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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time tended to get a bit overlooked among the avalanche of TGS coverage we all sifted through a few weeks back. It is, after all, just another DS RPG, which we're all already drowning in right now. But this one, it turns out, is a bit special, and not just because it's an FF title -- as hinted at in previous articles, Echoes of Time is being launched simultaneously on the DS and Wii, and you can play online with friends no matter what platform you're on.

Echoes of Time has no distinct multiplayer mode. Instead, whenever you've got the urge for some social interaction, you just go to an in-game save point and call for it. If you're on a DS, you can either invite people to join your own game world or a trip over to someone else's; if you're playing with your Wii (ohh, that joke never gets tiresome), you've got the usual full array of international matchmaking and friend code-driven meetups.

How does communication work between online players, then? Unfortunately, it's a bit weak -- you're either tapping out letters or using Phantasy Star Online style preset sentence balloons, particularly useful when playing with someone who doesn't speak your language. One advantage Echoes of Time has over PSO, though, is context-sensitive sentence balloons. For example, if you bring up the chat function while your character's getting pummeled, your first balloon options will be along the lines of "Ow!", "I'm getting killed!", and so forth. Helpful.

(As you'll note in the screens, the DS and Wii games are completely identical otherwise. The DS uses one screen for gameplay and one for menus and the like; on the Wii, these screens are displayed horizontally, and you can resize and reposition both of them as you please. It's all thanks to the Pollux Engine, a piece of software Square Enix thought highly enough of to mention by name in all their press materials.)

Both the Wii and DS versions are hitting Japan January 29 for 5040 yen. No US release has been announced yet.