Regardless as to what the name of the genre might hint at, few tower defense games actually have players defending towers. Usually the gameplay involves using towers to defend another object, be it a military base, a giant tree, or a bunch of sheep. That fact makes it all the more interesting that, while it isn't a traditional tower defense, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord is a tower defense in the most literal sense.

Players control the Darklord, a powerful, evil girl with aspirations of world domination. In order to take over all that she wishes, the Darklord must build powerful towers to ward off adventurers, slowly expanding her evil reach. Just as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King invited players to enjoy a Final Fantasy tale from the point-of-view of a quest giver, tasked with assembling parties to vanquish evil, My Life as a Darklord flips the tables again, with the player attempting to kill those same adventurers.

And how does a Darklord kill adventurers? By building a dungeon, of course! The experience is reminiscent of Nippon Ichi Software's Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This?, asking players to slay the good guys before they're able to accomplish their heroic deeds. Adventurers come a few at a time, climbing the poorly placed ladder and trying to destroy the crystal that lies at the top. To stop them, the Darklord must place floors and monsters, both of which damage the heroes and cause them to stop and fight.

As the game progresses, the number of enemy types grows, starting at typical scrubs and adding melee warriors, ranged attackers, mages, and more. To combat them, the Darklord will continually gain new floor and monster types, bringing forth a fairly typical rock-paper-scissors combat system. Each character type does better damage to one type and takes more from another, meaning planning is important. On that same note, several enemies of the same type will oftentimes attack at once, with each stopping on a different floor, throwing any plans one might have made to the wind. This adds another level of strategy to the mix; giving players a reason to save up the game's currency in order to prepare for an unexpected rush of foes.

One aspect of the game brings with it an issue: the difficulty. After the first few levels, it becomes fairly difficult to beat a level on the first try. This isn't really a problem, since the game wasn't meant to be too easy, but exposes the game's lack of randomly generated enemies. It's the same every time, so the second attempt through a level is almost always simple. When it's known early on that a few mages are going to come, placing some ranged attackers to take care of them is a piece of cake. Planning everything out early takes away much of what makes the game fun, breaking away from what would have been a much deeper experience.

Difficulty issues aside, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord provides Wii owners with one of the best strategy games on the system. A good amount of content makes it easy to justify a purchase, while the ability to buy additional downloadable content might expand the package down the line. Hopefully Square will bundle this with My Life as a King for some sort of retail package later in the year, because the My Life as... series would make a great holiday gift for a Wii owner unsure of the WiiWare service.