Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius

Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius
Developer(s)	gumi Inc.[1]
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Director(s)	Eiji Takahashi
Producer(s)	Hisatoshi Hayakashi Hiroki Fujimoto
Writer(s)	Yukinori Kitajima Nanako Saito
Composer(s)	Noriyasu Agematsu
Series	Final Fantasy
Platform(s)	iOS, Android
Release date(s)	JP: October 22, 2015 WW: June 29, 2016
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius (ファイナルファンタジー ブレイブエクスヴィアス, Fainaru Fantajī Bureibu Ekusuvuiasu) is a mobile role-playing game developed by A-Lim and published by Square Enix for iOS and Android devices.

A spinoff of the Final Fantasy series, the game marks as the first collaborative effort between Square-Enix and A-Lim, the creator of Brave Frontier, and draws elements from A-Lim's previous game.^[2][3] It was released in Japan in October 22, 2015. As of 2016, the app has been downloaded over 5 million times.

Gameplay

Brave Exvius is designed as a turn-based role-playing game, using elements from the Final Fantasy series with those of Brave Frontier. Similar to Brave Frontier, the battle system consists of a simplified interface where players can command their characters to attack by touching the character's corresponding attack button, and special attacks or items can be used by swiping the button and choosing the desired command. Players advance through a series of stages until they encounter and defeat the end boss, all while gaining experience points, crafting materials and money.

The game also uses elements from the Final Fantasy series such as magic spells, character-specific limit breaks, and summon monsters. As part of the game's gacha system, players can summon characters from other Final Fantasy titles, which players can use to build a party of five units. Characters are presented in a pixel art style.^[4] Also new to the game compared to Brave Frontier is the ability to explore through towns through touch control in a classic RPG style, which allows the player to talk to people and interact with them, which sometimes gives the player certain quests to complete. Also after completing one dungeon, they can also wander through dungeons which also allows them to obtain more items and complete certain quests.

Story

In a world filled with fantasy, there are two powerful forces in balance: Vision and Lapis. Vision is the manifestation of people's thoughts and feelings and Lapis is the world where all Magic Crystals exist alongside all the visions of the world. With these powers, people flourished in the land and the whole world prospered. However, sometimes peace can be false and darkness can devour the light. As the world of Lapis is falling to its own destruction, two brave warriors stand up against the darkness with the power of Visions in order to bring peace back to the land.

The story focuses on Rain, a young knight from the Kingdom of Grandshelt. Though a stalwart knight in his own right, he feels overshadowed by his father, Sir Raegan. He and his childhood friend Lasswell are traveling on their airship when they encounter a young woman trapped in a crystal who begs assistance from them. She leads them to the Earth Shrine, where the Earth Crystal is under attack by Veritas of the Dark (Dark Lord), who claims to be one of the Sworn Six of Paradia. While the Dark Lord's real motive remains unknown, it seems that he wants to end the world by destroying all crystals. Though Rain and Lasswell have never heard of either Veritas or his organization, he proves to be a formidable foe, destroying the Earth Crystal despite their opposition. With the help of the young woman from the crystal, Fina, a healer and archer who has lost her memory, the two set out to track down Veritas and stop his rampage.

Characters

Rain

Rain is the son of Sir Raegan, a young knight from the Kingdom of Grandshelt. Back in his youth, he has been trained to become a fine swordsman by Sir Raegan. However, Sir Raegan disappeared at some point when Rain was still young, so Rain gradually grew to hate his father. It was unclear if Sir Raegan is still alive.

Rain is smart, kind and committed to his country. He sees it as his responsibility to look after and help others within his capabilities. This can be seen throughout the game where Rain goes out of his way to help a number of characters who later become part of his party. While Rain is a natural-born leader, he can be quite stubborn-headed and reckless at times.

There seems to be a connection between Rain, the Crystals and the power he obtained from Vision. When he was still young, Rain touched a crystal where Fina was trapped inside. He later experienced an excruciating pain, where he was later healed by Fina. The adult Rain experienced a similar encounter during the Olderion Water Town episode, and was once again rescued by Fina. However, the connection is yet to be revealed.

Lasswell

In the game, Lasswell is a swordsman but he also masters the magic of ice and wind.

Lasswell is an orphan who grew up with Rain. He was raised and trained by Sir Raegan. Since young, Lasswell was very envious of Rain's learning abilities, so he trained extra hard in order to not be left behind. But more importantly, due to his kinship with Sir Raegan, Lasswell sees it as his duty to protect Rain and to help Rain succeed as a knight. Lasswell and Sir Raegan enjoyed a very special relationship which led to Sir Raegan gifting Lasswell the famous sword "Purple Lightning". As he lost his parents, Lasswell came to see Sir Raegan as a fatherly figure and he holds the utmost respect for Sir Raegan. In fact, Lasswell and Rain sometimes fight because of Sir Raegan.

Unlike Rain, Lasswell is level-headed and does not act out of his emotions. It might look like Lasswell is emotionless, until he meets Emma, the orphaned girl in the island of Kolobos.

While he generally follow Rain's lead, he does voice his objections.

Fina

A young woman trapped in a crystal who begs assistance from Rain and Lasswell. She leads them to the Earth Shrine and provided Rain and Laswell the power of visions to combat Veritas of the Dark, one of the Sworn Six of Paradia. She apparently suffers from amnesia, which also explains her cheerful personality despite danger.

Lid

A passionate young mechanic that Rain's party encounters at the industrial city of Dilmagia. She dreams of earning the title "Cid"; a prestigious title given to the brightest of engineers. She has a strong obsession for money, however. She assists the party to the Wind Shrine to stop Veritas of the Heavens, one of the Sworn Six of Paradia, from destroying the Wind Crystal.

She has a mechanical Chocobo named "Mechabo" which she built alongside her older brother, Evan.

Nichol

A brilliant strategist and one of Olderion's Warden of the Waters. Rain's party first encountered Nichol when the latter's group was attacked by monsters. However, despite Rain's efforts to save them, Nichol thanked the party by berating them for "ruining their strategy". Despite his sharp mouth and taciturn disposition, he has a deep and caring side; especially towards his siblings, Elle and Luka.

Development

The game was first revealed at the Final Fantasy Live Event in Tokyo alongside Final Fantasy Legends: Toki no Suishō and the Final Fantasy Portal App^[5] Eiji Takahashi and Hisatoshi Hayakashi of Brave Frontier both direct and produce the game^[6] while Noriyasu Agematsu composed the game's musical score.^[7] Illustrations of the characters are handled by Yoshitaka Amano, who illustrated art on early Final Fantasy works.^[8][9][10] On August 26, 2015 a beta test began for the Android version of the game for a limited number of players who had registered accounts on Square Enix Japanese website.^[11] A English global release was announced^[12] with the beta version being released in Sweden, alongside the pre-registration campaign.^[13][14] It was then released on May 2016 with more info of the release be revealed at the 2016 E3 expo.^[15]

Reception

It has a score of 75% on Metacritic.^[16] TouchArcade awarded it a score of 3.5 out of five, saying " It's worth a shot if you're a fan of Square's classic RPG series, but in trying to stretch out to two different camps, I fear it may not entirely please either."^[17] As of January 2016, the game has been downloaded 5 million times.^[18] Mobile titles like Exvius helped Square Enix achieve profitability in 2015, in conjunction with other mobile titles it created.^[19]

References

External links

• Official website