battling, at least for those who like the FF way of fighting. It's not about experience, you can beat the end-boss without fighting any fight that's not part of the story-line. Also, you basically can't die in a boss fight as you are revived without the boss gaining any HP itself, making the game insanely easy (and wasn't the fun of FF that you needed to get stronger to be better at defeating enemies?)

The story-line is amazing. Without ruining the story for you: The Crystal Principle which is needed for all life, but which created Crystal Bearers which are feared. Four "human races" who don't always get along like they should... combined with a nasty bad-guy, a strange best friend, a goody-goody princess and a bratty attractive girl who turns circles around our hero. But the story line is by far not used like it could and it's an incredible shame.
I finished the game in 17hours, which included 4 hours of useless running around because I had no idea where to go (the map showed me I was right where I had to be but nothing happened). I'm used to needing at least 35 hours for a Final Fantasy title, excluding the side-quests. With more story-line (not even a better one, the story itself is great, it's just too short) and more fights, this game would be a 5 star! And now I am nothing but disappointed. Very disappointing for a Final Fantasy game.

I am a die-hard Final Fantasy fan, it has been rough sometimes though to accept some of the things that have been churned out under this rich heritage. Dirge of Cerberus? Anyway, I play these games with my mum and we were excited to have it on the Wii after following from psone to psp to ps2 etc. This game is quite hard to play with dear mum, she finds the hurl and grab action a bit hard which means sadly I have to do more than my share which diminishes the sharing way we always used to play these games, I do battles and she does rooting for things and talking to folk. The story as with most of this series is grand and colourful but it's the only Final Fantasy game we have pushed to one side unfinished...