I play a lot of mobile games. I have about six installed on my phone at the moment, which includes Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis. Almost all of them have some kind of gacha (or random loot box) element. And while each have drop rates for weapons, characters, or accessories in varying degrees, they all have one thing in common: events. It’s one thing Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is never left wanting for, as a new event seems to roll out every week or two with an accompanying banner or three, but I wish it would slow down.
As of writing, Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is hosting a Final Fantasy IX event that features a total of three event banners running from November 9, 2023 to December 7, 2023. Each of these banners has unique “Weapon” drops and “Attire” as rewards for making it through the Chocobo Pass system. Characters need Weapons, as specific attacks are attached to them, and Attire is more or less the stand in for armor. It provides you with a new cosmetic that often times has some really powerful passive stats attached to it.
The only way to obtain Attire is through the aforementioned Chocobo Pass, which requires to roll on a banner at max 12 times. (As of right now there are so many event banners in Ever Crisis that the UI is actually broken and doesn’t register that there is a third event banner alongside the two promoted ones.) Now in order to roll on a banner, you need 3,000 Blue Gems (or Red Gems if you want to pay money), which are extremely hard to come by as rewards give out paltry amounts of the currency. If you want to dish out dollars for Red Gems, Ever Crisis commits the cardinal sin of forcing you to buy two packs in order to get that 3,000 Red Gems for the pull: one pack at $7.99 for 1,200 and another at $14.99 for 2,400 . Which means if you’re trying to get those 12 pulls for the Attire, you’re potentially spending $275.76.
Why am I bringing this up? Because just about every few weeks, a new Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis event rolls out. With the rate that you’re given Blue Gems for completing content, you won’t be able to get everything. I understand. That’s the business model. Square Enix wants you to spend money to get Weapons and Attire, or at least constantly be playing and spending hours upon hours with the game, saving up those Blue Gems for a banner that has something you like. But what’s the point of saving if you’re always going to get power crept by the next event banner?
I’ve been playing Ever Crisis since its release, skipping banners to only gear up characters I really like. (That includes Zack, Tifa, Sephiroth, and Aerith.) Though in Aerith’s case, it’s because she is without a doubt the stronger healer in the game and I’ve been able to clear content under the recommended power level (which is the total strength of a character based on their level, Materia upgrades, passive upgrades, and Weapon level and upgrades) using her after getting some really good Weapon duplicates. This means I’ve been skipping on banners with The First Soldier characters and other folks available in the game, but I still don’t have enough Blue Gems to get what I want. Or rather, what I’ve been saving up for.
Gacha games are always going to be unfair. That’s just the way they’re made by design. It’s always about getting the player to spend money, but Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is just more obvious about it with it’s event schedule and the way you get gated on content based on your power level. I wish Ever Crisis would slow down just a bit, so the game isn’t the same kind of time commitment as playing an MMORPG if you really want to be able to keep up with everything. Or at least Square Enix and Applibot could adjust how much currency you get per-mission to make rolling on banners a little easier. This more than likely won’t happen, and Ever Crisis won’t have that same illusion of fairness like other gacha games I’m playing like Path to Nowhere, which also has a nice steady stream of events.
I guess I’m just sort of shouting into the wind here. I know what these games are like, and I know the Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis event schedule probably won’t change. But at the rate the game is going, not even a year into release, the heavy cycle is making me consider dropping the game purely because it’s become so much of a grind it isn’t fun anymore. Keeping up with content has become a chore. It’s something I feel like I have to do in order to progress the main story, and maybe I’m doing it wrong, but when I play a game I want it to be fun. Or at least have the illusion of being fun.
Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is available for Android and iOS devices. It will release on PCs through Steam sometime in the future.
