Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time

FFCC:EoT is an Action-RPG/Platformer that has gained some favorable opinions since its release. It is a spiritual successor to the first Crystal Chronicles, using some, but not all, elements from Ring of Fates, along with some new ones like swimming. You create the main character, select the name, tribe, and gender, as well creating your own teammates/alternate player characters. It's sometimes ignored in favor of alternate and newer DS online/multiplayer games, such as Phantasy Star Zero. However, if you want a good old-school Action-RPG feel in a newer DS title, look no further. A Wii version exists, but controls abit awkwardly. However, it is able to play along with the DS game! Good if you don't have a DS, but you have a buddy who does and plays this, and I guess if you don't go outside alot or get cramped hands from holding a DS too long.

What's the game like?
It's a lot like the Mana/Seiken Densetsu series on SNES in atmosphere, music, and story and gameplay, though with some elements found more in other titles such as platforming along with level-up-gained abilities and traits from the first Kingdom Hearts (not the story though (Phew...)) and some puzzle solving from action-adventure games like Zelda and Lufia. There's 4 different tribes to make players from, each with different specialties. However, all of them can have their appearance customized by EVERY piece of head and torso armor and change their hair color (except for the Yuke tribe, which has no visible hair to color). If you like dungeon exploring, monster-killing, platforming, and puzzle solving, then this is a game you should try. Best of all, there is multiplayer! Online can get a bit laggy if you're too far away from your pals, but close range has minimal, if any, lag. The CC series is made to revolve around multiplayer. You can combine spells for stronger or different effects, assist each other in battle, and even sequence break some puzzles, when possible. In single player, you can still have allies, but they'll be AI. However, you can control whichever you want to at any given time (unless said ally is dead, then have someone else revive them first). Use the L shoulder-button to warp your AI buddies to you as well.

Can you give me some tips, /v/?
The game's pretty self-explanatory, but some stuff is confusing. So, I guess.

+Gameplay Factors+ (skip to the next main section if you're curious about other stuff, know how to play, or went through the tutorial/instruction manual)

-Basics-

Until you level up past roughly 18~20, you aren't going to be able to do much. THANKFULLY, you level up relatively fast in this until the end-game (but that's off-set by other factors). You can attack, jump, cast a spell, maybe combine a spell with another ally's, and use different weapons. After that, the game gets alot better as you have various other skills and what not that you learn and spells that you can combine. Remember to take any new materials you find to the tailor's in order to get new gear for cheap. In addition, you can smelt your old gear down for gems that boost your current gear's powers and capability, along with giving you various perma-buffs (as long as you equip them). Solving a few side/mini-quests is also handy for getting money and gear rather fast.

+What Tribe to Use: Solo vs. Multiplayer+

Each tribe has different specialties, and with said specialties, come different roles, especially for solo and multiplayer. But first, let's take a gander at the little fellas you'll be using:

-Clavats: "Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, often better than a master-of-one."-

Honestly, no tribe is an extremist in any factor. Most specialize in one thing, but can do other roles pretty well, too. Clavats, however, are the pure Red Mages, Magic Knights, or Combat Medics you might expect them to be. Far from useless though, a Clavat might be recommended for an intermediate player or someone who wants to perform multiple roles in a party.

->+'s: Can deal and take attacks well, cast well and quite often, and strike many times with swords and axes.; -'s: They take while to get to a decent casting capability and they can't really act as tanks; Advice: Pretty good as a single-player option (but not the best), or when you don't know what your multiplayer buddies might be playing as. Again, after some leveling, Clavats can get good at most roles, but remain just decent enough from being the best of them.

-Yukes: Will heal and/or buff the crap out of you and devastate enemies with their powerful magic.-

The best at learning Magic abilities quickly. These mostly include "Magic Stack #", which, when other allies have the same skill, lets you combine spells, and "Ring Lock #", which lets you "lock" a spell ring of yours in place and summon up another to combine your own spells into stronger ones, instead of needing your buddies. They also use staves, which give them a double-hit effect when used up close, and books, which are better for boosting your magic damage than fighting. When it comes to melee fighting, you'd best step back and strike from afar until later levels.

->+'s: Learn magic skills faster than others, and at higher levels, can act as decent Magic Knights when using Spears; -'s: Aren't decent at melee fighting until later on, and will nearly-always have lower HP and Physical Defense than most. Learn very few weapon skills compared to the other tribes.; Advice: Despite lacking physical mastery, Yukes are great for multiplayer and for beginners who want access to alot of spells early on, along with intermediate and expert multiplayers who prefer support spells and go long-range to assist allies.

-Lilties: "Big things come in small packages."-

The physical powerhouses of this game are the tiny Lilty tribe. While they may lack the weapon combos of Clavats, and the casting capabilities of Yukes and Selkies, they are your go-to tribe for physical tanking. They prefer spears, which are great for range, and hammers, which are good for stunning enemies. Their high HP and Physical Defense makes them formidable against typical enemies, but if an annoying enemy (hard to reach, high HP, etc.) uses offensive magic, you might want to focus on dodging, since a Lilty's HP can go down fast from stronger magic and status spells.

->+'s: Hands down the best physical tribe, and great at dealing with enemy swarms while allies prepare charge attacks and fused spells; -'s: Hands down the worst tribe for magic. Low MP, low Magic Attack and Defense, and learns spell abilities later than most; Advice: While Lilties may be bad at magic, they can still support allies by adding their own spell rings for fused spells. This is definitely an intermediate to expert class when going solo, but if any of your non-AI buddies are not Lilties, especially if they are Yukes, then you should compliment each other quite well, so even a beginner can cover for their friends.

-Selkies: "One jump ahead the rest."-

Selkies. Damn. They automatically and permanently come with double-jump, an extremely helpful and cool skill that's usually limited to temporary scratch card effects. They are essentially the reverse of Clavats. Balanced, but have a higher specialty in magic compared to physical assaults. Or so it's meant to be. Really, a Selkie with a bow and a high level can wreck all sorts of crap up. They eventually gain the abilties to shoot off 3, then later 5, arrows in a spread-shot, and another skill lets said arrows pierce through enemies, hitting those behind them. It's kind of hard to make said arrows strike one enemy at once, however, if you do, well... you see where I'm going with this. Paddles are abit less handy than bows, however, they have a VERY fast charge attack time. Thus, are very useful for offing weaker critters at close range. As for Magic, they are not quite as good as Yukes; BUT later on, they can quite easily get much more MP than them from just leveling up, giving more magic usages at the expense of top power. Their magic defense and offense and magic ability learning rate is also pretty good, despite not matching a Yuke's. So, when it all comes down to it, this tribe is pretty much the ultimate solo-play class. No doubt about it. If you look at some off-site FAQs, you'll find out they even have some rather high "hidden" stats as well.

->+'s: Despite not being the best at anything, they have ample talents that more than make up for that. They can act as the Clavat does in fulfilling both roles well, and can also sequence-break sometimes, thanks to double-jumping; -'s: Ummm... they're not... uh... the best at being the best?; Advice: A true beginner's tribe if there was one to be named. While you can try and underpower yourself abit to balance yourself between your pals, you'll often be the go-to Selkie to lead the team to victory, be it through puzzle-solving or adding or talents to rushing or spells.

+Gems to look out for+

Through smelting down your old gear, you can get gems from them that can power-up your new gear. NOTE: Only do this when your old weapon has reached its maximum level and don't bother with some of the early gear you can buy, those usually only give out crappy gems. If a piece of gear has a weird little picture, that's usually an indication that it has some sort of property can be gem-ified.

Draconium- Increases damage dealt when jumping and striking

Monkite- Increases damage dealt when holding onto something above your head or when stomping Bushidore- Increases Critical Hit % a bit

Crimsonite- Lowers chance of getting status-effects Wisdonium- increases length of status-effects that you deal to enemies (status effects are actually rather handy, sometimes on bosses as well) (Best used when you often use 4-ring spells)

Gigas Eye- drains a bit of damage that you deal out into HP to heal you

Snake Eye- Same as Gigas Eye, but for MP instead

Might Malachite L- lets your character become stronger when lifting and holding onto stuff (Lilties can do without this, as it does nothing for them) (no effect on actually attacking)

Hard Garnet L- lets you become less likely to be knocked down by enemy attacks (Clavats above Level 98 can do without this) (it does nothing when you have Clavat Soul, which is the same effect)

Fortune Flourite L- Boosts your Luck abit

Big Charjade- Lets your charge attacks charge quicker

Big Quickener- Lets your magic rings move faster

Gil Mania- Increases the gil your character picks up (as in, when it is literally picked up) a % (potentially 100% when you have alot of these gems equipped on your character)

{Green Jewels}- Increase a stat an extra amount when you level up or gain an elemental level up

{Light Blue Jewels}- Boost a weapon's maximum level cap.

(Post-game and/or multiplayer)

Ryoko- A powerful Light Blue Jewel. A single Ryoko can boost a weapon's level cap to 20!

Stunt Stone- Prevents your character from leveling up while this is equipped (self-inflcted challenge, you may or may not want to use this)

Stompee Stone- Causes non-AI allies to lose money when they stomp on you (only useful if you have an asshole player playing with you)

+Miscellaneous+

-Essentially, stuff you may or may not know-

Jump Strike- A straight stab downward. Works with Swords, Axes, and Spears. Jump, then immediately press attack and hold it, your held weapon wil; aim down, dropping you with it. Useful when you know (or even don't know) if an enemy is below you, you're traveling downward, and low on MP or can't aim quite right. Get the jump on them with this for some surprise damage or if you want to have some Dragoon flair for your Lilty.

Money Stacking- Whenever you stop a gil, it becomes a spinning coin, icon. You can drop several of these on top of each other and make a decent size step-ladder to jump upon. Given that these don't fade away for a pretty good while, your buddies should be able to use it too. Selkies need less coins at the top of their stacks, thanks to double-jumping.

Charge Hit Experience Boost- If you finish off an enemy or boss with a charge attack (hold button on ground and release; after you level up enough to learn it, that is), you can get a nice percentage boost of the experience you'd usually get. Remains very handy throughout the game, especially if you can off a group of normal foes simultaneously. Doesn't work with magic though!

The Blue Fire-thing: Hitting an enemy with a status effect (like burn) or ailment (like poison) will make them immune to effects and ailments for a while, usually because they're still reeling from your recent attack or spell.

New Game+: There's new game plus in this game, along with harder modes. However, each time you newgame+, you must make a new character. Don't worry, your old characters and their stats and gear remain safe at the adventurer's guild/pub in town.

 *In Closing* 

There's not much more I can say about this game without giving away some story spoilers. I hope you have fun with it, and are able to play it with others as well. In the mean time, consider checking out these links for more info and other such adventuring mishaps:

FFCC S-E North American Homepage - Despite the site looking a bit bare-bones, it does have a handful of gameplay videos, specifically of the different tribes and some gameplay with them.

FFCC S-E European Homepage - Has quite a few screenshots and shows a bit of the Wii version if you're curious about it anyway.

GameFAQs page - Sure, it's GameFAQs, but I did take some information from there I didn't even know. I'll give credit where it's due by linking you to their further troves of info. Beware of spoilers!

Final Fantasy Wiki - Has handy info in Wikia format. Some of my info came from here, so check them out, especially if you have trouble with other FF games. Again, beware of spoilers!

Thanks to the Pollux Engine, this party's gettin' CRAZY (from the Japanese SE site):