Mobius Final Fantasy (Review)

2016 seems to be the year of Final Fantasy. First we have the classic JRPG styled, Final Fantasy: Brave Evius, along with the much anticipated Final Fantasy XV comes the release of another Square mobile game, Final Fantasy: Mobius.

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Mobius places the player in the shoes of “Blank”, our protagonist or should I say the amnesiac protagonist who awakens in the world of Palamecia. Now as you are going though the opening cut scene you get to set the name of your character before they awaken on Palamecia. Once you awaken you are told by a spectral voice aptly named, Vox, that you are the one destined to be the “Hero of Light” and the savior of the world!

You quickly discover that there are others like you who are also a part of the same destiny, so while you are all “destined” to be the prophesied savior, only one of you will. Your character is somewhat reluctant and unsure of his destiny, heads of to fulfill that prophecy. As you leave you run into Garland, a tall man wearing full body silver armor who wields a brown and red greatsword. You see him more throughout the game, he offers guidance as he sees something in you and urges you to head north like Vox has instructed.

Now that we have the plot roughly shaped out let’s talk about the mechanics of the game itself. Mobius is a turn-based-with-an-element-of-tactics combat-centric game for iOS and Android platforms. You travel the map going from one node to another after completing a number of battles that unlocks the next node. Capturing a victory on each node helps move the story along in game as well as unlocking items that can be used to level your characters Job or Ability cards.

During the first part of the game you gain the ability to teleport to larger nodes, which makes things easier when you want to backtrack, train a new Job card or to gain key items that are required for unlocking certain nodes.

Now a couple notable features in the game are the element system and the Job cards, this is where the tactics part of the game comes in to play. There are a total of six elements. Those familiar with RPGs know that those elements are fire and water, wind and earth, and the two rarest of the six being light and shadow. As those who regularly play RPGs know that the elements are paired off just like in Final Fantasy X. Each element is stronger against its opposite, such as a fire attack causes more damage to a water based enemy and vice versa.

Now the Job cards range from Onion Knight, Mage and Ranger. Each Job card you equip can use the element cards you receive in the game but each card can only use three of those six elements. For example, the Onion Knight can use fire, water, and earth, whereas a mage can use fire, water, and wind. Each Job can equip up to four Ability cards that make up the level of that particular Job card. Switching the Job card that is equipped to your character depending on the enemies you face on particular nodes is a basic strategy used in the game.

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Now the combat mechanics are very straight forward, it’s a mobile game not a console game. You have one of your enemies selected and then by tapping the screen your character will execute a physical attack. Every time you hit an enemy with a physical attack, that enemy releases element spheres that are then absorbed by your character to build up your special attack meter for the four ability cards equipped by your character.

Special attacks are not only element-based for more effective attacks or less effective if you chose the wrong special attack for that enemy, but they will largely weaken an enemy’s break gauge against regular physical attacks. After fully depleting an enemy’s break gauge, it will “break” them, briefly knocking them off balance to where your attacks will do essentially double the damage. Some enemies can only be effectively damaged when “broken.”

There’s a lot more details in the type of ability cards and items and whatnot, but that’s a very basic overview of the game.

While it is a Final Fantasy game, as of right now there is not the hugely in-depth story that we are accustomed to from a Final Fantasy game. This is not necessarily a bad thing, the very casual play to kill time feel can feel monotonous at times even with the element based tactics to keep you on your toes.

If you are looking for a plot-heavy JRPG, this game is not that, at least not for the time being. Square has more chapters planned for release that will help expand the story. But if you want a casual, engaging, very pretty, combat game, then download and play Final Fantasy Mobius.

The game is also a free-to-play game that means there’s a stamina system that limits how much you can play as well as the drawing, leveling, and merging of cards. OF course you can always purchase more stamina and items to progress faster through the games than those just playing through.

I enjoy the game so far and play it every so often to kill time. While the story is on the light side, Square Enix plans to continuously add to the story in future updates. So hopefully they help expand the story and make it as in-depth as their other Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy Mobius is available now for both iOS and Android.

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