PS3 Xbox 360

Crystal Defenders

Strategy

Space needed: About 52 MB
Time to beat: about 6 hours
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Crystal Defenders is a set of two tower defense video games developed and published by Square Enix. The games use the setting of Ivalice and design elements from Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, forming part of the wider Final Fantasy franchise. The games feature a selection of characters sporting Final Fantasy-based character classes, and play out tower defense scenarios against recurring series of monsters. The first game in the series is Crystal Guardians, which was released in three parts for Japanese mobile phones in 2008. It was adapted for iOS later that year as Square Enix's first game for the platform, and renamed Crystal Defenders. Under that name, the game was also released between 2009 and 2011 for Android, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, and PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable via the PlayStation Store. It was re-released with graphical improvements for iOS as Crystal Defenders Plus in 2013. A sequel, Crystal Defenders: Vanguard Storm, was released for iOS in 2009.

The two games have similar base gameplay mechanics, wherein the player places troops of different classes to defend their crystals against multiple waves of enemies advancing across the screen. Defenders has the player place troops alongside a winding path that enemies march along, with the troops attacking the enemy monsters continuously without retaliation. Vanguard Storm, in contrast, has the player place troops on the right half of a grid that enemies move across in one square per turn, with the player adjusting the placement of their forces every turn. Crystal Defenders was Square Enix's first game for smartphones, while Vanguard Storm was its first game to be designed especially for touchscreen controls. The games use character designs and music created for Tactics A2 by artist Ryoma Itō and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, and the series was produced by Takehiro Ando. Square Enix was assisted in development of Guardians and Defenders by external studios Mobile Software Foundation and Winds. Defenders was met with generally poor reviews, despite achieving one million downloads worldwide by 2012, with critics finding the game to be uninspired and unpolished. Vanguard Storm received more praise from critics, who appreciated the graphics and found the gameplay fun, though not without flaws.