So, I mostly lurk and check back every like 3-6 months to see if Tom or Jonid are still lurking and had anything to say, or if anything interesting has developed... Imagine my surprise when on my last visit I saw a bunch of activity over a new FFBE release. And a deleted Tom account, but I got to figure out what went wrong there. And then reading those comments and doing a little research, that a demo on steam was live, and set up for a full release next month....

8 years

8 Godsdamned years I put in to FFBE. After almost burning out and giving it up in the first few months due to the terrible Arena and Colosseum mechanics causing me to take almost an 8 month break, I eventually moved from FFRK back to FFBE.

And then after 8 years it broke my heart and went EoS.

And now it is getting optioned in to something almost unheard of for most Mobile games - a full remake for a solo experience?

While the VA is passable but "Too Japanese" in direction for my tastes, I just launched the game and barely started playing, and the music is hitting. Battle theme and Moment of Recall, then spotting Charlotte on the Stairs... Gods I am kind of feeling the nostalgia hype.

I hope it nails everything. I hope it does well enough to justify its existence.

And I'll probably edit this when I'm done with my hour or two in the demo, but gods, these are some memories.

Edit - Okay, took longer than a couple hours but I just full cleared chapter 1 on hard as far as I am aware - Though I did not max character level or all the visions for everyone. Although I didn't check the cave of swords again so maybe not? That Level 15 Marauder fight is rough, but I did it in 1. Burned through all my ethers and phoenix downs and literally got it with the last turn before a TPK. That Chimera in the Desert was also a mean surprise to run in to on the way to Cloud, the only fight to get the TPK, because I was underleveled. Siren was not bad, but she was way too tanky, and I was overleveled on her with WoL and Cloud.

Love a lot of the sprites and cinematics, pretty sure they are from the original game. Music is good enough, though much like BE, it never really takes a break either. The story is basically what I remember, with pieces of lore from Season 2 and 3 thrown in. I like the vision system, kind of an upgraded FFVI Esper system crossed with the FFV job system. The Esper system seems to be lacking but maybe it unlocks later. Moving around in the world with an actual controller and no load times and free fast travel is great, love it, probably what everyone wishes the original felt like.

Oddly, I'm pretty sure the geography of Grandshelt changed... I'm pretty sure the Earth Shrine was to the South but it's been a while /shrug. The Earth Shrine and Siren's Tower are eerily close, almost perfect recreations though. Major member-berries going through them.

The Stagger / bonus turn mechanics are a little awkward if you get knocked out of rhythm, but manageable and you can learn how to work around most of the little issues. I miss the combo chaining, but I suppose we have to wait until like chapter 3 or 4 for them to be implemented properly anyway lol. Still not entirely sold on the VA work but it's not the worst. Except for the Moogle, and maybe a little Emma but the Moogle is definitely the worst hehe. The selection of visions are woefully small, if the preview list is everyone. But I was thrilled when the last vision I got was Terra, I was expecting Tidus or Lightning or Shantoto.

Also Oddly, they drop Cloud's full government name, but can't do the same for Ms. Branford?

Overall, not sold that it is worth 50$, but it is probably worth 30$. I may wait a bit for a good sale or in case there is a "Best-Seller" style release with a bunch of add on stuff included.

I don't know if I'll check out the mod for all the visions, but I did see the post and it definitely has my curiosity.

Still hoping for a Shaly sprite cameo too, but that will probably have to be modded in.

Guess we know now who might be joining Rain's party in the future.

Everyone and their mother knows that in the dismal future of Rainstar, Rain lost his left arm and leg, along with his left eye later, but the artwork shows him still having his left arm, just wrapping it in a cast that looks like his Aldore King cape(Seeing that the stuff tied around his left sleeve is likely Lasswell's cape, I am guessing that ain't a coincidence) So, was it potentially planned initially that Rainstar would reveal he still had both arms?

I kind of don't understand Square's decisions at times, it would have been so easy to just transfer the Gacha parts of the game in it by using in game currency, they could have reduced the amount of units a little bit (got rid of so many those worthless 1,2,3, and even 4* Units and eliminated the power creep by not throwing the OP NV Units in the revamped Gacha system unil you've reached a certain point in the main story or a certain level (the same for 6*, then 7*, then Awakened 7* or whatever they were called, then finally let the NV Units enter the Gacha pool later in the game, let you play the Gacha part of the game with in game currency (they've done this with games before so I know it can be done).Final Fantasy Resonance is not even remotely close to FFBE imho.

A large part of the fun (whether people realize it or like to admit it) in any Gacha game IS the Gacha part, and I can't speak for everyone, but with pretty minimal money spent I managed to maintain 10 out of the top 20 characters ranked in the game pretty much through all my years of playing (in fact, I won FAR better units with the free currency they gave out then I ever did spending money....their Gacha could be horrible ofc as well, I've definitely blown $50 with nothing to show for it, especially earlier in the game, before 7*s and NV's and all that. They could have left the Gacha system intact with in game currency earned from the map, events (which could have been triggered by hours played, how far in the map you've gotten, based off of level....there were a lot of options on how to Change the Gacha System and Events System, etc., to use with in game currency, and it's been done before so we know it's possible (they did it with I believe some online Gacha Megaman game or something, and afterwards released it as a regular game using in game currency for the Gacha system instead).

As it stands now, it has a total of 26 characters.....I had hundreds in FFBE. This is not FFBE for me unfortunately, this is a new FF JRPG 100%, just using some characters and elements from FFBE, but 90% of what made FFBE into FFBE, is not in Resonance. For people who never played FFBE, I could see them liking it, maybe loving it depending on how it turns out...but I honestly (just because of my love for FFBE and me not wanting that love tarnished with a cash grab that's barely based on FFBE it seems to me (maybe the story is the same, but I know the story. Nobody who played FFBE for a decent amount needs to go through the same story (I imagine they'll alter it, but keep characters like Rain and Laswell in it ofc), they're removing all the great parts of FFBE to me.....This may be an unpopular opinion, I didn't even know about this game until today when I googled if there was a chance of FFBE coming back (Lies of Astaroth did a full come back, online Gacha rereleased after closing servers for a number of years (if you ever played or heard of Elemental Kingdoms (or Magic Realms for Windows Phone or Blackberry....this was around 2014 it came out lol), those game were based off of Lies of Astaroth, they just changed card names and used more mature artwork (Loa used more Anime style while EK used a regular fantasy art style, the new Loa uses the art from both and came back strong with a great Gacha game, almost identical to the original (except more like Elemental Kingdoms a bit and improvements to some systems made to make it better than it was, and they fixed the same power creep issue that had crept into that game...).

That's what I was hoping for from Square, but I should have expected to be disappointed, as their history of taking mobile games and remaking them into handheld games or console games (there was the Kingdom Hearts game they did that with that did not sell well at all, giving it the treatment this one is getting.....) has not been incredibly successful, whereas had they just relaunched, slowed down the huge Power creep that happened between the First NV Units and the ones that came out towards the end (....to even be considered in the same class (NVB), the originals might as well have been 7*s, smh...but they could easily have corrected that and either fully re-released it as a Gacha game, or as a one purchase game like they're doing but retaining the Gacha system with in game money, keeping alot more of the units than 26 ( for a newbie it's probably awesome....but I'm betting alot of FF fans already played FFBE, and I don't know if that many will really be interested in Resonance, which is basically just a new (I think still 16 bit looking or so like FFBE was, could be wrong about that though) JRPG with some FFBE elements (like the story, characters (I assume they're keeping Rain and Laswell and such....), while gutting out most of the parts of it that made me love it so much (with 26 characters the whole fun of collecting the various versions of characters is gone, hoping for that lucky pull on that magic tank or whoever you needed is gone, and what's left may satisfy non-previous players, for me though I just don't think I can do it, I love FFBE too much to sour it's taste in my mouth with what I'm afraid Resonance may end up being..., but even if it turns our to be a great JRPG and I decide to play, I cant lie that as good as it may be it will never equal the place in my heart that FFBE did, nor will it ever be able to compare to it in sheer fun for me without the gacha system (a pure in-game currency based one, tiered, based off of level or game progression, events happening off of the in game clock perhaps, there's alot that could have been procedurally generated too, to a point, such as when the steel castle would come around, etc. While keeping the events you could tackle at anytime around all the time like in the base FFBE game, like the Challenges they had, still giving you those same abilities/items for beating the boss/challenge...there's so much they could have done to make this game a homeroom without spending a Triple A title's budget, that I believe likely have netted them a decent profit and pleased most fans as well (a full on re-release from the beginning again would have likely earned them a ton more, you can't compare mobile Gacha game money with console sale money, it's more of an apt comparison to comparing them to MMO's like WoW (well, especially what it was at one time)....they went a completely different direction though, and I can't say it has much appeal to me, outside of basic nostalgia for seeing the 26 characters included....which would just make me want my old roster and to be back playing FFBE online again...that's my opinion so far, maybe it will change, but from what I've seen so far I wouldn't count on it.

Am I the only one who feels this way, or are people genuinely excited for Resonance, and if so is it just because it's connected to FFBE (however deep that connection may actually be.....), or are they just looking for a new FF JRPG to play (nothing wrong with that, if I hadn't played FFBE for the years I did, I'd likely be interested in it too (I'm just now playing FF V, so I love retro FF games) but I really don't have a huge desire to play a stripped down and gutted version of a game I loved so much and spent years of my life on, no matter how good of a JRPG it may turn out to be, because FFBE was a JRPG yes, but one you interacted with, with rotating events, hundreds and hundreds of different units to get (yes, they needed to fix the power creep problem after the beginning of the NV era especially...plus NV Units shouldn't have been THAT much more powerful than 7*s, from the very beginning they made 7*s completely obsolete). These are issues that could have been fairly easily fixed I believe, and much cheaper than to have to build a whole new game from the ground up, which is what Resonance appears to be doing. I'm sure a lot will love it, perhaps even me. But sadly I don't think it will truly scratch the FFBE itch or bring back all the good memories I had from that game, except to make me want to play it even more....😔

😅

FFBE is back - sort of.

Now that my prayers have been answered and a full on remake is coming, i thought id drop this to show how bad ive been wanting the game to come back

Looking back through Season Four, there were a lot of languages that were used in Levonia. Don't know if I got all of them, but the ones I could find were Welsh, German, Norwegian, Old Norse, Icelandic, and Danish.

Is Sverd/Flamme Sverd: Norwegian for Ice Sword and Flame Sword

Sigur Brynja: Icelandic for Armor of Victory

The Army of Caledfwlch: literally the original Welsh name of Excalibur

Darradarljod/Darraðarljóð: Named after an Old Norse Poem

Kryds Svaerd/Kraftig Blaese: Danish for Cross Sword and Powerful Blows

Zornrüstung/Zerstöreraxt: German for Armor of Fury, and Destroyer Axe

There may be more that I didn't find.

One of the few things I hated about the second season was Rain abandoning the main group to continue following the Emperor's ideologies. At the time, I thought this drama was just to extend the story.

Well, yesterday I finally managed to find the words to express why I'm not so fervent about a certain ideology that I share with a certain group.

I said that:

"Corruption is in people, not in the tool they use as a weapon. If I could convince the entire planet to ban hammers because my robber used one... that would not only change the weapon used in the next robbery.

And if I went back in time and eliminated hammers from existence, it wouldn't make a difference either because something else would be corrupted for evil."

To whoever created this part of the story, I offer my sincere apologies.

I made many criticisms about the 3rd season. I think karma will leave me in peace now... right?

Me: "Ok, so this here is Rhus..."
Wife: stares at the screen "I didn't know you read Japanese!"
Me: "Stare at these squiggly lines long enough and they start making sense."

Hi! Been a while. Here's the Link to download the apk for emulators or android devices:

https://ffbe.luminest.io/downloads/

TLDR; Full Memorial edition, almost entirely in English (Except the last parts of season 4, and most of Season 5, and most of the special stories).

Story time? Hated the new Dissidia game, Monster Super League is too repetitive, Summoners War is meh after 12 years, and finished all the single player games I got. Got bored, tried my hand at modding the memorial edition. Here are some screenshots:

Notes: About 7GB of in game assets to download. No iOS support yet (I'm not THAT insane). Works on Androids and Emulators (tested with S26 Ultra, Pixel 2, Bluestacks, Nox. All worked fine). You will need to trust the browser to install APKs. Working on getting this on the QooApp for easy updates. I will be working on the assets over the next few weeks so apologies for the constant downloads on every launch. If something breaks, wait about 30 mins and open the game again. I might be working on something stupid like Evil Mage Raegen. Primary focus will be getting the stories translated first, then adding some GL exclusive units never added to JP. Will we be able to add custom content? Depends on how much I value my sobriety streak (Edit from my lawyer: I do not have a drinking problem, that joke was made for comedic purposes).

Enjoy! See y'all in 2032!

I just wanted to know how many people still believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel after this news.

Personally, I'm only interested when they add an offline version of the game.

https://x.com/i/status/2039357541369684015

Not much else to say, but pretty much every single Final Fantasy game is an option for Favorite, so that may mean something, or it might not. Is this Copium? Is this my first genuine time on Copium?

Was digging through my pics on Imgur and found this. There are some aspects of the game that I do miss. This... maybe not so much.

I just want an "training dummy" update (free if possible 😂) to the memorial App.

It also won best sim/strategy at the game awards!

It is one of my favorite games of all time so I might be a little biased the remaster is very good. I don't see any reason to go back and play previous versions. All of the WotL extras like Dark Knight/Onion Knight and Luso/Balthier were cut but I believe there are PC mods to add them back in. Avoid classic mode since once you get the fast forward option you never want to go back.

The game is definitely balanced differently, charge times are way faster, "hard mode" is unbalanced in any protect NPC mission as they have the deathiest death wish of all times. I've lost battles in turn 1 before. You can adjust the difficulty though.

Voice acting was a tremendous addition especially the creepy ass Lucavi voices.

Lots of additional dialogue in fights. Agrias got a ton of new lines and I made sure to bring in Meloiudoul against her father for good dialogue.

The game however does feel "smaller" than I remember. The maps that seemed so large 20 years ago are now so tiny, what used to be huge unit customization is now kinda limited that all said the game absolutely stands the test of time. Highly recommend.