Good morning Chancellor Chime. Thanks for the report on my two warrior Clavats, Doris and Ansel. With only two warriors in the kingdom I wish there was a way to create more warriors with a male and a female other than erecting houses because I’m out of Elementite. I better send them into one of the dungeons to find some precious ore.
First, let me pick up the remote. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King has two control schemes. You can use the remote alone. The d-pad moves Leo, the B button centers the camera, the A button starts conversations and the minus button summons Chime. However, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King works much better with the remote/nunchuck combination. Moving Leo is much more fluid with the analog stick. The remote/nunchuck combination has the added benefit of a manually controlled camera with the D-pad.
Chapter One: The Origins of a Crystal Kingdom.
With a minimal amount of buildings there isn’t much to maintain the first few days. I passed the time waiting for my brave adventurers to clear the first dungeon and bring back precious Elementite. While they are risking their lives, I’m sitting pretty. Running around the large, but relatively empty kingdom collecting a meager sum of gil from taxes. Each house rakes a small sum of gil. Some of the gil I had was spent picking out a dungeon for Doris and Ansel to explore. Since I’m stuck inside the kingdom I don’t see them navigating through mazes, discovering treasure or battling goblins. I read reports that flash on the top right hand of the screen with their progress. Oh, Doris killed a puchi worm. Good for her.
The sun sets and Chancellor Chime pops out of nowhere with another report. Doris, who courageously dispatched a worm earlier, will be awarded with a medal. Not by my choice. The game is giving her a medal. All I can do is select the kind of stat boosting medal she receives. Should I boost her power level, intelligence, HP? Medals are the main way players get to customize statistics. Whenever a character levels up their parameter bonuses are automatically distributed. I opted for specialization with my cavalry and boosted whatever stat was naturally the highest. In this case Doris got a power boost in hopes of her one day becoming a great warrior.
With more Elementite and a small gil boost I decided to build a bakery, my first non residential building. Bread makes the town a happier place, but you can’t immediately build bakeries everywhere. You’re limited to one bakery in chapter one. The remaining Elementite was spent on building another house, which is the way to grow the king’s army. Carey was my third warrior and he started off at level one while Doris and Ansel were hacking away at a level two dungeon. I sent him in with the experienced duo, but they weren’t a “party”. In the beginning of the game you cannot form groups. While many Clavats may enter the same dungeon they act as independent entities.
Carey was not ready for his first excursion. The next morning when I ran up to the message board he had a blue colored frown over his head. He was tired and requested to rest. I could have sent him back to work or give him a day off. I’m not a slave driver so I let Carey rest. Sending an adventurer into a dungeon while weary is a fast way to “death”, not permanent death, but a forced rest period.
Doris and Ansel went out. I ran with them to the castle gate and watched as they ran outside of the castle. I was trapped inside by an invisible wall. Their figures became faint and messages informing me of their victories popped up. I spent the day killing time talking with a penguin and the parents of my militia.
My town is full of single parents. All of them are mothers. Small houses that utilize one square only hold two people: a parent and a child brave enough to fight for the kingdom. Other buildings like the bakery take up two squares. The largest buildings take up six squares. It’s up to me to arrange the town to maximize the lots.
That night Doris and Ansel reported about a goblin uprising after exploring the goblin cave. Leo bravely decides to take care of this matter personally. Chime and Hugh Yurg, the only Lilty in town (no, I didn’t buy any downloadable content) hastily remind King Leo he is too small for combat. While Hugh Yurg is dressed in full plate mail he does not volunteer to fight. My three loyal adventurers do.
It’s time for action and I have another warrior ready to fight. Instead of making the mistake of throwing my rookie warrior into the home of a goblin leader, I had everyone explore an easier dungeon with Ice Goblins and Puchi Scorpions. I also had the ability to construct a new building, a four square weapon shop that I placed in the center of my kingdom. With a burst of stars and flying wood beams, a shop ready to sell arms appeared like magic. It was pre-loaded with a Bronze Sword, a weapon for low level warriors. I thought my kids deserve better than that. How could I tell a single mother their child died fighting worms because I was too cheap to improve the quality of goods? I spent the gil from taxes on developing a better sword. A meter underneath the gil bar indicated how the research was coming along.
The next day I greeted my warriors by the message board right outside of the castle, the usual meeting spot. After I spoke with them, all of the adventurers ran to the weapon store to purchase a shiny new Broad Sword. Those goblins better watch out! Even though the recommended level for the goblin dungeon was three, I opted to explore more of the kingdom. Each time you clear a dungeon the map branches out with new trails and dungeons to explore. Beating these new dungeons nets you more Elementite, which leads to a bigger town. Well, sort of. You can’t endlessly grow your town. In the first chapter you’re limited to ten houses, one weapon shop and a single bakery. If you want to expand the kingdom further you have to move on to the next chapter by completing a set goal.
The first chapter’s objective is to take out the goblin base. With an over leveled army of six Clavats, I completed the task. Carey dealt the winning blow and I awarded him with an intelligence boosting medal.
Chapter Two: Expanding my kingdom to twenty small houses.
Future chapter spoiler: Clavats can change jobs. Later in the game you can make them white mages, black mages and thieves. I haven’t tried any of the other races, but they are supposed to have different abilities. However, you do not need to the other races to plow through Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. My town is perfectly fine with Clavats and puffball moogles running around. I probably would have spent real money to have an army of warrior moogles, but alas Square Enix doesn’t have that option as downloadable content. (Should I say doesn’t have warrior moogles yet?)
Images courtesy of Square Enix.
