Review: Final Fantasy Ever Crisis: An interesting reimagining

Our Verdict

An intriguing new take on a Final Fantasy 7 remake, Ever Crisis has a whimsical art style, new insight into beloved characters, and a delightful soundtrack. It’s a must-play for any fan of the series. Oh boy, I just really love Final Fantasy.

Any chance I get, I'll write about Final Fantasy. My life was transformed by this game series, which also helped me to pursue my current employment. Indeed, I recall my first venture with FF as if it were yesterday. One Christmas, my elder brother acquired Final Fantasy 9. We couldn't have asked for a finer game as we eagerly loaded it into the PS1, saw the stunning opening cinematic, and saw the Tantalus theater ship soar over the skies. We then returned to play games 7 and 8, which are among my favorite childhood recollections.

Even while I loved 9 as my first FF, my all-time fave is now 7. I take a week off work to play the remake; I go through the original once or twice a year; my closest buddy and I played Crisis Core on the school playground while hunched beneath hoodies to block out the sun; and we soon won the platinum trophy. I've defeated Ruby and Emerald Weapon, wept at the passing of certain characters, and gained Knights of the Round by riding my gold chocobo.

I apologize for the lengthy introduction, but I think it's important for you to be aware of my history in case this review seems biased or nostalgic. But in this Final Fantasy Ever Crisis review, I'll be honest with you.

Thus... Final Fantasy Ever Crisis: What Is It? To put it simply, it's a free-to-play gacha RPG that is unique to mobile devices and has the whole FF7 collection. These included The First Soldier, which takes place eighteen years before to the events of Final Fantasy 7, Crisis Core, which tells the tale of Zack Fair, a soldier aspiring to First Class, and the original Final Fantasy 7. Additionally, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, and Advent Children are confirmed to release in the future by Square Enix.

The whole storylines are not included in the present edition, but a new chapter will be released each month. Thus far, every storyline diverges only a little bit from what you would recall from the originals. For instance, I got to spend a bit more time with Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie from OG 7 when I was entrusted with taking down some bad guys, which was a nice change of pace from the usual chaos of blowing up a reactor.

This is also done at the opening of Crisis Core, but less entertainingly. I wanted to speed through and enjoy the tale, but it threw me into some really basic combat situations that could be easily avoided or filled in later. For those of you with massive game backlogs and little time to immerse yourself in a 40-hour RPG, this is the best way to experience the compilation. Aside from these deviations, they seem fairly faithful to the original material, and the chapters are divided into such palatable little chunks.

Regarding the gameplay itself, a lot of the running around is done for you, and at times it approaches the realm of visual novels. The majority of the main plot navigation is done for you, while there are a few short sections and side tasks that let you explore. The battle in the game is its major attraction. Ever Crisis employs the active time battle (ATB) system, which lets you switch between characters and timing the use of techniques to debuff the opponent's defenses and reduce their health.

Fans of both the original FF7 and the remake will likely find this fight to be a nice compromise since it is easy to pick up but requires some practice to become fully proficient. I can't say that this is exactly my style since I like turn-based games, but I can see myself getting used to it. It's also important to note that, similar to many other gacha games, you may enable auto-combat to have the game handle the fighting mechanics for you if you don't like them. If you want to have any chance of defeating more formidable opponents, you must arm yourself with better weapons that will increase your stats and provide you greater abilities. The gacha factor enters the picture at this point.

I find it interesting that all of the narrative material in FFEC is free, since I had anticipated having to pay for chapters once I became interested. Rather, you have to roll for weapons for every character using a variety of various currencies (see our Final Fantasy Ever Crisis tier list for my opinions on the finest ones). In addition, the rarities of each weapon might vary, and leveling them up requires certain resources. Though most gacha games hurl money at new players like there's no tomorrow, I haven't had to spend any money yet and I can still easily defeat adversaries and get all the weapons I desire.

Right now, I think anybody who simply wants to enjoy the tale should be able to finish it without spending any money, but as the complexity increases, I'm sure it will become tougher to level up my things and the income stream will slow down. Additionally, there is a cooperative battle option where you may work with other players to defeat challenging opponents. In the future, pay-to-winners may take over this mode, but for now, my five-star Murasame and I are feeling very fantastic.

I may be biased because I play a lot of gacha games as opposed to AAA console gamers, but if I can get more than 40 hours out of a free-to-play game, I usually don't mind giving the developers a dollar or two in exchange for some extra goodies and to show my appreciation for their hard work. I'll be sure to let you know if things go really bad.

Lastly, I will discuss the game's performance. I've played on my Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 and my iPad Pro (2nd Generation), and I believe I may like the game more on a smaller screen. The experience is a touch muddier and more stretched on my iPad than it is on my phone, but overall, both platforms appear to perform about the same, with minor framerate reductions occurring during really demanding moments.

So, did Final Fantasy Ever Crisis live up to my expectations and do I enjoy it? Of course! I can pick up and play the game anytime I need a fix for Final Fantasy because of the quickfire tale chunks, the chibi character representations, the illustrative anime style throughout loading screens, and the relatively unintrusive gacha features. You have nothing to lose by giving this free-to-play game a try, and I heartily suggest it to any series aficionados or fans of the remake alone who want to experience a little bit of the original.

My thoughts on how predatory the gacha mechanisms are may change as the game develops, and I'll be happy to let you know if they do, but as it stands right now, I'm hooked and will be devoting a lot of time to doing the daily tasks and leveling up my weaponry. See our Final Fantasy Ever Crisis chocobo and Final Fantasy Ever Crisis codes expedition guides for additional information similar to this.