As a mobile game, Mobius Final Fantasy is a work-in-progress. We don’t have everything available to us right now. There are still chapters, jobs, and events locked away. These will be doled out gradually for people to enjoy, with the official Facebook page offering a roll-out schedule. Unfortunately, what’s there now doesn’t last very long. There’s a very good chance you’ll be done with chapters one and two by the time the week ends, if you aren’t already. That’s where the grind comes in.
The array of jobs and ability cards was a tip-off to the nature of this game. People are constantly able to collect skillseeds, which fill up skill panels of jobs to offer stat boosts, new weapons, and new classes. Cards are fairly liberally doled out after defeating enemies in each area, with every one able to be fused for more capable forms. It feels as though Mobius Final Fantasy wants players to constantly go through battles, endlessly attempting to max out the cards and classes they’ve collected. Those first two chapters aren’t always the most efficient means of doing that.
It can feel more like the supplemental content are the “meat” of Mobius Final Fantasy. Let me level with you. I have been playing since this past Friday. Not seriously, but off and on. I beat the two available chapters by Wednesday night. They’re done. By the end of the first chapter, I’d resorted to the auto-battle function for locations where there wouldn’t be a boss. It wasn’t until the Shrine of Trials and Chaos Vortex were available that I truly felt tested. The opportunity to earn skillseed fusion cards and meet the challenges that would award gil, elixir, phoenix down, ability ticket, and summon ticket rewards felt more satisfying than the rote challenges in the stories. Though, their special event nature made them rather frustrating. The Shrine of Trials was rather manageable, but Chaos Vortex is a genuinely testing experience. It’s worth doing, but feels like it pushes you back to farming other areas.
As rewarding as the event had the potential to be, the Mobius Final Fantasy arena, which unlocks in the second chapter, and roaming boss monsters that appear in completed areas feel like the most efficient use of my time. The arena can be a great way to farm skillseeds and augment materials. It even occasionally offers crystals to unlock additional jobs, when beating a difficulty level for the first time and occasionally as drops from bosses. Likewise, the bosses moving around on the map also offer those same sorts of boons. It came down to efficiency. The arena was the place to go when I paid attention, the other spots when I wasn’t.
In a way, there’s something to be said for all these opportunities to acquire items. Mobius Final Fantasy does offer an opportunity to pay for faster access to things, but a little time spent actually playing the game can give you these things too. The auto-battle does a lot to alleviate the tedium that would otherwise come from such things. When I needed skillseeds or more basic cards, I’d plug in my iPhone, set auto-battle to attack, and check in every three to five minutes. I could do other things, like play Shiren the Wanderer or finish Harry Potter and the Cursed Child while still making progress.
At the same time, it can be disheartening. With the Mobius Final Fantasy release schedule being what it is, there is a very real chance others will be in my situation. The game, as it is, will be “done,” the job pulls too expensive, and the subsequent events maybe not enough to keep attention. I resorted to auto-battling far faster than I thought, and what’s there doesn’t feel motivating enough to make mastering every job appealing.
The extra events are coming out at a regular pace, which could end up being Mobius Final Fantasy’s saving grace. Chaos Vortex started on August 6, 2016, three days after the worldwide release. And August 13, 2016 is bringing with it a PuPu Attacks event, swimsuit-wearing Echos in the Spirit Grove, and three more jobs that can be summoned with tickets. By the time the Adamanterrapin Terror Battle Tower appears from August 20-28, 2016, perhaps all the events and the general farming and grinding will leave players prepared for it. Even if a lot of auto-battling ends up being part of the preparations.
It almost feels like Mobius Final Fantasy is geared toward two crowds. One is the casual players who are coming in occasionally, maybe completing one chapter every week. The other would be the dedicated, who want to stop by daily when events are on, max out every job, and hunt for the best cards. Between the sporadic story content and push to farm for materials and skillseeds, it’s hard to find a comfortable middle ground for people who want a reason to keep playing, but don’t want to make the game into a new obsession. Perhaps it would be wise to wait until the first four chapters are available to really get invested, so there’s a substantial wealth of content to enjoy and less of a chance of hitting some kind of wall.
Mobius Final Fantasy is immediately available for Apple iOS and Android devices.
