➤ An army in disarray 🎮

You know those funny ball dispensers with surprises inside? You insert a coin, turn the metal knob two or three times and pick up the toy which, more often than not, is not what you wanted. In short, a real package, but in the meantime the token is gone and the desire to insert another one to have a second chance is getting stronger. Recently landed on the App Store among the thousand rattles of the fans, Final Fantasy: All the Bravest is without too many words a terrible attempt to disguise this money-pin mechanism within a tribute to the history of its franchise. A sneaky and ingenious concept, mind you, but completely disrespectful to the mammoth community of fans always hoping that the historic series can return to the glories of the past. Those who have already peeked at the vote on the side will wonder if this microscopic mobile game is actually worth such a low rating.

A Moogle giveaway

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest was presented as an engaging journey through most of the historical chapters of the saga, starting from the first Squaresoft works for NES and Super Nintendo up to the most recent Final Fantasy XII and XIII, obviously passing through the much-loved seventh chapter.

All the heroes of the franchise thus come together to fight a battle against an army made up of the most iconic enemies, but if the premises are reminiscent of the excellent Dissidia Final Fantasy for PSP, the final result is nothing further. Made with retro graphics and nostalgic music, the game consists of a series of battles one after another, in which your party is made up of a horde of ten, twenty, thirty, or more heroes. In addition to the simple number of characters lined up at the same time, the particularity of All the bravest lies in the combat system. Forget the classic turn-based structure in which to decide, for each party member, what action to perform, what object to use, who to attack or who to heal; here all that is asked of the user is to rub his finger on the various characters, activating them and making them automatically attack a random enemy, after which you have to wait a short period of time before the attacker becomes active again. Every three hours you can activate a Fever mode, thanks to which, for a few seconds, you can cancel any loading time and consequently cause more damage in less time. That's it: obsessively compulsively scrub the screen until all the opponents on the screen have been defeated, listen to the usual fanfare of victory, then move on to the next battle. The fact that it is impossible to lose and that the party regenerates over time, makes sure that All the bravest it has no depth or a minimum of strategy, and in the end it all turns into a sort of Fruit Ninja played in the dark: just to give a better idea, we were able to eliminate the last boss without even looking at the screen smartphone, while we did something else.

You will have understood by now that the interaction of the player is completely useless, to the point that it would have been better if the developers had automated everything: the result would have been the same, but at least we would have saved a sore thumb. The work done by Tatsuya Kando and Kyohei Suzuki does not just trivialize the typical structure of Final Fantasy, and certainly goes far beyond what would have been a parody of the franchise. The mechanics of All the bravest they exploit the player by making them believe they have an active role in the gaming experience, when in reality it is absolutely not true. But if only for this, Square-Enix's new mobile game would have been just the latest in an increasingly frequent series of slips made by the Japanese company in the mobile market, an insignificant title and a grease stain on the shirt of one of the sagas. most loved by JRPG fans. Instead, one of the most critical elements of the entire game is represented by the monetization system through micropayments, which in All the bravest scrapes the bottom too brazenly. For those who expect to be able to play the role of Cloud, Squall and Terra immediately after purchasing the game we have bad news: the basic version of All the bravest allows you to unlock only the classic classes of the job system, from Warrior to Black Mage, from Berserker to Dragoon. The only way to enter the historical protagonists of the various chapters is to pay 89 cents and cross your fingers: it would be too fair, too sensible, to be able to at least have the freedom to choose your favorite character, but in this case the unlocked hero. it is chosen completely randomly. And let's go back to the speech made at the beginning: hoping to unlock Lightning or Tifa and find yourself with a ridiculous Imp or a Pig leaves, to say it in a sweetened way, a bad taste in the mouth. The microtransaction system is not limited to characters, nor to special hourglasses to gain advantage in battle; in order to access the three most interesting worlds (Midgar, Zanarkand and Archylte Steppe), and therefore to be able to challenge the most memorable bosses of the franchise, it is necessary to buy them individually at a cost that is almost equal to that of the full game. The result? To be able to access all the contents you spend tens and tens of euros, but while in other games like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy you have at least the possibility to choose the contents to buy, here they are completely "surprise". And what a surprise.

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Version tested: iOS (1.0.0) Terminal used: iPhone 4 Price: € 3,59 App Store Link Resources4Gaming.com

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Let's be clear, we do not have major prejudices on microtransactions if implemented well, and we are against the idea that a mobile game must necessarily cost little, as long as it deserves it. But it's really hard not to feel offended or angry while playing Final Fantasy: All the Bravest. Thanks to a silly combat system and a structure designed from the ground up to tap as much money as possible to fans, the new game by Square-Enix is a mockery to fans, first of all, but also to other developers who try to offer experiences. new and sensible on mobile devices.