Plotting has gotten old.
I KNOW that if I’m going to take over Oblivian, I’m gonna have to come up with a fantastically evil plan. That said, planning isn’t nearly as fun as causing mayhem, so....screw it. I’m back in action!!!!! EASILY PREVENTABLE DEATH TO ALL WHO DARE TO OPPOSE ME!
Speaking of death, iOS games. More specifically, Brave Frontier. You may recognize it as a JRPG in iOS format that has recently been growing in popularity and advertising ALL OVER the place. I started playing it about two years ago or so, and I feel that it is about time that I reviewed this game. Brace yourselves.
Brave Frontier is, as I indicated already, an iOS take on the classic JRPG model, with colorful sprites and badly translated lore. Oh, and fan service (duh). It runs primarily through an auto battle system that can be halted to allow player control in a pinch. Hmmm. Now where have I heard that before? *COUGH COUGH FFXIII COUGH COUGH* I seem to have allergies to JRPGs or something. Anyways, it works pretty well for a mobile game that really can’t have a complicated battle system.
The basic premise of the game is that you are a “summoner” from the human realm of Elgaia who, with the help of some summoner friends, voyages into the wild and untamed Grand Gaia, formerly home to humans before a great war with the gods killed all humans who were unable to flee to Elgaia. Get the death segue yet? Well, as a summoner, you summon “units,” who fall into two main categories (and a few small ones, but whatever). The first category consists of monsters (AKA generic enemies) who just live in the dungeons you clear and can sometimes be recruited to either include in your squad, sell, or level up other units through “fusing.” More on that later. The second group is made up of long-dead heroes and villains, who fought in the war with the gods a long time ago. (I think 1,000 years ago, but I’m not sure). These characters can be sold, fused, or used in your squad as well, but they have far more potential to be useful than monsters.
A unit has base stats that are influenced by several factors, primarily name (WHO the unit is) and type (WHAT the unit specializes as). Units also have an elemental type (earth, fire, water, thunder, light, and dark). These types determine whether the unit will deal/take normal, double, or half damage in a combat situation based on the type of enemy it is facing. Units can be strengthened in two major ways: leveling and evolving. For a unit to be leveled, it has to be fused with other units (Metal Record Units are the most effective for leveling, but are rarely found outside of a special dungeon). These units can be pretty much anything, with each unit providing different amounts of experience based on certain factors. A unit has a level cap based on a star rating system, with a 1 star unit having a low level cap, and a six or seven star unit having a high level cap. Once a unit has reached its level cap, it may be possible to evolve the unit by spending some in-game money and some specific “evolution” units which have to be collected beforehand. This increases the unit’s rating and base stats, but resets its level to 1. Rinse and repeat.
The summoner’s squad is made up of six total units, five of which belong to the player and count towards a salary cap of sorts. Each unit has a value attached to it referred to as its “cost” with the idea that a summoner can only expend so much effort to summon a unit. This total cost increases with the summoner’s level, enabling the player to have more powerful squads. That sixth unit I mentioned earlier does not count towards the total cost, and comes with several perks. Most units have a “leader skill,” a specific benefit that comes from having that unit designated as the squad leader. The sixth unit is chosen from a list of other Brave Frontier players, and, if they are on your friend list, you get the sixth unit’s leader skill in addition to your own unit’s leader skill. You also receive honor points (which can be spend to summon new units).
Once your squad has be built and your guest unit selected, your squad deploys into battle in the dungeon of your choosing. (AKA chronological progression through a series of dungeons with potential for replaying the individual levels). Your squad will progress through a series of turn-based battles where your squad with battle against basic foes until one side is eliminated, taking turns using basic attacks. Each unit has a unique pattern of attacking, which is actually important for a cool game mechanic called...............Holy ****. I’ve come this far, and I’m STILL only discussing basic game mechanics? **** it. I’m moving on to story. This is a surprisingly deep iOS game, considering that it runs on an auto battle system. I’ll let the game tutorial explain further to those of you who might be interested in playing this FREE game.
Right. Story. I mentioned earlier that the player ventured into a land long lost to humans during a bitter and bloody war with the gods. Summoners frequently travel through a portal to Grand Gaia to explore and grow stronger, but you have a special purpose. Four of the major gods responsible for the war are in trouble. They have been weakened by battles with the great gods Karna Masta (Ruler of the gods) and Lucius (god of portals), as well as a host of lesser gods who all worked to protect the humans in the last war. These “good gods” are in no state to hunt down and finish off these so called “Four Fallen Gods,” as they, too, have been badly hurt. However, an especially powerful summoner could do the job for them...You know exactly where this is going, don’t you? Yep. YOU get to do the honors of ridding the world of these rebel gods. So, with your trusty friends, including a cutesy but helpful goddess named Tilith, you set out on a journey to kill gods. Yaaaaay.
As this is an iOS game, I really didn’t expect much of this. The characters are stock characters (i.e. the arrogant one, the trusty friend, etc.), but they actually end up growing an progressing over a long period of time, much to my amazement. They don’t progress too much, but they are still far more dynamic than one would expect from a mobile game.
The lore of this game is incredibly deep and rich for a mobile game. EACH unit has a description of its past for EACH of its “star level forms” that I mentioned earlier, with each successive form providing more information. These descriptions typically focus on the unit’s involvement in the war with the gods, where most (if not all) of these units ultimately met their death. As of right now, there are more than 1,300 of these entires in the unit log (where all these descriptions are found) with more being added all the time. This means the game has a lot of lore to cover, with each new unit description filling it in a little bit more, making it all the more satisfying to obtain new units. However, as I indicated early on, many of these descriptions are riddled with obvious grammatical and translation errors, but are usually intelligible.
I guess that it is time for me to discuss the one of the best parts of the game: the music. HOLY **** THE MUSIC!! I would rate this game’s soundtrack well above more than a few AAA titles recently released. Considering the quality of most phone speakers, I was astonished that the game had such good music. It doesn’t match the titans of the industry such as Final Fantasy, but it was surprisingly close.
I think it’s time to hit some of the negatives about this game.
First of all, it’s an auto battle game. The player really doesn’t need to do much most of the time. Player influence is necessary only in desperate situations in dungeons, and it only has limited potential to change the outcome of the battle. Most of the strategy revolves around crafting items and building squads.
Second, the game runs on an energy system. To enter a dungeon and clear a level, the player must burn a certain amount of energy. The player has a limited amount of energy, with 1 energy being restored every three minutes. (For reference, most mid-game levels require 14-26 energy. Special dungeons usually cost more). This design choice prevents the player from playing too much at once and getting bored of the game, but is also very frustrating at times.
Third, the game has to frequently contact the servers for information and saving, requiring a wifi connection or a strong cellular connection, limiting the ability of the player to pick up the game anywhere. That said, this game isn’t ideal for short sessions anyways, making it somewhat of an anomaly of a mobile game.
Fourth, this game has had a very long history of bugs and glitches that screwed with the game and player experiences. That said, the game has been frequently patched and the team in charge of it have been very dedicated in both fixing the problem and compensating the users. The game only rarely has issues now, so most of that I guess is behind us.
Fifth, the game encourages micro transactions in order to restore energy and stuff. It’s not necessary to spend money on it, but it still is kinda annoying.
I wonder if this game would actually be better as a console game, perhaps in the Xbox Arcade, or maybe a 3DS title. Many of the game’s greatest drawbacks are directly related to it being an iOS game, and many of its greatest strengths resemble console games. The game would have to be largely reworked and tweaked to run on a console, as it doesn’t run like a console game, but I think that it would have potential if released as something bigger.
I highly doubt that I covered everything; the game is remarkably well-designed and deep for a mobile game, but in the end it’s just that. A mobile game. I can hardly justify explaining every little detail of a game that largely I run in the background while I’m doing something else, only occasionally checking on it to move to the next area or craft a few items. I really like this game, and it did a lot of things right, but in the end, it is limited by its medium.
For a free game, however, it is absolutely worth downloading, if you are into games like this one. At the very least, it’s worth giving a try.
I’ll stick a 8.4 on this one because I am lazy and I don’t feel like weighing all my points. Let’s face it. Who actually cares about the number assigned to a game rating? *COUGH IGN COUGH*
Hmm. I guess I got sidetracked and didn’t actually try to eliminate anyone who opposed me. *sigh* There’s always next time.
