As a kid, my friends and I would often debate over how great a game would be that brought together the protagonists of every Final Fantasy game to create one massive RPG. We somewhat received this in the form of Dissidia, the crossover fighting game that placed them in a one on one space, but we never got that full fledged role playing title that allowed us to make all of the dream teams that we’ve mentally established for years. With Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, it looks like we’re finally getting our wish, but in the form of a freemium mobile game, which leads to some great moments, but is ultimately too restricted to really take off.
Record Keeper introduces Tyro, an apprentice Record Keeper, (hence the title,) who is tasked with guarding the most legendary stories spanning multiple realities. When a mysterious force appears and the stories begin to fade, Tyro must jump into each one and recreate their most pivotal moments in order to restore each world, while recruiting heroes from the stories in the process. Starting with Cloud and FFVII, the player must create a customized party featuring dozens of characters in their quest to restore balance to each world, while taking a trip down nostalgia lane in the process.
As if to make sure they’re getting good use out of all those All The Bravest 16-bit sprites,
In terms of battle, it’s essentially what you would expect out of a classic Squaresoft era RPG. Using the famed Active Time Battle system, the five member party takes turns performing actions such as attacking, defending and casting spells. By continuously attacking, a meter builds that allows each member to unleash their Limit Break, a powerful move that deals huge damage. Each map consists of multiple rounds, all of which pit enemies or a boss against the party, as they push through each wave with the same HP and MP. When each quest is complete, the team is ranked on their performance, unlocking a decent amount of bonuses for the highest rank. As the team progresses bits of the lore become uncovered, leading to more stages if playing Story Mode.
Unfortunately, one huge oversight is the inability to skip turns, a flaw that hurts rankings when one of the criteria is how many turns were used. So if a healer defends instead of heals if the party is at full HP, that counts against you. If your mages are saving their MP for specific elementals or bosses, that hurts you too. It makes no sense, especially when their statuses are restored after every quest, giving even less of a reason to use them. It encourages skipping them altogether and fighting with a team full of warriors, which shouldn’t be the case with such a diverse cast. (NOTE: As of this writing, skipping turns has been added in a post launch patch.)
But as is the nature of Free To Play games, you can only play so much before the piper comes calling. Each quest costs stamina, which accumulates at about one point for every 12 minutes. Once your stamina is depleted, you either have to wait for it to refill, or use crystals to restore it. Some crystals can be earned through achieving high ranks in missions, but once that well dries up, you’ll have to pay real money to hoard more. Still, the stamina given is a generous amount, and the wait isn’t terribly long if you have some self control. I thought that the pay aspects were a non-factor at first, but as I kept playing, I learned how restrictive the game can become.
My biggest gripe with Record Keeper as a whole is that after you complete the first few story missions, (unlocking some great characters in the process,) the heroes stop coming. If you want more core FF characters to play with, you have to stick mostly to the semi-monthly Events, almost all of which give players the opportunity to unlock popular party members and powerful weapons. The problem? These missions are wildly unbalanced, offering three difficulty settings to play while attempting to meet their objectives for the rewards. Easy lives up to its name, being a cake walk with no challenge and yeilding little reward. However, Normal is a completey different beast, completely decimating my party that can breeze through the previous difficulty with nothing but auto attacks. I won’t even talk about Hard. So your choices are to either grind non-stop for the full two weeks on easy, or get stronger.
So what’s the problem? Just level grind and grow in power, right? It’s not that simple. Story Mode is essentially permanently set to easy, which quickly becomes boring as the challenge fades. What’s even worse, is that the EXP. allocation is pathetic, requiring an absurd amount of grinding to achieve a single level. Even with EXP. and strength bonuses for using party members in their own worlds, it did little to make a dent. The easiest way to level up is to use EXP. Eggs, rare items that can be purchased with a simple credit card authorization. See where this is going?
Even then, leveling up didn’t seem to help much, since the biggest stat boosts came with relics. As expected, they follow the same formula, with weak relics being unlocked through missions, and the best ones having to be purchased, only in this case, through a random draw. As with most actions in the game, drawing relics costs Mythril, which is unlocked either through quests, or playing once a day. If you aren’t lucky enough to draw that worthwhile relic that would tip the battles in your favor, you can always buy more! Of course, if you don’t want to get sucked into the addicting nature of these mechanics, you’re going to have a REALLY hard time advancing, always having that awesome character or weapon dangled in front of you, only to be pulled away for months if you don’t dish out the cash.
So what sounds like a dream team on paper ends up shackling the player, only giving them access to so much before they’re expected to dish out a small fortune for full access. With that said, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is a solid concept, one that I would love to see fleshed out in a full fledged game. But as it stands, the F2P model, basic game play and unbalanced leveling keeps this title from reaching the heights that it teased, leaving us with a feeling of what could have been. If you’re a series loyalist who wants to burn a few minutes on the road, this can be a fun distraction, especially when seeing your favorite characters act out battles in 2D is charming as sin, adding to the enjoyment. But considering how this game won’t even work unless you’re connected to the Internet, it even fails as a true portable experience, since it relies on your reception to function. All in all, Record Keeper is worth a download for the curious, but if you’re expecting anything more than a tried and true freemium game, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
FINAL SCORE: 2.5/5