Ranking Every Final Fantasy Spin-Off Game

2009 saw the release of three separate games in the Crystal Chronicles subseries, including the aforementioned Crystal Bearers at the tail-end of the year. Leading the pack in the spring was Echoes Of Time, which had separate versions on both the DS and the Wii. The former was vastly superior to the latter, which drags the title as a whole down given that it was blatantly just an upscaled port, with poor controls and vastly inferior graphics to other games that were released on the system at the time.

The core mechanic of the game could actually be a blast at times on the DS version, but the main hindrance was that it necessitated linking up with three other players to avoid being stuck with moronic AI teammates that were incapable of collecting items, healing or even attacking without being told to do so. Finding three partners on the same wavelength isn’t a simple task even at the best of times, particularly on a system that lacked any form of voice chat, whilst the poorly implemented crossover between players on the DS and Wii versions meant that the appeal of Echoes Of Time quickly diminished as the small player base moved on to other things.

With minimal story content and a soundtrack that reused a sizable number of pieces from Ring Of Fates, Echoes Of Time ironically succumbed well and truly… to the echoes of time.