The 61FPS Review: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Echoes of Time, Square-Enix’s latest entry into their Crystal Chronicles franchise, continues the unique multiplayer route pioneered by the 2004 GameCube game; but this time around, the focus is on a wireless cross-platform experience between the Wii and the DS instead of multiple Game Boy Advances tethered to a console by link cables. 61FPS bloggers Amber Ahlborn and Bob Mackey took a stab at playing this action RPG online together for the purposes of this review, and found that the Wii’s online capabilities (or lack thereof) hampered what would have been an otherwise great experience.
Amber: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was released in North America on February 9, 2004 for the Nintendo Gamecube. A lovely action adventure game, it offered a unique cooperative play campaign that was a lot of fun, for those who had all of the necessary hardware to participate: a Gamecube and one Game Boy Advance plus Game Boy Advance Cable for each (up to 4) participant. In short, it was a great idea with clunky execution. Thankfully, this fledgling series weathered its initial growing pains and has continued forging a path into cooperative adventure game play.
Thus far the series includes (both released and coming soon) the Gamecube original, 2 DS games, 2 WiiWare games, and 1 coming for the Wii proper. It is the latest DS/Wii game subtitled Echoes of Time that I and fellow blogger Bob Mackey have tackled for this edition of the 61 FPS Review. With myself in Illinois and Bob in Ohio we decided to take the game for a spin over the Nintendo WFC. Before we share our experiences, however, Bob will give us a quick overview of the game itself.
Bob: Refreshingly, the story in Echoes of Time is a complete non-issue; there’s something in there about restoring a shattered crystal, but all of this bog-standard JRPG material is really just an excuse to send you into dungeon after dungeon for awesome loot. And that’s essentially what Echoes of Time is: a Diablo-esque hack-and-slash treasure-hunting adventure. The game begins by giving you the choice of four different races (and, obviously, two different sexes), each with their own specific strengths and weaknesses. From there, it’s pretty simple: you’re dispatched to various dungeons for main quests and side quests, and typically have to find and kill the big, bad boss of the area.
Once you’re down in the dungeons, the enemies’ piñata-like qualities make Echoes of Time completely addictive; when you drain the final hit point of most monsters, they typically explode in a shower of goodies, usually used to upgrade old weapons (often with new abilities) and construct new ones. The real hook in this game comes from outfitting yourself with the coolest loot around, which is completely rewarding because this hand-crafted, leveled-up gear actually appears on your character model in the game. Of course, this item-crafting could be far more intuitive; the menus are a mess, and you inexplicably have to unequip items before you can modify them, which adds some extra, tedious steps to the process. But when it works well, crafting items in Echoes of Time can be very gratifying. I was so proud when I saw my little guy wearing his new helmet—which was nothing more than an overturned cooking pot.
When it comes to doing the dungeon-running necessary to make your little pint-sized character as powerful—or ridiculous—as possible, you can choose to go it alone, have a semi-intelligent CPU buddy join your party at any time, or play online (or in the same room) with a friend or complete stranger. Since Echoes of Time is the same game on both the Wii and DS, any sort of multiplayer combination you can think of is possible between both consoles and the Internet (or local Wi-Fi). For the purposes of this review, Amber and I decided to play the game over multiple sessions using the combined Internet capabilities of the Wii and DS, both notorious for their necessitation of friend codes and a lack of true in-game communication/organization. Before I go on any further, I’ll let Amber fill you in on her side of the online experience.
Amber: While Bob played the Wii version of the game, I had the DS copy. The set-up was easy enough after we exchanged friend codes. When it comes time to connect to your party, you have the option of hosting the game or visiting. If you host, the other players will join you wherever you happen to be on your single player game. For our first session, I did the visiting, sending my little Yuke into Bob’s world.
The first thing I noticed upon joining Bob’s game was, sadly, the horrific lag. There was about a second’s delay between my input and my character’s action on screen. Considering this is a rather platform heavy adventure, jumping was problematic. Later on when I hosted and Bob visited, we traversed a particularly difficult jumping section, but I’ll let Bob tell that harrowing tale. The lag made for clumsy maneuvering and combat, but at least it was consistent lag, and thus, something I learned to compensate for. Despite the frustration of trying to push a crate with a character that maneuvered like a semi truck, I still had a lot of fun.
A final note on being the visitor that amused me, the game made it clear to me that I was just the sidekick. I don’t recall the exact dialog I got from one of the town NPCs, but the character I spoke to effectively told me to shut up and enjoy the ride. It would have been nice if a multi-player game could have incorporated all involved characters into the story, but I understand why it doesn’t. The strength of this approach is that it allows players to drop in and out at will.
On our second meet up, I hosted the game and noticed a drastic reduction in lag. Bob and I compared notes and it came out pretty clear that the visitor is the one to suffer the worst connection effects. Hurdles aside, we enjoyed our time with the game.
Bob: The lag in Echoes of Time breaks my heart. As Amber said, if you’re the one who’s hosting, things aren’t too bad; but if you happen to join a hosted game, you’d better prepare for some serious frustration. I’m not sure who thought an isometric RPG needed jumping puzzles, but this ill-advised person certainly didn’t consider how a multiplayer game could turn a few complicated leaps into hell on earth. When I played with Amber, whoever was currently suffering from lag paralysis was usually carried across gaps and tricky terrain by the host. It’s nice that this problem has some sort of solution, but a game about teamwork can’t work too well if your partner is always gimped.
I complain about these multiplayer woes because, at its core, Echoes of Time is a good game. In the sessions where I wasn’t beset with lag, I had a good time despite the hurdles that come with bringing your Wii online. Added annoyances like having to set up designated meetings with Amber and being forced to communicate with her via AIM were kind of a hassle, but I would have tolerated Nintendo’s extra “safety steps” if the game itself flowed smoothly online. Put Echoes of Time on a more reliable service like Xbox Live or PSN, and I could see myself playing it online for dozens or hours—but for now, I’ve got a good multiplayer game I’m forced to play solo due to some particular Wii issues that we’ve all come to expect by now.
Amber’s Conclusion: The multiplayer experience offered by Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time dished out fun cooperative dungeon exploring and puzzle solving. I really liked the spell combo system that involved multiple players casting magic at a target to boost the damage. However, I have to give the game a B since this review revolved around the online experience and yeah, that lag was pretty annoying.
Bob’s Conclusion: Couldn’t agree with Amber more on this one; the game’s unbearable lag ruined the whole experience for me. If you’re looking to grab Echoes of Time for its online features only, you’d best look elsewhere. But if you can somehow manage to get a local multiplayer game going, there’s a lot of fun to be had. It’s weird to think that five years after the original Crystal Chronicles’ cumbersome setup, the newest installment in the series keeps up the tradition of being basically unplayable without getting a bunch of people—and their gear—together in the same room.
Amber’s Grade: B
Bob’s Grade: B-
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Tags: amber ahlborn, bob mackey, crystal chronicles, ds, Final Fantasy, final fantasy crystal chronicles: echoes of time, the 61FPS review, wii
John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself. 
Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.
Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.
Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines.
Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.
Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.
Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.
hi, can you help me how to create a local (no internet connection) multiplayer game? how do you start a hosted session on the wii? how do you join a wii session on the ds? step-by step. i do not even find any menu option to do anything like this