As you can probably tell, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is a very involved title. There is so much to do. It is very easy to lose yourself for hours at a time just working on earning one certain structure, upgrading your adventurers or even sending out teams to recover one certain raw material or artifact. It really is a sweeping title, and its depth is quite amazing considering the fact that this is a downloadable title.

Graphics in this title are not that great, considering some of the other Wii titles that are out. It looks like a super-sized version of the Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates title for the DS, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as this title is actually one of the best-looking DS games I've ever encountered. But when you compare it to games like Super Mario Galaxy or Super Smash Bros. Brawl, this game doesn't look too hot. But when you consider the fact that this is a downloadable title for a console that has no hard drive, you can't knock them too much for trimming the fat where the visuals are considered.

Sound in this title is also very truncated, but works well enough. The background music is very nicely orchestrated and sounds great. However, this title is lacking greatly in the voice acting department, and only features short character utterances like "uh-huh" or "oh." All the dialogue is delivered via scrolling text, and the occasional utterances actually get a little annoying. Having just scrolling text without the occasional vocal noises would have been preferable in this case.

Control in this game is fairly easy, and you have your option of using the GameCube controller, the Classic controller, the Wii-mote and Nunchuck, or the Wii-mote alone. But no matter how you control it, you'll only really be using the joystick (or control pad if it is just the Wii-Mote) to wander around and then a quick button tap or shake of the Wii-mote to pull up various menus throughout the game. The Wii-mote and Nunchuck is perhaps the best control scheme in my opinion, but it doesn't really make too much difference as the gameplay basically consists of running around and making menu-based decisions.

Overall, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is a very nice title for the budding WiiWare service. It features very deep managerial gameplay, which it is easy to become entranced with. This title gives you so many options for gameplay that it is hard to resist the urge to level up your adventurers just one more time, or unlock a certain building before shutting it off. This title will definitely entertain fans of this type of managerial gameplay, and will keep you coming back for more!

By Amanda L. Kondolojy
CCC Freelance Writer