I Bounced Off FF7: Ever Crisis In a Few Days

I was one of the first to download, but something about Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis just hasn’t clicked. 

Some of you will know that I’m a Final Fantasy 7 superfan. This remake-but-not was seemingly made for me and me alone. And yet in translation to a gacha mobile game, it has lost some of its soul.

The gang are all there, and they look great. And the story beats are pretty well represented too, even if you’re racing through them quite quickly. Hell, even the combat isn’t awful, although being able to have it play itself automatically should be a pretty big red flag.

But when you take that adventure and make it episodic, topped and tailed by advertising and things you can buy, it destroys some of the pacing. It makes it feel cheap.

This is my initial opinion and I’ve sworn I’ll head back to it. I’m hoping that once the newness has worn off that I’ll be able to really get into it, and that I’ll be able to write a full review for Gamesreviews.

But I have no drive to return. I know that a million pop-ups will be waiting for me. I know I’ll be driven to accept a bunch of gifts before I get to a single piece of dialogue.

It’s odd because, unlike some, I knew exactly what to expect. From the very first announcement, I was in no way expecting a full remake. It’s a free-to-play mobile game, so the idea of it not containing annoying pop-ups seemed unlikely. And yet even with those expectations, I’ve been surprised.

Is this really how some people play games?

Ever Crisis in Mobile Gaming

Part of the problem is that I’m not a mobile gamer. I’m not used to a significant portion of my gaming time being interrupted by non-gaming related content. Yeah, it’s cool you can dress up your characters or whatever. Why do I need to hear about it every two seconds?

This could’ve been the game to convert me, but I think those expectations were a little too wild. It is what it is, and that’s a problem with me, not with the game itself. A brief search shows there are people who are enjoying it, and all the more power to them.

More than six million people have downloaded the game since it went live, or so the notifications the game pushes to guilt me into returning say. “Don’t forget your daily login!” I notice as I swipe it away as soon as possible. Either way, I’m sure Square are happy with the results so far. That is truly impressive – bordering on sales for Remake, although with a lower barrier of entry.

And that really is the curious question in all of this. With the news that the next iPhone will play console games like Resident Evil 4 and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a new market is seemingly opening up in the mobile space. Play console games natively, but without the console. Sounds pretty good if the Switch is anything to go by.

But those games are unlikely to hit anywhere close to six million users on mobile. At least not until the tech is established and we’re a few years into it. So if Ever Crisis remains more popular, will publishers not just continue doing those types of games?