An odd Final Fantasy, but a daring one.
Story: It's a good plot, although a little transparent, with one or two twists you might not guess right. This story doesn't take itself too seriously and that leads to some moments feeling like you're watching a Saturday-Morning cartoon Final Fantasy, but the game deals with the adult themes of racism/discrimination and the right to life. It feels like a Disney movie, stuff for kids and adults. It's paced rather well, but I feel it rushes to the end in the final act when there was potential to explore further. The characters are cliche to some extent. Your main character, Layle, has an attitude because the world shuns him because he was born with powers. He doesn't sulk over, he just tries to make a living without whatever work he can get and keeps as few emotional ties as possible. That makes him a good Final Fantasy character. He doesn't experience any huge change in his personality by the end, but he certainly shows growth. That makes him a great Final Fantasy character. The rest of the cast follows a usual suit: the best friend/informant, the bratty-catty love interest, the pure-hearted-high-society love interest, the Cid of Final Fantasy, and the misunderstood character, and the bad guy. You'll figure out each within 2 hours of booting up the game.
Graphics: Square-Enix doesn't disappoint. This is a great looking Wii game. Very detailed environments, very smooth character animation, intricate character designs, and good special FX. Some environments can be very large so they will seem bland simply because you'll be trekking through one area so long, but each environment is distinct you'll never be confused as to what area you're in. There are about three small pre-rendered sequences and one oddly included in-game pre-rendered that takes a quality dip. Otherwise, all cut-scenes are done in-game and animate well. Lip-syching wasn't redone for the english voice work, however most dialogue fits fine. There is some slow down if there are a lot of effects or characters on screen at once, but this rarely happens. I had it happen twice in 13 hours of play.
Sound: This is a mixed bag. There's some jazzy tunes to maintain the light atmosphere of the game with more dramatic scores for the more serious moments. Battle music has a few different tracks for different areas, but nothing too memorable. It's all very distinct for this Nintendo-only Final Fantasy universe. Oh, and by the end of the game you'll never want to hear the words "Crystal" and "Bearer" in the same sentence ever again. To end on a good note, Moogles have never sounded cuter. You'll want it for a ring-tone.
Gameplay: SQEX usually has trouble creating a top notch game that is outside the strict RPG genre formula, and this game is no different. It's not a trainwreck, it's more like SQEX brought the bread and butter, but forgot the butter knife. You use the Wii-remote and Nunchuck at all times. The game camera is controlled by the D-pad, which I found useful considering the amount of work you have to do with the pointer. The Z-button will automatically center the camera behind Layle. You can hold the Z-button to go first person and you can still look around, move, and use your powers.
The main game mechanic is the using the pointer to aim Layle's power of gravity, which basically works like telekinesis or the Force from Star Wars. You aim at an object, you hold be to lock on-to it, and then shake the remote in one of the four main directions to interact with what you've targeted. This power is fun and gets used in practically ever way it should. Layle uses only gravity for battle, no weapons, but you can pick up objects and enemies and hurl them around or at eachother. For enemies or people, you might have to stun them first with a toss and them pick them up again. You can then toss what you hold by aiming the remote and pressing A-button, or flick the remote to toss in whatever direction Layle's facing. Outside of battle, you can pick up towns folk to shake money out of them, help them, or achieve certain reactions through you're interactions. You also use your gravity powers to jump to platforms, pull-yourself up ledges, do dodge-rolls, and keep yourself from falling (Layle auto catches himself if he falls into bottomless pits). It's a shame when you see some of the other uses only in cutscenes or for specific places, but it's not to know SQEX was thinking about them and maybe a sequel could include them.
The RPG elements that are included are gathering materials to build accessories which is how you increase your powers. You'll find materials from defeating monsters and opening treasure chests. You'll be able to buy accessories directly for ridiculous prices or you can just use materials at a work shop. At the work shops, you'll pick an item to make, pay money, and then the materials are mixed together in an order you choose. Putting the materials in specific orders can yield better accessories with extra effects and these items can only be obtained this way. You have an Attack, Defense, Focus, Range, and Luck stats. Attack and Defense are typical, Focus is to decrease the time it takes to lock-on to objects, Range is to lock-on to farther, and Luck is so enemies drop materials more often. There are secondary effects like dealing damage from rolling, health regeneration, and other interesting effects. You can also customize the emblem on Layle's jacket. There are quite a few emblems, all available from the start. You have to dump materials into them to complete them and then pay to attach them. While you use the same materials you use for accessories, the emblem is purely decoration so don't waste rare materials. You also have status ailments from enemies, but that's where RPG stuff stops.
Battles aren't random. There are specific areas that change into battle zones for a limited amount of time and you can fight the monsters there. You're free to leave the area as long as it isn't tied to a plot event. If you destroy all the enemies before the area changes to non-hostile, you can close the portal hanging in the sky and change the area back early. Closing a portal for the first time in each area yields a pick-up item that permanently increases your HP. If you fail to close the portal or enter the area while it's non-hostile you can wait around for the area to change back, which takes about 2-3 minutes, and try again to fight the monsters. The portals never stop spawning in an area even after closing it; its just a matter of time before it reopens. This is so you can harvest the items that only specific enemies may drop or to get specific reactions from enemies that yield achievements.
The game has an achievement system known as Medals. There is a chart in your menu screen where you can see what you've collected. Once you've collected a Medal, check the chart to see hints for other medals in the adjacent slots. They have no gameplay impact except to mark progress and so you can find all the little details and reactions they put into the character and world animations.
Then there's the game world. It's awesome to go to a town and sit around for a bit and just watch the people. Some talk to eachother, others are wildly bumping into eachother, sometimes kids play, cats chase mice, a moogle delivers you mail, people read newspapers, pick grapes, ride chocobos, herd sheep, and more. You'll be amazed at how everyone is just alive and you're mostly free to mess with as you please with mostly no repercussions. You'll might even get a Medal if you do something right. Vacant areas really aren't anything special and you'll mostly just move through them to your next plot point.
This brings me to travel and navigation, the biggest downside to this game. You'll mostly walk through the game, which isn't bad except that you have no mini-map, an over-world map with no details, and large vacant areas that have little to nothing going on without monsters, if that. Eventually, you'll be riding chocobos, but dismounting them makes them flee. You can't use your powers, open chests, or check stuff while riding the chocobo. Enemies won't mess with you though if your riding. This will get annoying when your lost. There's also a train system that gives you 5 land mark stops and a warp system later that will require you to hunt out the warp points are on the map. Most are revealed in the warp hub where you pick where to warp out to. There is a sign-post system where you can pick up an arrow with your power that will act as a compass to point you in the direction of a specific location. Some arrows can't be carried all the way and sign posts are less frequent in rural areas. You'll have notes that you can re-read that will help you keep track of where your supposed to go, and while most areas are linear, it's still a struggle to remember the correct direction for an area that's a lot further away than you thought.
As much as you'll be battling, traveling, and watching cutscenes, this game has a lot of mini-games placed in that help break up the action and make some scenes that could have been cut-scene only into interactive sequences to keep you emersed. The first thing you do in the game is jump out of an airplane and proceed to take out flying dragons arcade shooter style. Some of the games are even co-op and you will be able to replay at a later time inside the game. Some plot stuff you have to succeed at (failing means retry), but most are no-lose, score keeping games that are meant for replay. Only some of the mini-games are advertised as jobs and you'll receive a reward for participating in them through the mail moogle, but 90% of the sequences yield only medals for completion or good performance.
Replay value: You could get through this game in 10 hours if you don't get lost and don't indulge in any extra mini-games or exploration. You do get a new-game plus so you can keep all your items, try to earn all the medals, open all the emblems, try to max out Layle, and try all the mini-games. Unless you're a completionist or really love the world, one playthrough is probably all you'll do.
My verdict: I loved the skill based battle system, the gravity mechanic, the mini-game plot events, the story, and the world that this game includes. The mini-games give nice variety and make certain epic moments that would have just been passive cutscenes into interactive events (outside of quick-time) that you live with your hero. Travel was tough and some places were hard to navigate, the one lagoon section particularly doesn't mark out places you can pull yourself up. I wished I could have used some advanced gravity techniques to fix that, but I can only hope a sequel will bring more refinement. I know SQEX was more focused on FF13 than this and it shows. What I see here is the foundation for a great adventure game and a great new start for the Crystal Chronicles universe (LOVE the more mature, non-super-deformed art design). If SQEX could put a full budget behind this with it's new gameplay system and 1-player adventure concept, we would have an adventure game that could rival Zelda. (If you've played Twilight Princess, you'll definitely see that SQEX tooks notes from it.)
solid 8/10