As team-ups go, it’s a wise one. Although the social RPG genre is massive in Asia, few games have managed to make much of a dent in the worldwide market. The most successful ones have been Puzzle & Dragons [Free], Final Fantasy Record Keeper [Free], and Brave Frontier. Square’s done a few guest events with the first and obviously had a lot to do with the second, so why not complete the hat trick? After all, if Brave Frontier was a hit, surely Brave Frontier with Final Fantasy characters will do even better? But Brave Exvius takes things a few steps farther than a mere reskin. The battle system offers a bit more depth, and you can now explore towns and dungeon-like areas filled with treasures and random battles. They’re not particularly complex dungeons, but it’s certainly more than we usually get from this genre.
I suppose this is what growing pains look like. I appreciate that, like Kingdom Hearts, Brave Exvius is trying to put a little more JRPG into the social RPG framework. It just feels like we’re not quite there yet. It doesn’t help that although many of the important elements are present, they’re just not all that well-done. The dialogue and banter between the characters is the main vehicle for telling the game’s story, but it’s dreadful stuff even by JRPG standards. The dungeons, while realistically more complicated than about half of the ones found in Final Fantasy 13, don’t involve much more than working your way through a simple layout pushing against the walls to try to find hidden passages. And while the battle system offers strategic options, it rarely presses you to use them. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t some tough battles, but more often than not, brute force wins the day.
Almost all of the usual social RPG stuff is in Brave Exvius, of course. You have a stamina meter, limited inventory space, the ability to use your friend’s character in battle, a billion and one ingredients to collect for crafting and evolving, random gatcha draws, and a premium currency that is doled out frequently enough for a free-play gamer to get by, if not much more than that. Even with new ideas like dungeons and towns, the structure is mostly familiar. You’ll enter a new stage, fight a series of battles with a tougher boss-type battle at the end, then head to the next stage. Once you’ve cleared all the stages in an area, exploration mode opens up, which allows you to wander around, look for treasure, and get in as many fights as you like. The occasional town allows you pick up new gear and solve sub-quests. Outside of the story mode, there are limited-time stages that help you earn gil, experience, or crafting ingredients, and a colosseum. It’s all quite standard, and if you’ve played a social RPG before, you’ll feel pretty comfortable.
If you’re not a Final Fantasy fan, Brave Exvius will likely come off the same as any other social RPG. Other than its flirtations with pulling in more JRPG traditions, it’s a fairly unremarkable example of the genre. It’s well-made, and fairer than Brave Frontier was over the long haul, but in hewing as closely as it does to that years-old game, it ends up feeling a little out-of-date. I appreciate the olive branch it seems to be extending to fans of classic JRPGs, but those aspects feel a bit half-baked, dragging down the pace of the game and causing it to feel somewhat dull at times. It’s worth a shot if you’re a fan of Square’s classic RPG series, but in trying to stretch out to two different camps, I fear it may not entirely please either.
FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS
So begins a new tale of crystals... Enjoy a grand new adventure in the classic FINAL FANTASY tradition, as SQUARE ENIX …
Should I play Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?
It's a mobile game, but it still feels like a Final Fantasy. JRPG fans will enjoy the game, and it's free-to-play model isn't as aggressive as you might expect. If you've enjoyed this franchise before, it's worth a try.
How long is Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?
169 Hours.
Is Final Fantasy Brave Exvius a gacha game?
FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS is a free-to-play game containing loot boxes or gacha mechanics for obtaining characters. While gacha is not considered gambling by legal definition, it has the same psychological impact designed to make you addicted to the system.
What type of game is Final Fantasy Brave Exvius?
Brave Exvius is designed as a turn-based role-playing game, combining elements from the Final Fantasy series with those of previous Alim game, Brave Frontier.