Another day another Final Fantasy game announced. The Crystal chronicles series has spawned another game in the form of Echoes of time. I’m usually skeptical about Final Fantasy announcements as Square rarely bring anything new to the table. But this game actually seems quite cool. You’ll see and know why after the vid.

The Square Enix developed Pollux engine will allow players to play the game together whether they’re playing on a Wii or DS. It’s great to see developers pushing DS and Wii connectivity – even if it did take 2 years. And as the trailer showed, the game is also playable online. DS players can play online with Wii players and visa-versa. Awesome news and one thing that was oddly missing from Ring of fates. Although now we know why.

Square Enix have not disclosed the control schemes and general specifications of the 2 versions of the game, although there will obviously be differences. It’ll probably boil down to preference in terms of which version you pick up. The DS will have dual screens which will allow speedy access to in-game menu’s and nifty stylus controls, but the Wii will have the benefit of being able to be played on the big screen.

I’m unsure of how this game will retail though: whether the Wii and DS versions will retail separately or come in a pack together for those who want to be able to play the game both at home on the big screen and on the go.

Final Fantasy Crystal chronicles: Echoes of time is slated for a January 2009 release in Japan. There’s no confirmed European, North American or Australian release date – but I’m sure Western gamers and those down under will see this by August 2009 the latest.

The connectivity between systems and the online play between systems is a good look indeed. I’m glad a third party is exploring new avenues where Wii and DS games are concerned. Hopefully if this game manages to pull it off well it’ll open doors for other developers to push the connectivity between the systems even further. The forthcoming DSi definitely lends itself better to future DS to Wii connectivity with its new dashboard and SD card support.

As stoked as I am for Echoes of time, I have to ask the question: What the hell is going on with The Crystal bearers!?

Despite showing nothing new on Final Fantasy Crystal chronicles: The crystal bearers, Square Enix have already unveiled yet another Crystal chronicles game. It is titled The little king and the promised country and will be a Wii ware title.

I thought WiiWare titles would be shitty little 2D flash style games, so I was shocked when Square Enix showed this off and announced it’d be a WiiWare title. There’s no word how big the game will be, but graphically it looks snazzy and is in complete 3D – so you can bet it’ll eat up every single megabyte of the Wii’s 512 flash memory. You’ll probably have to delete every Virtual console game, every channel and connect your Wii to your PC via a USB cable and sellotape it to the Wii to make enough space.

The game will cost 1500 Wii points and will be released in Japan in March of 2008. The price should be an indication that this will not be a full blown Final Fantasy game. Square Enix would never give gamers a full on Final Fantasy experience that cheap. It will instead have you playing as the little king fella and his gangsta leaning crown, building towns and shit -  or something like that. I’m not sure as to whether I’ll buy this myself. I haven’t seen enough of it to get excited about it. But I think it’s cool that this early on Wii ware games are looking like this and that Square Enix have jumped on the bandwagon so early. It’ll hopefully pave the way for other third party developers to hop on board and finally push digital distribution further on the Wii.