• Ariana Grande Joins Final Fantasy


    Sensational pop star Ariana Grande is headed to Final Fantasy territory. In a tweet she wrote today the singer revealed that she will appear as a guest character in Final Fantasy Brave Exivus. There is a short clip of her character on her Instagram page which you can view here and a photo of her meeting Square Enix representatives which you can view below. Final Fantasy Brave Exivus 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.



    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.

    This article was originally published in forum thread: Ariana Grande Joins Final Fantasy started by Depression Moon View original post
    Comments 83 Comments
    1. Psychotic's Avatar
      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.
    1. FFNut's Avatar
      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.
    1. Spuuky's Avatar
      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.
    1. Fynn's Avatar
      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.
    1. Spuuky's Avatar
      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.
    1. Fynn's Avatar
      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
    1. Psychotic's Avatar
      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.
    1. Fynn's Avatar
      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.
    1. FFNut's Avatar
      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.
    1. Fynn's Avatar
      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.
    1. Psychotic's Avatar
      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.
    1. Spuuky's Avatar
      Spuuky -
      Quote Originally Posted by Fynn View Post
      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.
    1. Fynn's Avatar
      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.
    1. maybee's Avatar
      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.
    1. Psychotic's Avatar
      Psychotic -
      Quote Originally Posted by Fynn View Post
      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 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.
    1. Formalhaut's Avatar
      Formalhaut -
      Quote Originally Posted by Psychotic View Post
      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!
    1. Spuuky's Avatar
      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.
    1. Formalhaut's Avatar
      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.
    1. Psychotic's Avatar
      Psychotic -
      Quote Originally Posted by Formalhaut View Post
      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.
    1. Spuuky's Avatar
      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.
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