Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: android, Final Fantasy, game review, HRL, ios, Mobius Final Fantasy, Square Enix, Steam

Review: Mobius Final Fantasy Is An Interesting Hybrid Experiment, But It Doesn't Quite Meet The Mark

Mobius Final Fantasy is both a mobile game and a Steam game, because people enjoy the hell out of crossplay. Mobius was one of the first mobile titles to have high-fidelity graphics in many of its cinematics and even in much of its gameplay. It is something of a hybrid creation trying to bridge the gap between AAA Final Fantasy titles and mobile Final Fantasy titles. And it does a pretty alright job.

The game's graphics, while not quite 4K quality, are a bit glitzier than we usually see in mobile games — especially ones that hit the market in 2015 (in Japan, anyway; the worldwide release came about a year later in 2016). But hey, it's always nice to see glamorous 3D graphics on a mobile RPG.

And the game has a pretty solid following — perhaps the best of any mobile game in the FF franchise. That's saying quite a bit, as it has some solid competition thanks to Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and the recently launched King's Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon. The latter game is absolutely responsible for a minor case of insanity that resulted in the game being crowned Bleeding Cool's Game Of Show for E3 2017.

It is also worth noting that the team behind Mobius worked on the Final Fantasy XIII series of games. FFXIII has returned to us through Mobius Final Fantasy in a number of crossovers, helping extend the saga of Lightning despite the end of the console series.

And that shows, as well. The story is a little bit more confusing than you may like from your FF titles that generally run along the lines of something something crystals, friendship, something something the Warrior of Light.

Mobius Final Fantasy has all the usual FF elements, an interesting battle system, and a decently compelling story. Moogles abound, so I hope you like them — because otherwise, you are somewhat SOL. The game's battle system uses elemental and basic attacks to break an enemy's guard and then damage them in what is essentially a less static-looking Active Time Battle — which means it should feel pretty familiar. ABT systems abound throughout JRPGs, and many of Square's Final Fantasy games at that, so it is familiar territory. Things get a bit more interesting when you realize that your character takes in elemental energy based on a randomly selected serious of icons that run along the top of the HUD.

On mobile, it is very easy to figure out the system, track it, and run with it.

On PC, it's a little different, because the UI isn't quite as streamlined. Because the game is designed for mobile titles, you do a lot of pointing and clicking, which can feel somewhat monotonous and also seem a little, well, silly. However, once you get to the parts of the game that involve cinematics, having Mobius on PC really is worth it. It really is just nice to have a quality display for those cinematic sequences.

It's a pretty gorgeous game as far as mobile titles go. But no part of Mobius quite makes the mark as either an iconic mobile title or a gorgeous PC title. Like many hybrid creations, it is okay at being both things, but great at neither. And that is its one true failing.

That said, if you were going to pick up a mobile Final Fantasy, you could do much worse than pick up Mobius. The Final Fantasy Portal app comes to mind.

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