Having seen the story on the front page regarding WiiWare launching today (too lazy to link) , I decided to dust off my Wii and check out what was available. While I agree with Nick Chester that the platforming title LostWinds does look very interesting, I decided to let the fanboy inside get the best of me and settled on the most expensive game of the bunch, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:My Life as a King.

Now, keep in mind, this game is more expensive than the majority of games you'll find on PSN or the XBLA. It cost 15 fucking dollars, and that's without considering the Nintendo Pay to Play bullshit you can download. Yes, the game has a warning before you download, which informs us that the game uses the pay to play service. While I haven't checked out the extra content, it seems that you won't need to spend any more actual cash to complete the game. That could change, but for now it seems safe.

As for the game, well, what can I say? It's clear Square Enix is really trying to crack the so-called "casual" market here, as you won't be doing a whole lot. There is absolutely no combat, which I expected but I was still somewhat disappointed when I confirmed this myself. What you'll be doing is building houses and other types of structures such as bakeries and weapon shops, to name a few. To build these, you'll need to gather resources. I can't think of what it's called off the top of my head, but you'll primarily be concerning yourself with just one thing: Some kind of magic resource needed to build everything. To get this stuff, you'll send out adventurers to explore areas, defeat any monsters or bosses, and then collect the resources and return home, usually in one day. You'll need to send the right adventurer for the job, which is based on their level and their stats. If there is only one job needed to be done,l you can either send adventurers out to explore and level up, or send them home. If you send them out, it costs 15 gil a day for them to adventure.



So what you have here is basically a very light and casual resource management game of sorts. You'll encounter moogles and other FF stuff as you walk around your little kingdom, so if you're a big Final Fantasy fan than there is definitely something here for you. There seems to be some sort of story underneath it all, but I haven't progressed far enough to know for sure. I'll be sure to let you guys know if anything changes in the future.

As it is, I find myself strangely attached to this game. I feel like I've found a new addiction, which is odd considering the game is so damn passive. You get the feeling you've done nothing when you turn it off, but it's fun, for some reason. I can't quite say it's worth 15 bucks, as I haven't spent enough time with it, but it seems like a decent value when you consider the game features GameCube quality visuals and some nice art direction. Not to mention heavy amounts of text, but I never really got tired of reading. Shame there's no demo.

PS: On a side note, I just wanted to point out the hassle it was downloading this game. It clocks in at around 250 blocks or so, which forced me to delete Star Fox 64 and Super Mario 64. Sure, you can download them again, but it's a pain in the ass to have to do all this bullshit. 512 MB is not enough room.

Also, I named my kingdom in the game FAIL TOWN.