Let’s get this out of the way from the beginning: for all its strengths, Crystal Bearers is not an RPG. It’s an action/adventure game with sparse RPG elements—but if you’re expecting the usual Square brand of depth and longevity, you’ll walk away sorely disappointed. It’s also not really a Crystal Chronicles game; it’s a thoroughly single-player experience, sans the opportunity for a second player to control a second cursor on the screen (somewhat akin to Super Mario Galaxy). The Final Fantasy label merely references the universe in which the game takes place—and everything from the settings to the characters parallel the usual flavor of the FF series.
In that regard, it’s a tale of a world divided by four tribes, one of which (the Yuke) is believed to be extinct. That is, until a member of the tribe appears in the wake of an inexplicable attack on a luxury passenger airship. Fortunately, the mercenary tasked with the escort is the fearless Layle, your typical impetuous and fearless jRPG protagonist. He’s what’s known as a “Crystal Bearer”, a small group of people who possess the wondrous powers of the crystals, a privilege which grants them seemingly magical powers such as telekinesis. Excitedly, he rips through the attackers before coming face to face with the curious Yuke, an encounter which catapults our young hero straight into the heart of an impending war.
They want to deposit money into my bank account to help import their goods trapped in Nigeria!
This is different
Right from the beginning, you’ll notice the obvious deviations from the norm. The opening sequence throws you right into a shooting sequence which requires you to point the Wii-remote and fire at attackers. It’s an easy yet unexpected heavy-action introduction that is followed by the typical extended cut scene introducing the plot. After that, you’re then tasked with piloting the luxury airship to safety through a perilously cramped canyon. These sorts of action sequences are sprinkled throughout the entire game, providing regular breaks from the usual explore-fight-cut scene foundation. (One of my personal favorites later on—spoiler alert by the way—was a sequence where you must escape from a train while being hunted by guards boarding it. This requires you to carefully time your movements, ducking behind rows of seats and concession carts to make your way to the exit.)
From there, things settle down a bit, and you eventually find yourself wandering the cities in search of the perpetrating Yuke you encountered in the opening. It’s quite some time before you engage in your first actual battle even, and at that point, the divergence from RPG toward action is but further accentuated. Rather than the familiar frequent and turn-based battles, enemy encounters in Crystal Bearers are performed fully in real-time and take place seamlessly within the game world you explore. In fact, it’s probably best not to even call them encounters, as they aren’t random and the gameplay does not change in any way when you approach an enemy.
To attack, you simply use your telekinesis skills—again, the same thing you use while not battling. You can lift a variety of objects in the world around you, including enemies themselves. When you point the Wii remote at an object or living thing, you can press and hold B to target it for telekinesis. A circular meter indicates how long you will need to hold your position to then lift the object via your powers; generally, this doesn’t take more than a second, but it varies depending on your distance and the burden of the particular target. Once in control of the object, you can toss it in any direction you choose either by swinging the Wii remote in the desired direction, simply pressing B to throw it directly forward, or pointing at a particular target and then pressing B to throw at the target. Oh, and remember how I referenced an optional second player above? Throughout most of the experience, a second Wii remote can be used to control a second cursor, thus providing two simultaneously manipulated objects via telekinesis.
This control scheme generally works well, though as you might predict, it’s not always flawless. Much fuss has been made since the first previews of the title about its “wonky” Wii-based gameplay, but quite honestly, it mostly fits the bill. Sure, it can get irritating at times having to lug objects around and manipulate your environment just to complete battles (and it does admittedly lose some of its appeal pretty quickly), but it’s usually not that bad, and sometimes it’s genuinely fun. If the gesturing irks you, you can always resort to pointing at the target, which is pretty reliable. Traditional it ain’t, but if you’re expecting traditional in the Final Fantasy sense, you’re already in for a rude awakening anyhow.
Telekinetic pranks
Miasma Mia
Fortunately (depending on your perspective), you aren’t required to defeat all of the enemies in most areas anyway—you’re just encouraged to via various rewards. Unlike other such adventure titles where you often have to conquer all of the resident threats before moving on, Crystal Bearers more often gives you the option of battling or simply avoiding the nearby threats altogether in pursuit of your next destination. In fact, in many locations, the enemies eventually expire on their own in an odd sequence based on so-called “miasma streams”, which are dark pillars of energy emanating from the sky that spawn enemies. After a certain period of time, these streams naturally dry up, taking all of the area’s enemies with them and leaving a peaceful area to explore for another temporary time interval before the stream regenerates. There isn’t even any leveling up to be had; so whether or not you fight in pursuit of whatever item-based rewards await is entirely up to you.
Whether or not this jives with you is a different story. All things considered, Crystal Bearers really isn’t a game about battle so much as it is adventure and exploration. It includes some light platforming in places, some minor equipment management mechanics (where you can equip accessories, for instance, that you acquire or fuse together via collected materials and zenny), and battle is certainly a regular theme, but for the most part, this is a wholly different experience altogether from the usual. The world is massive and varied, and your telekinesis provides a form of experimental entertainment therein which sort of encourages additional exploration.
Speaking of which, while the world is huge and the gameplay diverse, the game itself is actually quite short by Square Enix standards. Even taking your time, you probably won’t log more than 12-15 hours total before it’s all finished, so keep that in mind if—once again—you’re expecting the typical life-altering epic.
A rather polite Cactuar with uncommonly minty fresh breath
Small-time adventure, big-time presentation
That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the experience, however. Not only is Crystal Bearers one of the more unique games birthed by the minds at Square Enix in recent years, but it’s also one of the most beautiful Wii games out there. The environments are rich, the architecture sprawling and wonderfully complex, and the character models attractive and realistic. The cut scenes are also up to the cinematic standards of the rest of Square Enix’s catalog, frequently reminiscent of a Hollywood movie (even the gameplay exhibits such qualities through its tactful depth-of-field blur and other visual tricks). Finally, the soundtrack is also mostly fantastic, featuring live recordings and diverse selection of musical styles to fit each environment. It’s really an impressive aesthetic package that will almost make you forget that your Wii only outputs 480p.
The voice acting, on the other hand, is pretty hit and miss. It’s always nice not to have to read everything, but the delivery can really make or break the experience. In particular, Layle’s voice acting is notably flat at times (although, granted, he is supposed to be a mildly disinterested smartass), and that can be a bit off-putting. The story isn’t bad, but it’s not comparable to the best Final Fantasy has to offer. Female protagonist Belle will be hated by some players, as she comes off as bratty and unappreciative in spite of her requisite good looks. The most significant presentational shortcoming, however, is really more of a gameplay problem: the camera. It’s controllable via the D-pad (or you can press B to center it behind you as usual), but it never seems to work well enough on its own. Babysitting a camera is already irritating enough, but doing so while attempting to point at the screen and control your telekinesis simultaneously can get to be pretty annoying.