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.

What's the game like?
It's alot 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 speed 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.

-Selkies:-

+Derp+

ow.

+Miscellaneous+

Not yet.

 *In Closing* 

Will edit more later