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The frustration caused by the four-way movement pales into comparison, however, with the shocking camera, which often hides not only you but your entire party and the monsters who are killing you. This also makes the more challenging platforming sections harder than they should be. Because movement is governed by the d-pad, and there’s no enemy lock-on, you often find yourself haplessly flailing at thin air even when a monster is right next to you. It’s when you play the game on your own that its failings are more pronounced. Indeed much of the game is better when played with others, and it’s designed to be so. In multiplayer, though, it works a treat because you’re able to work together to combine your spells. When played on your own and up against multiple enemies, Stacking is a cumbersome job. Stack three Cures on each other and you’ll create Curaga. This “Stacking”, as it’s called, means you can create more powerful spells than you would otherwise. Cue some nice flames and satisfying damage numbers.īy pressing L, however, you’re able to lock the ring on an enemy monster, allowing you to cast another spell on top of it. Letting go of X will unleash the spell, with any luck on an unsuspecting monster. With your thumb you’re able to press on the desired orb, fire, for example, then, with a press of the X button, you cast the spell, creating a ring that you can move about the battlefield with the d-pad. From the very beginning of the game you have access to all six of the game’s base spells, displayed in orb form on the right of the DS’ bottom screen. It’s magic, though, that makes Crystal Chronicles’ combat unique, but it’s also what makes it frustrating. Beyond this, you’re able to pick up monsters and hit them from below, and jump on them and hit them from above. In the main you use the d-pad (or Nunchuck control stick on the Wii version) to point your character in the direction of a monster and hammer the A button to attack with your equipped weapon. It’s during this tutorial that you learn the basics of Crystal Chronicles’ real-time combat and simple Zelda-esque puzzle solving gameplay. Whatever tribe you pick you begin your adventure in the same way: in search of a crystal in your coming-of-age, sixteenth birthday ceremony. We’re delighted we can play with other human beings across the internet, but we were hoping for some gameplay improvements too.Įchoes of Time begins by asking you to create your character from one of four tribes: the Clavats (good with swords), the Yukes (good with magic), Selkies (good at jumping) and the Lilties (good with spears). The fiddly controls, awful party member AI and annoying camera from the last game haven’t been given even the most cursory of glances.

While Echoes of Time shows that Square Enix listens, it also shows that it doesn’t listen that much. Now, not only has online multiplayer been included, but Square Enix has ported the game to the Wii and implemented clever technology that allows DS and Wii owners to crawl the game’s dungeons together wirelessly and across the internet.

Our main gripe with that game was that there wasn’t any online multiplayer.