Final Fantasy Record Keeper

Gameplay

The player assembles a party of up to five members consisting of the main character Tyro as well as various named and generic Final Fantasy characters. With their party, the player visits various worlds from the Final Fantasy series, and progresses through the game by clearing the dungeons within "Realms", which are each based on its associated Final Fantasy game. While in a dungeon, the player may not change party members, equipment, or set abilities. Each dungeon consists of one or more locations, which have one or more Active Time Battles. These battles use pixel art sprites against a 2D background, with sprites being taken from the 2D games in the series, reused from Final Fantasy All the Bravest, or being created fresh in a retro style for the game. Some enemy and summon sprites are animated unlike in most 2D games in the series.

The battles in a location are fought consecutively, with status effects from each battle carrying over to the next. Once all battles in a location are clear, the player is given a score for that location—"Novice", "Expert", or "Champion" (in Japanese: "Normal", "Good", or "Excellent")—based on time taken, damage received, number of player characters KO'd, and special scores for any bosses that were fought.

Each location has a Stamina cost to challenge it. The player's Stamina score starts out at 20 points with a maximum of 180 possible. Used Stamina points regenerate at a rate of three minutes per point. Maximum Stamina can be increased by collecting Stamina Shards. Five shards collected increases maximum Stamina by one point.

Damage taken, abilities used, and special move gauge all carry over from each location to the next. Once all locations within a dungeon have been cleared, the player's overall performance based on their scores from each location is used to determine if the player has not just cleared a dungeon, but mastered it. Special First Time Rewards are given for clears and masteries, which can include Stamina Shards, Mythril, equipment, abilities, orbs, new party members, and unlocking further worlds and dungeons. In addition, clearing a dungeon has a Gil reward given each time.

Players may revisit previously cleared dungeons at any time and clear them again and again, paying the associated Stamina cost each time, in order to level grind and farm items. Furthermore, mastering a dungeon unlocks a higher level version of the same dungeon known as an Elite Dungeon. Elite Dungeons have much higher Stamina costs, but they yield higher level orbs and have their own separate clear and mastery rewards.

In addition to the normal realms that are always available, the game also has Events (イベント, Ibento) which are only available for a limited time. Events usually reward players with characters unavailable by other means. Previous events have been re-run months later, providing another opportunity to acquire those characters. There is also a different "daily dungeon" for each day of the week.

While the game is free to play, there is a real money cash shop where Gems (in Japanese: Mog Coins (モグコイン, mogu koin)) can be purchased. Gems may in turn be used to pay for anything that Mythril can be used for at various rates of exchange. Mythril may be used for the following:

Rarity

Abilities, orbs, growth eggs, refining items, weapons, armor, and accessories are rated from one star ☆ to five stars ☆☆☆☆☆ (Weapons and armour can reach eight stars ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ through combining and reforging). This functions as a power rating of sorts; Thunder is ☆ while the more powerful Thundaga is ☆☆☆, for example. Abilities require orbs of the same rarity to synthesize. Growth Eggs and refining items of a higher rarity bestow more XP for characters and equipment. Equipment of higher rarity has higher stats than equipment of lower rarity. Naturally, the higher rarity items drop less frequently than lower rarity items off monsters of the same level.

Equipment Upgrades

Each character may equip one weapon, one piece of armor, and one accessory at a time. Weapons and armor may be leveled up via a refinement process carried out by Cid. This costs gil and requires the sacrifice of another piece of equipment or an equipment refinement item. Once the item's level gauge is filled, it levels up and its stats improve. Filling the gauge requires more items at higher levels. The item's level limit is based on its rarity, with ☆ equipment having a maximum level of three and ☆☆☆☆☆ equipment having a maximum level of twenty. In addition to using up other pieces of equipment, players may also use Adamantite or Scarletite. Adamantite is better for leveling up armor and Scarletite is better for leveling up weapons. Higher rarity refining materials add more to the item's leveling gauge.

Weapons and armor at their maximum levels may be upgraded twice through the "Combine Equipment" function, gaining a star and a "+" after its name. For example, a max-level Battleaxe (☆) may be upgraded to a Battleaxe+ (☆☆), which can be further upgraded to a Battleaxe++ (☆☆☆). The process costs gil and an additional copy of the item to be upgraded. Equipment can be upgraded even further through the "Reforge Equipment" function, provided it has been combined twice and is at its level cap. The equipment can be upgraded to "+++" status and gain a third extra star, provided the player possesses the right amount of Gil and a rare equipment material called Dark Matter. There are 5 star ranks of Dark Matter, and the player must have a piece that matches the equipment's original star rating. For example, with a piece of Dark Matter (☆), the Battleaxe++ (☆☆☆) from the previous example can be Reforged into a Battleaxe+++ (☆☆☆☆). Additionally, the player can upgrade a piece of equipment (regardless of star ranking or level) with a Rosetta Stone, a rare item that can add a point to a main stat of a relic (for example, defense for armor). The number of times this can be done for a piece of equipment depends on its initial star ranking, although some ☆☆☆☆☆ equipment can be augmented more if it carries a powerful Soul Break.

Ability Synthesis and Upgrades

Each character has slots to equip up to two abilities at a time. Orbs (オーブ) dropped off monsters are used to synthesize abilities. This synthesis is carried out by Cid for a fee in gil. Abilities have a limited number of uses per dungeon, which may be increased up to four times by Cid at a cost in orbs and gil. In order to synthesize Summoning Magic abilities, Summoning Orbs (召喚のオーブ, Shoukan no ōbu) are required, which are only obtained through events.

Story

In a kingdom that survives on the harmony between magic and art, stories have been passed through history and their records keep the kingdom prosperous and peaceful. The records of these events were sealed inside paintings, but one day they began to fade away, and the kingdom fell into darkeness. Dr. Mog and his assistant Tyro work to restore the paintings and their power by entering them and expelling the darkness.

Characters

Many other characters from across the Final Fantasy series are also included as "guest characters".

Development

Developer DeNA proposed doing a social RPG to Square Enix that would center around the Final Fantasy series. For the international release of the game, artwork from any remakes that had been done of earlier Final Fantasy games were used, as developers felt that American audiences connected more to later Final Fantasy games than earlier ones. Cutscenes were also looked at again and polished for the same reason. To draw in American audiences, the first world entered in the game is from Final Fantasy VII, and the next two are fan favorites in Japan, which are Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI.

On July 15, 2014, a teaser site appeared with a timer counting time for the game's actual reveal.

Updates

The game receives weekly updates in the form of Events. These Events feature dungeons based around specific games from the Final Fantasy series, allowing players to unlock newly released characters, abilities, and relics, as well as special costumes for existing characters. Costumes are only cosmetic changes to characters.

Additionally, a new dungeon called the Nightmare Dungeon was introduced. Here, players are tasked with facing extremely high difficulty bosses in order to unlock normally unobtainable abilities. Completing Nightmare Dungeons will also enable certain characters to use higher level abilities. Nightmare Dungeon battles focus on specific types of play styles, with characters that specialize in that play style (Black Magic, White Magic, etc.) receiving massive stat boosts when used. The Nightmare Dungeon only opens once per month and remains open for 10 real world days.

Reception

IGN gave the game a 6.2 rating, or "Okay", citing the games use of nostalgia for previous Final Fantasy games and fun combat and customization, but criticized its lack of character interaction and shallow story making the game hard to hold players interest. Kotaku voiced a similar sentiment, calling the game a "fun time waster", but noting the presence of the "much loathed stamina scheme" used to entice players to pay for more play time.

Within ten days of release, the game was downloaded over one million times. After a month, the game recorded three million downloads and one billion yen.