Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

Whether you pay $15 for the game itself or more than $30 for the title and its expanded content, you'll find a surprisingly fun and refreshingly original experience that rivals full-priced retail software in depth and scope. Just make sure that you give it a chance past its slow first hour. I'm glad I did.

The scope of the game is enormous and there's never a lack of things to do as you live out each day of the adventure.

It’s as beautiful as it is deep, and will keep you glued to your television screen as the hours fly by.

The further you delve into the game's intricacies, the richer the experience. [July 2008, p.70]

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King packs a lot of depth into a small package just like Square-Enix intended it to.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is better than the sum of its parts. When you look at everything separately nothing sticks out as particularly fantastic, but its charm and addictive quality go a long way towards making it a great game.

My Life as a King's depth is surprising for a downloadable title, and it suggests that this could have been slapped on a DVD and sold at retail price. But such as it is, downloadable is the way to go, and based on the evidence here, the Crystal Chronicles series has a bright future ahead of it.

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.

Extremely original take on the familiar Final Fantasy format. Worth an expanded sequel. [Aug 2008, p.82]

Our biggest complaint is that sometimes if feels like you're just filling in the blanks and it's only a matter of time before the game finishes playing out the way it's supposed to. On the other hand, the fast daily routine and quick rewards, like a new building or job class, make it easy to get sucked into playing for "just one more day" more than we'd like to admit.

The games constant rewards and simple gameplay make it extremely fun, and the price may be the highest on WiiWare, but that doesn’t mean it isn't more than worth the money.

Overall, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles My Life as a King is a deep and engrossing title.

Enjoyed in short delicious bursts, My Life as a King is one of the most impressive downloads offered on a current-generation console.

A great title that really shows what WiiWare can do. The game is addictive and lasts for hours on end, and nice looking graphics.

Despite its flaws, My Life as a King serves as a wonderful bridge title to bring Final Fantasy fans into the sim genre (and gamers at large, for that matter), blending strategy into the mix to add ample amounts of depth to the proceedings.

It may be the most expensive WiiWare release, but it effortlessly ranks as the most notable. [Aug 2008, p.118]

My Life as a King is not for everybody. The sluggish beginning will detract many gamers, especially those unfamiliar to the simulation and management genres.

I liked My Life as a King more and more as I played it. Sure, it's basically a Final Fantasy game where you stay at home and send other people out to play Final Fantasy. But there is satisfaction to be gained from building a kingdom and keeping your subjects happy.

There’s a terrific immediacy to the events, too. The days are short enough to guarantee a constant hustle and bustle, and the results of the previous day’s adventuring are cunningly given after the save screen, drawing you in to the next day before you realise it. [Aug 2008, p.98]

Not an RPG, and not much to do at first, but it does get more interesting. [Issue#24, p.26]

As one of the launch games for Nintendos download service WiiWare, My Life as a King is a great title. In small doses it's a lot of fun, but the formula grows tedious in the long run. Graphics-wise this game looks great, but it suffers from poor performance from time to time. Overall lack of depth reduces the grade for this otherwise great game.