I recently was fortunate enough to stumble upon a cheap, used copy of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time for the DS at a local store that sells used dvds, cds and video games. Normally, I never play the Crystal Chronicles line of games, but since I have friends who invested in Echoes of Time and it was much cheaper than it would be at GameStop, I decided to splurge.

I was enthralled. I had no idea how entertaining this Final Fantasy offshoot could be. The character options and attire were delightful, the Wi-Fi multiplayer options were exceptional and a good time was had by all.

Until I needed to visit the aqueducts area outside of the game’s main town to retrieve a Buffasaur horn.

I had some “issues” taking down the boss alone, so I decided it was time to create some extra characters at the guild and take them along as human shields/backup. I created Yuke, Clavat and Lilty characters to complement my Selkie and went back into the sewers.

It was then that I realized that my computer controlled cohorts were total idiots…

Ah, the never-ending Final Fantasy franchise. So many games, so much time required to play them. The latest addition to the handheld family of FF games, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, is more a dungeon crawler than a role-playing game.

Sure, you level up your character, key articles (weapons, helmet, armor and an accessory) and magic and can build playable characters from pre-set types, but action is real-time.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it does make this feel less like a Final Fantasy game. The grinding, backtracking to talk to villagers and silly monsters are quick reminders that you are still in a the Final Fantasy world.

It turns out North Americans aren’t going to have to wait that long to enjoy the multiplatform Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. The DS and Wii game, which comes out in Japan on January 29, 2009, is going to be in stores on March 24, 2009. Both versions of the game will cost $39.99, so the buying decision will basically be up to which console you own or which one you think you’d play more.

Unfortunately, things are a bit uncertain in other regions. Both games are tenatively dated for March 2009 released for Australia, and don’t have any European release window yet.

Echoes of Time is unique in that it is designed to be a multiplayer and simultaneous multiplatform game where Wii and DS owners can play together, so no matter what system and version you own, you can be playing with people from the other version. The game’s also been crafted in such a way that you can immediately start playing a multiplayer game in the middle of a single player adventure. It sounds like an interesting experiment…