So I have recently purchased Final Fantasy Explorers, because it looked very interesting on paper. I get most Final Fantasy Games anyways, since I enjoy their stories and the way that the gameplay is done on most of them, so my idea is a little bit skewed in its favor, but hear me out:
The game features action gameplay, just like in Monster Hunter. You decide what Job (Class) you want to be after a brief tutorial, and each job can only equip certain weapons.
The combos are very simple, but the skills can get very involved with the mutations. Once you learn how to mutate a skill, you can add 8 skills, and 2 levels of each skill, for a total upgrade of 16 levels to each skill, each level progressively taking more AP to cast.
There are many different classes to chose from, and there is alot of interplay among them. You also have a "pet" system, that allows you to bring either a friends avatar with you, or some monsters that you have "captured" along the way.
You can harvest the land when you find harvest points, just like in MH, and you use those harvests along with monster drops to make your weapons/armors/accessories.
The world is like a giant expedition. When you get the quest, you can either start right from the begining (the exit to the town), and just go to the place where the quest objective is, or you can take the airship, which can drop you very close, or right at the exact place where the objectives are.
One thing of note: the monsters do not have a fancy AI, and they do not freely go about zones. Pretty much, where you find them, you fight them. The terrain can factor in alot into what you do, especially if you get the Geomancer class, which depending on what terrain you are standing on, you can get many different abilities. Or if you are blue mage, you can imitate many skills done by the monsters you are hunting... ect. ect.
You can play locally, or online with other players, without much noticeable change in the monster difficulties. Which means that a hunt that was already easy becomes that much more easier.
The monsters that can eventually become summons have some unique set of moves. Some which outright kill you if you don't know how to avoid it. When you are knocked out, you have the option to use a phoenix pinion, or expend time to revive. The quest would tell you how much time each revive takes. The quests themselves have different time allocated to them for this reason. So you could be on a quest that is 5 minutes long, and each KO would cost you 5 minutes... which means instant fail, unless you have a phoenix pinion (Which cost an arm and a leg early on).
The game is much simpler than MH, and refreshingly more easy. I am a completionist at heart, and this game will take me a long time even after the end credits to complete. Not to mention there are going to be some insanely powerful min/maxing combos possible.
There are many more aspects to the game, and there are many guest summons possible... everyone from Cloud, Sephiroth, Rikku, Ligntning ect.. So far (10 hours in, and all quests completed up to 4 stars), I am enjoying the game, and look forward to playing it. So I decided to just drop this review here in case anyone has a couple bucks to spend, and some time for fun.
Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:04 pm by MHWF