ECHOES OF TIME PORTABLE
ECHOES OF TIME SERIES

You've a stock attack move, the range of which is dictated by your weapon type and, in general, simply hammering this in the direction of any antagonistic woodland creature bold enough to attack you is enough to get through the first couple of dungeons. It's here you learn combat basics, which, to begin with at least, are basic. Whoever you choose, your hero begins the game on the eve of their sixteenth birthday, setting off into the forest that borders their village for a coming-of-age fetch quest. You begin by choosing a character from one of four races - the sword-wielding Clavats, the spell-casting Yukes, the high-jumping Seklies or the long-range fighting Lilties. Towns offer a vast array of mini-games and side-quests, most of which can be tackled in multiplayer modes and many of which contain a high-score challenge, encouraging repeat play. Your quality of experience is going to be somewhat influenced by the platform on which you play (more on that later) but the game within is sound.

ECHOES OF TIME PORTABLE

Conversations are never drawn out and the cut-scenes are brief, as indeed are many of the missions, ensuring the game's suitability for portable play. These systems are then tied together by a straightforward, childish story that's mercifully light enough not to get in the way. It's a fully 3D dungeon-exploring adventure with a heavy emphasis on item collection and equipment customisation. On that basis one can't help but feel that the Final Fantasy branding might cost Echoes of Time sales it would otherwise have attracted.Īs the latest member of the Crystal Chronicles suite of Final Fantasy spin-offs, this is closer in style to the mediocre Ring of Fates than the WiiWare release of mixed success, My Life as a King. Its USP - that Wii and Nintendo DS owners can adventure together simultaneously - is executed robustly and the finer details of the experience are crammed with creativity and sensible implementation. This is a snappy action-RPG in which storytelling plays second fiddle to Zelda-style puzzling and Diablo-esque dungeon exploration. In the case of Echoes of Time this is something of a minor tragedy, as the game represents a great many things that Final Fantasy does not. How many readers chose not to click on this review simply because it bears the words 'final' and 'fantasy' and so couldn't possibly be relevant to them, for example?

ECHOES OF TIME SERIES

As a result, Square-Enix's increasingly regular habit of slapping the brand on products that have little resemblance to their flagship series risks seeing these games dismissed by swathes of gamers. The words call to mind images of interminable, winding adventures, capricious random battles, protracted cut-scenes, juvenile philosophising and hermaphrodite heroes. Despite being one of the most recognisable names in gaming, there's a sense in which the Final Fantasy moniker can do as much harm as good to a new game.

Echoes of time