I was actually kind of excited about this game for several reasons. The art for this game is probably some of the best I've ever seen for the series, the costumes for the characters look good, the music is great, and most importantly it would bring parts of the compilation that never got an official release to the West finally, like Before Crisis. All for the best price of free. I was disappointed when they announced the game was going to be a gacha, and I have a strict mental block of not paying a penny to mobile game microtransactions, but I figured this game is so approachable to me I might as well give it a try. Yet somehow they still managed to drop the ball in so many ways and so hard at those with this game. I genuinely couldn't even get past the opening bombing mission; it was just so mindless and an obvious cash grab.
First off, they advertised that all compilation titles would be playable at launch in some degree, when that just obviously never happened. All that's been available at launch is the Midgar section of the original game, the first few chapters of Crisis Core, and some new story for First Soldier. To be honest, ever since Remake launched I've grown so tired of Midgar content because that's all they've been able to advertise for a while now. And yet these few chapters are all based in Midgar. It's all becoming repetitive, especially since both the original game and Crisis Core got remade recently.
Second off, I REALLY hate how you're forced to play other chapters of other games before playing the chapter I want to play. I was really only interested in the other compilation titles and maybe the First Soldier story, because everything else has been done to death already or is still being remade. I don't really want to play the bombing mission for the 30,000th time, I'm tired of it. I don't want to play Crisis Core again, when that game is already designed to be as replayable as possible. Yet here we are, still at square one. I get that this game will feature episodic releases, but if I'm not hooked in at the start there's no way I could really care for anything else. I just want something new again, so it really sucks that I have to play everything I've already gone through dozens of times just to get to the First Soldier story I may be interested in.
Third, the combat system was designed to be more in line with traditional ATB based JRPG combat, which is great for people who want that more traditional experience, but this is just a joke made in spite of that kind of system. It's not even ATB, it's just "wait for bar to fill up, press button". It's not fun at all. At least with the original FFVII, you had so much more freedom with your commands when your bar does fill up, but with Ever Crisis it's just pathetic. Really hard sell on this.
Finally, the gacha elements are everywhere. I get that this game is a gacha, so they're supposed to get you to gamble your life savings away, but everyday I've gotten notifications on my phone saying shit like "5 STAR PULL GUARANTEED!!! NEW COSTUME!!! DRAW NOW!!! GIVE BIG DADDY SQUARE ENIX MONEY!!!" There's even achievements in game for logging in everyday and pulling something from the slot machine. I think they might as well just lock away parts of the game behind gacha elements with how in your face it all is.
Overall, a MASSIVE disappointment. If you like gacha games I guess it's for you, but with probably being the biggest fan of FFVII I know amongst my small circle of friends this game just sends me into an ephemeral rage. I'm sorry. 3/10.
First off, they advertised that all compilation titles would be playable at launch in some degree, when that just obviously never happened. All that's been available at launch is the Midgar section of the original game, the first few chapters of Crisis Core, and some new story for First Soldier. To be honest, ever since Remake launched I've grown so tired of Midgar content because that's all they've been able to advertise for a while now. And yet these few chapters are all based in Midgar. It's all becoming repetitive, especially since both the original game and Crisis Core got remade recently.
Second off, I REALLY hate how you're forced to play other chapters of other games before playing the chapter I want to play. I was really only interested in the other compilation titles and maybe the First Soldier story, because everything else has been done to death already or is still being remade. I don't really want to play the bombing mission for the 30,000th time, I'm tired of it. I don't want to play Crisis Core again, when that game is already designed to be as replayable as possible. Yet here we are, still at square one. I get that this game will feature episodic releases, but if I'm not hooked in at the start there's no way I could really care for anything else. I just want something new again, so it really sucks that I have to play everything I've already gone through dozens of times just to get to the First Soldier story I may be interested in.
Third, the combat system was designed to be more in line with traditional ATB based JRPG combat, which is great for people who want that more traditional experience, but this is just a joke made in spite of that kind of system. It's not even ATB, it's just "wait for bar to fill up, press button". It's not fun at all. At least with the original FFVII, you had so much more freedom with your commands when your bar does fill up, but with Ever Crisis it's just pathetic. Really hard sell on this.
Finally, the gacha elements are everywhere. I get that this game is a gacha, so they're supposed to get you to gamble your life savings away, but everyday I've gotten notifications on my phone saying shit like "5 STAR PULL GUARANTEED!!! NEW COSTUME!!! DRAW NOW!!! GIVE BIG DADDY SQUARE ENIX MONEY!!!" There's even achievements in game for logging in everyday and pulling something from the slot machine. I think they might as well just lock away parts of the game behind gacha elements with how in your face it all is.
Overall, a MASSIVE disappointment. If you like gacha games I guess it's for you, but with probably being the biggest fan of FFVII I know amongst my small circle of friends this game just sends me into an ephemeral rage. I'm sorry. 3/10.