Gamertell

Title: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as Darklord
Price: $10 (1,000 Wii Points)
System(s): Wii (WiiWare)
Release Date: July 20, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Square Enix (Square Enix)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone 10+” for Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
Pros: Great graphics and gameplay. Adorable characters. Character cameos from previous games. DLC isn’t necessary (unless you’re having problems with the difficulty level.) Quite challenging. Should take players a while to complete.
Cons: You may have to do a lot of replaying of levels to earn karma points to upgrade monsters. Very little DLC is available at the moment.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up, 98/100, A, * * * * 1/2 out of 5

In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, players got to play a more relaxed game. You’d run around as King Leo, talking to citizens and building up a lavish town. There was no sense of urgency or desperation. The focus of the game was restoration and preservation of peace.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord is the exact opposite. You’re facing a constant onslaught of adventurers while on a world domination tour, and the only way to prove your superiority and become the darklord you aspire to be is to keep fighting, winning and moving!

Somebody’s got entitlement issues.

Mira’s the daughter of a Darklord, which of course means that on her 16th birthday she gets to be named the new darklord. After all, her father died years ago to keep adventurers from getting his daughter, her tower and the monsters within. Of course, she considers him a wuss because he was weak enough to let himself be destroyed and didn’t proactively seek to subjugate the world.

She isn’t going to make that mistake. She’s bringing evil back by taking up the title of Darklord and traveling around the world in her flying tower, defeating all of the adventurers stupid enough to challenge her and her rule. She’s encouraged onwards by her multiple tonberry servants who raised her and gladly take her abuse. Their leader, a patchwork tonberry named Tonbetty, acts as Mira’s advisor as they set off on her adventure.

A thrilling experience, with or without additional DLC.

My Life as a Darklord offers a wonderful challenge. While the first few levels act as introductions, the very first boss’ difficulty level lets you know this isn’t the kind of game where you can just toss floors in, fill them with monsters and hope it all goes well. Chime enters at level 10, while all other adventurers in that chapter were level 3 or lower. Once she comes in, you have to hope your weakened monsters and floor layout is strong enough to keep her from reaching Mira at the top. You have to think, spend time replaying levels to earn karma and act wisely. It’s great.

This makes My Life as a Darklord the perfect complement to My Life as a King. The two contradicting natures of both games help them mesh together. You can almost consider them two halves of the same coin. One offers a relaxed, daily look at the preservation of a clavat/lilty/selkie/yuke settlement and the other looks at the frantic defense of a monster and darklord settlement. My Life as a King doesn’t require much thought and is very forgiving, where thinking is mandatory in My Life as a Darklord if you don’t want to lose.

I also loved the character cameos. Chime’s the first to appear, as the final adventurer in the last challenge of the first chapter. Then, Mira runs into Bal Dat’s sister Bel Dat. Plus there are references to the moogle brothers, Stilzkin the moogle and Princess Fiona. Since it’s part of the Crystal Chronicles series, it only makes sense that there’d be some reference to the other games, and it’s good to see it there.

I was a tad disappointed that so little downloadable content was immediately available for My Life as a Darklord. I was looking forward to having Kain and Palom running around my tower, and wanted to see Mira dressed up in Sherlotta’s costume. A lamia or abaddon would have been nice too. Thankfully, My Life as a Darklord doesn’t really need the dlc like My Life as a King did.  It’s as thrilling and colorful with, or without, all of the extras. It makes me wonder if Square Enix listened to fans gripes about how My Life as a King seemed to need dlc to add variety. The dlc only seems to exist for people who are having trouble with the game’s difficulty level.

Everything we’ve come to expect from a Square Enix WiiWare game, and maybe more.

When it comes to WiiWare games from a major developer, there’s a certain expectation. People want to see a title that’s worth the premium point cost. Once again, Square Enix hasn’t disappointed its fans. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord is absolutely wonderful. It’s an endearing, funny and challenging tower defense game. The first time I sat down to play, I played for over two hours straight. The next time, I played in brief 15 minute chunks. It’s addicting and, since the dlc isn’t a mandatory or necessary purchase, affordable.

Site [Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as Darklord]