Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King has been the subject of confused discussion ever since it was first announced, due plainly to the fact that nobody knows what to expect from a Square-Enix experiment. Turns out, we can expect a lot.
My Life as a King has sort of been an experiment in game design (think video game poetry), limiting themselves in ways to try and make something unique. For example, they decided to skip the entire concept art stage. For the simple reason that concept art would distract the team into making yet another Final Fantasy epic based heavily on visual presentation. Instead, they began with a basic game design and built the game around that.
Combat was at one point a part of the game, but was cut at some point in the game design process. Instead, heroes go off on their adventures and report back to you, the king, every once in a while to report on their respective quests. Thus, the RPG feel is maintained, and the young development team was not strained to accomplish something outside of their abilities.
