Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a free to play Android/iOS game. The story revolves around a record keeper, Tyro, who is in charge of keeping the lore of the FF universe intact. The paintings containing these memories start disappearing so it’s up to Tyro, his Mog assistant, and FF heroes he finds along his journey, to restore the balance. It’s more of a premise than narrative as that’s about it.
Players begin with a quick tutorial that builds the party into five characters: Tyro, White Mage, Black Mage, Cloud, and Tidus. Party members are defined by the abilities and gear they can equip, similar to their stats in the mainline games, but redefined to make them unique to FFRK. For example, anyone in Final Fantasy VII could equip Materia of any variety. However, in this game Cloud cannot equip Cure magic. It makes sense for the game to create their vision for the heroes, but it’s also a weird misstep to the lore and Cloud isn’t even the worse example.
As to the battles themselves, players can choose to go into one of thirteen realms, though it only starts off with VII and X. Completing chapters will unlock new stories, bouncing around each FF landscape sporadically. Playing an episode in X may unlock something in IV, which is an odd choice for progression. Once a realm is chosen players will go through a series of battles. Characters can simply attack, use skills allotted in two slots, call in a friend for a destructive ability, or unleash a limit break. To note, missions cost stamina. Once stamina is depleted, players can either pay real world money, in Gems, or use in game currency, Mythril.
Gems and Mythril are the vitality of the game and go beyond stamina. They can be used to heal the party mid-session, continue when defeated, or even to acquire rare equipment via the Relic system. Equipment can also be gained from battles, but the best stuff comes from Relics. Furthermore, gear and abilities can be upgraded with materials found in dungeons. Thankfully Mythril is easy to come by, if played enough, and stamina recharges rather quickly as well as expands over time. Impatient gamers may be tempted, but there’s really never a need to spend money.
In terms of visuals, the game looks great. Every monster and character has been morphed into a 16-Bit version of himself or herself. The game is chalked full of content too from exploring the main realms of Final Fantasy I-XIII to daily and weekly events that grant amazing prizes. Plus all the classic music is here too.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a surprisingly good game. Square Enix’s ventures into mobile gaming have been…pretty mixed to be fair. Their original mobile games as well as their ports of old games are expensive. The company may be a bit backwards on mobile pricing, but as far as FFRK, they did an awesome job. Again, it’s free so grab it already!
Score: 4/5 Stars
Special Notes: This article was originally published on August 11, 2015 via my Examiner account before the website shut down.
Game Jurk 