7.8/10 This is the kind of game we should have recieved years ago on GameCube. Looking forward to next one.
GRAPHICS 7/10
This game has an isometric 3D view which looks quite nice and suits the game and the console well. There are large maps but this means that a lot of the textures are used repeatedly. Character models look quite nice as well, there are also cut scenes and video within the game which really show off what the DS can do. SquareEnix have obviously put a lot of effort into making this title look the best in can in terms of 3D graphical ability but the 2D sprites in the background and environment do sometimes look fairly ugly and dull and there are textures being used over and over all throughout the game, but it still creates a nice a varies gameworld on an underpowered system. In multiplayer mode however there is quite a bit of slowdown if you have a fairly busy party as the DS tries to keep up with everything happeninf at once.
STORY 9/10
There is a really good story underpinning the action, of a boy trying to impress his father, which is told through some particulaly nice cutscenes, many of which are actually voice acted so the narrative moves along nicely. Some of the aspects of the story at time feel a little cliched but there are plenty of twists to the plot and there are some pretty touching moments, which can actually make you really care about the characters.
LONGEVITY 7/10
Theres a fairly lengthy and engaging storyline which will definately keep you interested in this title if it's the kind of game you are into, as well as four player local multiplayer mode where each person creates their own character and then a group of you take on tasks given by a king who is, well, lets say he's unique. This can give you hours of fun with friends carry out all the many little tasks and dungeons to go through, but this does have an effect on the stability of the game as in multiplayer mode there is some noticeable slowdown and no online play. So in single player, this is a fairly decent lengthed game with some small replay value, whereas in multiplayer this has potential to last for a long time so long as you can get enough people together and forgive the little problems.
GAMEPLAY 8/10
The controls certainly work for this game as it is presented as a simple, easy to pick up game (but still deep and engaging, dont worry) so the controls are simplistic by the standard of other action RPGs out there. The way magic is done can be quite fiddly as well as being fairly inaccurate, so you may just resort to hitting the attack button over and over, but you will find this is not really a good tactic so you have to think about when to attack as well as types of magic to use and look for weak spots, which stop this from becoming a simple button mashing exercise which many other games sadly fall into.
FUN 8/10
I found this quite a fun title, it's easy to pick up and easy to play with out being overly repetitive and especially over wi-fi you can definaately have some late night drunk gaming sessions with some friends, granted, SquareEnix's target audience for this game isn't the kind of audience to have late night drunk gaming sessions, but those of us who do can have fun with this as well as the crowd they were going for given its cutesy art style.
OVERALL 7.8/10
It's good to see SquareEnix giving Nintendo customers the attention they deserve. This is a great action RPG for the Nintendo DS that every fan of the series must own. Note, if you played Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube but did not like it at all still give this one a go, it's a SquareEnix apology, this is how Crystal Chronicles should be and I am definately looking forward to the Crystal Chronicles title coming out for Wii later on this year.