crystal-chronicles
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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Sale of Fates
Some of you may be tired of hearing us moan and groan about Square Enix's inflated game prices, but that doesn't mean we're going to stop -- paying $40 for a DS game is a cruel practice. Now, though, you can pick up Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates at an almost normal DS game price, since it's currently on sale (or perhaps marked down) at Amazon. The game will still set you back a cool $33.99, but when it comes to Square Enix, we'll take whatever deals we can get.A few watchful CAGers have also noticed a handful of other titles that were marked down a dollar, mostly from Atlus. One dollar isn't immense savings, we know, but in case that's enough to push you over the edge for a purchase, check out Amazon's listings for Rondo of Swords, Drone Tactics, Luminous Arc, Summon Night: Twin Age, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Strangely enough, we think Amazon might be having a bizarre $1 off sale throughout its gaming department, as we noticed this "mark down" with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, too. That leads us to believe you can probably find more goodies slashed down a dollar, if you feel so inclined to look -- after all, one-hundred pennies saved are one-hundred pennies earned.[Via CAG]
My Life in the Everyone's Kingdom website
My Life as a King fan, are you? Then you'll be happy to know that Square Enix created a love-fest site for the game, in which you take a break from being the king and become the adventurer instead.When you first enter the site (assuming you've logged into your Square Enix Member's account), you'll be greeted by a quiz that will determine your job (this blogger sadly conjured up the lamest of the lame jobs, the white mage). Once you have a job and a house, you can dally around the town.Different places in the virtual kingdom let you do various things. At the castle, you can write questions, comments, or thoughts about the game to its developers. Throughout the town you can also check out the bulletin to see the "king's behests," download some goodies (like screen savers), see other members' "houses," and other random stuff.The website is a nice idea for fan service, but to be honest, there's no reason to spend more than five minutes there at the moment. Hopefully Square Enix will add some more neat things to it soon.[Via Destructoid]
WiiWare lifts off in Europe and Australia
Right on time, Nintendo has pulled the appropriate levers, flicked the necessary switches, and sent a whole world of WiiWare goodness down the pipes and into Europe and Australia. Here's what greeted this blogger on his local servers just now: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster -- 1,000 Wii Points Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1,500 Wii Points LostWinds -- 1,000 Wii Points Star Soldier R -- 800 Wii Points TV Show King -- 1,000 Wii Points Toki Tori -- 900 Wii Points Expect reviews of Dr. Mario and Toki Tori in the very near future; in the meantime, let's hear what you've downloaded so far, PAL people! %Gallery-23089% %Gallery-20255%
Wii Fanboy reviews the WiiWare launch lineup
Sure, Microsoft may be living it up with the Xbox 360 Spring Showcase, but let's not forget about Nintendo's WiiWare launch this past Monday. Our friends at Nintendo Wii Fanboy have been churning out reviews and impressions to give you an idea of what to expect. Lost Winds (review)"Without a doubt, LostWinds is like finding a diamond-encrusted Hummer in your box of corn flakes." (Gallery) Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (impressions)"Several hours later, since I was still playing ... Without my even realizing it, My Life as a King had gone from boring to fun." (Gallery)
Nintendo reveals first WiiWare titles for Europe
Nintendo has released a list of eight games described as "launch window" titles ahead of WiiWare's debut in Europe on May 20th. Included are four games that the U.S. is still waiting on -- Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, Star Soldier R, Toki Tori, and Pirates: The Key of Dreams -- though it looks like Europe will be waiting a little longer for Defend Your Castle and V.I.P Casino: Blackjack. Frankly, we'll live without a blackjack game.Once again, note that these are "launch window" games. How long is a launch window? No idea. "Launch window" is one of those infuriatingly flexible terms beloved by PR types. Anyway, the list of WiiWare games that Europe will be getting kinda near the launch is as follows: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King LostWinds Pop Star Soldier R TV Show King Pirates: The Key of Dreams Toki Tori There's currently no news on pricing, but we'd fully expect European WiiWare prices to match those of other regions, assuming Nintendo hasn't found a totally new and unique way to rip European gamers off.
My Life as a King co-creators on WiiWare challenges, ActRaiser
In their GDC presentation, Square Enix's Fumiaki Shiraishi and Toshihiro Tsuchida described the new direction they were taking with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. They discussed how they were shaking things up at their company by making a small, low-budget game with no elaborate cutscenes. Brandon Sheffield and Jeremy Parish spoke with the game's co-creators about the advantages and challenges of trying to make a Square Enix game under strict financial and storage budgets.Shiraishi described the limitations as an inspiring factor for the game's design, and also pats SE's artists on the back: "I don't think we would've had this game design idea if we didn't have the memory restriction to begin with. Once we had the restriction, we had... all our artists are veterans, so if you tell them the size, they'll hit it right on." Another (very) noteworthy offhand statement comes at the end, in a discussion of Square Enix's attitude toward the Virtual Console. When the similarity in theme between ActRaiser and My Life as a King came up, Shiraishi said "I'd like to make an ActRaiser sequel. That would be kind of fun." Yes. It would.
WiiWare goes live!
As we anticipated, Nintendo waited until the last possible moment to reveal the details on WiiWare's U.S. launch. In a press release which describes WiiWare as the "most democratic environment in industry history," Nintendo confirmed the six titles that launched with the download service today -- and it looks like the leaked information from the weekend was spot-on: LostWinds -- 1000 Wii Points Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1500 Wii Points Pop -- 700 Wii Points Defend Your Castle -- 500 Wii Points V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack -- 700 Wii Points TV Show King -- 1000 Wii Points So it's finally up -- hurray! Monday mornings haven't felt quite this optimistic in some time! Have any of you lot already downloaded yourself some WiiWare? %Gallery-16505% %Gallery-12067% [Via press release]
Nintendo reveals WiiWare launch List
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Nintendo_reveals_WiiWare_launch_List'; The North American WiiWare launch is almost upon us, and instead of the stealth releases that we thought were coming, Nintendo's press release of WiiWare games debuting this Monday (along with their point values) was recently leaked. While we can't be sure this list is 100% valid, it looks like we can expect the following: Defend Your Castle -- 500 Wii Points Pop -- 700 Wii Points V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack -- 700 Wii Points TV Show King -- 1000 Wii Points LostWinds -- 1000 Wii Points Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1500 Wii Points Although we're disappointed by the lack of Dr. Mario, this looks like a pretty solid launch list to us. It'll be difficult to pick and choose exactly which titles we want, but there are definitely some that stand out more than others. How about you? Do you plan on downloading any of the above, or are you going to wait for impressions and reviews first? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Joystiq impressions: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (WiiWare)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King turns RPG gamers into a coach, vicariously living out the glory of dungeon quests by sending in adventurers. I saw the game at the Nintendo Media Summit and didn't understand the appeal. Aren't the quests the best part of RPGs?If you think upgrades and management are RPG highlights, maybe you'll like My Life as a King. Your young character returns to an abandoned castle to reclaim his dynasty after his dad left in exile. Your job is to spruce up the place, adding new shops that attract and upgrade townsfolk. Some buildings just allow for more people to move in, while weapon shops, magic guilds, and other structures help advance your people.But with limited coffers, you'll have to send these citizens on quests to raid dungeons and return with more resources to keep building. Force a weak party into a dangerous situation, and they'll crawl back, beaten-down and loot-free. Send a well-equipped party into battle, and they'll bring back treasure.%Gallery-20614%
The full paying-for-DLC experience detailed
Chris Kohler, brave pioneer that he is, threw some of his Wii Points down the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King hole in order to give us the details on how the new downloadable content works -- and possibly how paid WiiWare DLC in general will work.You have to download an updated My Life as a King from the Wii Shop (and delete the old one) before you can have the privilege of adding any of the new content to your game. Luckily, the interface for feeding your money to the game is nice, and doesn't force you back out into the Wii Shop again. The menu shows how many points and blocks you have available, and the cost in both Wii Points and space of each item on the list. The only thing missing is a pop-up window that provides periodic "WHAT ARE YOU DOING" and "YOU COULD BE BUYING BONK'S ADVENTURE WITH THOSE POINTS" messages.%Gallery-12067%
Finally, an outlet for your moogle-painting skills
Square Enix wants you to paint your wagon moogle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and they're offering fabulous prizes in return! From April 4th through May 5th, the official Ring of Fates website will accept your custom Moogle Paint jobs. The Moogles will be eligible to compete in one of three categories: Most Fashionable Moogle, Best Culture Moogle or Freestyle Moogle. Freestyle Moogle is just a wildcard-type category, and not necessarily Moogles drawn to look like X-Games competitors. Though if you want to draw some Mountain Dew logos on the little guys, that's probably fine.Prizes include stickers, signed art, and a "Moogle stained-glass mascot." We wonder if it will come pre-painted?%Gallery-3462%[Via press release]
Maintaining your Life as a King isn't cheap
The first downloadable content for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King has been made available to Japanese gamers today, with new buildings and costumes now on sale for between 100 and 300 Wii Points. The three tribal buildings (which allow players to recruit other races, including Lilitie warriors, Selkie thieves, and Yuke mages) come in at 300 Wii Points apiece (though all three can be purchased as a pack for 800 Points), and there are new costumes for Chancellor Chime and Leo (100 Points each), an Extravagant House (100 Points also), and a Sacred Shrine (200 Points). The cost of all this extra fluff? 1300 Wii Points, thanks very much -- and that's presuming you purchased all three tribal buildings at once. That's right: Square Enix has very nearly doubled the price of its game with the first wave of DLC (and more is on the way). We're still waiting to hear news about U.S. pricing, but this doesn't bode well for your wallet if (like us) you're a weak-willed, impoverished Final Fantasy fan.%Gallery-12067%[Via Siliconera]
WiiWare Final Fantasy to charge for downloadable races
We've known for a while that Nintendo's just-launched-in-Japan WiiWare service would require an additional fee for some downloadable content. Little did we know that content would include a pretty fundamental part of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.SiliconEra is reporting (via Square's Japanese web site) that players who pay 1,500 Wii Shop Points to purchase the ridiculously-abbreviated FFCC:MLaaK will only have access to one of the game's races. Players wishing to recruit any of the other three races will have to spend 100 to 300 Wii Shop Points to construct a home for them. Players will also be able to lay down real money for new character costumes, which don't seem to have any effect on the gameplay.Given the controversy surrounding the pricing of additional gameplay content for Lumines Live, we can't imagine Wii owners will be happy shelling out 1,500 points for what's essentially an incomplete product. Then again, the wide variety of Final Fantasy collectibles suggests a fan base willing to shell out whatever it takes to get their dose of apocalyptic, Japanese RPG goodness. We'll see soon enough, we suppose.
New My Life as a King trailer wheeled out for WiiWare launch
The hype train is a-going! To celebrate the launch of WiiWare in Japan tomorrow, Square Enix has released the above Japanese trailer of its town-builder-cum-RPG, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.We've had English-language trailers for some time now, but this is at least twice as long, and contains walloping great chunks of in-game battles, cut-scenes, and indecipherable kanji. There's plenty of footage that's new to us, as well, though sadly a lot less Moogle. You can't have it all, we suppose.%Gallery-12067%
Takahashi Meijin to show off Wii Ware in Japan
Hudson's Takahashi Meijin, the star of Adventure Island, will be a featured guest at a Wii Ware event hosted by Japanese cell phone company KDDI. The KDDI Design Studio will take place on April 1st and 2nd in Harajuku, and will feature playable versions of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King, Dr. Mario & Bacillus Extermination, and Hudson's Star Soldier R. Admission will be free. Plane tickets to Japan continue not to be. Takahashi will participate in a "talk show" as well as game demonstrations. He rose to fame with his Star Soldier shooting skills, so attendees should expect some feats of button-mashing from the Meijin on the new version.
Controlling and Thieving as a King
Were you wondering how you'd be ruling your kingdom on the Wii once Squeenix's My Life As a King hits WiiWare? It looks like it won't necessarily be with the Wiimote, as the game supports four different control schemes.Supposing you like your Wiimote just fine, you can use that alone or with a Nunchuck while playing the game. Some of you might prefer the GameCube or Classic Controller, though, which are also supported. Furthermore, widescreen TV owners will be happy to know that Square Enix's country-building RPG can be played in 16:9.For those of you craving more details for this title, Game Watch reports that it will include a thief class. This is a nice addition to the game, although no big surprise in an RPG with a class system. The thief will have the usual skills of being able to unlock things, quick movement, and searching capabilities. If you ask us, a thief will be worth using just for the sweet dagger. This thief's got bling. Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land [Via NeoGAF]
My Life as a Daily Wallpaper
Square Enix is building excitement for their downloadable Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, with ... downloads! How appropriate. The official Japanese website for My Life as a King (The Little King and the Promised Land, over there) has begun offering a daily wallpaper download featuring art from the game, in 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions.We couldn't be happier, because it's only a matter of time until we get a Pavlov wallpaper. Today's wallpaper features -- we think -- some of the adventurers that do the unseen dungeon crawling.%Gallery-12067%
Ring of Fates screens here to break your resistance
Just look at them. How can you possibly resist? "Please buy our game, mister," they squeak (well, in our heads anyway). This doe-eyed shot is just one of ten French language screens (as usual, see the gallery) that Square Enix sent Jeux France's way for the imminent European launch of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates.It emerged in the U.S. today, and if this doesn't have you scuttling to your nearest emporium for a copy, we can only presume you have a heart of stone. Or, y'know, not much in the way of funds. Fair enough. Either way, don't you even think about downloading it! They'll know!Anyway, who picked this up today? Thoughts so far?%Gallery-3462%
Square Enix thanks pirates for playing FFCC
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Square_Enix_thanks_pirates_for_playing_FFCC_pulls_plug'; Mere hours after Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates hit store shelves today, pirated copies of the game appeared in the shady corners of the internet, posted for all the picaroons out there to download and transfer to their flashcarts.Twenty minutes or so into the ARPG, however, many of those pirates found themselves greeted with this "Thank you for playing!!" screen and unable to progress. Players have the option of restarting the game from the last save point and playing on, but the screen reappears at random intervals. Clever!Why not lock pirates out before even loading up the game, you ask? Well, this way, they can try out Ring of Fates, eventually reforming their criminal ways and buying it if they find the experience enjoyable. Also, anyone dumping the game for distribution wouldn't notice this bit of programming unless they played a significant portion of it first.Though this method isn't 100% effective, as some brands of carts are unaffected and hackers will likely find a workaround by day's end, it's certainly cute! Pirates should feel thankful that this isn't even half as malicious as Earthbound's anti-piracy measures.
File these new FFCC Ring of Fates screens under 'new'
With the game set for release next week, we're anxious to see how the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles formula will work out on the DS. We had a lot of fun with the game on the GameCube and are looking forward to the Wii Ware game, so it's only natural that we'd get excited for the DS game, as well. How about you all, though? Still on the fence? Hit up our gallery below for a bunch of new screens. It may bring you down off that fence.%Gallery-3462%[Via Wiiz]
