I gave into temptation and my own fanboyish impulses a few days ago and tried Final Fantasy Dimensions on iOS. I really wanted to like this one- a new FF in the style of the SNES ones! What’s not to like?- but I find myself overall pretty unimpressed. While they definitely have the look of the old games down, their soul has been barely captured, if at all- the writing isn’t particularly good, and the great many subtle visual callbacks to older games in the series feel like pandering rather than homage. Remember the weird octagon-shaped roofs on towers in FF5? The rounded cave floors in FF4? Everything about Mount Ordeals? They’re all back!
The game’s plot and systems crib very heavily from Final Fantasy 5; within the first chapter, you’ve got jobs obtained by collecting crystal chips, the world splitting in two, and cities being sucked into the void. The game’s job system itself is basically similar to FF5′s with a few tweaks, but these changes feel like they don’t add much save cruft to FF5′s elegant system.
The game is purchased chapter-by-chapter; the free prologue is about two hours long and doesn’t even introduce the job system by the time it’s complete. That only the prologue is free is part of the game’s issue- most of the game’s interesting ideas don’t come into play until the first ‘real’ chapter. The first chapter is $3; the latter three are $10 each. The whole package is very pricey for an iPhone game- part of me applauds the effort to pull iOS prices up to a point where ‘full-size’ development is viable, but there’s another part of me that thinks maybe I should just buy Silversword five times instead.
I’m left a bit torn by the game. Although I’m awfully down on it above, it is still mechanically fun and there’s a part of me that really wants to like it. On the other hand, though, I just can’t justify recommending it given that steep price, particularly above the older, better games that it’s quite clearly aping. If you’re looking for a ‘full-size’ iOS RPG that doesn’t depend on using the pay-to-win, I’d recommend Silversword (linked above) over this in a heartbeat; if you’re looking for a Final Fantasy-like game that you haven’t played before, there are four or five games I’d recommend above this one.
- HC
