Of course, in true Final Fantasy tradition, this is just scratching the surface. It's up to you to travel out into the world for the first time and discover a cure. It turns out that today's your coming-of-age ceremony, but it's cut short when a young girl in your village falls sick with a rare illness. So once you've chosen between one of four races, each with its own skill - Clavat (melee), Yuke (magic), Liltie (ranged attack), or Selkie (jumping!) - you'll start to pick up the beginnings of a story. Your weapons can also level up, and there are loads of materials to collect and combine together to create useful warlike objects. In fact, the only indication that your characters are levelling are little pop-ups on the screen that remind you when you've learnt a new ability. There are no long lists or choices to be made when you level up, either. There's no expansive spellbook, for instance, just a half dozen elemental spells, all available from the start. You get to add a couple of buddy characters to your squad and you can tweak how they react in battles using the AI options in the menu, although they're not the smart helpers in the world.īut while it can be difficult to think on your feet initially, the simplification of the RPG elements leaves you free to concentrate on saving the world. There's something of a Zelda: Phantom Hourglass-like vibe about Echoes of Time as you and your companions jump on top of enemies, perform combo slasher moves, throw items around the battlefield, and cast spells on moving targets. It provides a break from the long stories, slow-burning combat and lots of dialogue inherent in the main Final Fantasy strand. ![]() But where Revenant Wings added a dash of strategy, this is about dungeon-mashing action. The Crystal Chronicles series performs a similar trick. ![]() The seminal franchise had a string of successes on the DS last year, ranging from top-notch remakes like Final Fantasy IV to a new move in the shape of Revenant Wings, which applied classic Final Fantasy signatures - a simple role-playing structure and an operatic story - and placed them in a new format. After ten hours of play, this almost seems normal - a sure sign that Final Fantasy is back in town, and doing what it does best. A dead cat is apologising for lying to me about how I was born, and trying to convince me to defeat an evil immortal librarian who's planning to destroy the past.
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