
	Platform DS Genre Role-Playing Publisher Square Enix Developer Square Enix ESRB E +10 (Everyone) Released March 11, 2008

- Great music score - Detailed and lighthearted visuals - Engaging storyline

- Twitchy touch screen controls - Uneven challenge level - Cumbersome magic system

Review: Lost in Blue 3 (DS) Review: Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS) Review: Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS)
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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

Score: 7.0 / 10

The original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube gave gamers a slightly different take on the usual Final Fantasy mechanics while still delivering a broad sweeping story. In this Nintendo DS prequel, Ring of Fates takes players back in time to the Golden Age mentioned in the original Crystal Chronicles and gives us a compelling backstory of power-hungry rulers and unlikely heroes, the quest for godhood and the sacrifices made for family. Like its predecessor, the story elements are great, but the control elements need some work.

Ring of Fates makes very good use of the Nintendo DS's graphics capabilities. While the visual style Square Enix chose may seem a little simple, even outdated,

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it works quite nicely for the tone of the game. There were no obvious clipping problems, no garish texture issues, just a solid colorful visual presentation. One neat little perk is the ability to recolor a Moogle, a feature found in the original Crystal Chronicles but without the map altering effects found in that game. It's a bit of a time killer but certainly one that can lead to all manner of hilarity should you gather some friends

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around to swap Moogles. Lightheartedness is the watchword for the visuals on this game.

Audio on Ring of Fates is excellent even on the DS's limited speakers. Kumi Tanioka's musical score gives us the right blend of sweeping musical pieces during boss fights and beautiful themes for places and characters. The voice acting for the characters is clear and well done, emotive without going into histrionics or devolving into monotones. And sound effects for various spells, monsters, and environmental actions are all spot on. There's nothing on the sound front for this game that anybody has any right to complain about.

Where Ring of Fates stumbles, badly in my opinion, is in the gameplay. The basic controls are good and very useful. Moving around is a snap and I particularly liked the idea that you can actually jump up to grab hold of airborne enemies and pound them into submission. The ongoing quest for Moogle Stamps is on a par with similar collection quests in the Final Fantasy series that reward exploration. It's when you get into the magic system and special abilities that the game runs into trouble. Instead of the systems found in other Final Fantasy games like FFXII and Crisis Core, you have only basic spell "orbs" which, once collected, can be stacked on top of each other to form greater effects. While this sounds interesting in theory, it's ungainly and slow in practice. The special abilities for the four main characters in the single player game are useful for certain situations, which is normal, but the Yuke tribe ability (involving the stylus being dragged across the touch screen from point A to point B in order to make hidden items appear) seems particularly twitchy about the location of the character when its activated. If you're a few pixels off, it doesn't seem to work properly. Moreover, the challenge level in the game seems wildly uneven. Some bosses might be taken down without breaking a sweat but the next boss might seem nearly impossible.

If you're patient enough, and can regularly resist the urge to throw your DS against a wall, you're likely to find a really good handheld RPG in Ring of Fates. For those with less patience, you might want to give this one a pass, if only to preserve your DS from violent impacts.

- Axel Cushing

(July 6, 2008)