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I recently was fortunate enough to stumble upon a cheap, used copy of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time at a local store that sells used dvds, cds and video games. Normally, I never play the Crystal Chronicles line of games, but since I have friends who invested in Echoes of Time and it was much cheaper than it would be at GameStop, I decided to splurge.

I was enthralled. I had no idea how entertaining this Final Fantasy offshoot could be. The Wi-Fi multiplayer options were exceptional and a good time was had by all.

Until I needed to visit the aqueducts area outside of the game’s main town to retrieve a Buffasaur horn.

I had some “issues” taking down the boss alone, so I decided it was time to create some extra characters at the guild and take them along as human shields backup. I created Yuke, Clavat and Lilty characters to complement my Selkie and went back into the sewers.

It was then that I realized that my computer controlled cohorts were total idiots.

It wasn’t that they were getting themselves killed. They did a good job of staying alive and taking down surrounding monsters. When it came to inflicting pain on monsters, they were awesome. The problems started when I would have to complete puzzles. They would flock around and follow me, preventing me from triggering switches or moving objects I had already placed on switches.

For example, the seventh area in the aqueducts required wooden crates to be placed on switches. Except there were six switches and only four crates. To unlock the other two crates, a switch had to be attacked repeatedly until it glowed. Then you have to quick pull a crate out of an enclosed area before the switch returns to its original position and the crates disappear.

Apparently, my AI “friends” thought they were helping when they would stand directly in front of the crate I was trying to move, preventing it from going forward. The time would expire and my character would plummet to her doom. After about three tries, I managed to free one crate, only to have the AI characters push it back into the locked case since it seems the box wasn’t totally out of the enclosed area. I finally had to lure them away to an upper area so I could finally get the extra two crates out. Then I had to reposition the boxes I’d put on switches before, because the AI characters had jostled those around as well.

The AI characters also seemed to be totally unfamiliar with their surroundings. For example, when I needed to venture to the Ice Mountain, I’d occasionally see the Lilty or Clavat jump off a ledge to their doom, because they couldn’t manage the double jump to a distant platform. At the Fire Mountain, they all landed in lava. It was almost sad.

Almost.

By the time I’d reached the library dungeon area, I’d had enough. I determined it’d be better to either venture through quests alone, or with random human assistants, rather than travel with AI compatriots.

The thing that really, truly bothered me is that this could have easily been fixed with one additional AI option. “Do Nothing.” The AI options included with the game are “Just Follow Me,” “Do Your Best,” “Don’t Use Magic,” “Protect Yourself” and “Go Nuts with Magic.” Since you can effortlessly summon your allies by pressing the L button, Square Enix could have eliminated “Just Follow Me” and put “Do Nothing” in it’s place.

When the hypothetical “Do Nothing” was selected, all of the AI controlled characters would freeze. The human player could then lift and place them out of the way, or use them to hold down switches. Imagine how much easier the puzzles would have been without Moe, Larry and Curly gumming up the works. After all, players with the DS version of the game won’t always be around friends with the game or near a Wi-Fi hotspot, and players with the Wii version may not want to always be connected to WiFi.

As I played, I found myself wondering if anyone at Square-Enix had tried going through the game solo, with the help of the three AI stooges. Any intelligent developer or tester would have, after a good hour or two of playing, realized that the available AI options weren’t working.

Next time Square-Enix, give players an option that freezes AI characters in their tracks. Your fans will thank you.

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