Final Fantasy has always acted rather liberally with the term ‘job’. Far from the daily grind of most employment, job classes in Square’s universe dictate little more than what form of adventurer you’ll take. The job title may read ‘black mage’, but the checks are made out to ‘hero’. Not so in WiiWare offering My Life as a King, the only honest day’s work in Final Fantasy’s life.

The aim? To rebuild a now-desolate kingdom. Where normally this is the impetus to saddle up and venture forth, leaving the quest issuer eating your dust, it is now you munching on this earthy farewell. Pitched as a city management sim, the geographical angle you would expect – the wise placement of infrastructure – makes way for a citizen-centric approach. City growth is the aim, but this cannot be achieved without adventurers to harvest resources from the surrounding lands.

As such, much of the game is built on a simple manpower conundrum. Building requires ‘elementite’, which can only be collected by citizens, who need the benefits of new buildings to succeed. Maintaining this adventurer assembly line is your core concern. Where in traditional management games the threat is that of total meltdown, here your only concern is a stalling of the story. Narrative hurdles cleverly disguise clear city objectives – build X structure, explore Y location – but some will feel disappointed at being so clearly shepherded along.

That said, that your actions as ruler have a clear impact on the city is certainly a novel experience. No number of pie charts declaring the success of a SimCity metropolis can match the pride of watching a newly commissioned warrior go about making the most of the resources you’ve carefully laid on for them. There’s a terrific immediacy to the events, too. The days are short enough to guarantee a constant hustle and bustle, and the results of the previous day’s adventuring are cunningly given after the save screen, drawing you in to the next day before you realize it.

There’s an artfulness, too, to the issue of DLC. Far from the stinginess of most offerings, My Life as a King is plagued by an overabundance of extra quests and buildings. While there is a solid 15 hours of content in the original download, you can’t help but see the deliberate trimming of features to fuel further purchases – especially considering so much of it is available from day one. That original 1,500 points soon adds up to the price of a full title, the full depth of the game denied from the outset.

There is also the rather cynical application of the franchise to mask this commerce, particularly threatening to the younger player. Faced with three moogles, they ask for ‘points’ (remember, kids: it’s not real money) in exchange for further adventures. The game’s narrative hand-holding may annoy those looking for the freedom to manage their city, but it is only when it begins to lead us towards our wallets that we really take offence.

Verdict: 7/10

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