A Gamer is Me!

It's Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, which seems to call for some content. So after my question yesterday (which, tsk, no one answered), I ended up buying three games made by Squeenix for iPhone/iPod Touch: Hills and Rivers Remain, Crystal Defenders, and Vanguard Storm. Over the next three days I'll review each of them (or at least do a reaction shot). Starting with Crystal Defenders! You can get this for most platforms now, according to the Wikipedia page, but this is specifically the iPod Touch version.

Basically, it's really simple. There's no plot, it's just tactics. The game is a series of maps which you have to defend. When monsters get through your defences, they take some of your crystals. There are various kinds of unit you can use to fight against them -- the usual Final Fantasy stuff: soldiers, black mages, time mages, thieves... -- with various different function, and various kinds of monsters. So some monsters are airborne and your soldiers won't touch them, some monsters take multiple crystals, some monsters move really really fast... Before each wave, you get to add new units to the area to defend it better against the kind of monster that's coming up next. You can also level up your units so they have a bigger range, etc. Both actions cost money, which you get by defeating monsters. When you lose all your crystals, it's game over.

Unfortunately, one of the flaws of the game is that it's very hard. If you build up your army early on, you don't get much money: the amount you get is dependent on how much you already have. The more you have, the more you get. So you're encouraged to get through the game with as little defence as possible. Another thing is that you can't move a unit once placed.

There's also no reward for doing well at it, other than a high score, as far as I can tell -- you don't earn any new types of units, or any new content. It quickly gets frustrating, but it's fun to pick up for ten minutes or so -- boring bus rides or waiting for an appointment or something.