Long ago, there was a great world war ended by the efforts of the Avalon Empire. In the present, two groups of youths meet each other: a group from a small, peaceful country, and a group from the harsh northern mountains riding an airship. When they meet, the Crystals give off a large burst of light around the world, "and then the world heads to light and darkness." The game focuses on two different groups, the "Warriors of Light" consisting of a boy named Sol and his friends, and the "Warriors of Darkness" consisting of another boy named Nacht and his companions.
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Final Fantasy Dimensions is a role-playing video game, developed in the style of the 1992 16-bit game Final Fantasy V. The game uses the Active Time Battle system. Like Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, the game will be released in an episodic format, and players are free to play episodes in whichever order they like. Finishing certain episodes may affect events in later episodes. Players command a party of five with the party members changing in each episode.
The game uses a Job System as a base of its battles. The game allows players to change job while still retaining skills that have already been acquired. Cross a certain amount of AP, and the player's current job will learn a job-specific ability. That learned ability can be set even if the player changes to a different job. Players are limited in how many abilities they can set at a given time. This limit rises as the job's level rises. The game also has "Fusion Abilities," which players can form by setting combinations of certain abilities.
The Jobs available from the beginning for all the eight main characters are Freelancer, Warrior, Monk, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Mage, and Summoner. Each episode introduces a new Job, which is unlocked after completing the episode. The unlockable jobs for the Warriors of Light are Dragoon, Bard, Memorist, Knight, and Devout, while the jobs unlocked for the Warriors of Darkness are Ranger, Dark Knight, Dancer, Ninja, and Magus.
Also a great review that really does tell you all you need to know, this one from "Noah David" on iTunes;
Spoiler:
This is an upgraded port of Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Dark, a game released episodically from late 2010 to late 2011 for several Japan-only cellphones. While the original game was 13 Chapters, roughly one per month, the Chapters in this new edition are actually BUNDLES of Chapters. The name for the West was changed as to avoid confusion with the localization of SaGa 1, 2, 3 for the original Gameboy.
- The Prologue is a short intro of two dungeons and will end before you unlock the Job system.
- "Chapter 1" is the same as the old Chapter 1.
- "Chapter 2" in this release is actually a bundle of 4 of the old chapters, each focusing on and unlocking a new Job.
- "Chapter 3" is another set of 4 chapters, with another 4 jobs to unlock.
- "Chapter 4" is the three-chapter finale.
Once you get through the Prologue, each of the following chapters (excluding the finale) will have about 3-12 dungeons, several optional side dungeons, and a post-chapter Challenge Dungeon that can only be completed before you move on to the next chapter. However, Levels and Job Levels are capped per chapter, so completing the challenging parts will get you good gear but won't leave you vastly over-powered when you start the next chapter.
This game uses a five-person party, last seen in FFT. However, the members are not set in stone, and for most of the game you are alternating back and forth between two separate parties of 4, the Light Warriors and the Dark Warriors, which share some Jobs, but at the same time each having access to 5 exclusive classes. So, overall there are 8 main party members divided in to two teams, and 10 or so temporary guest characters.
Compared to the original version, this new version has a completely remastered soundtrack, upgraded visuals, touch controls, and the game is bundled into few separate packages, at a lower cost (the original came out to around $60).
As for the game's cost, Square-Enix is treating phones like it does the handheld market, and doesn't cut prices in fear of undercutting the other versions of their games. Square knows that it will reduce sales, but I'm guessing they'd rather sell less on phones than destroy their DS/3DS/PSP/Vita/PSN sales. The Prologue, plus Chapter 1 for $3 (which comes with the Job System and a Challenge Dungeon) seems like a decent deal for players on the fence, and is 2-4 hours of gameplay. Buying chapters separately will cost $33, only $4 more than the full unlock up-front, so buying at your own pace is feasible.
Overall, the game is clearly inspired by the first six Final Fantasies, with some nods to the PSX games as well (Chocobo racing minigames, etc.), in music, graphical design, and gameplay mechanics. Estimates place the game's length between 20 and 40 hours, with maybe more depending on how much time you spend in the Challenge Dungeons, and also with replayability due to the Job System.
As far as iOS titles go, the price on this is insanely high - $28.99 if you buy the bundle, $32.99 if you go it piecemeal, so it pretty much makes it one of the most expensive games on the appstore. Is it worth it, though? I guess that depends on how much of an FF fan you are --- this is pure Final Fantasy through and through, none of that XI/XII/XIII bullshittery, this is a return to the roots with clean and detailed sprites, huge open world, Job system and everything else that made FF what it was. I've put around 5 hours in so far and I'm still on Chapter 1, so yeah, you'll get 25-30 hours gameplay EASILY. You're getting value for money at least and I'm certainly having a blast, it's no FFVI but it's damned good nonetheless. Just don't get the chips addon, no way in hell is that worth $10.
For those of us that don't feel like shelling out $30, you can always use IAPfree
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