Hey, you! This column is part of a regular series in which we share what Tom’s Guide staff members are playing and enjoying right now, with a focus on helping you find great games you might have missed. Be sure to check out our last entry, where we talk about Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII – Reunion.
Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 is a great example of what a sequel to a game should not be. It’s a shallow, boring, and repetitive game, which is bad enough on its own. But it’s also a complete disappointment after the franchise Dimensions Final Fantasy, which is arguably worse. If the original FFD represented what mobile gaming should have been, FFD2 represents what it has become – and why the current mobile gaming space has become such a wasteland.
If you’re hoping for some kind of “but” that eventually finds a saving grace, you have to keep hoping. Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 is the kind of game that might make you despair of the entire mobile gaming scene. Even when a company removes predatory practices from a free-to-play game and charges a single flat fee for it, nothing can fix the rugged and frivolous game design that F2P requires in the first place. FFD2 is the kind of game that makes you wonder if there was any hope for mobile gaming at all.
Great predictions
I wrote about the original Final Fantasy Dimensions a few weeks ago, and discussed how much I enjoyed the game. For those who haven’t played it, it’s a classic retro JRPG that takes inspiration from the SNES Final Fantasy games. It is a completely original adventure, with complex gameplay, an entertaining storyline and charming retro graphics. It is also a fully paid game, devoid of ads, microtransactions, and external multiplayer challenges.
Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 may share a name and some wayward characters with its predecessor, but that’s about all it has in common. While Square Enix designed the original FFD from the ground up as a paid game, FFD2 began life as a free-to-play adventure for the Japanese market.
The playing field is simple enough. You play as Morrow, a young dreamer who teams up with Wrieg, an experienced adventurer, and Aemo, a mysterious amnesiac girl. The three of you set off on a time travel journey to save the world, going through tons of turn-based combat, acquiring new equipment, and customizing your skills as you go. It looks like a traditional Final Fantasy setting – but there’s a catch.
Without going into extensive detail about the game’s complex development history, it had all the trappings you’d expect from a free-to-play RPG. You will spend Action Points to get into battles, and they will recharge over time. You had to search for a bunch of different currencies and resources to upgrade your characters instead of just leveling them up. You can add friends in a multiplayer mode that allows you to call in outside help for battles. Naturally, you can purchase a slew of in-game resources to speed things up. If you’ve ever played a game like this, I needn’t tell you that it can get really boring really fast.
However, when FFD2 got a worldwide release, Square Enix took the game offline and put a $14 price tag on it. This sounds like a dream come true: a mobile game with absolutely no F2P nonsense. You can play FFD2 for as long as you want. There are no artificial grinding barriers. You don’t have to befriend a bunch of strangers, remember to log in every day to get a reward, or debate whether you’d rather waste your time or money buying in-game currency. You can just play the game (even offline!) and enjoy it.
Or at least you can, if the game is fun.
The problem with F2P
The problem with Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 is that once you’ve removed all of the F2P stuff, there’s almost nothing left. In the first game, you can traverse an extensive map of the world, explore maze-like dungeons, solve devious puzzles, search for treasure chests, hone your skills and take on interesting side missions as well as simply fight monsters.
On the other hand, FFD2 is all about fighting monsters all the time.
The game doesn’t have an explorable world map, for starters. Just click on a new location, watch a cutscene, run through a series of battles, watch another cutscene, and repeat until the game is over – or until you get bored, which will likely happen first.
To be fair, there are a few Final Fantasy trappings. You can buy new equipment in the city, but all you have to do is choose the items from the list. You cannot walk around and see the sights. You can discover new summon spells and learn new abilities, but there is almost no customization involved. Simply equip a new summon until you learn the relevant spell, which you’ll do automatically when you’ve fought enough battles. You can take on side missions, but each one is just another series of battles. Combat isn’t just a central mechanic in FFD2; It’s the only mechanic.
All of this might be acceptable if the combat system were particularly deep and detailed, but it isn’t. As long as you occasionally learn new skills and roll summoning spells, most fights are positively trivial. Pressing the Auto button once will successfully complete almost anything outside of a boss fight. Bosses, meanwhile, may require a few healing spells, and nothing more. My phone often goes to sleep in the midst of battles, simply because the game requires very little input from me.
There is a certain kind of mindless satisfaction to FFD2, as you effortlessly defeat enemies and watch your party numbers go up over time. The story and characters aren’t bad either, so there’s a bit of motivation to get to the next plot point. However, the most interesting thing about FFD2 is, ironically, how monotonous it is.
I can’t stand F2P mobile games, but I always assumed it was because they put so much unnecessary junk between the player and the good stuff. If F2P mobile games let you pay up front, I thought you could get rid of the ads, microtransactions, daily logins, limited “action points,” and everything else that made the experience such a daunting one. An F2P game without any F2P mechanics should be a lot of fun.
Instead, FFD2 inadvertently exposed the potency inherent in F2P mobile game design. It’s not really about playing a game – it’s about rewarding the player enough to keep them logging in every day, and frustrating them enough that they consider spending money. Ads, microtransactions, and action points are features aplenty, not bugs.
Final Fantasy Dimensions 2 is the unworthy successor to one of the best mobile games I’ve ever played. But it also reveals an uncomfortable truth about F2P mobile games: They can be corrupt to the core.
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