Final Fantasy Explorers

Yet another spin-off of the Final Fantasy Franchise thread. Here's a place where we can arrange parties, and discuss the nitty-gritty of Final Fantasy Explorers, a Monster Hunter-type game for the 3DS.

FF Explorers Official Page.

Ha! That top image is so much prettier than the actual game...

I will say that the worst part about this game is that it looks pretty poor on the whole, and the draw distance for enemy spawns isn't very good. AND there's no 3D, which I still leave off most of the time but still.

Fortunately these things do not ruin the game for me, but it's kind of incredible how much better Capcom's MT Framework engine is on 3DS compared to... whatever this is running on 3DS. I'm starting to wonder if Square Enix should get whatever engineers did the 360 port of Rise of the Tomb Raider to make an efficient, gorgeous engine for their internal studios.

In any event, as for the game itself, having a blast, wouldn't mind scheduling a night to play online. Typically Thursday nights are my multiplayer gaming nights.

Pretty sure I'll be in on this at some point. Just not sure when.

I agree, Chris. The graphics are a bit disappointing, and I, too, was surprised at the lack of 3D (even though I keep it off 99.9% of the time).

There's one way I think this game is better than MH, though - you can actually see the monsters' HP!

I don't think it's fair to compare the game too negatively to MH, graphically or otherwise. Capcom has been iterating on that series for over a decade, it *should* be way better than another company's first stab.

Digging the game so far.

It's not fair to expect a AAA studio to match another AAA studio when it comes to stepping on their turf? I beg to differ, but FF Explorers is still a good game. I'm enjoying it so far, and as I said before, I don't miss the 3D; I was just surprised more than anything else.

I played a bunch on my flight home from Boston the other night. After getting into the rhythm of the game, I'm really quite enjoying it. It'll be interesting to see how the crafting systems (equipment and ability) evolve as I progress through the game.

sometimesdee wrote:

It's not fair to expect a AAA studio to match another AAA studio when it comes to stepping on their turf? I beg to differ, but FF Explorers is still a good game. I'm enjoying it so far, and as I said before, I don't miss the 3D; I was just surprised more than anything else.

Maybe fair wasn't the right word. Prudent? I'm a huge MH fan and this is pretty much what I expected. A company's first foray into a genre usually isn't up to par with the market leader. That principle is why WoW didn't have any real competition for a decade.

On a raw mechanics basis, perhaps. However, Square Enix is a large enough publisher that I'd expect there to be experienced enough talent to get performance right. Granted, the specific team/studio that developed this game might not have had that level of experience, and what helps Monster Hunter is that it is running on the same engine as ...well, pretty much every other Capcom game of the past 9 years. Of all the things Capcom did last generation, that engine is the best thing, and I kind of wish they went the route of Epic in licensing the engine out to other companies. Capcom's games often looked as pretty as Unreal Engine games, but ran much, much better and on a greater variety of platforms.

In other words, Capcom probably had a team dedicated to just working on the engine. FF Explorers may not have that same benefit. Which is why I'd rather Square Enix just do what Capcom did and have a team dedicated simply to making a bad ass engine for all their games internally, including getting the best performance out of the 3DS.

It's not so much that this is a freshman effort at a Monster Hunter style game, it's that Capcom was better able to build an engine that made the most out of the 3DS hardware.

It's basically the same engine that the DS/3DS FF remakes and DQ IX/Monsters is on. Not sure why this is a problem.

I never played the DQ games, but the FF remakes are, graphics-wise, a lot less demanding, as they're turn-based.

ccesarano wrote:

However, Square Enix is a large enough publisher that I'd expect there to be experienced enough talent to get performance right.

Exactly.

And once again, it's not a problem per se, for me, it's just a mild disappointment.

Exactly. It's a critique, but it's not like I'm going to judge the game's worth based on a grimy coat.

I've been interested in this title, but I don't really have any experience with MH (unless you count MGS: Peace Walker...).

For those who've played FF Explorers so far, is there another FF game that this similar enough to for a comparison?

Not that I can think of, MrMet. It's kind of like a FFIV-lite in that it has an MMO-type feel to it.

sometimesdee wrote:

It's kind of like a FFIV-lite in that it has an MMO-type feel to it.

Thanks for input, sometimesdee. I think I might wait on this one for a bit, but I'm glad to hear you all are having fun with it.

My roommate and I have been co-oping in the living room. If folks are up for a lack of verbal communication, I can try doing an online room rather than a local connection. Or, we could arrange a night to play some. I'm EL 20 and about ready to go take on Ifrit, or do the Knight's quest of killing 10 dragons. I'll probably start collecting materials soon, though.

The game's not too difficult at first, so there's definitely a kind enough learning curve.

The only real issue I have at the moment is that the Crystal Surges all seem random, and I'm not always completing the subquest to activate certain affinities. I've done several, such as Ice and Water, but they're still listed as active subquests. I don't know if it's a bug or what. But most of all, the Crystal Surges are how you can improve the effects of your attacks, which, with enough time (read: grinding), means you can have a variety of specialized versions of each attack. For example, one variant of Air Brave that has a chance at paralysis while dealing lightning damage, and then one variant of Air Brave that deals fire damage and has a chance to poison.

But the problem is you can't really plan these out intelligently. Crystal Surges are random, or so it seems to me, and thus you just wail on enemies with your abilities and upgrade to whatever has whatever bonuses you'd like. So I end up having attacks that deal Ice, Fire, and Light damage, which in some ways makes no sense, and you end up having stacks and stacks of attacks to sift through.

I figure as I near end-game or hit post-game content, I'll dedicate more time to developing these abilities more intelligently, but the manner in which you get Crystal Surges and the UI to navigate these abilities is such a mess that it actively dissuades you from wanting to make intelligent, customizable character builds for certain situations. For example, before I fight Ifrit, I should be equipping my character with gear to resist Fire, weapons that deal Ice or Water damage, and then abilities that resist fire and inflict water or ice damage.

But I am probably just going to equip whatever because f*ck that interface.

Looks like I ended up with this sooner than I thought I would. I'm looking forward to putting some time into it.

MrMetonymy wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

It's kind of like a FFIV-lite in that it has an MMO-type feel to it.

Thanks for input, sometimesdee. I think I might wait on this one for a bit, but I'm glad to hear you all are having fun with it.

Sorry, there's a missing 10. That's FFXIV-lite.

I suspect that while crystal surges have a random element to them, they may also be affected by your location. For example, if I want to finish the fire mutation us quest, I'll try in Hilbat Cave first.

BTW, the knight quest is harder than it seems. Imagine one of the starting areas, only instead of goblins, there are just as many dragons. And you can easily aggro more than one by merely breathing. There's a reason it has another star.

I'm a bit ahead if you in that I finished the first 4 eidolons.

I started wondering if location might have something to do with it. All the more reason to wait until later in the game before working on customizing the abilities for specific combat scenarios.

PSA: if you're doing a magicite quest, leave your monster allies behind. They'll ruin it.

Ooh, thanks for the warning. Haven't gotten to one of those yet.

I put a few hours into this over the weekend, and I'm glad I picked it up. It's very much a blend of Phantasy Star Online and Monster Hunter (combat is very much like PSO, mission/town structure and equipment crafting is MH), and that balance is working very well for me with the Final Fantasy layer of paint applied on top.

Spent a good amount of time this weekend playing co-op local and online with some friends in Dallas. We just fired up an open mic on Google Talk and piddled around some. The multiplayer seems very convenient once everyone understands they have to flag to get ready and the party leader doesn't jump the gun to head out to the questing areas.

I'll add another voice to the "it's like a mini-mmo" commentary. I started calling it a pocket MMO and that's what it really feels like. I'm only about 7 or 8 hours into it but there's very little story and not much other than "go kill stuff so you can make stuff and/or advance your questlines." Not really a complaint, since I like having time-killers on my 3DS more than deeply engrossing games. I can only stand to grip the thing and angle my head down for so long at a time.

Well, the first hour or so has really made me want to go back to FFXIV, so there's that.

It looks nice for what it is, and the combat is fun. It's a little flat in single-player but I imagine improves when you start adding in other roles and jobs. That adamantoise fight was a little tough for my stock freelancer, but it would have been right at home in a tank/healer/DPS/DPS setup like in FFXIV.

My main problem so far is that the lack of structure is really making me feel a bit aimless. (Monster Hunter has the same issue for me, as does late game MMO.) I'm just not sure at any point what I should be doing and working toward. There are so many directions you could go at any time.

I have the same issue with MH, combined with my fear of multiplayer. I'm just plugging away at the main quests, and roaming the world if I'm short on Gil. Just hit EL30.

And a certain lupine eidolon is making mincemeat of my monkish posterior.

The core gameplay loop is quite enjoyable, and I recently tackled Ifrit and Shiva. Those two fights were definitely reminiscent of PSO, and I liked that I finally had to put some effort into managing my HP/AP as part of my fighting tactics.

I'm enjoying this game enough that hopefully it will see a sequel that polishes up the rough edges and adds more diverse challenges.

I found a few things to really like this weekend: first, your notebook tells you where you can collect different items; second, you can use a whole variety of items to imbue your equipment with any number of little stat boosts. It's nice to be able to upgrade your equipment without needing this one little fiddly items that you don't remember how to collect, and it's nice that you can know where to go get that fiddly item if you want more.

ccesarano wrote:

The only real issue I have at the moment is that the Crystal Surges all seem random, and I'm not always completing the subquest to activate certain affinities. I've done several, such as Ice and Water, but they're still listed as active subquests.

Crystal Surges are random, but if you don't trigger them when they first pop up, they'll retrigger after a few abilities and you'll have a different set of Crystal Surges to activate. In that way, you can be a lot more selective in what you do and don't use.

ccesarano wrote:

So I end up having attacks that deal Ice, Fire, and Light damage, which in some ways makes no sense, and you end up having stacks and stacks of attacks to sift through.

So delete them. Mark the ones you like as keepers and just delete the rest. I've started doing this after each quest run, and the volume of custom abilities has become much more manageable. After each trip, I look at what I picked up, see if there's anything I like, and then trash the rest. It almost becomes a second little inventory.

The further along I get (still at just 2 and 3 star quests), the more this feels like a really good first draft of a game. It's almost like a systems demo to showcase how combat could work in a fuller, more complete game.

This just feels like it's missing something, some motivation to keep playing that goes beyond just leveling your character's stuff. Whether that's a story or better environments or a better string of monsters or... Something. I'm left with the sense that I'm in the kind of treadmill that powers a lot of free to play games where you play so that you can play more.

Yeah, there's not much in the way of story. I'm on 4-star summons, and it seems like there might be an inkling of a story, but it's very much in the way of FFVII,

Spoiler:

don't screw up the earth for financial gain kind of thing...

...so far.