FFVII: Ever Crisis Announced

[ultima espio]

It takes up about 6gb in total. After the tutorial it needs to download 5gb+ of data. Keep in mind if you’re low on space.

 

[Suzaku]

When I was playing it, The First Soldier featured the worst monetization I'd ever seen. But this... this is somehow worse!?

In the bottom right corner of the main menu, you can earn blue crystals by watching commercials. Like, commercials are for other real world apps. I have never seen this before. Maaan, I can't believe I just watched a commercial in a FFVII game.

And then there's the 12 hour deals, engineered to aggressively target your FOMO. It's gross! The future of gaming is terrifying.

That's super common. This is actually one of the more generous gacha games I've played, given the rates are really high (7.5% chance of a five-star weapon)and you can get multiple stamps in one go. You can even select six weapons you want to have boosted rates for. Plus you get all the characters for free by default, the weapons and costumes just make them stronger.

The most egregious monetization I've seen is still Genshin Impact. I'm not sure if it's still this way since I haven't played it in over a year but it has characters and weapons shared in its gacha and the chances of getting a good 5-star character are 1% with limited windows of availability, and the premium currency is doled out in an absolute trickle 10 or 30 at a time.

 

[Misterbadguy]

Re-rolling is also extremely easy, fairly uncommon with these kind of games. No salting of Gmail addresses or anything like that, just a simple data reset, and from what I've read you get all the pre-reg bonuses again too. Honestly I'm surprised at how comparatively generous it is, I've already got the 5* Murasame and Hauser weapons.

 

[Ite]

Played all day, got a handle on the different systems. I have been soft locked somewhere in the FS storyline. It wants me to either grind out levels to continue, or preferably pay through the nose. Typical.

I have played a lot of gacha this year because I find myself working on a team that is designing one at the moment. Ever Crisis does not get a passing grade from me.

None of my issues are with the gacha, by the way, I have no problem w gacha that’s just a reality of the industry. Gacha has nothing to do with what I’m about to say, you can have excellent games centred on gacha, and bad ones too, the blame or praise doesn’t have to land at gacha’s feet, so don’t blame gacha for this game’s failings. I’m also no stranger to ads-for-gems and the time and place to bitch about that would have been when Candy Crush was new on the market. Please enjoy Baldur’s Gate 3 or the original Final Fantasy VII if you want a more dignified experience.

Music: 11/10 epic stunning gorgeous

Graphics: 7/10 Good I guess but the recreations of the OG lack the original game’s inspiration, coming across pale and flat. #dutchanglegate I like the battle event graphics and it still looks good on the lowest settings without heating up my iPhone 12.

Story: 4/10 what the hell is this cloud atlas dogshit forcing me to stop one storyline and boot up a spoiler-laden prequel, only to stop again to boot up a spoiler-laden prequel to THAT? What’s available from the OG’s story is hacked to high heaven, but hey, points for at least playing it straight… this is still no way at all to experience FF7. Not only would I not recommend EC for newbies, I’d posit that one CANNOT enjoy it unless they’d already sunk hundreds of hours into the various Compilation titles already. Anyone still saying this is the “apology” remake can get bent.

Combat: 3/10 either stressfully slow or stressfully fast, it’s like pinball — you don’t need to do anything for a while until you REALLY DO. There’s no sense of flow or control, and the weapon and materia system doesn’t really bring anything fun to the table. None of the weapon perks I have access to are worth a damn against the vast majority of enemies, or if they are their abilities cost more ATB than the same elemental materia, which means the AI will never use those abilities and neither will I. The most interesting parts of boss fights - trying to interrupt a big charge up attack - is mostly impossible unless you successfully race to grab control of your own party members before the AI uses their ATB. Combat just isn’t fun for me, it takes all the dumbass aesthetics of the three-motherfuckers-in-a-row style and all the neck-bulging stress of an action RPG. Fail fail fail.

Menus/UI: 4/10 afaik there’s no way to sort your items, and your equipment and materia reset with every encounter, which makes the “party” section of the menu basically useless. The in-game shop is hard to find (hint: it’s the Exchange button underneath the irl money shops). For a brand new game this bodes really poorly. As they add features the menus are going to be pretty much impossible to navigate.

I have no idea if I’ll open this tomorrow. Another terrible disappointment from team Final Fantasy.

 

[Makoeyes987]

...Did you not play the beta or something? Literally none of this is new. You've always had to progress through various stories to unlock the next branch in another. And how is it a spoiler, they're all segmented and completely unrelated plots.

And this entire game is easier than it was on beta test. I have no idea how you're walled in at the FS part. They toned the difficulty down significantly since the beta, leaving this game super casual. Auto-battling has literally carried me to beyond the beta test portions in less than a day. I have no idea how this is even stressful.

Nevermind how fucking easy this game is to reroll. I have no clue what you were expecting. This is almost scarily user friendly.

And who ever even said this was an "apology" for the Remake?? I don't understand folks just be projecting things; this game was never meant to replace or substitute any of the FFVII games. The writers literally said that several times. It's its own thing for fun. Why would it be anything else? That'd be the worst idea imaginable.

 

[Sprites]

@Makoeyes987 thats quite an overreaction against someone who's expressing what they like or don't like so far. You sound like you're trying to come off as superior because you've had experience with the beta? Sorry to be blunt about it but not the first time I've noticed your tone like this when you don't like an opinon.

I never got a chance to play the beta, does this mean what I'm about to say you'll get outraged about as well considering I actually found myself agreeing with a fair few of Ite's points.

For me the story so far is very shortened down not necessarily a bad thing but a lot more abridged than what I thought it would be.

I'm still trying to figure out the battle system but I am finding some of the mechanics kinda overwhelming when it comes to trying to interruptions etc and trying to figure out what's best to use and when, I'm sure its a learning curve but its still confusing trying to figure out what I'm doing and the sigils etc, also not everyone likes autobattling.

The stamp card system for the featured draw what is this? I don't understand it and it doesn't feel very clear on the best way to procee when you draw, nor does if you want to buy a pass, that level system thing on it. Also is blue crystals free currency while red is your purchased?


There are too many menus, going from one claim all screen to another to collect everything is ridiculous, no item sorting, its cluttered, trying to figure out my way around them enhancing weapons, sub weapon equipment, trying to figure out how to switch over people and change equipment, its a lot. Honestly doesn't feel very user friendly for beginners.

I mean I imagine I'll eventually enjoy the experience fully but theres a bit too much figuring out to go through for a brand new game.

 

[ForceStealer]

Combat: 3/10 either stressfully slow or stressfully fast, it’s like pinball — you don’t need to do anything for a while until you REALLY DO. There’s no sense of flow or control, and the weapon and materia system doesn’t really bring anything fun to the table. None of the weapon perks I have access to are worth a damn against the vast majority of enemies, or if they are their abilities cost more ATB than the same elemental materia, which means the AI will never use those abilities and neither will I. The most interesting parts of boss fights - trying to interrupt a big charge up attack - is mostly impossible unless you successfully race to grab control of your own party members before the AI uses their ATB. Combat just isn’t fun for me

This is well put. I've been having trouble figuring out why exactly I'm bouncing off the combat. I've enjoyed other mobile/gacha rpgs (for the standard month or two before I get bored). There being simultaneously too much and too little to do I think captures at least some of my issue.

The stamp card system for the featured draw what is this? I don't understand it and it doesn't feel very clear on the best way to procee when you draw, nor does if you want to buy a pass, that level system thing on it. Also is blue crystals free currency while red is your purchased?

Yes on the blue vs red.
And agreed on the stamps thing, I was glazing over by that point, haha. "There's even stuff I have to do just to draw shit optimally?"

 

[Sprites]

@ForceStealer i've played some gachas in my time but this ones definitely a different take on it and while yeah it might help for optimisation but it seems unnecessary?

I can see some QOL changes in the future to adjust menus etc and the draw system as time goes on, i feel like the UI and menus will be a huge feedback point.

Hope they do livestreams like they do with Opera omnia etc

 

[Maidenofwar]

Gave it a bash and as expected my device is not compatible with version for my tablet and well Bluestacks I always had issues with it running quite slow on my PC but I gave it a go with all the downloading, signing in, installing business, eventually did get the game icon added for the game on the desk top which was neat, but yeah app crashes on start up, white screen black line of doom

I am looking to Black Friday or Cyber Monday to maybe get a new tablet or a phone only thing is I might miss out on some costumes and stuff?, which sucks but oh well

 

[Makoeyes987]

Sorry to be blunt about it but not the first time I've noticed your tone like this when you don't like an opinon.

I never got a chance to play the beta, does this mean what I'm about to say you'll get outraged about as well considering I actually found myself agreeing with a fair few of Ite's points.

Not superior or even upset, but it's literally been talked about before and at length in the discord. Especially when we both talked about the fact that the game was most likely going to stagger its FFVII content releases, and not have everything from FFVII all at once. Having to play through other segments to unlock others is the default method of content staggering of story-based anthology gacha, so I don't get why that's so surprising at all.

The stamp card system for the featured draw what is this? I don't understand it and it doesn't feel very clear on the best way to procee when you draw, nor does if you want to buy a pass, that level system thing on it. Also is blue crystals free currency while red is your purchased?

i've played some gachas in my time but this ones definitely a different take on it and while yeah it might help for optimisation but it seems unnecessary?

It's a pity system for the banner. A pity system that actually gives you free stuff to go along with it. I mean, yeah, it's unnecessary but I certainly do like getting free resources along with my guaranteed banner weapon.

And the battle pass is like a watered down version of Genshin's. You get free stuff based on doing random tasks throughout playing.

 

[Suzaku]

［インタビュー］成長途中にある少年時代のセフィロスも登場する「FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS」。野村哲也氏を交えた制作陣にいろいろ聞いた

　スクウェア・エニックスは本日（9月7日），スマホ向けゲーム「FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS」の正式配信を開始した。これに先駆けて，野村哲也氏を含めた本作の制作陣に話を聞けたので，本稿でお届けしよう。

www.4gamer.net

Lisa Fujise was doing the art for KINGDOM HEARTS Missing-Link and Nomura thought her art would work well for EVER CRISIS too, since it slightly resembled the BEFORE CRISIS art but with a more sophisticated modern style, so he stepped aside as illustrator and gave her the job.

Even though Fujise is doing the character art, the characters were still originally designed by Nomura. He designed all the characters for THE FIRST SOLDIER scenario, which was originally conceived as being part of that game. Since everything was being developed in parallel with FFVIIR the stories were all planned out in detail from the start.

The good Sephiroth that appeared in CRISIS CORE and the evil Sephiroth that appeared in the original already had established personalities. TFS depicts him as a teenager, still immature and in the process of developing his personality, and his character design is meant to reflect that. At this point in the story he represents a "new type" of SOLDIER and is trying to fit the mold of "hero" that has been laid out for him. Being surrounded by quirky types of characters like Glenn, Matt, and Lucia causes him some degree of confusion.

Glenn, Matt, and Lucia are from "Project 0" which was an early stage of the SOLDIER plan before its members were subjected to Hojo's experiments, so they're just "normal, amazing people" and represent the potential that humans have. At the time SOLDIER members were chosen from the best of the best of Shinra's ordinary security forces. This TFS story takes place during the transition between these two points in the organization.

Nomura came up with the basic setting and character ideas. He originally intended for Matt to be the protagonist, straight-laced and serious, with Glenn as the quirky partner and Lucia as the mediator between them. After Toriyama took over he shifted Glenn into being the protagonist because he was more charismatic, and developed his backstory further to make him more relatable.

They were designed to wear basic uniforms and not be flashy because TFS was a game where player's customized their own avatars, but in retrospect they felt that the designs were a bit too simple for main characters, which is why they're given new costumes early in the EC scenario.

Young Sephiroth is planned to be playable and they'll announce when that is going to happen in the future. For now the story will be focused on controlling Glenn, Matt, and Lucia.

Content from the novels will be included in some of the side quest stories, such as Tifa meeting the members of AVALANCHE for the first time in Traces of Two Pasts. They will also be creating some new original side story elements, and stories for limited time seasonal events.

 

[Ite]

I do like that Lucia is basically a dead ringer for my FS character. Look ma, I’m canon!

 

[Suzaku]

So at the end of the available TFS chapters they have a teaser for the next chapter which includes playable Sephiroth.

So that should be coming next month. Save some resources for his inevitable weapons and costumes I suppose.

 

[Leafonthebreeze]

I've been playing on my partner's ipad. I definitely greatly preferred first soldier but it's cute enough. I just automate everything so far but I'm not that far in.

 

[Misterbadguy]

Quite enjoying it so far, I'm not usually one for gacha but maybe the FF7 skew was all I needed. Wasn't expecting to like the FS stuff but it's actually alright.

 

[cold_spirit]

I'm a bit disappointed with the game's localization. And no, I'm not referring to when EC copy/pastes from the error-ridden OG script (also really annoying to me). I'm referring to the new dialogue, which can sound stilted.

Here's an example. "Let's just do it" doesn't fit the context. Something like "Let's just get on with it" or "Let's just finish this" would be better. I see this all over. And it's alarming that only English text is available. Taken together, the lack of a good localization and language support, it's clear to me that they wanted to cut costs. Though developed by applibot, Square is backing it financially and I expected better from them.

I’m also no stranger to ads-for-gems and the time and place to bitch about that would have been when Candy Crush was new on the market.

I know you have your reasons to be defensive of gachas and I respect that but I'm still going to call a spade a spade and say "no, it is always okay to be critical and to voice that" lol. Like by your logic, oh fossils fuels are destroying the planet? Too late, should've complained when they started burning coal in the 1700s.

 

[Ite]

I know you have your reasons to be defensive of gachas and I respect that but I'm still going to call a spade a spade and say "no, it is always okay to be critical and to voice that" lol. Like by your logic, oh fossils fuels are destroying the planet? Too late, should've complained when they started burning coal in the 1700s.

Yeah that’s totally fair.

 

[cold_spirit]

You can see smol Cissnei in the bottom left.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1700864488629780780

 

[Suzaku]

Zack's beach costume and Parasol can be earned for free with a minimal amount of grinding. Tifa's and Red XIII's costumes are on the new Stamp banner along with weapons. Looks like Aerith and Cloud will get weapons and costumes next week based on the event story.

The event story is fairly long, cute, and surprisingly a bit touching. Seems to be playing around with the parallel timelines thing, if only a little bit.

Spoiler

Zack is on the beach at Costa del Sol, during the time of his forced leave. Cissnei shows up in her Turks gear searching for an energy signature on the beach which turns out to be a Tonberry dressed up as a watermelon. They beat it and it escapes using a scrapped prototype Portal materia.

It then appears in the OG timeline while Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa are playing with a beach ball. Cloud has been hired as security for a watermelon bash festival in Costa del Sol. They try to track down the Tonberry after beating it and Aerith realizes she can hear it speak because her connection with the Lifestream is heightened near the ocean.

The Tonberry explains to Aerith that it just wants to play with everyone and brings them a giant watermelon. Aerith writes it a letter it can use to explain itself so it can bring fun to other beaches. It hops about happily and runs off.

Back in the Crisis Core timeline Zack is sitting on the beach wishing he had a way to get a message to Aerith. Cissnei says if he wishes hard enough, she might feel it, because she's "an Anc--" and the Tonberry appears through a Portal. They beat it and then read the letter it's carrying.

"Aerith's Theme" starts to plays while Zack reads the letter, which explains that the Tonberry just wants to have fun playing with everyone, signed "a friend." Zack seems to realize who the letter was written by, and walks to the water's edge to say he understands. He explains the situation to Cissnei, saying he'll vouch for the little guy because the letter was written by someone he can trust. He tells Cissnei it's just like she said, "if you wish hard enough." The Tonberry leaves behind a giant watermelon and Zack asks Cissnei to make up a cover story to tell HQ. With her assignment done she leaves to change into her swimsuit, and Zack tells her he can't wait to see it.

 

[Suzaku]

Ponytail Tseng makes me wonder if they're actually going to redesign all the BC Turks in Remake style, since they've taken the effort in Remake to vary up the style, cut, and fabrics of Reno, Rude, Tseng, and Elena's suits.

 

[Ashen]

I wasn't going to download EC right away, but I did, and so far I'm perfectly happy with it. It doesn't seems like I'll really have to pay, unless I'd want some of the fancy stuff, which I don't. The short chapters allow me to play casually, which I guess is the point of this game, and I didn't have any trouble with combat so far, and I don't consider myseld a specially skilled player. I didn't have any trouble running the game in my phone too, which is not the expensive type, and is a couple years old, so lucky me, I guess.

 

[SilverArrow20XX]

Ponytail Tseng makes me wonder if they're actually going to redesign all the BC Turks in Remake style, since they've taken the effort in Remake to vary up the style, cut, and fabrics of Reno, Rude, Tseng, and Elena's suits.

It's still so weird that they made a ponytail Tseng model for Remake, and then just used the regular model in the flashback.

 

[Lex]

I really adore the character portraits on dialogue.

Been playing daily but not really grinding, just popping on once a day for a little bit.

I set it up on Bluestacks aswell but idk if you can jump between devices? I know you can sort of carry progress over but it seems kinda not-seamless if that makes sense.

 

[ultima espio]

Data backup wasn’t easy to figure out, you have to do it in game through the menu and not the title screen, and you must have a Square enix membership account. You can’t use apple or google play.

 

[cold_spirit]

Unfortunately, an accident this weekend caused my phone screen to shatter, so it's at the repair shop. Normally this wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but it had to happen on the first weekend after a mobile-only FFVII title launched. And there's an in-game event to boot. What luck.