Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (NDS Wii)

Okay so here we have a came that came out for both of Nintendo's systems and function together in complete sync. Let's see how this did.

Game play: The game play is good, something like a dungeon crawler meets and action RPG. You'll create a character of one of the 4 available races and begin moving through the story. Later you'll be able to recruit or create additional allies. Another great feature is the Wifi for the 2 systems and the ability to play with friends any where with either system. ANother great feature is the upgrading of armors and customization. Like you're old starting armor think its cool looking well its possible to over level armor to extend its usefulness or break the armor down to aquire gems for new skills in your next set of armor. Also tthe game boast so good dugeon and puzzle design making the play more challenging. 5/5

Story: So there was the ancient race that used crystal to power everything and then all the crsystals went away. Now people are trying to alter time to stop that. That's the jist of it...you kind f just run from point A to point B in an attempt to further the plot but its mostly just to get access to higher quest dungeons and gear. 2/5

Graphics: Okay the game is nice looking not great but nice. Enemies are often pallet swapped but most of the gear and is unique adding to your characters individuality. The sad thing is the only visual difference in the characters is race and gender so all the same race and gender look the same. There's a way to change hair color later but that's it. For a DS game it looks great...on the Wii it looks like a DS game which is less than good. 3/5

Audio: The music is kind of blah. Nothing about it really stands out and the voice acting is good but not memorable. Some of the best audio moments are hearing the screams of a dying ally and then laughing at them for it. Otherwise the sounds just ambient noise. 3/5

Replay: The games engaging enough to make you want to play through its 3 difficulty setting and unlock all the shiney bonuses also later in the game you can aquire items for making a new character that would have a better stat growth than your current one. A nice feature if not a bit tedious. 4/5

Overall: on the DS the game is totally worth on the Wii not so much being its basically a straight port. The co-op elements of the game are done right and done well. Many puzzles and boss fights make you want to play with friends but at the same time they aren't needed to conquer the game. The replay is also good though you'll be forced to visit all the dungeon 2 or 3 times they change enough and are entertaining enough for in not to feel burdening. The quest system like the rest of the game is all well balanced making you want friends but not making it a demand for completion. Overall the games biggest draw back is that its not terribly long. A group of seriously players can beat the story in about 15 hours. On the upside the replay collecting and side stuff gives the game a good 30-50 hour play. Depending on how much you're entertained by all that. 4/5

Avalon Code (DS)

Hello, peoples. Today we're going to be talking about the end of the world and the book that will bring about a new one.


Story: So, you take on the role of either a male or female who finds a book. The book appears when the world is about to end, and it is now your job to collect information for what the next world will be like. You slap the book on monsters and people and plants, and you develop maps (no work on your part) of the areas you visit. Of course, having the book is not enough, you must find the four elemental spirits to help guide you. And you must avoid having this Book of Prophecy taken away by the wrong hands. The story is interesting, while not the most developed, it will keep you going. You will want to know how everything plays out. 4/5


Audio: The music is nice and cheery, nothing spectacular. There is some voice acting, which is decently done, but again not the most amazing. 3/5


Graphics: The graphics of Avalon Code utilize the DS well. Environments look attractive, and the characters have a storybook art look to them. It's all very fitting for the game. 4/5


Gameplay: The gameplay is fairly unique. You can put a different weapon in each hand, and the X and Y button each control a hand. Your skills with different weapons increase as you use them, offering you stronger attack and longer special attacks. The A button performs a judgment link, which is essentially you knocking an enemy into the air. Then with timing you can keep pressing one of the attack buttons to knock the enemy higher and higher. Eventually the enemy will explode into HP, MP, and money. You can also alternate the attack buttons, keeping the enemy low to the ground, but easier to reach the hit count necessary for said explosion of goodies. The B button hits things with the book, which allows you to see their data. You can adjust the stats of monsters by altering their data. This is an excellent, and sometimes necessary, way to make bosses weaker. You can use the book to adjust your weapons and armor too, giving them elemental properties, or if you have the recipes, making them into stronger items. When you interact with people, you can give them presents and build their friendship towards you. This also can develop romantic relationships with certain characters. All of this affects how the new world (and game ending) will be. Now then, onto dungeons. This is an interesting area. Each room in a dungeon has some sort of challenge you must face (defeat enemies, hit switches, move statues) and often have bonus conditions. If you earn enough points, you have the possibility of getting a gold medal, which depending on the room might or might not provide you with a new recipe. If you die, then you have the option to continue in the room you are in (with everything reset of course). This makes it easy to forget to save often, and sometimes you will get caught in a boos fight, have to retry again and again, and if you have not saved recently, then you won't be able to turn off the game without losing data (because you cannot save during a boss fight). Boss fights are all about finding the key to winning. Usually it's playing with your new weapon, but sometimes not. One thing to note, altering codes and giving presents cost MP (as does teleporting but that's much later in the game), and the only way to really replenish your MP is using judgment links. Sometimes in dungeons you can find vases that will restore all HP/MP, but these are usually just before a boss fight. The other problem with the game scrolling though the book (the touchscreen). You can flip through the index to certain sections, but you cannot go to a particular page. And you will be flipping through pages often trying to find that particular code you need for any given situation. (*Note: you will need to use the stylus on this game. It's not overdone luckily, just for the moving codes and navigating the book.) The game play is simple enough, and even fun. Dungeons sometimes get tedious with room after room of challenges, but once done you do not have to mess with them again. Overall, good gameplay. 4/5


Replay: There are a lot of small things in this game that are easy to miss...a lot. And even if you find most of them, there are things you'll want to do differently. Replay is a worthwhile experience. 3/5


Overall: The game is cute and fun and a good way to spend time. It utilizes the DS well, both graphically and gameplay wise. If you want a fun, light hearted action RPG to play, this is a good choice for you. 4/5

Rune Factory: Frontier (Wii) and Rune Factory 2 (NDS)

Long ago I reviewed Rune factory for the DS and recently I played the second one. The first one wasn't a bad game neither was it a good game, today I'll be looking at the improvements on both the DS and Wii version.

Rune Factory: Frontier

Gameplay: Alrighty, firstly the control scheme for the wii is good not just good its actually rather well designed. combat is fluid and easy to learn, tools and interactions as well as a nice arrow and hit box showing where you're aiming to what you're targetting are extremely helpful.
The monster play is definately been improved as you actually want to bring them with you now. Mounts and assisting fighter types make the dungeon crawling much more user friendly. A new addition that I find hurtful and tedious is the Runey system. They're little spirits that hover around and deending on if the 4 types are in balance makes crops grow faster...but they often aren't causing the player to take time to oftencheck and manage the population of one type or another... 4/5

Story: The story is at the great level of not being so important that it distracts you from all the fun farming, dating, and befriending of the game, but also key to progression, and interesting enough to make you want to actually care about it. The story is more of a true sequel to the first DS one than the actual RF2, You'l be takin on the role of the hero from the frist RF and having followed the possibly insane Mist to a new town where you'll once again be shoved into taking care of a dirt farm. A thin setup but none the less the rest of the story improves as you go from dungeon to dungeon learning about the new small town you've come to call home. 3/5

Graphics: The game is pretty many of the areas and dungeons are well designed with a very fatasy style. small wild flowers blooming in the corners and quiet little streams running throughout the town. Characters in silly completely non-functional clothing. The opening and several scene in the game are fully animated, specifically the opening and introduction of the bachleretes. The enemies and spells are well done though the reoccuring recolors of foes is a bit annoying it doesn't take away from the nice eye friendly design. 4/5

Audio: Yay voice acting, not only that but it doesn't suck! The game has a great opening theme that's fun and inviting all the characters also really are voiced well. and the music for the seasons really fits well adding to the already imersive feel of the game. Even the yells of battle as you axe monsters in the face sound good. 5/5

Replay: Like most games in the HM series there's always a good replay value in picking different girls to marry and such. RF takes it a set further giving you the option of not only your spouse but the design of you're home the weapons and magic you use and the skills you choose to make your living. 5/5

Overall: The game has few flaws, with controls that are easy to use, a thin story that's not demanding and a good balance in time management the game really does a good job of managing the fantasy and harvest moon elements well. The only complaint I have is that neither were expanded on too much from the orginal RF on DS but they were melded well which was a murdering fact for the orginal. 4/5

Rune Factory 2



Gameplay: OKay as the "true sequel" to the DS version it really does a good job of returning the good of the first version. Lots of fun dungeon crawling, girl wooing, and farming. 4/5

Story: This did a much better job of making you care about the story than the previous but the story was still just a means to an end. Progression felt more of a need that want. It also suffered from several forced haults for you to go do some tedious task to progress again. 3/5

Graphics: Good improvements here, the games is attractive and vibrant. Spells and attacks aren't just the same recolored fireballs from the previous version. 4/5

Audio: Voice acting (again) this one is eh...not the best. It could also do the dialogue being poorly done. but the music is nice, a good set of seasonal themes providing a nice immersion the game well needs. 3/5

Replay: This is hit or miss the game requires you to go into a second generation to continue the story this is bit tedious as the best things are in the 2nd gen. but having the choice of actually being pursuing your love interests twice is appealing. 3/5

Overall: This one did a much better job of merging the fantasy and HM aspects. Where it failed was neither were too great. Yes the 2nd generation was cool but having all the best things stashed in it took too much away from the first generation. Outside of the ability to move into the 2nd generation and be a boy or a girl the game brought nothing new and spectacular to the series either. 3/5

My World, My Way (DS)

Remember when I reviewed Dungeon Master, the game about the boy with the talking shovel? Now take that game and redesign it with girls in mind. Meet My World, My Way.


Story: You play as Princess Elisa, who is a spoiled young lady in love. sadly, the person she fell in love with was an adventurer who didn't want a useless princess. So she did what any rational person would do, she became an adventurer. Because hr father can't say no to her, he lets her go, and sends someone to secretly guide and protect her along the way. I guess the story is nice because it involves a princess actually doing something rather than needing rescuing. 4/5


Audio: The music is forgettable. I can't remember what it sounds like at all. 3/5


Graphics: The graphics aren't spectacular, but they aren't horrible either. 3/5


Gameplay: The gameplay is relatively simple. You pick a region to go to, sometimes you are limited in your options, and you receive a mission from the villagers. As you level you earn Pout points, which you can use to help you in battle or change the environments (if you need different enemies to spawn). You learn magic by watching enemies cast spells, and hopefully your parrot companion will learn these spells. In towns you can eat meals which will increase your stats. The gameplay is very simple, but not bad. 4/5


Replay: I don't think there is much value in replaying. 2/5


Overall: It's a cute game,but it's nothing amazing. The gameplay is easy to understand, and the story isn't bad, but it becomes repetitive. 3/5

Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalica (PS2)

I've had a tough time deciding how I want to review this. Most games I know how I feel, but Ar Tonelico 2 eludes me in terms of how much I love or hate it. So let's try to analyze this.


Story: I think this is the weakness of the game. The story is a confusing mess of "what's going on." You take the role of Croix, a soldier for Grand Bell whose jobs is to hunt infected Reyveitals (these are females who can use song magic). Shortly into this, you are asked to serve as bodyguard to the Holy Maiden, Cloche, who is a bit of a stuck-up...well anyway. Then you go and meet your girlfriend Luca, who you haven't seen in years, and seem to not care that she's your girlfriend at all. The characters are rather flat (actually I hate both Luca and Cloche, but the peppy nonlove interest girl is somewhat entertaining), and the story is a jumbled mess. 2/5


Audio: The game revolves around singing women, so I would hope the music does it credit, and i think it does. A lot of tracks have vocals in the background which enhance the atmosphere. The voice acting is average, but you don't have to wade through a lot of it. 4/5


Graphics: Graphically, the game isn't topnotch. It's light and pretty, but if you want realism or fancy graphics, this isn't for you. 3/5


Gameplay: The battle system in this is somewhat unique. You can have up to 2 reyveitals in your party and two warriors who serve as guards. The reyveitals spend the entire battle singing, while your guards will melee. You can change their style of attack by holding down up, down, or left on the directional pad. These styles will also affect the performance of the Reyveitals. On defensive turns you have to time hitting the X or Square button to protect your reyveital. The reyveital will always be the primary target of enemy attack if there is one in the party. Things to do outside of battle include: synthing in shops, bathing your reyveitals, diving into your reyveitals, or looking for fan club members. The bathing is necessary to level up the reyveitals, and requires you finding crystals in shops or around the world. The diving allows you to see into the inner psyche of the girls, but is mostly to unlock new costumes and spells for them. The fan club has a purpose in boosting one of Cloche's unique abilities. While the battle system is so-so, these other gameplay activies are particularly entertaining and make the game fun. 4/5


Replay: There is at points in the game where you have to choose between Cloche and Luca. This will determine a number of things that will happen, including who gets the most spells and where you go for certain parts of the game. Personally, I want to see what the other side of the coin looks like. 4/5


Overall: So, my review seems mediocre at best, but I'd like to say, I'm still playing the game and finding it entertaining. It's not as well done as some other NIS games, but it's entertaining. Still, I'd probably recommend renting it, unless you know you like NIS/Gust games. 3/5

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii)

I couldn't do it. I couldn't play the game long enough to give a full and accurate review. So, I'll just tell you about my experience from the first 3 hours.



Story: Two years after the events from Tales of Symphonia (GC), the two world have merged together, with one side dominating the other. This leads to a rise of rebel groups. The game begins with the town of Palmacosta being attacked by Lloyd (from the original game) who has apparently become murderous since his time saving the world. He kills the parents of this game's main character, Emil. Emil goes to live with his aunt, and meets Marta, a spunky girl who is trying to revive the king of beasts in order to restore balance tothe world. Apparently as long as this king is asleep all the elements of the world will go crazy. Anyway, that's about as far as I got. The two met with Colette from the original game. The plot, I'm sure given enough time it would make sense, but I just innately reject any plot where the idealistic and noble character of one game has become evil. 3/5


Audio: The music isn't bad, I don't remember it much. The voice acting has credible actors, but the dialogue is so painful. Still, not bad. 4/5


Graphics: The graphics feel somewhat minimized. The characters and environments are not as detailed as they could be good. 3/5


Gameplay: The game uses the 3D battle map that appeared in Tales of Symphonia, making reasonable use ofthe wiimote and nunchuck. Regular attacks are limited to the A button, but special attacks can be set to the B button and joystick. A major component of the game is to recruit monsters to join your party. For this you need to have the battlefield maintain certain elements, which can be change by using various artes. There is no interactive world map, instead you have a list of areas you can visit. The game has a crafting system and a cooking system, but these are more in the background, with cooking's purpose to be to feed the monsters you have captured for stat boosts. 3/5


Replay: ..../twitch /twitch 1/5


Overall: I'm not going to score an overall because it wouldn't be fair. i didn't see the overall of the game. instead, I'll tell you what I didn't like. I hated the direction the story was going. The main character made me what to kill everything around me, though I have read he becomes less obnoxious over time. The main female lead is, well, I think Misa from Deathnote. She has no common sense and is in love with the main character for absolutely no reason. It's nice to have characters return from Tales of Symphonia, though I feel if I were Colette and had to keep hearing people talking about how wonderful Mithos was, I'd go insane. I read a reivew that said this was a game for fans of the original, and only they would love it. I would lik to say I loved the original, and because I loved it, I couldn't handle the changes that occurred in this sequel. If you want a fan service game, pick up Radiant Mythology for the PSP. This game takes some serious dedication and patience if you want to get into it.

Upcoming Review

I'm planning on reviewing Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, for the wii. I've started it. So far it's the most soul crushing experience ever. i've never wanted to kill a main character as much as I want to kill Emil. But out of fairness to the Tales games, I'm going to give it some more time. More painful painful time. And pray that suddenly the main character dies and a new, cooler person shows up. That and the story line stops making me want to kill the people around me. I pity my neighbors otherwise.