Cover (fan-made)

FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii)

If your favorite part of playing an RPG is when you're walking around towns talking to people, then this is the game for you! Released as a launch title for Nintendo's WiiWare download service, My Life as a King is simply a town simulator. Rather than crawling through dungeons and fighting monsters, your job is to send other people out to do the work for you while you stay at home and try to keep the citizens happy. The game was produced by Toshiro Tsuchida, who was the director/producer for many of the Front Mission games. The story takes place immediately after the events of the original GameCube game. The miasma has lifted from the world, and people are free to travel around without the need of protection from crystals. A king named Epitav, who lost his old kingdom to the miasma, establishes a new castle in a new land, but then goes missing. His young son, Leo (who can be renamed), attempts to pick up where his father left off, and moves into the new castle, which also houses a large crystal. The crystal speaks to him and grants him a magic called “Architek,” that he can use to create buildings, so Leo settles in and names his new kingdom Padarak (or whatever you choose). Leo The young Clavat king who, perhaps echoing the player's feelings, would rather go out adventuring than stay home and tend to his royal responsibilities. He's a silent protagonist, but still exhibits some personality through his gestures. Chime Leo's aptly named chancellor is half-Clavat and half-Selkie. She teleports in whenever Leo needs help creating or dismantling buildings. She also delivers the daily reports, runs the local taverns (when you build them), and bears a slight resemblance to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Hugh Yurg A battle worn Lilty general, Hugh also acts as an adviser for Leo. He always wears a helmet in order to conceal the numerous battle scars on his face. Pavlov A talking penguin with an attitude, this strange creature provides detailed info on the adventurers, parties, dungeons, and other things, although his true reasons for hanging around the kingdom aren't revealed until later. The Moogle Brothers Three moogles named Mogroe, Mogmune and Mogiosh, who roam around the town. Mogmune occasionally reports about people who need help, while Mogiosh provides info about the various buildings, and can take Leo to the top of the lookout tower. Mogroe doesn't do much except gossip and talk about his aspirations for being a superhero. Darklord Craydall He is the main antagonist who occasionally appears to taunt the young king. If you bother to pay attention to the idle chatter of the townsfolk, you'll hear rumors about a Selkie boy who was transformed by the miasma. It's implied that he became the Darklord. The game is divided into chapters, which depend on the developmental state of the kingdom. At the beginning, you start off slowly building houses and other structures as you raise the resources to do so, and you send a few adventurers out on simple quests. On the surface, your interaction with the kingdom seems limited, and there's little more to do than build things and talk to people. However, later on in the game, things get fairly complex as you deal with funding different shops, customizing adventurers and parties, and trying to keep things running at maximum efficiency. In fact, there's quite a bit going on under the hood. If you bother to dig into Chime's reports, you can even look at the individual turns of every adventurer in every battle that they engaged in the day before. The main resources in the game are “Gil” and “Elementite.” Gil is automatically raised through taxes and spent on adventurer wages, posting behests, and funding item and magic shops. Elementite is a magical commodity that's used for constructing and deconstructing buildings, and it's acquired by adventurers as they explore dungeons and defeat bosses. It's a little imbalanced, as there's a point in the game where you begin pretty much hemorrhaging Gil and Elementite, but they become useless anyway once the size of your kingdom maxes out. At that point, you spend most of your time just running around town waiting for your adventurers to come home. The game does get very repetitive, but it's somewhat balanced out by the quick pace. Days are short (only about 10-15 minutes), so they keep you coming back to issue more behests and gain access to new areas. It can get rather addictive, but on higher difficulties, the need to level grind slows things down. Graphically, the game borrows a lot from the original GameCube game. The character models, in particular, use the same “super deformed” style, but their faces are completely static, and they use the same stock body gestures over and over. In general, the graphics lack the same level of polish and special effects from the original game, but they're still charming and colorful. Kumi Tanioka's music is simple and relaxing, but the composition is very reminiscent of the Final Fantasy games from the SNES. In fact, the same can be said for the game's atmosphere in general. Although it's a 3D game, there's just something about it that feels like vintage SquareSoft. The game itself costs 1500 Wii Points, which equals US$15, but there was also a ton of DLC released that included new dungeons, items, abilities, buildings, costumes, and access to Lilties, Selkies and Yukes (the core package only has Clavats), which can run up an extra 2400 points. All of it is optional, of course, and the core package alone includes multiple difficulty levels and a “New Game+” option that unlocks a few more buildings.

FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii) FFCC: My Life as a King (Wii)