User Reviews (1 - 11 of 19)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

A Fun Little Dungeon Crawler

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: March 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ring of Fates is a great dungeon crawler with superb graphics. With local friends, it's the best multiplayer game around, but it's worth picking up for the single-player as well. You can play through the obligatory quest, controlling 4 characters at once if you feel like it. I found far more fun in creating my own character and playing the multiplayer "free mode" by myself - no cutscenes or story, but all of the same towns and dungeons. The controls are sufficient when you are controlling just one character, but when you're babysitting up to four, they occasionally get convoluted and cumbersome. The selling factors on this game are the graphics and the loot. Your avatar changes appearance with each item you equip - a surprising and rewarding bonus to finding rare helmets or synthesizing a new cloak, etc.

The game is fun, and should be a must-buy if you enjoyed the GC version, or like action/RPGs at all (Diablo, Champions of Norrath, Sword of Mana, "Tales of" series, etc.)

A satisfying, but not superior, dungeon crawler

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: March 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This followup to Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles takes the mechanics developed in the first game, polishes them, and wraps them up in a new story and game for the DS. The overall effect is something that would be excellent from any other publisher, but is merely good from SE.

The main complaint from the first game (the annoying bucket), is gone. Whether in one player or multiplayer modes, your characters will all have a chance to play the game. The new one-player mode gives you a party of 4 characters, only one of which you control directly at one time. Changing controlled characters and spells are now just a touch of the lower screen rather than the convoluted menu system of the first game. Overall, controls have improved, though in the single player it's hard to juggle all of the players.

In multiplayer, every player (up to 4, everyone needs a card) controls one character of any of the 4 races. Each race has its own particular strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities that make them useful at some point in every dungeon. Although the game slows down significantly in this mode, it's the way the game is at its best, as all the characters can act intelligently, and the cooperative abilities start to shine.

The graphics of this game make full use of the DS's capabilities, and are the best I've seen on the system, a step up even from the acclaimed Final Fantasy III. Environments are well-defined, special effects are wonderful, and on the whole the game shows a good level of polish. The soundtrack is similarly excellent, but the voices get annoying very quickly.

Difficulty tends to ramp up at a reasonable rate, and never does the game get frustrating, which is amazing considering the variety of challenges in the dungeons. Dungeons are well-designed, and contain a variety of items to acquire and create for your characters, whose look changes depending on what they wear.

This offering from Square Enix is worth a purchase, especially with friends around to join in your game. Although it fits a fairly standard Final Fantasy formula, the game entertains just like its bigger brothers.

Enjoyable Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I want to discuss the pros of this game first.

PROS:
- Enjoy the single player storyline.
- I don't know why, but the peppered voice acting sometimes cheer me up from the monotonous scrolling of texts.
- The wonderfully designed levels. They are not hard to go through and its plain simple. I enjoyed roaming around it.
- I like how whenever you get a new character then you visit old levels you get a different feel in playing them again. I like it when Gnash joined my team and going through the levels became easy, especially the double jump.
- The "extra pouch" is a good innovation. It gives a slight difficult curve in game play.

Now, just because my review highlighted the easiness and simpleness of the game doesn't necessarily imply that this game is cheesy or "easy" at all. There are levels that will make you go through all tactical especially at later levels. The items such as health and revive become so important at later levels.

CONS:
- I don't like the AI of my companions. I mean, I spent nearly playing the game by myself with little to no help from my AI companions. I am getting pummeled by a boss and all the AI's are just standing there. I miss Final Fantasy XII set up commands that the AI's actually follow.
- The "extra pouch," I hate it because I went to a boss fight with maxed out items but I still lost because I wish I had more of "revive/phoenix" or "health gems/cylinder."

Not a CON against game play, but come on why change the storyline? Okay, getting realistic - I understand for the children. Other than that nothing else. I fully enjoy the game. And I am still trying to finish the game.

Beautiful but short

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed this game dramatically. The graphics were gorgeous for a 3D DS game. The gameplay was fairly simple but fun, the story was great, and even the voices weren't AS bad as some people seem to have said. The biggest complaints I've seen with the game were that it is repetetive, personally I didn't think so. Each environment is new and exiting, and the puzzles grow more elaborate as you go. Unlike the first one, the focus seems to be more on the single player adventure, with a story mode containing a detailed story, unlike the sparse dialogue mixed in with the first one. The problem I had was that I was able to complete story mode in 13:00 hours. That's in my opinion really short. The game does however make up for it in replayability. There are incentives to play again after completing the story, I won't get too detailed with spoilers, but also multiplayer allows you to create and progress your own character(s) in his or her own adventures. And while certain treasures and features require a certain amount of party members or certain races to be in the party, the multiplayer dungeons change depending on what the party consists of, so new challanges await depending on the party you go in with. I would have given this game a five star rating if story mode had been a little longer, and if there had been more places to explore.

FF:Crystal Chronicles - Portable Entertainment!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is a sequel in spirit to its GameCube Predecessor, though much improved in function. While I have a few complaints about the game in general, it is, on the whole, a great title and a must have for DS owners.

The game itself is set after the conclusion of the original Crystal Chronicles; Miasma and the Chalice are both gone (Thank Goodness!) and the world is seeking to repair itself. The four tribes of the original game have changed slightly, each one gaining its own unique 'tribe' ability as well as a particular weapon specialization. Swords, Hammers, Bows, and Staves are all available depending on the class you choose. There is a one-player mode, complete with cut scenes that contain voice acting; a real plus for such a text heavy game. The story is interesting, if typical of Final Fantasy fare.

The real fun of this game comes from the Multi-player mode - which can also be played as a single player! Multi-mode has been improved from the original FF:CC in that no one has to be the 'moogle' - carrying around the Chalice to keep everyone safe. Instead, you gain control over your character and go anywhere you wish in the 'room' of the dungeon you are currently exploring. Each tribes unique ability comes into play in solving the puzzles that will allow you to access new areas of the map; each map concludes with a Boss battle that is epic in scale. The backgrounds and characters are all rendered quite well and your character changes appearance as they equip different items.

My only major gripe with the game is that magic has been limited. While spells now deliver more power for their punch, they are also limited; 1 cast/magicite picked up. This can be a real drag when you run out of Cure magicites halfway through a boss battle. Generally the magic is well proportioned and available, but there were times when the level just would NOT drop Cure or Raise magicite at all.

Again, on the whole, this game is a superb experience, and if you are looking for a fun and well put together dungeon crawler for the Nintendo DS, pick up FF:CC Ring of Fates. It's worth the $34.99 price tag.

Fun and different rpg

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game was definitely a lot of fun to play and really should be classified as an action-rpg rather than a traditional turn-based rpg. The controls took a little getting used to, but once you have the hang of it, the game becomes a lot of fun. Overall the difficulty is pretty low, but there is a good amount of replay-ability, especially since you can solo-play through the multiplayer part of the game. I guess the one downside would be the game's price, but if that is not an issue for you then I would highly recommend this game.

To conclude: If you enjoy rpg's and/or action-adventure games I would definitely give this game a shot.

Ring of Fates

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: April 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is definitely different from what I've played so far regarding Final Fantasy games. I like the fact that the game is a step up from FFIII. The graphics is amazing; however, the game play is not practical. I find it annoying and difficult using the buttons to fight and using the stylus to collect magic crystals at the same time. Since Ring of Fates and FFIII&XII have totally different game play style I cannot compare them together; however, my favorite of all is XII because I play it the most. According to gamespot.com, the upcoming FF games for the DS are FF Tactics A2 and a remake of FFIV. Hopefully it will be good because I'm definitely getting FFIV!

Enjoyable Final Fantasy-based excursion

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

While it lasts, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is an enjoyable excursion that mostly lives up to its license. Playing as twins Yuri and Chelinka, you assemble your party and embark on the usual dungeon and monster battling RPG goodness that we all know and love. What makes Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates so enjoyable is that the game does boast some nice production values in terms of graphics and overall presentation, with the characters, story, and dialogue offering some nice degrees of charm that help make everything work pretty well. Each character also has a decent selection of attacks and abilities to pull off as well, and the game's local multiplayer mode is pretty fun. Where the game falters however is that there are a few technical issues, most notably being some poor AI and moments of slowdown. Also, the game isn't very long either, especially compared to some other RPG's from Square to hit the DS. Flaws aside though, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is an enjoyable RPG while it lasts, and is definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre and/or franchise.

good game, a bit childish, NO QUICKSAVE?!?!?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I played FF III for the DS and I loved playing to pass the time as I have to take a long train ride to and from work. One of the best things is if I need to quickly get off the train I can hit quicksave at any time and quickly exit out of the game. As a portable gaming system game I would find this feature very common on most games. But yet Square Enix decided to take out that most basic feature for FFCC: Ring of Fates.

The story I found to be very childish, of course that lends itself to the characters. Don't get me wrong, the game was enjoyable, but spending most of my time trying to find save crystals certainly added to my annoyance of wanting to play it.

If I had known before hand that this game had no quicksave, I most likely would not of bought it.

Not quite perfect

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love the concept, all the stuff I've seen so far, but the controls are *terrible*. Your character is in a world that's oriented diagonally, so you constantly have to hold down two directions on the d-pad to move properly. I can't imagine why they didn't rotate the input 45 degrees like they did for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It doesn't make the game unplayable, but it sure makes it less fun.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions