So I don't usually go on the defensive for a game and I sincerely believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I want to stand up and say I like Final Fantasy: All The Bravest. In the interest of full disclosure I will say I started playing the series at Final Fantasy VII (borrowing a friends PlayStation, I was an early SEGA then Nintendo 64 kid) then followed that up with VIII, X (one of my all time favourite games) and finally III on the DS. I also put ton of hours into Dissidia ... such an overlooked game.

I am by no means a Final Fantasy zealot and I have little nostalgia for the old series. I can appreciate why people love them, but I get more out of retro SEGA games than any SNES/NES games. I'm saying all this because I don't want to be dubbed a Final Fantasy apologist or fanboy for liking this game.

What's good about it;

• The concept is good - Final Fantasy battles on a large scale with tons of shit going on at once.
• It's my new "waiting at the burger place" or "killing time the ads are on TV" type game. It's so simple to play that I can do it to pass the time and pause it whenever
• Despite what people say you can bail on any battle without using the Golden Hourglass, get your team back and then do an earlier level to grind more levels and get new weapons. You don't have to play to get ahead
• I've bought a few of the premium charatcers and it's kind of cool seeing the 8-bit version of them. For the record I got Cloud on the first go, so it's not rigged to put the popular ones last
• The game isn't too short, and realistically the in-app purchases are optional. You don't have to buy any extra characters if you don't want and the Golden Hourglasses are their for convience. I mean waiting three-minutes to revive a character isn't that bad and the Fever mode, where you can attack non-stop for I think 30-seconds, comes every three hours. The point is you can play the game in bursts which is fine for an iPhone game
• I like it more than some other hyped games - Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, etc.

What I don't like

• It should be cheaper, $1.99 at the most, 99c is ideal though
• The fact you have to rub the screen to attack ... seriously, there is NEVER a time I don't want to attack. Why would you ever relent? I get that it might be necessary during the "Fever" mode, but otherwise just give me an attack button
• Not being able to select targets means a baddie near death can be ignored while a healthier enemy attacks your team. Even if it's one target at a time, let me pick!
• It would be good if I could group characters by their types (magic, fighter, etc) and use them that way ... enemies have weaknesses it seems, but you can't exploit them
• The Gil should be used to buy equipment or hire characters. You can't buy Gil (nor should you) but you can't spend it either. If you could customise your team there would be at least alittle strategy.

I think people get hung up on extras you don't have to buy. I bought the game ($4.50), five premium characters ($5), 20 Golden Hourglasses ($3) and the FF VII map ($4.50) - so all up I've spent $17. Honestly that's more than I should have spent... I'd probably only buy the game and two premium characters if I had my time again (they have good attacks, but that said the Onion Knight is better than any premium I've seen and they're free).

It's an iPhone game, it's not a main line Final Fantasy game. People need to adjust their expectations. I'm not saying it's the best game ever, and I'd even say it's very flawed to the point I rated in 3 out of 5 on the app store. But a few updates and it could be a better game. I'd recommend it, just not unreservedly.

I think people expected a bit too much from it, that's for sure. And for what it's worth it IS probably one of the best time wasters on the ios. Honestly it does the job it was set out to do, and I'd much rather be playing this than Angry Birds or Temple Run... but it's not on Android so I can't bother with it anyway.

I can just stick with FF3 for Android. Worth the $15 :P

$17 is too much to spend for a time waster. Hell $5 is too much to spend for this. If this was $1 then okay fine. But because of the cost of the game and the excessive cost of the DLC I can safely say that this is a blatant cash grab.

Another throw away title to further dilute the Final Fantasy brand...

I think I'll give this game a go.

anyone who likes FF7/8/9/10 is an apologist fanboy

@egg said:

anyone who likes FF7/8/9/10 is an apologist fanboy

You cut me deep, Shrek.

It's a game?

Final Fantasy combat was always just about hitting the enemy with your strongest attack, so this game isn't really that much different combat-wise. Sure it cut out the need to heal once every 2-3 turns, or guess the enemies' elemental weakness, or cast status effects at the beginning of a battle, or choose between AoE and focus fire, but those elements were already kind of played out anyway, so why not cut them?

I think it might be moderately fun as a little time waster game, the problem is that the pricing structure is absolutely disgusting. Especially considering you have to buy the app and then spend more purchasing premium characters and it doesn't even let you pick your favourite ones, it's a complete gamble.

Look at something like Pocket Planes on the other hand, which similarly doesn't have much gameplay besides tapping the screen to send your planes to new destinations, but there's still at least SOME strategy involved there and everything can eventually be unlocked without ever needing to spend any money.. and that app is completely free to download.

There was not attempt to make a compelling game here, just a money sink. It's perhaps the most cynical iOS release I've ever seen and that's really saying something.

@WinterSnowblind said:

I think it might be moderately fun as a little time waster game, the problem is that the pricing structure is absolutely disgusting. Especially considering you have to buy the app and then spend more purchasing premium characters and it doesn't even let you pick your favourite ones, it's a complete gamble.

Look at something like Pocket Planes on the other hand, which similarly doesn't have much gameplay besides tapping the screen to send your planes to new destinations, but there's still at least SOME strategy involved there and everything can eventually be unlocked without ever needing to spend any money.. and that app is completely free to download.

There was not attempt to make a compelling game here, just a money sink. It's perhaps the most cynical iOS release I've ever seen and that's really saying something.

Yeah I can see what you mean ... I won't defend it, but it's been slammed a little harshly I believe. I think I like it more than Pocket Planes actually, but I liked Tiny Tower more than that game too. Weird.

For the record I bought the Midgar Ticket to get access to the FF VII map ... it's fucked. It's one screen, two battle ground types, nothing special. Out of the all things that are a rip off in this game that one is pretty fucking bad. I took a bullet for you all!

this would have been a cool final fantasy 25th anniversary thing for free as a silly celebration of all things ff but the $4.50 price tag is a bit weird

went through the hole game, at level 65 and there is nothing to this game.

I might check it out if it was $0.99 but definitely not at $3.99

@august said:

It's a game?

Someone said it best when they said this is $48 of in-app purchases looking for a game. I've never been so turned off by such a shameless cash grab.

So I sunk another $4.50 into the game ... I'm a fool. The tickets to other regions are fucked. I bought the Midgar Ticket - it's one map, repetitive enemies and... that's about all. I still don't hate this game, and I'm not asking anyone to like it, but some of the reviews sound like they're written by people just dying to slag off the latest Final Fantasy game. It's a bit shit to be sure, but fuck it didn't run over my dog or anything. Just don't spend anymore than the app price plus a one or two premium characters. Learn from my stupid mistakes.

Played through the game, got my party to level 99, created a fake Twitter account in order to promote the game and get more party slots, realized way too late how crazy I was being. The game is nothing more than a fancy-looking, nostalgia-driven time sink; it cuts the "game" part out of grinding. The game play itself boils down to wiping your finger across the screen to make your guys attack until the enemies are dead. That's it; no strategy or skill required. I spent around 3-4 hours of my life playing this before I realized how hypocritical I was for thinking that people who spent time on Curiosity were silly.

Not even going to get into the in-app purchases, as others have articulated their disgust much better than I can. There is nearly nothing redeemable about this game, and it makes me extremely weary of considering purchasing any future iOS content from Square Enix.

I would love to see a which game approaches some of these ideas with more respect and adds some substance to them.