A Brave New Record Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Review Reviewed on iOS also on Android

A Brave New Record Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Review Reviewed on iOS also on Android

The Final Fantasy series has really made its way into the mobile gaming market. With a majority of the core Final Fantasy games available as paid apps on smartphones alongside free Final Fantasy apps such as Final Fantasy Record Keeper, there�s an experience for Final Fantasy fans of all budgets and tastes, ranging from the old school JRPG Final Fantasy style to the more modern 3D style seen in recent Final Fantasy games. The Brave Frontier inspired Final Fantasy Brave Exvius take inspiration from the classic Final Fantasy games with its turn-based battle system, pixel art sprites and town exploration that will be familiar to fans of the series. But it isnt all classic Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Brave Exvius balances bringing a new Final Fantasy experience to the smartphone space featuring an interesting story with witty dialogue reminiscent of the classic games and also brings in the fun collection and turn-based systems featured in other mobile and core Final Fantasy series games of old and new.

As someone who was a longtime fan of Final Fantasy Record Keeper but needed something to hook me in to continue playing, the story in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a solid answer to this problem. Brave Exvius is set in the world of Grandshelt and explores the protagonists Rain and Lasswell�s journey in balancing Grandshelts powers of Lapis and Visions. This is the main premise anyway, as the pair seem to get sidetracked frequently, whether it be to save helpless citizens or, in true Final Fantasy style, to meet mysterious girls inside crystals. This kind of more lighthearted storytelling is great for the small story chapters in Brave Exvius as a game thatll live in most peoples pockets, so the witty banter between Rain and Lasswell males each chapter feel enjoyable in its under 5 minute length and is a nice way to progress through its saving the kingdom story.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius gets part of its name from Brave Frontier, another popular RPG game by developer A-Lim. But Final Fantasy Brave Exvius also places plenty of importance of the Final Fantasy part of its name, using plenty of mechanics, characters and aspects from Final Fantasy. As someone who hasn�t played Brave Frontier, I still felt right at home with the familiar gameplay elements featured in Brave Exvius. The spells, Espers, limit breaks and explorable towns and dungeons are all very Final Fantasy-like and are a much needed upgrade to the basic character battle used in other Final Fantasy mobile games. Brave Exvius features a touch-based interface that utilises swipes to give a variety of different commands during battle. A swipe to the left will allow you to use skills, a swipe to the right will allow you to defend. This kind of smart use of the smartphone�s touch screen take advantage of the available screen space and allow for a battle system pretty close to the one seen in older Final Fantasy games. Add in Espers and Limit Breaks and battles are pretty exciting. While it does have an Auto function that�s featured in most Final Fantasy mobile games, this kind of complexity encourages players to actually think out their moves and play like they would on a console Final Fantasy game or at least use the Repeat function to automatically use the same command you used before.

A really noteworthy thing in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is its inclusion of towns and exploration maps, something that I really enjoyed in Kingdom Hearts Unchained ? and was glad to see in Brave Exvius as well. Towns allow players to buy a variety of items at stores, including weapons, armour and healing items, along with recipes to craft all these things for those wanting to save gil and use materials in the neat crafting mechanic instead. Also in the towns are NPCs that give quests, an RPG feature that makes the world of Brave Exvius feel much more real and RPG-like than most smartphone RPGs I�ve played. The quests given in towns usually lead to visiting an Exploration area, which features a maze-like map littered with monsters and treasure chests for players to hunt out items for quests, crafting and character upgrades. The exploration is generally simpler than what�s found in console Final Fantasy games, but it�s still one of my favourite aspects of Brave Exvius because it makes it feel like a genuine JRPG world.

Along with finding items for quests and upgrades, there�s plenty to unlock, collect and upgrade in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius whether you�re into character collection or stat building. For those like myself who came from Final Fantasy Record Keeper, the character collection continues with Brave Exvius gacha system that uses Friend Points accumulated by making friends or having other players assist you in battle to summon extra units to battle with. These units include characters exclusive to Brave Exvius and also characters from old Final Fantasy games, which I was delighted by when I got a Vivi. For those looking to strengthen their battle units, characters can be Awakened (upgraded) up to a 5 star ranking, providing plenty of opportunity for more powerful characters and grinding. Grinding is made easy with Brave Exvius Vortex quests, which provide either materials, gil or experience depending on the type of dungeon the player chooses for each day. Whenever I was under-leveled for a quest, I really enjoyed how easy it is to find a way to get better units and upgrade my existing characters and found it really easy to understand as a JRPG player.

To accelerate unit collecting and upgrade material collection is Lapis, a material Grandshelt and also Brave Exvius� in-game currency that can be bought with real world money. For those wanting to keep their experience free, there are plenty of opportunities to win Lapis in the game through quests and login bonuses and I never found myself to be out of them. A cool thing that Lapis can purchase are the weekly shopping packs released in Brave Exvius that offer materials that are more difficult to get. They also offer some of these packs for purchase with real money as well, but they�re never materials that are impossible to get just by playing the game.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is almost as dense as most Final Fantasy games, yet it fits perfectly on a smartphone due to smart mechanics and plenty of ways to collect and upgrade characters. With story, Espers and exploration, the experience features much of what Final Fantasy players enjoy on the console games in an easily accessible way for players on the go. As someone who was very into other Final Fantasy mobile games such as Final Fantasy Record Keeper, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius feels like a clear upgrade to the mobile Final Fantasy experience and I�m glad I can finally enjoy the Final Fantasy battle system I love with enjoyable banter on days I leave my Vita at home.

Score: 9.5/10
Final Fantasys best mobile game yet manages to balance great story content, an explorable world and mechanics that fit smartphones perfectly in this on-the-go adventure.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is available in both the App Store and the Google Play store.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Are you playing Final Fantasy Brave Exvius? Whos in your party?

Leave a comment below, send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle, hit me up Facebook or Instagram and lets talk!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Make sure to follow the blog here, follow @JRPGJungle on Twitter and Instagram and like JRPG Jungle on Facebook for updates on content and random musings on JRPG news and games. Youre awesome! <3

Read More

A Bite Sized Banquet Final Fantasy Record Keeper First Impressions

A Bite Sized Banquet Final Fantasy Record Keeper First Impressions

When hearing about a game trying out to condense what could be called a banquet of 13 console games into a single bite-size experience, I dont think its strange that my initial impression on Final Fantasy Record Keeper was that it was trying to do too much with a small, handheld experience. This was until its strategical battles and loot collecting system slyly pulled me into an addictive state and kept me hooked with constant new dungeons to play and it never asking me to pay for the app. Final Fantasy Record Keeper may not be an experience with the same breadth of a console game, but as a sucker for rare collectibles and RPGs battle systems, its a nice substitute for when Im on the go at the price I like to pay most - nothing.

Record Keeper begins with what could be described as a throwaway story premise comprised of something about a museum, a Moogle and a boy needing to dungeon crawl to restore said museum in order to save the world (seriously). Despite this, Im happy to say the games 8-bit dungeons are not to be tossed aside. As a miniature version of the original Final Fantasy battle system, Record Keepers battles see your team of five characters taking turns to attack, defend or use one of two abilities to defeat enemies and bosses from previous Final Fantasy games. Partnered with the familiar Active Time Battle system that is featured in some of the main Final Fantasy games (Final Fantasy IX comes to mind), the battle system is easy to understand and each battle is short and sweet, usually lasting just a few minutes. With so few options and easy to use touch screen mechanics, this makes it easy to concentrate on enemy weaknesses and finding the right strategy to win and getting the highest score in each battle. Record Keeper thrives with many different enemies and strategies that are reminiscent of Final Fantasy games of yonder and even if you havent played every Final Fantasy game, every boss is varied in ways that are fun to figure out for the first time.

Along with working out strategies for unfamiliar bosses, I found it equally as satisfying to recognise enemy strategies being incorporated from some of my favourite Final Fantasy games. When in the Final Fantasy X dungeon Sinspawn began using Demi on my party, I remembered the wasnt going to kill me immediately, but realised that the Sinscales could knock out my party quickly, so I changed my strategy accordingly. Record Keeper rewards players for exploiting the right weaknesses with a rank from 1 to 3 chocobos decided by how well you did in each battle, with 3 chocobos being the best and giving you double experience and better loot so it definitely pays to know how to handle each boss.

With a choice between classic and elite dungeons, even from the initial install, Final Fantasy Record Keeper has enough regular content to keep players busy for awhile. On top of this, theres plenty of replayability to be found in the games daily and limited weekly events, giving players chances to win hard to find upgrade materials and gil in daily events along with new characters and rare items lurking within the depths of the event dungeons that are usually added on a weekly basis. The best part about these events is that they almost always include different difficulty settings so that all players can find enjoyment in these challenging settings. I found myself striving to finish each weekly dungeon to the highest rating as fast as I could so that I could begin preparing for the next one. The satisfaction of getting new characters and seeing my weapons giving me a totally new edge in battle kept me so busy that the only thing keeping me from spending days on the game and cutting off contact to the outside world was the stamina bar that depletes everytime you enter a dungeon, which I almost become thankful for.

On the topic of the stamina bar, Record Keeper does have in-game purchases in the form of an in-game currency called Gems. These Gems allow you to do things such as recharge your stamina instead of waiting for it to recharge over time, add more item slots to hold weapons and abilities or having a chance at winning a 3-5 star weapon in the Rare Relic Draw. But heres the thing � I never needed any Gems, because the games alternate currency of Mythrils can be used instead of Gems. Since Mythrils are usually won by completing battles in main and event dungeons, Ive never felt the need to buy any Gems and the game has never tried to push their existence upon me. Rather, the game takes an approach I think all games should by letting you enjoy the game to its full potential, but if you want more chance of getting better equipment and less time waiting for stamina, you have the option to pay. As Ive said, I havent put a single cent into the game, but may do so in the future purely because I like the game so much.

Although it doesnt replace the stories or large immersive worlds that RPGs are known for, Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a free and good alternative for on the go that has a fair payment model along with hours of free gameplay to keep players of every budget busy for hours. I love opening the app, turning down Record Keepers soundtrack of original Final Fantasy tracks just low enough so I can hear any podcast Im listening to while playing a fun miniature dungeon crawler that is strategical enough to keep me logging in daily and trying to get all of the relics for my favourite characters (And goddammit, someday Ill figure out right strategy to take down Forza from the Final Fantasy V dungeon). With a wealth of replayability, bosses, collectibles and dungeon varieties, Id say Record Keeper is a quality addition to any RPG players smartphone and a great reminder of the original Final Fantasy games.

Score: 9/10

Honestly, Id still be playing it instead of writing this review if I hadnt broken my phone last week.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper can be downloaded for free from the App Store if you have an iPhone or iPad or the Google Play store if you are an Android smartphone user. Thanks for reading!
____________________________________________________________________________

What did you think of Final Fantasy Record Keeper? Does it make you want to go back the old Final Fantasy games?

I love hearing your thoughts, so please comment below or send a tweet to @JRPGJungle and follow if you want to keep up the content we post. Thanks for stopping by!

Note: Smartphone games are regularly updated and changed. My opinions about this game are based on the condition of the game at the time this review was released and may not cover any future important changes to the app. Thank you for understanding!

Read More