Free - to - frolic games often reckon appealing , but it ’s hard to know at a glance whether the business model is subtle and sport wrecking , or reasonable and worth pumping a few bucks into . With Freemium Field Test , we ’ll take a late gratuitous - to - play iOS secret plan , put it through its tempo , and let you make love if it ’s really worth your meter ( and money ) .
The iPhone and iPad may not play legion to the new mainline Final Fantasy ledger entry — like the challenging Final Fantasy XV , coming to consoles this November — but they might have themostseries entries in one place . you could snap up ports ofFinal Fantasy IthroughVIIandFinal Fantasy IX , Final Fantasy Tactics , and innocent - to - play mobile exclusives likeFinal Fantasy Record Keeper , Final Fantasy Brave Exvius , Final Fantasy Dimensions , and even more .
It ’s a lot , and we ’ve seen a yoke of those game launch just within the last few month . Well , here ’s another : Mobius Final Fantasyis a new nomadic entering design to enamour the high production values of the bighearted - budget console table entry . However , like last year ’s Record Keeper , it ’s mainly a game about fight , minimizing the other elements of the persona - playing experience in the physical process while emphasizing the free - to - caper grind .
The pitch
Low - res plus signify that Mobius take care a fiddling fuzzy up - tight , but hold the phone back a couple feet and it about looks console table - timbre .
Like many of the typically self - hold Final Fantasy game , you do n’t require to know any previous entries to leap into this one . While there are familiar magic spells , nod to popular fictitious character in the cards you ’ll call for , and some vulgar serial paper , Mobius has its own storyline . You bet as one of many “ Blank ” warriors awaking in the land of Palamecia , hoping to leaven his mettle through battle and become the estate ’s prophesized Warrior of Light .
last Fantasy Record Keepersaw the serial publication relive some of its not bad old - schooling moments by do you defend through classical struggle , while Mobius Final Fantasy does much the same with 3D graphics and totally fresh textile . Similarly , you do n’t get the complete experience : The floor is kept to a lower limit and there ’s almost zero gratis - roaming geographic expedition . alternatively , you ’ll pick a spot on the world map , fight a bunch of monsters , and then repeat over and over again .
sorcerous princess in a quartz glass ? OK , this really is Final Fantasy .
To some extent , it feels like a misreckoning of what makes Final Fantasy so great , much like in Record Keeper . True , you ’ll drop a large ball of your meter in any Final Fantasy game fighting monsters and other baddies , and the caliber and depth of those combat systems can importantly impact the overall delectation . But I ’ll tolerate all of those conflict in a Final Fantasy game because it allows me to take in the storyline and receive the unequalled cosmos and characters built for each adventure — not the other way around .
At least there ’s some meat to the activity here . The armed combat arrangement is built around collectible cards for spells and summoned monsters , and you ’ll develop and tweak your decks over time , amassing new notice and better them via experience points as well as fusing and augmenting them . And in the turn - based battles , you ’ll collect primary orbs from your enemy while bashing them and use those to unleash your sorcerous approach , healing spell , and more .
The series ’ much - do it Moogle is here to help guide your way of life .
There ’s a bit of active scheme at bid — certainly more than insome other freemium game — and that ’s true both in deck composition and actual engagement techniques . On the snotty-nosed side , you could only wiretap a button to automate armed combat andwatchthe action mechanism alternatively of directly hold in it . The battles unfold very quickly and effectively when automatize , and it ’s a not bad way to hurry up the grind . In fact , after a few hr of play , I prefer to just have the battle run automatically while I watched TV or check email . At least the alternative is there to jump back in as desired .
The catch
Mobius Final Fantasy ’s large ruin is a conversant one for free - to - play mobile games with a strategic or purpose - playing sharpness : The experience is overly and unnecessarily complicated in spots . It ’s not so much that there are punitive freemium ingredient butting heads against each other , but rather that there areso many thingshappening behind the scenes that you may not know anything about — or even involve to care about .
Deck construction , for case , brings a draw of variables and options . You ’ve get job plug-in , ability cards , and summon posting ; your card can be meld , sold , or augmented ; and if you need to purchase more , you may use power tickets , summon tickets , flavour ticket , acquaintance ticket , or magicite up-to-dateness . And I still do n’t have a firm grip of what skillseeds do , despite hr spend staring at this game .
You ’ll combat some gnarly - looking monsters — and then take their cards for your own deck .
Mobius has such a dense and busy interface , and while all the different pick could be delineate as addingnuance , some of it seems needlessly obtuse . There ’s a quite a little going on here , and the game ’s infrastructure is n’t very aerodynamic . In all likelihood , that ’s intentional : There ’s enough muddiness here that you might be charm to pass money to crystalise it up , rather than pour a bunch of time into menu that do n’t seem to provide obvious welfare .
Magicite is earned gradually throughout the day , with a meter that fills up to 100 over the class of about 16 hour . Once you tap it , that amount is emptied into your bank and the meter begins tardily fill up again . You ’ll also earn daily item bonuses for logging in , as well as extra items granted for other online players using one of your cards for support in conflict . Those are destitute goody , in nub .
Bundles of magicite are sold in amounts ranging from 120 for $ 1 to 12,500 for $ 75 , and it can be used to buy tickets to randomly draw unlike types of wit . The game also offers a Mobius Gift Box , which offers a smattering of perks : various tickets , index - ups , item , a skillseed bonus for fusion , and a regular supply of additional items over the following 30 mean solar day . In fact , you may only grease one’s palms this bundle once every 30 days . It ’s priced at 3,000 magicite , which sell for $ 19 in the entrepot .
You ’ll slowly conglomerate free magicite , but it ’s also available for leverage .
That ’s what I spent my money on , and to be honorable , I ’m not 100 - percent sure what my $ 19 ultimately got me . I mean , I have a listing of things in my inventory that I can maneuver to , but none seem like dramatic benefits based on all the clock time I ’ve spend in battle and fiddle with my deck . In fact , I have n’t sensed a substantial need to drop money at all in Mobius Final Fantasy . It has an energy metre that depletes with each newfangled conflict and recharges over time , but the game is so generous with fillip Energy Department points that I once played forthree hours straightwithout drain the thing .
The verdict
At some point , the bit by bit longer hold between leveling up probably think of you ’ll solicit out that energy meter and need to wait or pay to occupy it up again . Likewise , the ever - building challenge surely means at some point that you ’ll take to encounter and play back battles to slowly boost your abilities and progress forrader . All of that comes with the freemium soil . But across many hour of play , I chance neither roadblock .
Mobius Final Fantasy is n’t the most captivating serial publication experience . With minimal storytelling and character edifice , it ’s a combat - centric game with minimum windowpane medical dressing — and the series magic is in thinner supply than common . If anything , the game and its many iOS brethren show that being a “ Final Fantasy ” is n’t an exact formula ( or hope ) anymore , which mean you do n’t necessarily know what you ’re getting with each new introduction .
If you require a definitive Final Fantasy ledger entry with a elevated plot line and zero freemium housing , you’re able to surely encounter them on the App Store — for upwards of $ 21 apiece . Mobius Final Fantasy is n’t that … but it is an attractive battler with a profoundly tactical bound than you ’ll typically find in freemium military action game .
