My Impressions as a King

by Alisha Karabinus { May 13th 2008 at 9:30AM }

Like a child counting down the days until Christmas, I've been looking forward to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. I'm a sucker for Square Enix anyway, and the prospect of a $15 game (even if there is pricey DLC) was too much to resist. That's why it was so shocking to discover that my first few game days in Padarak were ... well, boring. Everything was very controlled and linear, and I couldn't run around and explore. Instead, I sat through cutscenes explaining more than I wanted to know at that point, when all I wanted to do was flex my new architek power. And then, once I was free, I had very little in the way of resources! Frustrating.

Several hours later, since I was still playing, I realized that maybe I wasn't so bored after all. The simple directive of get more stuff sucked me in as soon as I had a free hand with the game, and before I even had time to think, I was obsessed with building up my little kingdom. Without my even realizing it, My Life as a King had gone from boring to fun.

Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

While we have a full review of the WiiWare title coming later, initial impressions of the simulation are that it's a lot like MySims, but better. My Life as a King manages to be even cuter, but with a gloss that's unmistakably Square Enix, and the characters are engaging. Even the random chatter with the townspeople is somewhat interesting. There's no awkward building; once you have the ability to construct something with your power, up it goes as directed. While it means the buildings are somewhat lacking in variety, it's quicker and frees up more time to do the important things, like hunt down the darn moogle who makes your blueprints for new buildings.

Early impressions of the adventuring system are also positive; as soon as that opened up, it quickly became the most interesting part of the game (so far). Since you're limited, in the beginning, in what you can build. it's nice to know that you can easily multiply your stable of adventurers and send them out in search of knowledge and resources. Every time you build a house, you get two new people: one citizen, and one would-be adventurer. As soon as you can afford to commission them, they're able to head out to the surrounding dungeons in search of elementite, the material used for your architek power.

Here at the beginning, there isn't a great deal to do, other than marvel that there are only single parents here (several single moms and one single dad in my kingdom), and wonder where that damned Mogtillo gets off to when I need him, but the game days are short. Later, I'm sure managing everything will become a challenge of time.

Check back with us later for a full review, in which we'll also take a look at the already-available downloadable content!

Tags: ffcc, final-fantasy, joystiqfeatures, my-life-as-a-king, simulation, square-enix

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr.Taco @ May 13th 2008 9:44AM

Excellent impressions...mine exactly.

Looking forward to the DLC review as well. I haven't nabbed any, and I intend to at some point, maybe tonight?

Alisha Karabinus @ May 13th 2008 10:52AM

I'd hold off unless you're far -- the pack I downloaded had way higher level dungeons, so it looks like you needn't be in a hurry. But maybe for the races....

Ryoujin @ May 13th 2008 9:52AM

Casually I was looking for reviews about this, been thinking about buying the game since last night. I already read the review that 1up wrote, but I was looking forward to read something from here. But now I'm kind of confused; I've been reading that once you download it in a Wii there's no way to move it out (lets say my Wii breaks, burns, explodes or a meteor falls on it).

It also seems (confirmed by what you guys wrote at the end) that, even after buying the game, you still have to buy stuff in-game to take out the most of it... going back to the point of what if something happens to my Wii, I'd have to buy it all again? Does the game only saves in the HD or can it be saved in a SD card?

murray b @ May 13th 2008 2:24PM

you can re-download at no cost. my first wii broke, and i had to re-download all of my games. it was pretty simple, but i did lose all my mii's which kinda sucked.

gojsse @ May 13th 2008 10:44AM

I played it for 6+ hours yesterday and though it seems like not much is going on, I still couldn't put it down. Something about the missions and filling up that empty castle town that keeps me going. Who knows if it would be stuck in system memory. That would suck seeing as it's 200+ blocks.

Mr. Scolex @ May 13th 2008 10:48AM

I bought this game and the character three-pack and I'm loving it so far. It starts off slow but it sucks you in and keeps you there.

My very short list of complaints so far:
1)DLC buildings have to be unlocked after purchase - the races will have to be obtained through level 8 dungeons, a daunting task in the early game. By the time I got them all, my adventurer roster was already full and I had to upgrade at a guild hall (which I didn't have yet) to get more. Once I did I found that the number you can have eventually permanently caps at 16 and that means that you still don't have much adventurer variety, since you can't fire them and by the time you get the new races most of your roster is full anyhow.
2) You can't play forever, there is a set ending point and if you want to keep going from there, you have to start over, which is disappointing.
3) You are a little kid, your adventurers are little kids, and nobody grown older. It would have been nice, for example, to see the adventurers get old and weathered as they leveled up, if only to tell them apart from the level 1 younglings you just hired.

Scotty @ May 13th 2008 11:15AM

I started playing this last night and didn't even look up till 4 and a half hours later...I got so sucked in. I'm not a fan of Final Fantasy or really any RPGs, but this game is just power-hungry FUN.

SoshiKitai @ May 13th 2008 12:01PM

Hmmm...

1. These kind of games usually take time for the addiction to hit you. Only then do you realize the magic of the game.

2. Better than MySims? My goodness that's a direct challenge that may lead to war for me. I loved MySims! I also tend to have a sharp arrow always aimed at Square Enix... since I happen to dislike their company, but appreciate the games.
I understand the options and happenings in the game could easily beat MySims in totality (I found out that's an actual word), but MySims charm comes mainly from building all new things. It may not be as addictive, or as interactive, but you can build masterpieces out of thin air! And its capability of building almost anything from rubbish should very well keep it safe from being compared to other non-fully-custom-built-games.
So in that end, I'm just saying: They're not really comparable... unless by cuteness.

3. Cuter than MySims? ... you're a sucker for the anime eyes and tiny animals, aren't ya'? I'd argue that MySims is beyond cuter in expressions and actions than anything Square Enix can dish out (except for Chocobo Dungeon/Tales games... that's a whole 'nother kind of cute).

And lastly:

4. ^_^ Glad someone appreciates those kind of games.

Alisha Karabinus @ May 13th 2008 12:30PM

MySims is REALLY cute, but this has one thing it doesn't: moogles. Moogles outcute pretty much everything, at least in my opinion! But the little king himself is really adorable, and while it doesn't have the cartoony giggle-fest cuteness of MySims, it has a very polished look that's different, but also very cute. Plus, other races.

As for the building... see, here we differ. I didn't care that much for the controls in the building aspect of MySims. I like this simpler approach. Instead, I have other things to manage, and I prefer that, so it may just come down to what you like.

SoshiKitai @ May 13th 2008 12:46PM

Yeah it does just depend on what people like. I understand that.

1. I'm not that huge of a fan of moogles as other people are... >.> ...the moogle-craze never hit me. I've been over-mooglefied by fans before.

2. MySims can get really... tedious that you just wish to just place a table down and color it into two colors. Or just ask someone else to decorate the place up for you. So I understand why most people get tired of that. :P
--my solution to that problem: Turn the game off and not play it for a few weeks. :D

3. Polished look: Something that Square LOVES to do. And it's much appreciated. :P

vmize @ May 14th 2008 12:58AM

I've put in 4.5+ hours into this game and agree there is something very addicting to it. I have a question maybe some can answer for me.

*Can you/ How do you group up your adventurers into a party?

gojsse @ May 13th 2008 2:54PM

probably an additional building you win later maybe by beating a dungeon boss? training hall maybe? i am wondering too. some of these dungeons are rather difficult even if the dungeon is level 8 and your peeps are level 15. large monster party encounters maybe. bring out the black mages with fira or maybe it requires the ability to form a party. can't wait to figure that out.

Jon L-S @ May 13th 2008 3:19PM

Yeah, you open up taverns at a later point that let you send multiple adventurers as a "party," it makes the level 10ish stuff manageable.

Ryoujin @ May 13th 2008 12:15PM

Based on http://www.square-enix.com/na/company/press/2008/0512/ if you bought all the downloadable content we would be talking about $25.00 extras, so the game ends up costing $40.00 (without the option of backuping it up?).

gojsse @ May 13th 2008 12:38PM

Yeah, I got a number like that too! Ouch, where's the add-on pack everyone was talking about for $13? Almost seems they are a bit greedy.

gojsse @ May 13th 2008 12:39PM

Ok, that racetrack is literal like "race" track as in races of people pack.

Triple Race Pack

800

Adds Lilty huts, Selkie dens and Yuke shacks to the buildings list.

save $1

guttertalk @ May 13th 2008 3:57PM

Actually, your numbers are off: if you buy the Triple Race Pack, then you don't need to buy the individual race packs. So, the total for all of the add-on content is $16, making the grand total for the game and add-ons $31.

gojsse @ May 13th 2008 12:29PM

Nice thing about the add-on content is say you unlock a race with a house you buy from wii ware by defeating the dungeons that are attached to the add-on, you will then have access to those races/houses at the beginning of any new game on that wii. I have not gotten that far but that's what it said when I bought a selkie hut for $3 and found out my adventurers wouldn't meet the level requirements to beat those dungeons for quite some time.

It's totally optional content. The outfits didn't say they'd do anything so I avoided the almost non-existent urge to buy those. I bet that $8 racetrack add-on is cool but $8 for an in-game thingy! Probably have to beat like 4 level 40 dungeons or something to unlock it too.

Anyway, I'm sure the add-on stuff will be nice down the road if you ever want to play the game again with a new twist on classes, town aesthetic, extra dungeons (11 dungeon bonus pack in addition to all the extra dungeons attached to the diff't class/race houses!), etc. All the add-ons seem to imply they exist for the purpose of a higher replay value which is nice as someone mentioned there is a max day limit and the game starts over. I'm sure we'll see speedruns of this game down the road.

Ryoujin @ May 13th 2008 12:52PM

Could someone please confirm me the backup thing? I've been trying to search around but I can't seem to find any answer regarding it. Since you cannot backup the game, if you end up having to buy the game again, would you have to buy all the add-ons as well for a second time?

If the Wii breaks, can you backup the game? I read that it only works in the Wii you bought and it cannot be redownloaded. How does it work? I have never bought anything like this before so I'm kinda lost :( I'm planning to buy it tonight (I'm @ work right now) so I planned to clear up such questions before I went over there.

iofthestorm @ May 13th 2008 9:29PM

There's a way to link purchases to your my.nintendo.com account, and I think they might track your games through that if you need a replacement. They might also just look at the games on your Wii and redownload them for you or something like that, but I don't know how that works.

hvnlysoldr @ May 13th 2008 11:49PM

As we sent my Wii in for repairs my brother noticed on the scrolling blurb on Attack of the Show that this game is 1500 Wii points. He was also curious about Ring of Fates and Crystal Bearers. We sure loved FFCC.

Dante Diablo @ May 14th 2008 4:19AM

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do the in-town behests. It's some kind of mental block and the little in-game pointers just are doing it. Any suggestions?

Mr.Taco @ May 14th 2008 4:39PM

The in-town behests are accomplished by selecting the castle itself at the behest creation screen.

It took me a while to figure that one out too.

Dante Diablo @ May 15th 2008 12:21AM

You get a gold star Mr. Taco. Many thanks.

Shanks @ May 15th 2008 1:40AM

This game sounds an awful lot like Medieval Conquest (PC, 2004) by Cat Daddy Games, which was decent fun for a $9 impulse buy off the used rack at GameStop. I can only hope FFCC:MLaaK's adventurer AI is an improvement; it's kind of important.

I look forward to the final review, but since I devour everything FFCC, my mind's already made up.

SoshiKitai @ May 18th 2008 5:58AM

Medieval Conquest was awesomely fun for its price in a bargain bin.

And you're right, it's basically like that.
You can't see the battles though. Just read their turn-by-turn moves on the daily reports you get.
The AI's are decent. It really just depends on their attitude and situation on how they react... heck, one of my adventurers always refuses to back down from a fight... and I like it.

It's really more about: Progress.
You always look forward to exploring more places, see your town grow and how everyone reacts to things... see your adventurers level up and see them look at their empty wallets when they reach the armor shop... and just build the darn place however the hell you want to build it.

...I'm surprised that a WiiWare game is actually this expansive, in my opinion.

Shanks @ May 19th 2008 8:14PM

Thanks for the all the information, Soshi. This game has "must-buy" written all over it.

PaperMariofan @ May 15th 2008 10:28PM

Does anyone know if you can get male Selkies? I've tried building the dens over and over and only get girls. Am I just unlucky or are there only girl Selkies available right now? From what I've seen there might also only be male Lilty adventurers, but I know you can get both genders for Yukes.

SoshiKitai @ May 18th 2008 5:53AM

I'm a little late at replying, but: No, no male Selkies. And no female Lilties.

The way I see it: Just stick with a male thief.

Fotofanscam @ May 18th 2008 6:05PM

First, in order to party-up, you have to get the tavern.

Also, Im not sure about selkies and lilties, because i only have the yuke patch but i know that the reason you can get both male and female yukes is because they occupy different jobs. The male yukes are automatically black mages; females white mages. The genders besides in the yuke's case, doesn't matter except for aesthetic value anyway, so it shouldnt be too big of a problem.

In case anyone was wondering (like the guy asking about in-town behests), in order to declare the day as a holiday, you have to upgrade your town twice (done by trading in morale spheres inside the castle to chime). Also, the only "in-town" behests available are job changes and looking for info (for mogtillo). The realy in-town behests only reward you with morale and can only be done after the fourth town upgrade. Then you have to talk to mogroe and occasionally he will sing a song about a person in the town. If you go to that person's house, they will be standing outside waiting for you to talk to them. that will open up the intown behest for the next day.

lastly, I am on day 102 and I have downloaded the yuke shack, the dungeon pack, the elegant house (or whatever) and the shrine (or whatever). I also downloaded the kings new outfit thing (because i had exactly 100 wiipoints left). All of the race houses are obtained through a level 8 dungeon. The 11 dungeons d-loaded with the dungeon pack start around level 18 i think and go up to 40 (most of them being over 20). The costume really doesnt do anything, and looks just like the default but black and white. And you have to go "change clothes" every time you cut the game on to wear it.

I dont know about the recovery, but i do think it is possible.

and, i just remembered that the exquisite house and shrine thing or whatever they are called are dungeon levels in the 30's.

so definately not early-game DLC.

sorry for the long post, but i hope that i helped answer some of your questions.

SoshiKitai @ May 18th 2008 6:06AM

I finally got done playing the game earlier today (I wasn't in a rush, I just loved taking it slow).

My opinion: Rocks my socks.

YOU DON'T NEED THE DLC... but if you try to improve your town and people slowly and surely like I did (I got an SS rank for that... D in timing, however), you'll eventually want more buildings to make by Day 100.
So if you like making it slow, and seeing all the sights and sounds: You won't really need any DLC until DAY 100. And even by then, buying a single Race can keep you distracted until you finish the game...

So no DLC until you REALLY want to build more.
And remember: It's replayable. And you don't have to rush (unless you're aiming for a high score, that is).

And if you consider that... the DLC IS WORTH IT... seeing that you'll possibly buying another Wii points card by the time you're hungry for more. And btw, for those against the DLC because of how much content could've been added in the first place: No... you don't want that extra space taken, nor do you want to see that extra charge for that extra effort in the beginning... I'm glad they split it into DLC. I'm surprised they were able to fit all those things even without the DLC.

PS: The clothes don't do anything, it's just there for a change of pace... which you might need on your holidays in the game.

PaperMariofan @ Jun 3rd 2008 1:49PM

Thanks for the tip. One last question. When you ask one of the moogle brothers (whatever the name is of the one at the lookout tower) about adventurer buildings, he lists five different ones. I know (and have) all the buildings with jobs-warrior, thief, black mage, and white mage. But what is the fifth building? I know he doesn't say the name until you unlock it, but is there a fifth job? Or is it just a train-all building?