Final Fantasy Mobile

So I found some dangerous things on the App Store the other day.

Screenshots from the App Store for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

I read that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was available on the iOS. You have to understand, I’m a little much of a Final Fantasy fan. I got a PSP basically to play Dissidia (which then had a sequel come out!) and Crisis Core. And it was totally worth it. But I wasn’t sold on buying a 3DS just to play Theatrhythm – but now I don’t have to. Instead, I’ll just run the risk of paying the cost of one over the iOS…

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

Theatrhythm is a music game, where you are working on hitting the beats as they come up. There are two modes:

• One for fight music, where you have a party out, and hitting notes is the party members attacking. Hitting enough will tend to activate an attack, like casting Fire.
• One for travel music, where you have one party member out at a time, and they keep walking until you miss a beat. Then they tag out, and you go to the next party member, and keep rotating.

There’s a pretty excellent selection of music. But then, this is where the problem begins. I already own most of the music in soundtrack form. But now, the game has in-app purchases for all of the various songs – you start with only two. And the songs are $1 each – reasonable, if you think in iTunes terms… but suddenly, with about 8 songs per game (4 in a $3 bundle, and a few more available for individual purchase) times thirteen games… That’s about $100.

There’s also a pretty excellent selection of characters. You start with the protagonist of each game, and then there are fan favorites you can purchase, like Sephiroth, Auron, and Vivi. At $2 each, the game could easily start looking like $150 or more you could spend on it.

Hey look! This picture shows $7 in in-app purchases. Three characters and a song. Great song, super chibi characters… But is it worth the cost?

Oh, the App is free.

I’m a little worried that I am, slowly, over time, going to spend this money. And then, it only has one save file… so do I share the game with Holly? Or do we each get a copy, so that the character levels and song scores don’t get combined? Because, you know, two copies… Yeah, at that point, a 3DS and a copy of the game is way cheaper. Maybe it’s the excuse we need to get a 3DS?

So then I got to looking…

So finding Theatrhythm got me looking at what other games SquareEnix had added to the iOS app store. I already have a few, and had seen many of the other recent-years re-releases on there. Let me give you a few recommendations if you haven’t hit the re-releases…

• Final Fantasy III – This was redone on the DS, which is where I played it. They did a pretty solid job of keeping the game together, but also working it into the touch-screen of the DS – which I imagine carried over to the iPad.
• Final Fantasy IV – The graphics overhaul on this was even more than what was done with FFIII. They also added spoken dialog. This definitely is where they were moving towards with the games on mobile devices – I played The 4 Warriors of Light, and it was quite a bit like this re-release.
• Chrono Trigger – I had not played this before the DS version, and it is one of my very favorite games. I am kind of sad that I feel like I kind of did everything in the game – now to re-play it and get other endings, I have to do less, not more. This one I have actively considered buying on the iPad for replay – I probably will someday. But I should probably beat the games I have on there first.
• Final Fantasy I and II – I got both of these on the iPhone, and have not played them much – I love the music in Final Fantasy games, and am never looking to game on my phone, and have access to sound, at the same time. I have never really played these two Final Fantasy games, however, so I will beat these at some point. Like Chrono Trigger, these two do not have particularly upgraded versions – they are technically on iPhone and not iPad, though my iPad can play them. But the graphics won’t be as good as the others.

…and I found final fantasy dimensions

Oh man, a new Final Fantasy game! Much like the 4 Warriors of Light, Final Fantasy Dimensions is an old-style Final Fantasy game made new on the current technology. So it’s made like an 8-bit Final Fantasy game, but without actually being 8-bit. Some of the small touches they pull off because of this, like little sign-in books at the inns, or the items sitting on bookshelves, are pretty good.

They came up with a good idea for this episodic game – the prologue is free to play, and then the 4 chapters can be bought individually, or together as a pack. I had spotted this game a while back and forgotten about it; back when the 4-chapter pack was $30. It’s down to $20 right now, and that sounded reasonable. So, when I finished the prologue and realized I was having fun, I bought the rest of the game.

So I am liking the twist on the Job System – you cap out at level 3 you can get to in a job, and then you earn Job Points (JP) throughout the game that you can apply to the classes of your choice to level them up further. Choose carefully, I guess!

I am liking this: check it out free, reasonable price for what should hopefully be a full length game (that I have paid a similar price or more for on other handheld devices), and that’s that. Hold this is strong contrast to Theatrhythm: I have finished paying for Dimensions, while I could just keep spending and spending with Theatrhythm. One is a game, one is a money maker. So one I will be playing a lot, and one I will be avoiding like the money leech it is.

One more thought

They keep releasing these re-releases, and then they stop and make original games, and never make it to Final Fantasy V and VI. Never mind the continually flying rumors of VII being remastered (though I did play the Halo 10 year anniversary game – that was well done and fun. I would totally buy a Final Fantasy re-release of that caliber). I love V and have never gotten around to beating it – on the Playstation, or the Game Boy Advance copy I plug into my DS. I did beat VI finally on the Advance version – now there is a game which would sell like mad if they re-released it. So why haven’t they?