When it’s done right, few things in games are as potent as the lure to earn that little bit of additional experience needed to hit the next level and make your character better and stronger. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time definitely gets this right, delivering a compulsively playable dungeon crawler that is simple and charming enough to appeal to genre newcomers and addictive enough to keep old hands coming back for more. Unfortunately, the charms of Echoes of Time’s fundamentally sound spellcasting, monster-hacking gameplay are obscured by a near-constant stream of dull puzzles that succeed only at pulling you away from the fun. And compared to its more elegant DS companion, the Wii version feels awkward and unrefined.
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Tetsuya Nomura reportedly tells Famitsu that action RPG companion to Final Fantasy XIII has been placed on hold; Square Enix states otherwise.
The Final Fantasy crowd is known as much for its rabid devotion to the franchise as its penchant for dressing up as the more popular characters in the games. With such a devout following, many would consider it unwise to continuously deprive this crowd from the object of its obsession with no sign of relief. However, that’s just what Square Enix has been doing since it announced Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Most recently, a misinterpreted quote from FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama led many to believe that Final Fantasy XIII would most definitely make it out in 2008. Although Square Enix was quick to quash the rumor, saying that no release date has been announced, work has nonetheless progressed on the much-anticipated PS3 game. And it now appears that progress has interfered with its partner in crime, Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
In a recent interview with Famitsu (translated by numerous sources, including Forever-Fantasy), FF Versus XIII director Tetsuya Nomura said that those working on the game have been appropriated by the FFXIII team because the latter game is the studio’s number-one priority. As such, work on FF Versus XIII will not resume until development on FFXIII has wrapped, according to Nomura. On a positive note, Nomura did say that the FF Versus XIII storyline is essentially complete.
[UPDATE] In a lost-in-translation moment, Square Enix has denied that development on Final Fantasy FF Versus XIII has been bumped to the back burner. “Reports that development for Final Fantasy Versus XIII is on hold are false,” a Square Enix representative told European gaming site Eurogamer. “The truth of the situation is that when free, some staff from the Versus team have been helping with the XIII team on development of Final Fantasy XIII. Development for both titles is continuing as originally scheduled.”
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