I never played this (But am definitely buying this when I get my check)

But just reading the description makes me wonder if "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King" ripped this off, as it sounds like a very very similar concept.

Well this game is quite a bit more complex than My Life as a King (dont get me wrong I liked that game a lot). You don't send your heroes on quests but your party attracts troops based on their classes (so a Mage will attract mage troops, a fighter fighter troops, etc) and these troops can then be massed to attack enemies.

The city-building/management aspect is huge though. If you don't know what you're doing it is pretty easy to go broke or starve out your city in the bad months. The adventure/fighting aspect is a smaller part of the game and really depends on what difficulty you choose.