We’ve finally got around to try out the "Lite" version of Square Enix’s new team-based action RPG Final Fantasy Explorers; a playable taste of the early stages that allows adventurers to transfer certain parts of their save to the real thing when it releases in Japan today.
Anyone who’s played Monster Hunter or similar games will feel immediately at home here, with most of your time spent choosing a menial task dished out by the local village quest giver and then running out of town and off to complete whatever you were just asked to do, with quests naturally getting more difficult as you go along.
But before that it’s important to prepare for battle first, and in Final Fantasy Explorers that involves picking a job from a selection of series classics, selecting some relevant abilities to help you kill whatever you just signed up to kill, then finally strapping on the best equipment you have to hand and setting off to knock the stuffing out of whatever crosses your path. Jobs fall in to one of four categories, all culled from the typical MMO party set up of tank, healer, damage-dealer and finally a stat-buffer. Players can then customise their chosen role with abilities unlocked using "CP" earned through quests and bought from the giant central crystal in the middle of town. As in similar games equipment can be created, upgraded and customised using materials collected out on the field and from defeated monsters in addition to basic versions bought from the local shop.
Final Fantasy Explorers’ quests are all rather unimaginative — kill six goblins, collect twenty items, kill this boss – that sort of thing. Now it can easily be argued that Monster Hunter is very much the same and you’d be right to do so, but the reason why Final Fantasy Explorers falls down in this area — and Capcom’s wyvern-bothering juggernaut doesn't — is largely due to the enemy behaviour, or in Explorers' case, the lack of it. Enemies in Explorers don’t have any notably unique quirks or personality; there’s no vulnerable body parts, no fight-or-flight reactions to player attacks, and there’s certainly no opportunity to blow sleeping enemies to smithereens with a few sneaky barrel bombs meaning that in the end all the fights feel like a rinse-and-repeat affair of unleashing abilities as often as possible while whittling down the enemy’s health and hoping you brought along enough potions to survive an accidental pummelling. This issue extends to the bosses too, and there’s really no excuse for iconic summons like Ifrit to be reduced to little more than oversized punching bags in yet another overly flat and featureless arena.
The game fails to deliver the expected Final Fantasy visual splendour too, even going so far to disable the 3DS’ stereoscopic screen capabilities. Now we didn't mind this at all in Dragon Quest Monsters 2 because we could see every last drop of graphical power being used to full effect, but Explorers feels distinctively underwhelming compared to even other demos from the same publisher, such as Bravely Second.
Overall Final Fantasy Explorers isn’t actually a bad game, but it suffers from being a merely "OK" one on a handheld that has the most up-to-date and accomplished entry in the genre it’s trying to muscle in on. The game lacks the depth of Monster Hunter and can’t make up for it with style and focus the way the Phantasy Star series arguably does, which leaves this demo feeling rather flat. Perhaps the final game will be better, but for the time being, we can't help but feel a little deflated by this much-hyped release.
Comments 28
Copying a working formula is one thing, but why in the holy goombas name must these "Hunter" games all look so similar ?
Similar HUD, camera angles, art style etc...
Other than that, i hope it makes its way west just to try it and conclude "yep, still no Monster Hunter"
Look Sega just port some phantasy star to 3DS or WiiU please!
I didn't know this was a Monster Hunter-style title. That's too bad, because I never got really into that series. It's een worse to know about how it comes up short in comparison.
Phantasy Star comparison may not be entirely accurate because I don't care for monster hunter, but I loved the Phantasy Star ones. Kerry is this like Lords of Arcana( that one was flat)with a Final Fantasy skin? Lords of Arcana is by SquareEnix and I thought I would be getting the Phantasy Star by now so I picked it up and you described It well flat. I have never been so disappointed. All these games are very similar.
Well, I don't particularly want it to be like Monster Hunter since I still don't know how I feel about that one. This looked like it was going to be as close as I'm going to get to a portable Kingdoms of Amalur, and in that regard, I'm hopeful and eager to play it.
I guess we'll see.
Maybe try localising it first, then we'll talk.
Just give me Final Fantasies 7, 8, and 9 on 3DS and I'll be happy. I think I'll stick to Monster Hunter.
If this releases in the west before DQM2 then DQ will seem better, but it won't make this one seem worse if we play it first.
Speaking of releasing in the west, is this demo available in the west?
This looks like fun multiplayer w/ the boys but at this point STEAM might be the way to go for us.
@audiobrainiac Well those are PlayStation games, so I doubt that will happen. A Final Fantasy 6 remake is more likely on the 3DS.
i would love some REAL TIME action rpg game for 3DS. there are already enough lame roundbased games :/
@Dipper723 yeah I know that's where I played them originally. That's just my wishful thinking talking. I doubt Nintendo fans will ever get them. At least we Bravely Default. Other than that, Square Enix disappoints me. TheatRhythm seems like a taunt for the games we never had on Nintendo consoles and they'll never give us. But I digress, Xenoblade is coming.
@Dipper723 Dragon Quest VII, Atelier Rorona, Tales of the Abyss, Disgaea, Resident Evil, Xenosaga I & II, Point Blank, Rhapsody, and Metal Gear Solid 3 were all originally exclusive to PS1/2/3 and later ported/remade for DS/3DS.
So it's basically 3DS's Ragnarok Odyssey; decent, but unimaginative and with too many overly bright colors.
I would still get it if an extended version releases here (like Ragnarok Odyssey Ace), but it's too bad that the 3DS doesn't get any unique MH alternatives as good as Vita's Soul Sacrifice, God Eater 2, and Freedom Wars.
Of course there's the MH games on 3DS, but it'd be nice to see more variety in the genre for 3DS.
@originaljohn
If they're not going to bring over the PC and Vita Phantasy Star games over, they're definitely not going to make and release anything on Nintendo platforms.
I think I love myself some Monster Hunter, don't know how to feel about Monster Hunter Lite.
@Dipper723 The Final Fantasy VI remake is not likely to happen for 3DS either. They put the remake only on mobile! They also won't put Final Fantasy Dimensions on another platform besides mobile, even though the game needs better controls! Ever since it became trendy to make mobile games, Square has stopped allowing their remakes on dedicated handhelds. To be clear, I hate mobile gaming, and I hope Square Enix goes out of business soon.
@JWFinnegan I quite agree.
From what I saw so far this games shouldn't feel like Monster Hunter, but more of an action MMO, common in PCs.
@audiobrainiac I enjoyed Theatrhythm Curtain Call, but it seems stupid, what they're doing. The fact that they developed it for 3DS, means that they know that there are Nintendo fans that want to play FF games, but they won't let us have them. If they thought that Nintendo fans don't like Final Fantasy, then why develop Theatrhythm for the 3DS?
FF X/X-2 HD Remaster was just released earlier this year for PS3 and Vita; but next spring will see the game getting a new remaster for PS4! So dumb! Instead of remastering a PS3 game for the PS4, how about bringing it to the Wii U, so a different audience can enjoy it? On top of that, the PS3/Vita version was a remaster of a PS2 game! I appreciated having the game available for my Vita, so in that case I'm not going to complain about it, but that's the limit of how many times they should remaster it for Playstation systems, at least for a long time. They don't need to remaster it for every Playstation platform available. If they can re release it yet again for the PS4 in spring, the time is right to bring it to Wii U. The 3DS couldn't handle a port of the PS3 version, but it would even be possible to port the PS2 versions of FF X/X-2 to the 3DS. PS2 games have been ported to the 3DS before (Tales of the Abyss.)
I'm not hating on Sony or anything, but as a side note, I wish that they had just made the PS4 backwards compatible with PS3 games, so that 3rd parties wouldn't have any excuse to be doing this.
@AVahne When you have the real deal there really isn't much desire for second-bests.
And with Monster Hunter 4 coming March 31, many here in this comment section (myself included) will soon be MIA for about 3-4 months
I'd actually be interested in playing this game, I think there's WAAAAAY too much grind/menial work in the Monster Hunter series
I actually don't like the stress which Monster Hunter Causes me. This may actually be right up my alley. I love Fantasy life and the relaxing presentation. Maybe this will dish up that kind of feel. That's just me.
Sounds like a disappointment. I won't be too upset if it never gets localized.
I just want the first 6 Final Fantasy titles on the virtual console.
just looks like a Better PS0 (Zero the DS game) to me still its a insta buy i love this sort of game co-op or to just waste time on.
Hmm.... I'll wait to hear more information.
@Volmun Phantasy Star Zero was awesome. Im in a group who played it right down to server shutdown. Up until server shutdown it was the best DS online RPG. If Final Fantasy Explorers is as good or better I will be a happy camper. I hope its better
@Windy agreed it was a awsome game I sadly never got to go online with it for some strainge reason I culdnt get eniy DS games online after somthing happend to my internet -_- tryed on DS DSi and 3DS - but Yeah im hopeing its atleast Equally as good if not better.
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