"All for one or one for all?"

The world is in peril. An ancient evil has awakened and it is beginning to stir up an apocalyptic stew. As usual, the entire population is panicking and it doesn't help that all of the King's elite soldiers are cowering in their quarters. It is a dire situation and the world has never been in more desperate need of a saviour. And so, it rests the heavy burden upon the shoulders of our pre-pubescent hero of the day – Yuri. No, not the badass Yuri from the boss-infested RPG Shadow Hearts, nor the Yuri who was the first man in outer space; this Yuri is an adorable little munchkin dressed in pinstriped pyjamas who needs his twin sister's help to simply swing a sword straight.

Luckily for him (and the world), Yuri's not the only star of this show.

Do you fancy a stout swordsman who hits harder than a truck? Or are you more of a long-distance sniper? Maybe you're the type that doesn't enjoy getting physical; lobbing great balls of dark matter might just be your thing. Or are you a pacifist? That is, you prefer brewing magicite crystals over using them to hurt people. It's hard to choose, isn't it? Well for the purposes of the single-player story mode (which is the focus of this review), it doesn't matter; you will get to play as all four unique characters, simultaneously, sooner or later.

To save the world, you must take your awesome foursome into the deepest depths of several decrepit dungeons. You'll need to make good use of each individual's innate abilities to make it through alive. It's like an MMORPG raid, but with only four players, and you are in control of all of them. Of course, you only directly control one character at a time, but you may switch between them at a moment's notice. It's easy, but it doesn't always work well.

Battles are carried out in real-time. Enemies roam about the dungeon corridors and if you feel the need to whack them around, you simply walk up to them and begin hammering on the A button. Yuri can perform a combo of powerful sword slashes so he's usually your front-liner (i.e. your most often controlled character). Alhanalem is your mage-type who hurls dark balls of energy from afar, Gnash is an expert archer who has the handy ability to double jump, and Meeth is your token pacifist; she hits like a baby and would much rather cook up magicite. They all have their uses and sometimes a situation calls for one over another.

Since you only have control of one character at a time, the AI governs the actions of the other three. I wouldn't expect to see marvellous team AI in a DS game (the memories of Heroes of Mana still haunt me), but calling it inept is an understatement. If you tackle enemies head-on with Yuri, Alhanalem and Gnash will usually back you up with projectile attacks. (Meeth usually stands back to enjoy the show). However, if you use any of the other characters to lead an assault from afar, the AI tends to fumble around with who your actual target is. It's forgivable when you're dealing with a few weak fiends, but later monsters can really rip you apart in a matter of seconds if your offence isn't coordinated. It sucks to die just because the AI decides to walk your comrades around in circles instead of laying some smackdown.

Your members will try to follow your lead as best as possible. So good in fact, that if you double jump across a large gap with Gnash, they will still try to follow suit. This means while you're merrily hopping from platform to platform, the rest of your team are repeatedly diving into bottomless pits and losing health as a result. You cannot issue them any commands like “stay still and don't bloody move!” which is a pity; they are just braindead followers, loyal to the very end. Luckily, you can summon them to your whereabouts in a flash, but to keep tabs on them like this is a hassle.

Boss battles are a particular nuisance. If you are attacking from the backside, your teammates will come in from the front. When the boss charges up for a full frontal assault and you're still hacking away in your comfortable spot, your members will also keep hacking away, oblivious to the massive energy beam that's growing larger by the second right in front of their eyes. Because your teammates are a bunch of dumb nuts, they'll die rather quickly making them more useless than a console without any really good games (*cough* PS3). There isn't much strategy involved either. You'll only need to mash with Yuri most of time; rarely will you need one of the snipers for aerial/aquatic foes. So even though you may bring in a healthy team of four to battle these gargantuan monstrosities, all you really need is just the one, and one is all you'll end up with most of the time too.

At least the magic system fares better. Magicite orbs are used to cast several traditional Final Fantasy spells. Elemental attributes are relatively insignificant in the long-run (low enemy diversity), but various status effects can be inflicted which makes things interesting. Fire will cause a temporary burn that deals out constant tick damage and blizzard will freeze enemies in their tracks. You cast spells by holding down X and moving the target reticule over the ground, releasing the button to unleash the magic. You can even compound magic strength by casting in the same spot twice simultaneously by either delaying your first spell (press L) or working together with human friends (you should know by now that the AI isn't smart enough). It works very well, and the monsters you face will also employ a similar targeting system so you'd better keep on your toes. The sad thing about the magic system is how underutilised it is. You only have a handful of spells (all conveniently mapped to the touch screen) and what's worse is that with button-mashing physical attacks as strong and fast as they are, there are very few occasions where you'll want/need to use magic.

If this all sounds a lot like Children of Mana (another dungeon-crawler also developed by Square Enix), it's because it really is. Replace the beautiful 2D spritework with some equally impressive 3D polygons and you're halfway there. It's not as repetitive, though. Dungeons are all unique (as opposed to randomised) and there's a fair bit of puzzle solving to be done, but not of the calibre of say The Legend of Zelda. Most of the time it's about using a certain character to magically create platforms, double jump across large pitfalls, shoot at faraway switches or ride a hovering pot (Meeth is good for something after all!) Other times you just need to clear out a room of all enemies or bring a key to its lock. At heart, this is an action-RPG with a firm emphasis on the action.

The single-player adventure took me less then ten hours to finish and most gamers should not take much longer. Later dungeons do become more complex, but they are still quite small areas and if you know what you're doing, they'll only take about a good half hour to finish. Really, it's only the sidequests and minigame diversions that lengthen the solo experience. There are 24 Mogs to find and if you fancy a break from dungeon-crawling, talking to any one of them will allow you to play a simple Mario Kart-esque wagon-racing game, or customise what you want the Mogs to look like. Cute, but dull. There is a lot of equipment to find/buy/order that may not be all that useful in solo-play, but they have more importance in the multiplayer co-op mode where all the monsters are juiced. It's nice how all the swords, cloaks and headpieces that you equip your heroes with are actually worn by them. It makes your character(s) unique. A shame then that you can't show them off to the world; there is no Wi-Fi co-op which may have been impossible without lag, but is disappointing nonetheless.

Rings of Fate is not due out in English-speaking territories until 2008 which is still quite some time away. There is quite a lot of dialogue that requires translation and a surprising amount of voiced cutscenes; these are the likely culprits regarding the delay. The Japanese voice acting is generally well done (save for the high-pitched kids early on in the game) and the script looks to be of a similar calibre. If you are thinking of importing this without fluent Japanese skills, you'll be missing out on the story, but that's about it. All of the game mechanics are demonstrated visually and easily grasped (except for the lesson on cooking magicite) and although you will barely tap into the potential of the countless equipment pieces, you'll have enough to get you through and have fun while at it. I doubt that the clumsy AI will be improved upon in the localised version, but I've seen weirder things happen.

The first Crystal Chronicles game that was released on the GameCube demanded too much from players for an optimum experience; multiple GBAs and link cables weren't easy things to come by. This DS sequel makes a big improvement by offering wireless multiplayer and a complete single-player quest to boot. Sadly, this is the Metroid Prime Hunters of Final Fantasy in that the incompetent AI and simple (and short) dungeon structure makes the solo game an enjoyable, but less-than-stellar challenge. Multiplayer is where it's at and this is why the absence of Wi-Fi battles is a sore loss. I haven't delved enough into the co-op modes to discuss them at length, but for those with plenty of DS-owning friends that are hotly anticipating the 2008 release, I think I can safely say that the wait will be worth it. My current adventures have unfortunately been rather lukewarm.

VERDICT - 7.5/10 There's a lot of potential here...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/07

Game Release: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (JP, 08/23/07)