XBLA - Release Mar 11 2009 PS3 - Release TBA WiiWare (Called Crystal Defenders R1) - Release TBA (North America) February 2009 (Japan)
According to a purty reputable source, Square Enix is bringing Crystal Castles to XBLA this Wednesday for 800 points ($10). Whooo wheee! From Wikipedia:
"Crystal Defenders is a tower defense video game by Square Enix. The game was originally released under the title Crystal Guardians for mobile phones. Versions for iPhone, iPod Touch and WiiWare were later released under its current title, and the game will also see release on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.
Crystal Defenders takes place after the events of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift and features units from the Final Fantasy Tactics series. The objective of the game is for the player to stop waves of monsters from stealing a cache of crystals in a maze by strategically positioning units to destroy them before they escape with their loot. Each unit has their own special attributes, and have particular strengths and weakness against certain enemies.
The game features 300 stages spread across three chapters of increasing challenge."
The Wii and Xbox 360 version seem to differ slightly according this source:
"Unlike the WiiWare version the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version is an upgraded port of the iPhone Crystal Defenders game which contains 300+ stages spread out over three scenarios from the Japan-only mobile phone game Crystal Guardians: W1, W2, and W3. Crystal Defenders R1 also has less “characters” or towers than Crystal Defenders. Only the soldier, black mage, white monk, archer, time mage, thief, and dragoon towers are in Crystal Defenders R1. Square Enix’s announcement also mentions this game is designed for first time players to learn how to use the the basic towers. "
I Wish there was more media, but there are some iPhone reviews that indicate this is geared toward a more hardcore crowd, complaints seem to focus on a poorly optimized interface through the iPhone controls. IGN wrote:
"The control does not take advantage of the touch screen in any reasonable or expected way. Instead, you use a virtual pad on the bottom half of the vertically oriented screen to move a cursor and place your defenders. It works, but it is clumsy..." 7/10.
Other reviews/previews:
AppVee (??) gave it 3.8/5
A playtest of Crystal Defenders R1 IGN Gives Crystal Defenders 5.5
I'm partially ignoring the Wii version due to limited time, I will add more screen shots and info as it's released. Anyone picking this up Wednesday for arcade? Or is everyone just getting Peggle instead?
So the Wii version has less towers and stages? Weak.
Yeah, from what I've read it's a dumbed-down version.
Why would they dumb down...a cell-phone game? Certainly the cell phone is nice, but still...
So what, the 360/PS3 version is the better version? More classes and levels? It better have Gria.
Fake edit: I squinted at one of the screenshots and success! Gria! They're awesome.
Hope this is less shovelware feeling than the iPhone one was. It looked and felt like a port of a DS game, complete with splitting the screen in half, and the bottom being used as a trackball for the cursor
Wow this game looks like a bad port. They don't even seem to use the whole screen. I know you guys like your Final Fantasy and all but surely there are better games to spend your money on.
I’ll tell you what happens in Demon’s Souls when you die. You come back as a ghost with your health capped at half. And when you keep on dying, the alignment of the world turns black and the enemies get harder. That’s right, when you fail in this game, it gets harder. Why? Because fuck you is why.
Wow this game looks like a bad port. They don't even seem to use the whole screen. I know you guys like your Final Fantasy and all but surely there are better games to spend your money on.
Have we even seen screens/gameplay from the 360 version? That's the only one of interest to me, fuck the Wii version.
That first screen shot is obviously from the 360 because of the button guide. And look how tiny the actual game screen is. Its almost insulting that they would try to sell this for $10 when you could get PJ Monsters, Defense Grid or Savage Moon for that price.
I’ll tell you what happens in Demon’s Souls when you die. You come back as a ghost with your health capped at half. And when you keep on dying, the alignment of the world turns black and the enemies get harder. That’s right, when you fail in this game, it gets harder. Why? Because fuck you is why.
That first screen shot is obviously from the 360 because of the button guide. And look how tiny the actual game screen is. Its almost insulting that they would try to sell this for $10 when you could get PJ Monsters, Defense Grid or Savage Moon for that price.
True...but 300 stages sounds promising.
If nothing else, MS's mandatory demo policy will make it easy to decide.
Square should release a Blitzball arcade game. I'd buy that instantly.
and to everyone who thinks this is too expensive, you guys aren't taking the obligatory Square-Enix surcharge into account. You have to pay at least $5 more than you should for having the privilege of Square's name being put on something, like durrr.
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Last edited by Elimination; 03-11-2009 at 04:34 AM.
03-09-2009, 12:43 PM
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