Is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates the best looking DS game so far?

According to Square Enix, you can never have too much of a good thing, especially when that good thing is Final Fantasy.

Not only have almost all of the early games been remade for GBA and DS, but the company's moving forward with new games such as Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings and a side project based around the cute yellow ostrich-like chocobos, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales.

The company's even decided to make a sequel based on its GameCube-only title Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, a game notable for enabling four people to play using their GBAs as controllers and for providing extra map information on the GBA screen.

It's a theme Square Enix is continuing in the DS's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, too, with four-way multiplayer one key feature.

We've seen this sort of communal co-operation before, in games such as Children of Mana. Then, you had to have your three other chums in the same room in order to hook up. With Ring of Fates supporting the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, we hope you'll be able to connect with three players from anywhere in the world. With full details yet to be confirmed though, that Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support might turn out to just involve swapping items and uploading high scores.

As for what you will get up to, as you might expect the game is something of an action role-player. Clearing dungeons of a variety of nasty creatures is your main occupation, with the battles occurring in real-time unlike in previous Final Fantasy games. You'll press one button to select your attack, and another to pick up and throw items or enemies.

Another option is the jump button, which is required to deal with the platforming elements you'll come across in some of the 3D environments. The touchscreen is for organising your inventory – you'll use your stylus to equip weapons and select spells and other items.

What's really impressive about the game is the quality of the graphics, which appear to even be better than the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III on DS. The animation is fluid, and the special effects for spells sparkling. Full voice acting is promised for some of the cutscenes, too, rather than just text dialogue.

You can see the sort of thing you should expect in this gameplay video from Square Enix:

A second movie, which seems to show the game's opening sequence, focuses on the main characters, the twins Yuri (a boy) and Cherinka (a girl), as they learn about the power of positive thinking (well, this is a Final Fantasy game, after all). Two other characters join the group later in the game to make up the foursome that will save their world from the power of light and dark crystals:
Of course, if you're just playing in the single-player mode, the game's artificial intelligence will have to take control of the other group members. The Japanese version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is due to be released in May. There's currently no UK date announced, but if we're lucky it will be sometime towards the end of 2007. Click 'Track It!' to stay in the loop.