Final Fantasy Explorers Review

Final Fantasy Explorers – Classy But Limited

A lot of people have been asking what I think of FFE thus far, so I decided to write a review to summarize my thoughts based on what I’ve experienced so far.

Job System: The job system was not what I expected it to be. Originally after tutorial, you start out with Monk, Knight, Ranger, Black Mage, White Mage, and Freelancer. Freelancer is the original class through the tutorials.

What disappointed me was the lack of jobs available for initial use. You have to unlock the extra jobs through monotonous trivials, which are not exactly fun. Example being: To unlock Beastmaster, you must create 20 monsters. The monster creation lab cost anywhere between 1,000gil to infinitely high numbers like 3,000gil+. This is problematic when considering gear is essential to upgrade and Gil is in short supply as you do quest, only being rewarded sometimes 900gil ~ 1,200gil as of rank 3 quest right now.

The job system albeit exciting and refreshing to see in a current franchise, is ultimately confusing and slightly disappointing. Each job has their own initial stat base, so curing as a Black Mage would be far less productive than healing as a White Mage for example. This being said, you can cross class spells like Cure, essentially making some job bases pointless.

When I ran as a Black Mage, followed by Time Mage, I first felt excited by the possibility of cross classing skills, like Fire 4 on my Time Mage which came in handy. However, when I ran as a Thief, I was able to add Haste from the Time Mage abilities, this lead to some confusion on my end as I began to see little point to sticking with one class through the end, as I could continually unlock these extra abilities for other classes. Using Haste as a thief lead to some necessary boost that I thought just a Time Mage could use, meaning that I could’ve stuck with Thief if it wasn’t for unlocking extra abilities with the Time Mage. The class system at best, is hazy.

Leveling Up??: There is little to no point in the leveling system as you continually unlock abilities through advancement of quest. The new system they use for leveling is called “ELvls” – this displays your prowess on the battle field and efficiency in.

It becomes pointless to really focus on these levels as you gain them through gameplay over time. These levels essentially show that you do have experience playing the game, but not much else. People speculate that these levels are great ways to indicate hackers who’ve made their own gear – but in reality a hacker could just raise these levels as well.

Mapping & Traveling: You’ll be underwhelmed by gameplay exploration as you run through seamlessly common encounter mobs trying to make it to your final summon boss. The map after awhile becomes trivial as you search for the same locations repeatedly to fight the same boss battles from before. The mapping changes can generate little to no variation on the field. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when seeing gameplay footage. You’ll later become acquainted with airship travel – which is an easy traveling tool that lands you in some locations necessary, but not close enough to your final destination, which means more foot travel. Haste was a useful option to enhance movement speed, but finding out when I ran Dark Knight that my armor does slow my characters speed, it made traveling that much more obnoxious since the Monk in my team was capable of dashing ahead of me.

Battle System: Battling is quite fun. There really is a lot to say here since – it’s probably the most explorative thing about this game. Battling is real time, while keeping a fresh and refined display of your aptitude of ability and spell choices, allowing for a great amount of combos and team work among your players. If you’re going into this solo however, forget about it. Battling can be quick paced, especially when fighting the summons. The battling system is wonderful and reminds me of great memories of Phantasy Star Online, while being able to use a plethora of spells that function similar to refreshment time like original Final Fantasy games, the way you cast the spells during the fight makes it feel like you’re immersed. Weapon abilities function similar to the spells and also use a refresh rate as well as Ability Points, which restore over time or can be enhanced by other means.

During battle you can use a similar crystal energy that functions as an ability build up after time. It allows for supportive buffs or disenchantments on the enemy that function in your favor. Furthermore, you get to use your summons you captured to unleash fierce damaging moves, or transform to your favorite past time FF characters. These are seldom available however which calls for great tactical timing to unleash the best amount of damage.

The weakness in the battle system lays on enemy versus. While drifting from map to map, you’ll be underwhelmed by weak mobs that yield already gathered useless materials at that point. While heading to your final destination you’re going to wish you had some more challenges along the way.

Gear: There is a selection of gear that’s going to slightly underwhelm you. While I am not far enough in this game that I could account for end game material, I do see that I am limited to a selection of gear pieces somewhere near the 300’s meaning that you will complete your gear in a short amount of time if your leaning toward just one set per character, keep in mind these account for weapons as well.

Given that there is a huge amount of weapon selection, ranging from Bows, Scythes, Axes, Swords, Daggers, Fist Weapons, Guns, and Staves, and Tomes – you will surely see how 300 gear pieces can quickly be abused to leave little room for improvement – which is slightly unfortunate.

On the flip side, you’ll be excited to find the materials for your next piece of matching armor, or weapon that you need in order to see that fruition come into play, so gear is taken in whatever stride you may wish it to be.

OVERALL:

Final Fantasy Explorers is a fresh and refined taste in the series that we needed to see in awhile. Aside from the FFXIV series, we have been without a job system for quite some time. It was refreshing to see such a plethora of jobs available since the FFXI days, which was really reminiscent to see. The game offers challenges at times that do seem like hurdles to overcome – in the best way considerable. While gameplay can sometimes be drawn, and single player is useless, I take the game for what it does offer – extensive multiplayer with countless possibilities in combinations of team members, gear, and strategies. The gameplay is fun, while feeling somewhat empty and scarce at certain points, you’ll be looking forward to what lays ahead. FFE Is great for beginners looking to gain an understanding for the classes, and a great throwback for veterans of the series if you’re looking for a good time with friends.

Final Review: 7/10