Ariana Grande Joins Final Fantasy

[Depression Moon]

http://i.imgur.com/10Rl6th.png
Sensational pop star Ariana Grande is headed to Final Fantasy territory. In a tweet (https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/815691898232848384) she wrote today the singer revealed that she will appear as a guest character in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. There is a short clip of her character on her Instagram page which you can view here (https://www.instagram.com/p/BOvV7qMFAC7/) and a photo of her meeting Square Enix representatives which you can view below. Final Fantasy Brave Exvius released in October of 2015 for mobile devices in Japan, but didn't see a worldwide release until almost a year later in June 2016. Exvius features turn based RPG combat that the series is known for with some elements of Brave Frontier thrown in.

http://i.imgur.com/zHwxCU5.png

Ariana Grande's sprite with her Dangerous Woman bunny mask.

There is currently no word on what exact role Ariana's character will play in the game and if it will be a free update or paid content, but given who she is it is likely the latter.

71560

[Depression Moon]

http://i.imgur.com/ydueR0s.jpg

[Fox]

http://i.imgur.com/ydueR0s.jpg

My broken heart... why would you do this to me...

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

What the hell is happening to Final Fantasy? What's next? Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, or Donald Trump? Seriously.... what the hell.... I used to love this franchise as a kid but now it's become something so weird....

[Fynn]

I'm not complaining, tbh. Brace Exvius already has some weird random characters in it that have no relevance to FF so this doesn't hurt it

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

I've never really played BE(not into mobile games, even if they are Final Fantasy or a series I really enjoy) so what kind of characters?

[Fynn]

Innings BE you essentially have two actual characters and the rest of your party comes from a random download distribution. There's classic FF characters like the Ehite Mage, Russia, Sabin, Terra, etc. but there's also a whole bunch of unfamiliar characters who seem like they're supposed to mean something to me but they don't.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

I just find it strange that she's in a Final Fantasy game....

I heard she's like super popular in Japan though...

[Fox]

Of all the people to include I think she's a good one because she has quite a 'Final Fantasy-y' name. A party consisting of Terra, Celes and Ariana kinda works where a party consisting of Terra, Celes and Taylor maybe wouldn't.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

She follows the Final Fantasy XV Fan-page apparently.

[Aulayna]

In recent years, Square Enix's marketing department are really making it hard for me to like them as a company. They seem to rapidly be turning into what EA was back in the early 2000s with a heavy reliance on superfluous paid content (All the Bravest anyone?), retailer exclusive pre-order bonuses and celebrity endorsements. The only saving grace is they still make (relatively) good games.

I really feel that there are creatives at SE that want to make good games, but the business management is stifling them too much in search of a quick buck. It makes me sad as something like FFXIV has such huge untapped potential, but Yoshi-P is always talking about resource struggles - if only SE invested more in something like FFXIV than shit like this.

/rant

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

In recent years, Square Enix's marketing department are really making it hard for me to like them as a company. They seem to rapidly be turning into what EA was back in the early 2000s with a heavy reliance on superfluous paid content (All the Bravest anyone?), retailer exclusive pre-order bonuses and celebrity endorsements. The only saving grace is they still make (relatively) good games.

I really feel that there are creatives at SE that want to make good games, but the business management is stifling them too much in search of a quick buck. It makes me sad as something like FFXIV has such huge untapped potential, but Yoshi-P is always talking about resource struggles - if only SE invested more in something like FFXIV than trout like this.

/rant
I totally agree. I'd say they're more like Nintendo... though. Ariana Grande doesn't seem like someone who even plays JRPGs much less video games... and yet randomly she's part of the mobile game.

[FFNut]

This is a little weird. It seems like they are tossing a name to a Sprite just to get people who wouldn't buy the game to buy it. If it works and they get TSN of new downloads congratulations I guess, yet when stuff like this happens it ends up hurting the long term fan as they get a cookie cutter experience made for the masses instead of the game that made them a company. It's a gamble either way as I doubt she put her name on it cheap.

[Elly]

that's cool, i love Ariana, have all her albums, but there's nothing thats going to get me to buy a mobile phone game ever again... Mobile games are the biggest scam in the game industry, knowing my luck i'd spend upwards of $500 before getting the character i want, no thanks, i could buy a new console for that much...

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

So true...

[Shauna]

Huh. Alright then.

[Formalhaut]

Huh. Alright then.

Pretty much my reaction. If I was supposed to be impressed, well, I'm not.

[FFNut]

Huh. Alright then.

Pretty much my reaction. If I was supposed to be impressed, well, I'm not.

ya like I said earlier. This is to get my the fans of Final Fantasy t buy, but new people who wouldn't buy the game to begin with. I'd be more impressed if they got a celebrity that was a known big time gammer and really wanted to help the company out and fulfill a dream of being in the game.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Everyone's telling me the Japanese are obsessed with her or something. Like she's extremely prominent there.

[krissy]

i mean

brave exvius is free

everyone can relax now

[Psychotic]

Well at least her name sounds like a Final Fantasy character.

[Depression Moon]

She looks like one too. She fits right in with Selphie, Rikku, Penelo, and Vanille.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Eh.... someone remarked that the Japanese like her so much because she looks like an ideal doll or something... IDK like an anime character?

[Depression Moon]

That doesn't surprise me. She does look uber young, plus the whole cutesy thing she has going on.

Edit: I did find out that she is an otaku though. There's a video of her speaking in Japanese. Too lazy to search for it at the moment.

[Fynn]

And someone mentioned she follows FFXV on twitter. Looks like he nerd dream came true.

[Night Fury]

Well I guess as long as she can prove that she knows all the facts about every video game and anime ever made it's totally okay for her to be in a free mobile game.

Unless she's just one of those fake nerd girls then she can GET OUT.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

And someone mentioned she follows FFXV on twitter. Looks like he nerd dream came true.
I think it's because she's involved with Square now...

[FFNut]

For al we know she may be a giant nerd who loves Final Fantasy. She could even be part of this forum under an alias.

[Fynn]

Well I guess as long as she can prove that she knows all the facts about every video game and anime ever made it's totally okay for her to be in a free mobile game.

Unless she's just one of those fake nerd girls then she can GET OUT.

I think the issue here is just explaining why they chose her of all people. I personally have no problem with her in the game no matter who she is because, like I said before, the mechanics of the game make it easy to implement something like this, but I also don't really care about the game so much. I find it pretty amusing, actually, that people who don't care about this game or mobile games at all complain how this ruins the game :roll2:



And someone mentioned she follows FFXV on twitter. Looks like he nerd dream came true.
I think it's because she's involved with Square now...

Pretty sure she followed it earlier. And really, what does it matter?

[Night Fury]

The sexism is rampant in here! She does not need to prove that she is a fan. Nor should we be looking to try and frame her as 'fake' honestly. She has been paid to do a job and lend her likeness to a mobile game and she's excited about it. Leave her alone.

[FFNut]

The sexism is rampant in here! She does not need to prove that she is a fan. Nor should we be looking to try and frame her as 'fake' honestly. She has been paid to do a job and lend her likeness to a mobile game and she's excited about it. Leave her alone.


I think you misunderstand me. I hate when a company uses anyone who is pop culture to sell a product. I would rather see them voice a person on a big game then just be made a Sprite to sell the online product.

[Night Fury]

But... we don't know the extent of her character. She might just be a cameo, or she's may play a big part... she may be a seasonal.

I don't see the harm in them using one of the biggest and most talented young pop stars of the moment in the game - it might bring a whole new young female audience to our series. I suspect she might even reel a few lgbtq in too and that's AMAZING - exposing the game to an audience who might not have given a trout. As a glamorous, dangerous woman myself (who has far too often been accused of being a fake nerd/had my nerd level questioned) I LOVE this and you know what? I think I'm more interested in playing this now!


EDIT - and the design is sooooooo cute! It's so Bravely Default!

[FFNut]

I agree that it will open up to a new audience. I just fear that when that happens sometimes the need to put out new content gets pushed and the company will suffer in the end. Let's hope it is a true win win for everyone.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

Wait, who's being sexist?

[Night Fury]

Also it's pretty dang obvious why they've chosen her - she'll be a bard/songstress character that is most likely a celebrity in game too. Similar to pop star Yuna of FFX-2. Biggest young pop star of the moment... why NOT Ari?

[Sephiroth]

First Gackt, now that. Also good to see that the obligatory "you sexist" card ist still popular on EoFF. Good old exaggerations.

[Psychotic]

Unless she's just one of those fake nerd girls then she can GET OUT.You know what's worse than a fake nerd girl?


http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/photobucketamazingness/fakegamercats_zpslf3oa6px.jpg

[Aulayna]

The more I think about this, the more genius it is.

Brave Exvius is all about unlocking characters to use in battles. To unlock characters you have to use in-game currency, which are earned at an fairly slow rate by playing the game, or just simply bought with real money. Each unlock is a complete lottery as to which character you'll get - basically it's like you're opening Kinder Egg toy capsules and hoping to get one of the collectible figurines and not a trout jigsaw (incidentally, capsule toys are another big market in Asia... see where this is going?)

Ariana has a huge following in Japan. Mobile games are extremely profitable in Japan.

In the west shes a huge pop sensation and the mobile market is constantly growing. Social RPGs still don't do all that well in the west, with Kingdom Hearts UCX, FF Record Keeper and Brave Frontier being the outlier successes. Square owns the first 2, and incidentally the 3rd - Brave Frontier - is made by the same company who Square partnered with for Brave Exvius - might as well go for the hat-trick and corner that market space right?

Get Ariana to "organically" market her involvement via her own social and watch the bankroll tick in.

Even as a fan of the series, it's probably very likely that Square Enix has to pay some sort of royalty to her/her agent/her record label for the use of her likeness.

So the likelihood is she will either be:
a) Free, either as a usable character or a plot driver. In the hopes that her legions of fans will download the app, give it a go, and it's free-to-start structure will entice enough of those users to fork over some money to progress.

b) Part of the random lottery, maybe even a "premium bundle" that has a higher chance to award rarer characters, to entice people into spending small, but frequent, amounts of money in the hopes of unlocking her.


In return, her inclusion in the game might encourage people to check out her stuff, maybe net a few sales, and more than likely some sort of contractual profit sharing based on the number of sales during her availability.

There's nothing altruistic or empowering about it. It's a smart business move. It'll piss off franchise loyalists, but to be fair a lot of franchise loyalists already think of the mobile titles in great disdain anyway, and they are probably in the minority when it comes to the revenue generation of these products.

As someone who likes her games firmly separated from reality, and as a result finds celebrity endorsing/shoehorning to be sleazy at the best of times, I struggle to get behind this - but I can't deny it's a smart business move. In the long-run it isn't really going to affect me as mobile titles (in general) hold very little interest to me. So, cool? I guess.

[Depression Moon]

I doubt she's going to be free. You don't pay money to get a celebrity in your game and give shit away for free. Best believe they'll charge for the character.

[Psychotic]

Nah, I think they're doing this to build the brand and their playerbase and in which case it makes sense to have her free or cheap. New players aren't the ones who are going to drop money on a mobile game, long timers are. Judging from how the Brave Exvius community has responded, well, they don't give any kind of smurf about her. They're not going to put down cash to get her.

With that said, I bet that would change if she was a good character. Let me tell you what, I don't give any sort of a smurf who she is and have never heard any of her songs, but if they added her to FF Record Keeper and she had some ridiculously powerful stuff I'd go all out to get it! Having never played XIV I have no idea who Y'shtola, Alphinaud and Minfilia are but I dumped my mythril stash into trying to get their trout because it's good.

[Formalhaut]

The more I think about this, the more genius it is.

It is pretty much a win-win. I think after my initial shock of 'what the hell is this' has worn off, I'm slightly more warm towards it.

I never knew Ariana Grande was a fan of video gaming, though! Then again, I don't really follow celebrities, so she could be a fan of hand-gliding for all I know.

[Spuuky]

she could be a fan of hand-gliding for all I know.I don't even know what that is.

[Elly]

she could be a fan of hand-gliding for all I know.I don't even know what that is.
it's when you're riding in a car and decide to stick your hand out the window, and play airplane with it...:lol:

[Mirage]

I'm not getting Exvius until 50 cent is in it.

[Psychotic]

I'm holding out for Tim Curry or Danny DeVito myself.

[Freya]

Well then. That's interesting? I kinda adore her so I guess this is cool? Guess I need to play Exivius more.

[MJN SEIFER]

She seems so happy in that tweet, I think she's genuinely a fan. I'm really happy for her!

I'll admit I'm really out of the loop with Final Fantasy these days, but it's cool they've done this in my opinion.

[charliepanayi]

The sexism is rampant in here! She does not need to prove that she is a fan. Nor should we be looking to try and frame her as 'fake' honestly. She has been paid to do a job and lend her likeness to a mobile game and she's excited about it. Leave her alone.


I think you misunderstand me. I hate when a company uses anyone who is pop culture to sell a product. I would rather see them voice a person on a big game then just be made a Sprite to sell the online product.

How about when a FF game is used to sell a product?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0svcC1dzv4

[Mirage]

The FF9 coke commercial was dumb. Not as dumb as American Express in FF15, though.

[Jinx]

Who cares if she's a fan or not? Does it really matter? Also there are lots of game series I have no interest in or actively dislike, but if I was being put into the game (even a shitty mobile game...which people need to keep in mind when they're getting their panties twisted IT'S A TROUTTY MOBILE GAME) I would be super excited.

Also, who cares if she's getting paid? She uh, SHOULD BE. Even if she's excited, they're using her likeness. If THEY went to HER, they should be paying her. If she's just a crazy hella fan who wanted to have this done just for the honor, then it'd be a little different (just like how Whoopi Goldberg didn't get paid for any of her appearances in TNG. She just loved the show so much she wanted to be in it).

tl;dr who fucking cares

[Depression Moon]

I heard this game was actually good, so I care a little more from when I initially saw this news.

[Fynn]

It's decent. Definitely better than the disappointment that was Record Keeper, but it still has the same format as all other mobile RPGs which sucks

[Psychotic]

ITs decent. Definitely better than the disappointment that was Record Keeper, but it still has the same format as all other mobile RPGs which sucksI don't think you're able to give an accurate assessment of RK's current quality. You played what, a couple of days in the early beta? Game's come a loooong way since then. It's like saying ARR sucks because the original XIV did.

Also, Record Keeper is literally a better game than Final Fantasy XII. Not even trolling.

[Fynn]

To you, maybe. I was disappointed. And no, I stuck for a good month or two. It had all the reliance on series nostalgia of Theatrhythmwithout the gameplay that would keep me coming back to that game. I'm glad you like it, but to me it seriously lacks substance. Substance that XII has plenty of, mind you ;)

[Psychotic]

Alright Fynn, I'M CALLIN' YOU OUT SON. Who are the characters you've unlocked in RK?

I don't care if you don't remember and you deleted the app, you will reinstall the app THIS MINUTE and inform me, an internet stranger, immediately!

[Fynn]

I am too busy coping after Christmas and playing FFIX - you know, an actual good FF - to be bothered to do that, Psy :p

But I can tell you this thread has made me re-download Brave Exvius, which can tell you a whole lot about how much more fun I had with it rather than with RK :D

[Psychotic]

That's fair enough. It's not for everyone, I guess. It can be a bit too strategic and complex for more casual gamers. Enjoy your game ;)

[Fynn]

That's rich, coming from someone who's never played any of the FFT games or MegaTen :aimkiss:

[Psychotic]

Psst: I've beaten FFT and FFTA. Incidentally I only played FFT because I really liked Ramza and Agrias in FFRK :shobon:

[Fynn]

At least something good has come out of it :D

[FFNut]

I downloaded it the other day to try. So far I'm not a fan due to it feels like a grind without exploration. However I'll stick with it a bit to see if it picks up.

[Psychotic]

Depends what you're after - if you get past the initial kind of grind then there's some challenging high end battles that require a lot of planning and party set up, and it's good because there's a wealth of different skills and characters to use. If you just want exploration or story then give it a swerve.

[FFNut]

I will admit I have been playing it today a fair bit and am enjoying the different parties I'm using. Notable people I have are Shaz, ExDeath, Celes, and Vivi. Got to a point I can explore a bit and have had some fun. Though the movement is silly and unreliable, and the story so far needs some work. It seems like it was a solid story but didn't pay writers.

[Spuuky]

FFRK is actually a great, deep game. I agree with Psychotic that it's better than FFXIII, and I just assume he left out a numeral, since it's clearly not as good as XII but that's OK. FFBE (which I also play) is ... well, it's alright, nothing special. This addition of Ariana does entertain me though, mostly because of the response that certain segments of the population have given it.

[Fynn]

BE totally has exploration soon enough though, Nutty.


As for why I dislike Record Keeper and, to an extent, Brave Exvius, I think I'm just completely immune to games that try to get you hooked. The same thing happened when I played The Sims Free Play - I liked it and played it for a day or two but then just couldn't bring myself to do it anymore because it felt like s chore. Same with Record Keeper and Brave Exvius - games that try to hook you by always advertising new events and random characters to be downloaded, hoping one day you'll cave and spend that extra money on that one ticket, some energy, or whatever the heck it is that constitutes the game's pay-to-win factor. The constant onslaught of stuff that reminds you this is just something they want you to click away at hopefully to the end of your life is s huge immersion-breaker for me. I like BE slightly better only because it tries to be it's own game beyond that with some story and exploration, even if they're nothing special. I actually miss mobile games like FF Dimensions a lot, as they were designed like regular games just for the phone. I remember how people lost their trout over it's price but I really prefer that to the scummy "waiting until you cave" approach other mobile RPGs have adopted. It doesnt matter how deep or strategic you think they are, these games are just not for me, period. And not because I don't enjoy a fun and strategic RPG because those are basically my life, Psy.

[Spuuky]

It's not how deep or strategic "we think they are." FFRK has objectively deep, strategic combat gameplay; probably more so than any actual FF game ever made (although I haven't played the MMOs so I can't speak to them). It has to, because combat is all it has. While the combat is less fun than FFT (a truly immaculate game in all regards), it is probably more advanced.

[Fynn]

No such thing as objectively more or less strategic - it all depends on where you sit.

I've come to the conclusion that RK fans are just weird, though :p

[Psychotic]

Yeah I don't like the mobile business model or pricing but there are plenty of Free to Play players of RK who are able to complete all content. It's not a necessity. Even if you can't complete all content, each event has increasingly difficult battles and so you're still able to complete some of it, even if it's your first day.

I'll repeat what I said earlier, though. It is a different game to when you played it. In the early days there weren't many characters, there wasn't much variance between characters, many skillsets didn't exist or had just one or two skills in it and yeah as a result, there was not much strategy involved. Now there's nearly 150 characters and 18 skillsets - none of them you have to pay to use - and finding the exact right blend of those often requires a challenging thought process and has a satisfying conclusion.

[Fynn]

It doesn't matter whether I have to pay or not - the fact that a game is designed to get me addicted playing every day is the very reason I am repelled by it. THe same thing happened with KH Unchained, sadly, and I had been looking forward to that game for years. I just physically can't get into games that follow this model. Not out of principle, because I really want to like them.

And I've had more attempts of getting back into RK later, Psy. It's not for me. Really.

[FFNut]

I must admit I'm having fun playing BE, but most of the fun is the nastagia glasses of getting a player and seeing what I find. It's like Pokemon where I want to catch them all. I can see where Fynn is upset though too as it does do nothing but push fill all potions $5.99. Unlock 11 new players including a rare one $11.99. I won't spend the money myself as a little grinding will get you all the stuff. But I will probably not be able to collect all the rare guys. I'm ok with that.

This is pay to play is why I quit playing Clash of the clans though. Hit a wall where if I didn't pay I'd just get raided and knocked back down a peg. If I just spent $20 it would have elevated me just enough to not get squashed every day. I ended up deleting the game in the end.

[Fynn]

Like I said, the fact that I won't get everyone doesn't bother me, especially since the game is pretty generous with the Lapis. It's more the addiction factor of "come play every day and get X bonus or take part in Y event" that really bothers me. But at least with Brave Exvius I know the story has some kind of end, so I know I can get into it and be done with it one day instead of the game begging me to come back all the time. I think it's part of the reason MMOs don't really appeal to me. I like my games to be complete experiences rather than never-ending things like this.

[Psychotic]

Yeah that's fair enough, the current model for mobile gaming is not for everyone. For me when I play RK the temporary events are something to look forward to when it's for a game or character that I like, and they're usually open for a few weeks so I don't feel rushed or compelled to log in if I don't want to.

[Spuuky]

No such thing as objectively more or less strategic - it all depends on where you sit.Give me a break. Sorry, but Go is objectively more strategic than Tic-Tac-Toe, and pretty much every other game sits somewhere on the scale in between those things. I don't know how you could possibly say something like this with a straight face.

That has nothing to do with the sales strategy or whatever, which, fine, I can see how that would be unappealing (it is to me too, even though there's no chance I could ever be persuaded to spend money).

The story of Exvius doesn't have an "end" by the way, any more than the story of WoW does. They roll out a little more with a "to be continued..." every month or so and will do that until the game stops being profitable, at which time it will abruptly end. If we're lucky, that would result in a little hasty "tie things up" last story update, but realistically probably not even that.

[Fynn]

Well, at least it feels like it's going somewhere. Something RK doesn't even pretend to do.

And yes, I say that with a straight face. Loony BoB may think XIII is incredibly strategic and that battles give him the excitement of coming up with new strategies on the fly. I personally couldn't disagree more as the battle system was one of the blandest, most boring, and most straightforward I've ever experienced. But he experienced it differently. So yes, how strategic a game's battle system is is completely up for debate. I for the life of me cannot see how RK's battle system is more strategic than FFT's, and yet here you both are. Telling me my opinion is wrong and that I just don't know how to enjoy the game properly.

[maybee]

Not a fan of her ( find her annoying ) but this is really cool ! It's awesome to see some more celebs get into FF.

[Psychotic]

Well, at least it feels like it's going somewhere. Something RK doesn't even pretend to do.It does. Someone has smashed all the portraits in the royal archives and Dr. Mog has now asked Tyro to fix them. Where is it going? To the final boss battles of every game, and it's going to be great.


I for the life of me cannot see how RK's battle system is more strategic than FFT's, and yet here you both are. It tells you beforehand what your enemy is going to do, its major attacks and what elements and statuses it might be weak to, and it sets you various target goals. Thus you set up your team before each battle, tailoring it to your foe. With FFT you have no idea what you're up against and so just use your basic party and hope for the best. FFRK has hundreds of different bosses, many of them having very different AI and playstyles. FFT's usual definition of difficulty is splitting your party up or else having them in one spawn point as long range units bombard them.

Oh and then you get Orlandu and he kills everything so there's no need for strategy for then on :p To be fair though, he's being added to FFRK soon and apparently they tried to make him as broken as he was in FFT so maybe this will be a moot point.

I think the problem is that you just haven't played any high level RK encounters. And hey, if you don't want to play more of it to get to that point then that's cool, not going to put a gun to your head and force you to do it. However I also think it means your opinion isn't going to be as well informed as it should be to make such a sweeping dismissal of it.

[Formalhaut]

I think the problem is that you just haven't played any high level RK encounters. And hey, if you don't want to play more of it to get to that point then that's cool, not going to put a gun to your head and force you to do it. However I also think it means your opinion isn't going to be as well informed as it should be to make such a sweeping dismissal of it.

I don't have a horse in this race, because frankly I don't have the time for mobile gaming alongside my console gaming. Having said that, this comment did interest me.

How important is it for a game to be complex and have rigorous game mechanics running all the way through? If you can only get the feeling that the combat is strategic and complex at the endgame, then I'd question the game design. A game should have tantalising combat strategy the whole way through, or at least the promise of even more to come, building on more mechanics as the player gets more skilled. But the base should be interesting enough as it is.

It's kinda like saying that a game only gets good halfway through. That requires a lot of faith on the player to keep on playing.

I really hope I'm not sounding too direct about this though. Sorry!

[Spuuky]

How "boring" or "bland" a battle system is has nothing to do with how strategic it is. Whether you find something boring is a matter of opinion. The level of strategic depth isn't particularly a matter of opinion. You're welcome to find chess too boring to play; many people do, I don't find it particularly enthralling myself. But you can't also say "I enjoy checkers more, so the level of strategy in each game is a matter of perspective."

If you think FFRK's battles are boring, bland and dumb, fine, you can think that. And there isn't much depth in the early-game fights where you just attack or cast an offensive spell, and sometimes heal when you get low. Just like in every single RPG ever made, in the early game.

FFT is a great, deep game - but it's not THAT deep or complex in general, it's just a lot of fun and deeper than most FF games in combat. Fun and strategic depth are entirely different spectrums. Spectra? Whatever. No one plays the start of Final Fantasy ANYTHING and thinks "wow, these battles are so complex and strategic!" when they're level 10, fighting random Imps and soldiers of various flavors.

[Formalhaut]

They're all good points. It's certainly a good idea to make the distinction between 'fun' and 'strategy', them being related but very different concepts.

[Psychotic]

I really hope I'm not sounding too direct about this though. Sorry!It's cool, relax!

When Record Keeper released it had 8 characters, 20 abilities and maybe 15 battles you could do. It was fun, there was strategy involved, but it wasn't overly deep. It now has 150+ characters and 300 abilities. It has also had numerous new critical strategic elements added on top of that - I won't go into them in depth, but just take my word for it as a day 1 player that vital stuff was added in the following months. They've developed more complex and challenging encounters as a result and to compare 2017 RK to 2015 RK is to compare two almost entirely different games.

Fynn has kept his cards close to his chest as to how much of RK he has played so I've made assumptions as to how much of the newer, improved content he has played - he can correct me as and when he wants - but not very much. I think his opinion on RK in 2015 is valid and I agree with a lot of it. But given that, as I've said, 2017 RK is in my view a different game to 2015 RK, while I don't blame him for not having played 2017 if he hasn't enjoyed it, I don't think he can as accurately comment on it as he has before. He hasn't explained why he thinks there isn't strategy involved! And it wouldn't really be a fair discussion if he did.

In a wider context, this is a very common release model in the mobile gaming sector. I suspect if you compare how Pokemon Go will be by the end of 2017 to how it was when it released you'll see a much better game too with the additions of new Pokemon, trading, battling between friends and whatever else. Indeed in the Triple A gaming sector you're seeing it - look at Star Wars Battlefront. Indeed, on a lower level, look at how many games are adding features by patches. FFXV's director has talked about adding multiplayer. So has the dev of my GotY Stardew Valley. No Man's Sky is having a major overhaul. Games are no longer a static thing and we're going to increasingly see our opinions being outdated as games change. Which doesn't really harm anyone but devs, I guess, if you release a barebones or half finished game then you deserve to be judged for that. I'm more understanding of free to play mobile games or low priced titles, but full price retail games that do this can bugger right off.

[Spuuky]

I guess I'm probably lucky that I am a very late adopter of FFRK so I didn't see any of the early days. Or months. Or years almost.

You can probably thank the success of games like WoW, DotA, TF2, and LoL for basically proving out the fact that iterative game development (of already "completed" products) is a very successful long-term strategy.

[Freya]

Have a video!

NcoubpSwlEk

an actual song of hers is getting the "FF" treatment.

[Night Fury]

SICKNIIIIIIIIIIIING BITCH.


SICKNING.


(That is one of my favourite songs on the Dangerous Woman album so yaaaaasssss mama werk!)


https://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/07/18/636044022341605387307092178_giphy.gif

[krissy]

btw 82 comments
gj squenix x ariana
you've revived the forum