Square Enix's New Take on Tower Defense: My Life as a Dark Lord

[Deozaan]

This game was just recently released in Japan for the Nintendo Wii's WiiWare service. It will be coming to the NTSC-U and PAL regions at a later date. It actually looks really fun and seems like a great idea for a new take on the Tower Defense genre.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles My Life as a Dark Lord may have a name that's similar to predecessor My Life as a King, but the two games are nothing alike.

Although not immediately apparent, Dark Lord feels like a unique take on the tower defense genre. Like a tower defense game, your goal is to strategically position troops to make sure that advancing enemies aren't able to make it from a starting point -- the base of your tower -- to an end point -- the top of your tower.

Different from tower defense titles, you have the added element of having to add new floors to your tower in real time in order to house your troops. The floors themselves have gimmicks, which can be used to attack enemies or heal monsters depending on the floor type. They also have HP and can be destroyed if directly attacked by the enemy multiple times.

-http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/06/30/ffcc_darklord_impressions/

Take a look at the website (click the image below) for some videos of it in action.

from Joystiq.com

[Innuendo]

I read about this game just this morning. The article was pointing out that while the game costs only $10 the game is based on micro-transactions if you want to have access to everything and the micro-transactions cost more than the game itself ($12 if you buy them all).

[Lashiec]

If there's anything Square Enix does well these days is money

[Deozaan]

I read about this game just this morning. The article was pointing out that while the game costs only $10 the game is based on micro-transactions if you want to have access to everything and the micro-transactions cost more than the game itself ($12 if you buy them all).

-Innuendo (July 06, 2009, 11:58 AM)

That's true. The first game, My Life as a King, did the same thing. It was $10 for the base game and then $1-$3 for additional content (each). Some of it (costumes) doesn't affect the game at all, but there are those things which make a big difference, such as additional races and new buildings.

I imagine there will be similar DLC in My Life as a Dark Lord.

[Deozaan]

I believe this game is now out in all 3 main regions of the world: Japan, the Americas (NTSC), and European (PAL) regions.