12 hours and 14 minutes. That's how long the gameplay record on the Nintendo Channel on my Wii says it took me to beat Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord. That makes it, by far, the longest single-player campaign of any Wiiware title I've played. Heck, it even beats several full retail Wii releases like MADWORLD (8 hours 45 minutes), Overlord: Dark Legend (7 hrs 16 min), or Punch-Out!! (6 hrs 1 min, first run through only).
Considering it's only 1000 pts (10 dollars), that's great value right there. And while before playing this game and Plants vs Zombies I would have argued that a 4 hr Wiiware platformer like LostWinds is better than a thousand hours playing tower defense games, I think those games have made me a tower defense fan. They both offer a more streamlined experience than most of the other games in that genre I've played, taking out the guesswork and the experimentation and making it more about strategy, in my opinion. When you fail, you can usually point out exactly what you did wrong, and succeed on the second try.
But whereas Plants vs Zombies is very casual, and very easy, MLAADL can be punishingly difficult IF you don't adopt the right strategy. So much so that I've read some people on the Internet claim the game is near impossible to finish without downloading extra items at 200pts a pop that make the game easier on the player.
In fact, the game is entirely possible to beat without those when you do have the right strategy, and thankfully the game constantly reminds you that if you're failing, you're doing it wrong (while giving you some pointers). Paying for the DLC is not necessary. I'd even say it's not recommended, as it would unbalance the game and would probably rob you of any feeling of accomplishment you might get when you finally succeed.
The game has you defend this lone tower against a series of invading "adventurers" on a quest to take you out as the Dark Lord. You build a series of floors equiped with booby traps, which you populate with monsters (up to three on a floor, but different types of floors have different capacities). The adventurers will arrive alone or in groups of 2 or 3 at a time, however only one adventurer will visit a floor at a time. The next adventurer, finding the floor occupied, will move on to the next one. An adventurer will remain on a floor until he has destroyed it, until he is killed or until a timer runs out (he'll then move on to the next floor).
At first you only have one type of floor, and one type of monster. Gradually, the game introduces new traps (some slow down the enemy, some reduce his speed, etc), new monsters, and new twists, for instance a rock-paper-scissor system (magic beats melee, melee beats ranged, and ranged beats magic). Before long you'll have to think not only about using the right monsters against the right adventurer type, but also about the way you structure your tower.
Your resources being limited, you must be careful how you manage your mana. You'll often have to decide if you're going to build a lot of floors with few monsters on them (effective against fast enemy types that don't spend a lot of time on each floor), or few floors with very powerful monsters on them (effective against tough but slow adventurers). Of course, the game will switch up adventurer types on you so you have to be ready to improvise...
MLAADL is a challenging game to be sure, but it's also perfectly fair. The game tells you everything to know in order to win (press + on the Wiimote to display everything you need to know about the pros and cons of each type of floor or monster), and when you fail, it offers advice concerning what you might have done wrong. It also allows you to make a few mistakes without completely messing up your chances of winning a level.
Grinding is also possible (this IS a Final Fantasy game after all), but also not necessary at all. All that's required is a head on your shoulders and the willingness to try another angle when your first strategy fails you. Few things feel as good as when you finally do beat a level that's given you trouble, when you are on the brink of failing to an adventurer with a sliver of health but you managed to preserve enough mana to add the weakest floor type and the weakest monster, but that is just enough to salvage victory.
I highly recommend dowloading the demo at the very least. It lets you play for about 45 minutes. It's easier than the full game, but it will give you a taste of the graphics and art style, the humor, and the strategery.
And once you've completed the game and somehow that wasn't enough content for you, there is a mission pack and an extra chapter to download for 500pts each, but I haven't given in to that yet. But I probably will, because the game was damn good.
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