Final Fantasy Explorers

Did You Know?

• The game's premise revolves around explorers from the rural town of Libertas who hunt the world for crystals, objects which are the source of life and civilization.
• The most major source of crystals is the new island of Amostra, but they are guarded by fearsome beasts.
• Players start the game as a Freelancer, able to adapt themselves to various skills before choosing specific jobs.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy Explorers is an action role-playing game that can be played alone or with others. The adventure begins on an island with several locations, and players can reach other areas by walking. The primary objective is to gather crystals found throughout the world. Unlike many story-focused Final Fantasy games, this one uses a quest-based structure similar to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Monster Hunter. Players can adjust how hard a quest is. Chocobos cannot be ridden. Battles feature classic series enemies and summons like Ifrit and Bahamut. There are four character slots; the three ally spots can be filled by other human players or by monsters the player has beaten. Characters choose jobs like White Mage, Black Mage, Monk, Paladin, and Dragoon, plus some jobs unique to this game. Everyone begins as a Freelancer, able to try different skills before picking a job. Over five hundred pieces of equipment can be crafted from materials found in the field or earned in combat. Each character can use up to eight skills in battle. Skills can be learned for specific jobs and, once mastered, used with other jobs. Using an ability costs magic points, but the cost is lower if the skill matches the character’s current job. Skills can also be cancelled during a fight. For multiplayer, up to four players can join a session using the Nintendo Network or standard Wi-Fi.

Development

Final Fantasy Explorers was first conceived by director Atsushi Hashimoto, who had previously worked on the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy Legend II. His initial idea was to create a multiplayer role-playing game set in the Final Fantasy universe. A key early decision was to include battles against classic summoned monsters, which Hashimoto believed would give the game a sense of nostalgic familiarity. The job system was added later, when he decided it would complement the multiplayer focus. The game’s music was composed by Tsuyoshi Sekito. At the start of his work, he only had concept art and key pieces to reference, which made him worry he might not produce the right sound. However, when he finally met the development team, they were happy with what he had created. The main theme was built around the concept of the title characters, while also incorporating darker tones like the suffering of the land. The game was first revealed in early June 2014 in Shonen Jump, and its official website launched on June 16. Hashimoto’s primary goal was to make the game easy for newcomers to pick up. Square Enix developed it with the intention of launching a new action role-playing subseries.

Reception

Final Fantasy Explorers received mixed reviews, with an aggregated score of 69/100 based on 57 reviews on Metacritic. IGN wrote that for a few hours it is a charming little adventure fun to play alone or with friends, but repetitive quests, lack of serious challenge until late in the story, and a poor travel system eventually broke the charm. GameSpot wrote that the sheer number of quests and complexity of customization will keep players busy for hours, and that even though its economy leaves something to be desired, it is not clunky enough to dissuade working hard to earn items and craft ultimate armor. Final Fantasy Explorers sold over 265,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2015.