Review - My Life as a King
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Wiiware)
1 Player
10+ Hours
Variable Difficulty
$15
I wasn't too happy about a $15 sim with expensive downloadable content when I first heard about this game. It took a lot of thinking, debating and positive buzz from those playing it for me to even consider buying it. Now, after playing it myself I am very happy that I did buy it because it is a really great experience.
First of all you need to know that this is a sim game in the same vein as Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. This isn't a RPG or an action game, and you don't even see any of the battles. Most of the 'action' happens behind the scenes via a brilliant engine that Square has created that offers an incredible RPG simulation experience. Your job here is to manage the big things and let the game engine handle the little stuff.
In this game you play the son of a King who had to abandon his land because of monsters, and now after many years have returned to build up the Kingdom of your childhood and see it prosper. You're still a kid though so you arrive with a knight protector and a magical guide dressed in skimpy clothes. In the center of the empty city there is a crystal that gives you the power to create and things start rolling from there.
The gameplay revolves around you building houses to get people to move back in then hiring volunteers to become paid adventurers who go out to do your will. Then you have to build stores and other stuff to keep the people happy and to equip your fighters with the tools they need out in the wild. You fighters are autonomous and you don't actually pick what they will buy. You can't even control what they will do, and sometimes they will just feel like coming home early because they were bored. As you progress you get to build new buildings that grant your adventurers more options, such as becoming a mage or thief, and give you more stuff to manage.
The presentation is top notch and adds to the list of 40 megabyte Wiiware games that look, feel and play better than the vast majority of 3rd party retail fare on the Wii. This being a square game there is really not much to say as they have well established themselves as a company that makes great looking games. My life as a King follows that Square tradition of quality.
Unfortunately the game is not without its problems starting with the lag that occurs when you talk to others and have a large city. There are also some buildings, like bakeries, that you can enter that really have no point and add nothing to the game. Sim games by nature are very repetitive and given the small size of this one you'll find that most of your days are spent picking a task, assigning adventurers then wandering around town waiting for the next day. It's not too bad, but they should have given us more to do.
By far the biggest issue with the game is the chaos created by your adventurers. Realistically this game isn't about micro managing them, but at the same time a lot of things could have been done better. First of all your adventurers are dumb and consistently try to fight in areas they can't handle. Sending a level 1 fighter out to gain experience on his own is always going to end up with him entering some level 10 area where he has no business going. Now you can post a mission to train in a low level area, but then your stronger fighters want to go there and if they do they kill all the monsters and don't let your weak guy level up. The worst part is posting high level jobs and having all your weak guys volunteer for it instead of your strong guys. There is also the problem of making buildings for your troops only to get ignored by them - like the game hall or training hall.
By far the biggest oversight in the game is the crazy ant race that happens everyday with your fighters running to every single building they can do something in just to check to see if they can. It doesn't matter that your guy just bought a new sword yesterday he is going to check the weapons shop today, tomorrow and every single day. Obviously this is an incredible waste of time on their part and it leads to your men wasting the entire day running around preparing, and by the time they are ready to go out it's dark and they decide to come back.
I must also add that in spite of these issues the game engine is very, very good. I'd say brilliant for the most part. Even though you can't see it there is a lot of stuff happening and a look at your daily reports will give you a glimpse. If your men fight a slime it doesn't just tell you that they fought and killed a slime. No, the game actually plays out the scenario RPG style and you get to see the results on a turn-by-turn basis. You men aren't completely stupid either as they will take shortcuts to avoid enemies, camp near fountains of healing while they grind on enemies to earn experience and even form their own parties.
There is also the subject of downloadable content, and I can tell you with reasonable certainty that at least some of the content is already in the game and you just pay to unlock it. The most useless stuff is the character packs - They are expensive and only add a new face to look at since your default guys can change to any job they want. The dungeon pack also has a weird disclaimer which makes me believe that the extra areas disappear once you beat them - I'm not sure. In any case this stuff is disappointing and I can only hope that other games don't follow suit.
While playing this game I've found it hard to pull myself away from a session. This game is very addicting and every time I look at the clock I find myself shocked at how much time has passed. Some things could have been better, but the overall package is still pretty great if you like these sort of games.
I GIVE MY LIFE AS A KING A 8/10 [GREAT]
Value Bias -
Download content Bias -
Genre Bias +
PROS:
- Great presentation and visuals
- Incredible RPG engine
- Lots of play time for a small game
- Possibility for new or extended content
CONS:
- Gets Laggy when City is large
- Adventurer system/management could have been better
- Not a lot of things to manage/occupy your day with
- DLC is expensive
- Have to pay to unlock some content
VALUE:
- Square is a very big, popular brand and because of that they tend to jack up the price of all their games. If this game was by any other company it would have been $10, but given square's track record and quality level I have no problem paying the extra $5 (Square tax). The downloadable content on the other hand is a total ripoff, and there is no way that a costume change should cost a whole dollar. Of course the DLC is completely optional and not necessary to enjoy the game.
