I recently finished the prologue to Final Fantasy Dimensions and I want more! Allow me to back up a moment and give you some background info on the game. Final Fantasy Dimensions is similar in style to Final Fantasy V in terms of looks and gameplay. It features a job system, which I love from FFV and the numerous Final Fantasy Tactics games. Dimensions was originally released as an episodic mobile-phone game in Japan from 2010-2011. For the North American release, the game is divided into a free prologue and four chapters. Chapter one costs $2.99, while the other chapters cost $9.99. The whole shebang can be had for $28.99. The game is available on iTunes (universal app, thank Shiva) with a Google Play (Android) release coming soon.
The prologue — which, let’s face it, uses the tried-and-true “first one’s free!” model employed by drug dealers for decades — gives you a basic feel for the game. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a 16-bit RPG. You run around, engage in lots of random battles, find treasure, and crawl through dungeons. It gives you a feel for the controls and basic combat. The action stops after a boss battle, which is sadly right before the job system is introduced.
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The even sadder part is that the other chapters aren’t yet available due to technical difficulties. For job-system marks like me, this is frustrating. I know I’m going to enjoy this game and I want to play more now! Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon or I’m going to march down to Square Enix USA headquarters with my replica Buster Sword (I don’t really have one, but I totally want one…though I probably wouldn’t be able to lift it).
There are eight jobs that can be selected in the early going: freelance videogame writer jobless, warrior, monk, thief, red mage, white mage, black mage, and summoner. As the game progresses, the characters are divided into two factions: the warriors of light and the warriors of darkness. Additional jobs are unlocked for each side in later chapters. The warriors of light jobs are dragoon, bard, memorist, paladin, and seer. The warriors of darkness jobs are ranger, dark knight, dancer, ninja, and magus. Skills from different jobs can be used in conjunction for “fusion” attacks, adding an additional layer of strategy to the traditional turn-based combat.
Visually, the game is unimpressive. This wasn’t a surprise considering that the source material is a mobile-phone game from 2010. The music, however, was a pleasant surprise. The tracks I heard throughout the hour-long prologue were very, very good. I’m looking forward to hearing more.
If you’re an old-school RPG fan — especially one that loves job systems — then Final Fantasy Dimensions is tantalizing. It looks like it will be a great game in the vein of Final Fantasy V. Yes, it’s relatively expensive compared to other Android and iOS games, but many gamers will find the price worth it. Just from the prologue, I’m confident that I will enjoy this game and fairly sure that the $28.99 price will be worth it. Now where the hell are my additional Final Fantasy Dimensions chapters Square Enix?!?
I will wait until it is all out in one release and goes on sale.
That’s the smarter thing to do. I’m too much of a job-system mark to wait. Square Enix’s pricing for mobile games is somewhat controversial…but that’s something I’ll talk more about on Monday’s Coffee Talk.
What do you think of their pricing of the 25th anniversary Final Fantasy Collector’s Bundle? Roughly $450 if you do the conversion which of course is subject to change if ever released outside of Japan. I also found it funny that the bundle includes PS1, PS2, PS3 discs, and a UMD disc for FF3 in the collection. Kind of odd for a system that isn’t backwards compatible no? Why not just release this on 2 or 3 blurays?
It’s for a pretty specific audience. It’s a neat package for collectors…or people that want to smash their friends over the head with 15 pounds of game. People that just want to play have cheaper and easier options.
Yes I agree, though it would be nice of them to offer all of these titles in a big SE bundle during a Steam Sale.
Maybe the bundle struck me as queer due to me playing a lot of Chrono Trigger over the last 3 days.
It’s available now. Just bought the whole thing for $28.99.