"A lovely little game that is well worth the money."

Introduction: This game is one of the new Wii Virtual Console games that was recently released (at the time of this review). It's set in the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles setting and features references with the original FF:CC game (and maybe Ring of Fates. But I have not played that yet and cannot say yet). This game is very unique for a Final Fantasy game for several reasons. I plan to list and review each of them within this review.

Gameplay - The game it's self is quite simple and is a building simulation type of game in which the player is tasked with the creation of a city and the players 'goal' is to establish as big and powerful a city as possible. Unlike normal simulation games, however, this game has a way to actually beat it (by defeating the final boss).

The building it's self is rather simple. You spend building materials in order to build certain buildings on pre-determined plots of land. It may sound simple, but a lot of things do at first. For starters, your building materials are limited. How do you get more? By commissioning adventurers to go out and gather more materials for you! You don't ever get to actually fight in the game, but instead have to commission your townspeople to go out and gather the items you need for you. Kind of a downer if you were expecting combat. But since it's a simulation game, combat would likely have been out of place. But it doesn't matter overall. Why? Well here's where the games charm comes in.

Now obviously, you don't expect your adventurers to go out to fight the hordes of evil using nothing but their fists (Monk class in previous FF games aside)? Well no! So you gotta arm them? Which means you first gotta get a weapon shop. Well... That was easy... Right? Wrong! Aside from building the weapon shop, you now have to give them money to update their wares. Afterall, wooden swords aren't exactly known for their damage unless the foe is deathly allergic to wood. At first it's simple, investing money in your weapon shop. But then you get potion shops, and armor shops. And these eventually start to gain more wares. Soon that weapon shop is also carrying rods and daggers too. And those need funding as well! That armor shop now carries both robes and shields!

To top it off, your lovely little adventurers need to know just HOW to fight! Afterall, the most powerful warrior was once a newborn babe as well, right? To do this, you need to find and get certain buildings, which require funding as well in order to supply those skills, which are much needed by your adventurers! Some skills are better, but only apply to certain classes, while others are weaker, but apply to multiple classes. Which do you fund? Decisions decisions. And this is only the tip of the iceburg!

Now how do you get all this funding? You build houses so people move in and then collect their daily tithe to your city. But that won't keep your warriors in up-to-date plate armor alone. You need to get just that little extra money. And how do you do that? You make the people happy! How do you do that? Build certain buildings, talk to them, declare holidays, etc. But there is a problem! You can only stay up so late at nights and you need people to keep their house lights on so you can stay out for those few extra minutes before bedtime! Something else that needs to be kept in balance!

And this is just a glancing overview! There are tons more decisions to be made when it comes to commissioning the adventurers. Do you send them to an easier place known to have treasure chests with powerful relics? Out hunting for materials for your weapons shops? Exploring that new area? Defeating that boss? Do you want to risk running into that powerful monster in one area, or go to one with lesser rewards? Decisions. Decisions.

One small note of something I found interesting. All the adventurers in the game are self-reliant. This means they will take the gil they have earned and use it to purchase items and skills at their own disgression. However, this can be changed and tinkered with so that they prioritize buying one type of thing over another via the medal system (which in it self has a large amount of decision making).

My one problem with the gameplay is that it's a tad repetitive. But being a simulation game, this was to be expected and this game is far less repetitive then several other good sim games, so it will not likely be a problem.

9/10 overall for gameplay. It's got great gamplay for a simulation game for sure and a lot of details to manage and decide.

Story: This games story is short and simple. But still manages to have the odd twist or two woven in. I can't say much without spoiling the story however. My one problem with the story is that it tends to fade away and become irrelivent while one is trying to build their own city from the ground up.

6/10 overall for story. It's an okay story that tends to fade into the background.

Graphics/Sound - The graphics in this game are decent and, while not the best, are still acceptable. Once the city starts to get larger, you will notice some lag when building, expecially when building multiple things at once. One problem is that there is a limited number of character models. Most likely, the designers were trying to remain true to the original Crystal Chronicles models. But this provides some problem as the town grows as it's hard to tell citizens apart in a crowd.

The music in the game is nice and quaint. Nothing special overall.

8/10 overall for graphics/sounds. Good, but some minor problems. Nothing that will hurt your eyes or hurt your ears.

Control: This game sports several manners of control. However, my main experience is with the Wiimote + nunchuck. The game controls well typically. Your character moves fast enough across the screen and none of the buttons are poorly placed. One minor problem is that, in order to build, you must give the Wiimote a quick shake (you'll understand once you play the game). But say you have to do something real quick, like scratch an itch on your head. If you forget to pause the game first, you might accidently... well... you'll see... It's nothing major. Just a minor inconvenience. But it can get annoying after a while.

Downloadable content: For a small price, you can purchase things like new costumes, new races for your town. New dungeons, and additional buildings. It's nothing that you MUST have or so useful that it's almost required. But it's also nothing that's useless. It's additional content. It won't break or make your game, but it's nice to have. A very good balance to be sure.

10/10 overall. Nice, but not required. Just what DLC should be like.

9/10 overall. Only one minor inconvenience that isn't game-breaking in any way. Otherwise perfect.

Play Time/Replayability - You can likely just muscle through the game at a very quick pace of ~15-20 hours if you're determined. But that would be robbing yourself of a lot of exploration along with various other things in the game. For a reasonable completion percentage (70-90%), it will likely take you ~40 hours. Not to mention that it's so easy to get sucked into the game. While the game does sport harder difficulties, they aren't too much more difficult.

Final Recommendation: 9/10. If you like simulation games, you will likely adore this one. If you think simulation games are stupid, save yourself the Wiipoints for another game as you won't likely like this one. This game is a fun little game and well-worth the price of 1500 Wiipoints ($15.00) that it takes to buy it. It's not a $50/60 game for sure. But at $15.00 for the basic game, the price is right. Buy it if you can and are not turned off to building simulations. This game has some minor flaws, but will likely prove to be highly addictive, which will be more then enough for most people.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08