Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

THE BAD:
Lags very rarely.
Almost no wi-fi.

SUMMARY:
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates is the latest installment to hit the shores of North America and it’s for the Nintendo’s Dual Screen system commonly referred to as the DS. It is a real time RPG; by that I mean that you get to walk around and kill the enemies. It has many improvements over its predecessor Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube.

The first big improvement is that it has a real storyline with main characters.
Although this could be viewed as a downgrade because you do not get to choose your class for the story mode, do not fret because the multiplayer can be played in single player mode. It follows the same dungeons as the story and you get to pick your class; there are just no cut-scenes. The next big improvement is the multiplayer; since it is on the DS it is definitely easier to find people to play multiplayer with because you do not have to go through the hassle of finding multiple Gameboy advances and cables to connect them to the Gamecube. Another great improvement is that each class has its own tribal abilities which consume a stat known as SP. One of the greatest improvements of all is the fact that the magicites are now disposable and you get to take them with you from dungeon to dungeon.

The game has four different classes that all have different attributes from each other. The four classes are the Clavats, The Selkies, The Lilties, and The Yukes. The Clavats are the typical warrior using swords and axes while having high attack, defense and HP. The Selkies are archers that excel at sp and attack. They also can double jump which no other class can do. The Lilties are alchemists who excel in attack and hp. The Lilties also have the ability to make magicites in their alchemy pot and they can use the pot to roll into enemies to do more damage than usual. The Yukes are mages that use staves and they excel at sp and magic. The Yukes also have the ability to make magic walls develop from magic needles and magicite that is lying around.

You also get to choose if your character is a boy or a girl. Armour changes the appearance of your character. All of the classes have their own ways of wearing armour even though it’s the same piece of armour so the classes always differ in appearance. Also, only certain classes and genders can wear certain armours. There is also the ability to use scrolls and materials you pick up during dungeons and you get to add one gem to your creation to give it extra attributes to help you during battle. You are able to do a lot since the fighting style is free ranged and not turn based.
The graphics in this game are up to standards, especially, for a DS game, and they paid specific attention to detail because of the fact that your characters appearance changes based on your armour choices. I think that ultimately the armour changing makes that game a whole lot of fun because you get to see the different costumes and the graphics are some of the best for the DS.

This game is based around a set of fraternal twins named Yuri the boy, and Chelinka the girl. It does follow some of your typical RPG standards storyline-wise. In the story, though, you get four playable characters one from each race. Yuri is the playable Clavat. He follows some of the typical standards of an RPG boy: he lost his parents, he will never give up, and he always thinks there is a way to overcome. Al is the playable Yuke. He is smart about lots of stuff and he likes to end his sentences with al words. Gnash is the playable Selkie. He lives in the jungle and doesn’t speak English very well. Meeth is the playable Lilty. She is an adult Lilty but is ultimately a kid at heart, and when she’s upset or sad, Yuri rubs her head to make her feel better She also ends her sentences with ie and it is added no matter what the word is. I feel that these characters match the type of game that it is and they certainly work well together.
This game features almost no online play; all you can do is trade your Moogles that you paint with your friends.

One thing that this game has over a lot of other DS games is that it has voice acting. I feel it fits this game really well. The voices are child-like for the children and adult-like for the adults. Although sometimes the voicing does sound a little awkward at times because of the tone the voice takes does not always fit with the tone of the scene.
The controls on this game are well balanced and easy to master. They let the game play flow very easily and that in turn makes the game all that much better. Although if you don’t want to touch your DS touch screen with your thumb and are not used to always holding your stylus at the ready it could be somewhat difficult to play this game effectively.

I can see where this game can get repetitive, but if you like RPG’s you know that most do start to get a little repetitive. This game can be especially repetitive if you don’t save a lot because when you die you start from the last point you saved unless you’re on a boss in which case they let you retry the boss over and over until you beat it or until you quit in which case you start at the last save. But this game is not a grind through it to get to better stuff type of game. The only thing that takes a while is the point when you realize you need new armour and you need to make some that is good and your inventory needs to be cleaned out. This game is copying its predecessor but it changed a lot so it is a very effective copy.

This game is has a lot to offer in the field of helping you burn your boredom away. Story mode is at least 10 hours but once you beat it once there is a hard mode to play and then a very hard that is a total of 30 hours, at least. Then multiplayer is the same way so for most it is a 60 hour game at the least, but you could always play through the multiplayer as a different class. This game is very addicting; it is very easy to lose track of time while playing this game.

This game fits really well into the series of Crystal Chronicles and the character designs are so obviously from Square Enix. But other than character design, it does not fit much into any other Final Fantasy: it is basically a spin-off that is effective. This game definitely compliments the Crystal Chronicles series because they took the first game and made it work a whole lot better this time.

As for glitches and bugs there is only one thing I have noticed, and that is that it will start to lag if there are too many objects on the screen (magicites, characters, and enemies), but this lag very rarely happens.

Overall this game is great: it is easily one of the top games for the DS. There is way more than enough game play with four classes, customizable armour and weapons, multiplayer and hard and very hard difficulties. This all making it less than a dollar an hour and that is a good price system for judging on a purchase or not. The only thing that is weak is that there is almost no wi-fi functionality.
This game is a definite buy for anyone; it is simple to play and it is very addictive. I recommend this game over all others that I have recommended to people in the past.