Closing Comments
There's no denying the appeal of a game like Crystal Bearers. It's a grandiose, 20 – 30 hour long adventure that brings the Final Fantasy name to Nintendo's console in what looks like a game traditional players can finally dive into and sink some serious time in. That's only half true though, as Crystal Bearers is in fact a blend of not only story and combat, but also a huge slew of "everybody can play" mini-games at every turn. While the game's main adventure was off to a good start, and even manages to be truly entertaining at times, these oddly paced, often poorly controlled pit stops really bring down the game's more appealing core mechanics. With as much time put to challenges and odd little in-game activities vital aspects of the game were lost, so while I actually enjoyed taking a break every now and then to race chocobos or fish in an out of the way pond, that time and energy would have been infinitely better spent fixing the game's annoying camera, spotty motion controls, and somewhat basic (though rewarding) battle system. There's a decent adventure hiding in Crystal Bearers, but ironically enough after four and a half years it feels like the developer ran out of time to fine-tune and polish the more important pieces of the package.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/105/1056658p1.html
