Tag: Final fantasy »

Mobage has developed a bit of a “thing” for freemium collectible card games lately. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just that there are a lot of them floating around now and it can be difficult to figure out which ones to stick with. Of course everyone already knows how I feel about Rage of Bahamut, but while it will always be my number one I feel confident in stating that Fantasica sits right next to it as number two.

Card collecting and enhancement is still the primary focus with this new Mobage title, but the formula has also been significantly tweaked in places. After the basics are covered in the tutorial players are given clearance to do whatever they wish, be it questing, training, fighting, and so on. Questing in Fantasica is like a simplistic game of tower defense: Enemies pour in and must be dispatched before they reach the exit, which requires placing characters along the path and putting their abilities to good use. Training is more of a simple lottery-style mini-game that has the player’s chosen leader character walking down a straight path, killing enemies to earn experience and finding treasure chests with cash or new characters along the way.

Unlike many other freemium games of this type, all actions aren’t tied to specific meters that refill over time. Instead, everything other than Training is tied to countdown clocks. Completing a quest of any sort initiates a cooldown phase, ranging from one minute to an hour or more, that can either be waited out or instantly refreshed with special items. I still haven’t decided how I feel about this method, but it seems to work pretty well all things considered. I’ve yet to get to a point where I’ve run out of things to do. It’s easy for me to get hung up on all the little elements that make Fantasica feel like more of a game than a browser-based affair, but I want to make sure I give the artwork and character designs their due. In short, they’re spectacular. And with good reason; it’s all been penned by Hideo Minaba. Yes, that Hideo Minaba.

As impressed as I’ve been with Fantasica I’ve still had a few issues with it. Mostly it’s that the menu interface is a bit busy which makes navigation a pain. I’m also not a fan of the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen since it forces me to actively search for my ally list, among other things. There are also certain concepts such as how defending against attackers works that aren’t communicated clearly at all.

I have to admit, despite the perplexing UI, Fantasica is a solid free-to-play. One with actual gameplay in it, no less. It’s too soon to tell whether it will surpass Mobage’s main juggernaut, but it’s certainly poised to make an attempt.

Released a little over a month ago, sequel to popular Square Enix game Chaos Rings, Chaos Rings II, has received its first major update. Most important of the added features include a higher level cap for both the player and dungeons.

The update, called “My Fang is All About the Magnum!,” increased the dungeon level cap from 100 to 200. So now players will have much more difficult dungeons to work through. To aid those players in defeating those tougher dungeons, the player level cap has been increased to 150. In addition to the increased level caps, the game has also released a hidden boss and unlocked a new P.U.B. side quest for players to tackle.

Another update, schedule for next month, is supposed to further increase the level cap for players, add more special quests, and release more hidden bosses. That update is titled “Give Earthly Desires the Boot!”

Chaos Rings II is a turn-based strategy RPG similar to other classic RPG titles from Square Enix like the prolific and popular Final Fantasy series.

Square Enix sure knows how to keep iOS device owning RPG fans happy. Whether it's by releasing new games like Chaos Rings or resurrecting old classics like Final Fantasy 1, 2 and 3, JRPG fans are guaranteed a good time.

Why am I explaining all this? Because Square Enix has just announced that one of the greatest RPGs of all time, Chrono Trigger, is heading to the iPhone and iPod Touch sometime before the end of the year!

For the uninformed, Chrono Trigger was a fantastic collaborative effort by the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii. Originally released on the SNES, it's a lengthy tale of time travel to all sorts of places from the Middle Ages to a post-apocalyptic future and boasts 15 different endings.

No price details or exact release date have been announced just yet but we have got some pretty screenshots to stare at in preparation.

For now, be very excited by the forthcoming release of Chrono Trigger. It's a true classic of the genre.

A new hybrid form of game and comic is set to be released by Square Enix for iOS devices.

Known as Imaginary Range, the app sets out to allow players to flick through comic pages while also playing through a variety of different game sequences. Games look to be mostly mini-game in nature within a full-color comic book and similarly detailed plot.

The project has been overseen by Motomu Toriyama, director of Final Fantasy XIII, with novelist Souki Tsukishima handling the storyline, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series artist Toshiyuki Itahana in charge of the artwork. With pedigree that strong Imaginary Range is looking rather interesting indeed.

The comic/game is set in France during an attack by an evil creature known only as Omega and it's down to Cid (yes, Final Fantasy fans, another character called Cid) and Ciela to stop this menance.

Once you complete the story, you can then unlock further comic commentary as well as the ability to play the game separately from the comicbook. If gameplay is anything like the visuals then Imaginary Range could well be something special.

Even better, it's free to download and an universal app so iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch fans alike can enjoy it.

This week, April 17-24, Japanese company GREE announced a $104 million acquisition of OpenFeint, the social gaming network that operates similarly to Apple Game Center. For consumers, this meanss "faster SDK updates, awesome new products, and network improvements" (official press release). 148Apps Founder Jeff Scott comments "this acquisition seems to be a win for both parties and will allow OpenFeint to continue to do the great work that they do while letting GREE better benefit from that."

In other news, Final Fantasy users can rejoice with gladness, for the third instalment of the popular game is now available to download natively on the iPad. "The iPad version of the game features improved 3D visuals and the touch screen controls have been adjusted specifically for the iPad" writes Phillip Levin. "Today, many consider Final Fantasy III to be one of the greatest RPGs of all time." Follow the link below to get stuck in.

You Don't Know Jack picked up the latest Editor's Choice badge at 148Apps. The comical application that tests how smart you really are, by asking you inquisitive questions designed to question what you've perhaps always thought to be true. "Simply put, You Don’t Know Jack is the kind of experience that not only stretches the mind with challenge, but inversely massages it with humor to ease the blow of defeat" writes Blake Grundman. "Buy it for that know-it-all in your life, because sometimes it is just too much fun to see a person put in their place. Rest assured that it will be fun for all parties involved."

You may remember in last week's column that I mentioned Tweetbot, the new and exciting application designed to challenge the official Twitter app. Since then, Jeff Scott has taken it for an in-depth test drive and is suitably impressed. "Tweetbot does everything you’d expect a Twitter client to do ... [and] has a few great unique features aimed mainly at saving you some time [like new gestures]." Although it isn't perfect, with some animation lag and lack of response at times, Jeff has "been using Tweetbot exclusively on [his] iPhone for almost a week now. Now this review is done, [he] will stick with it."

Episode 81 of The Portable Podcast is available to download, featuring guests Dave Castelnuovo from Bolt Creative. Host Carter Dotson and Dave discuss the mobile industry and the questionable freemium price model that some developers have scrapped in favour of traditional pricing models.

That's all for this week! 148Apps wishes you a happy spring holiday of your choosing, and we encourage you to check back frequently for the latest reviews and news when it comes to iOS and your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. See you soon!

A few weeks/months back, Square-Enix announced that Final Fantasy 1 & 2 would be coming to the iPhone. Being a Final Fantasy fan, I got all excited, but knew that I would explode unless I pushed such news out of my head. After checking out Square's Facebook page this morning though, my excitement was renewed because of two new screenshots.

Unfortunately, the release date is still under wraps by the marketing team, but we will certainly know soon enough. Until then, enjoy the new screens!

The hype machine started churning back in January when Square Enix announced iPhone ports of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. The announcement was an exciting one, certainly; it's hard to get more classic than the original FF titles! Back then, we only had a few screenshots to salivate over, but now we have quite a few additional screenshots, a trailer...and a promise that they're "coming soon." Now you can feast your eyes on the live gameplay shown in the trailer while we wait anxiously for the actual games to hit the App Store. (Chocobos anyone?) Rest assured, we'll be following these two titles closely.

There are few games that can match the Final Fantasy series for sheer longevity. The original Final Fantasy was released back in 1987, and more than twenty years later, it's impossible to ignore the series' impact upon role-playing games. While the series has moved far beyond the scope of the original release, spawning countless spinoffs and sequels, the first two games are where it all began—and these are the ones that Square Enix has announced for an iPhone release. This isn't the first time we've seen some old games ported to the App Store, but it's definitely an exciting announcement.

We don't yet know when the titles will be released to the App Store. An announcement along with some screenshots was posted to the Square Enix Facebook page last night, leaving the release date a tantalizing "TBA." The games appear to be similar to the PSP ports.

Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II promise some classic goodness for old-school gamers, and we're already itching to get our hands on them. Hopefully, "TBA" means "sometime really, really soon."

[gallery size = "thumbnail"]