Changes: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

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Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a free-to-play role-playing game developed by A-Lim and published by Square Enix for iOS and Android devices. The story follows the journey of Rain, Lasswell and Fina in their battle to protect the great crystals of Lapis. Thanks to the power of visions, it features characters that have appeared in previous games in the series, such as Cecil Harvey, Shadow and Exdeath.

The game marks as the first collaborative effort between Square Enix and A-Lim and draws elements from A-Lim's previous game, Brave Frontier. It was released first in Japan in October 22, 2015. The global version soft-launched in May 12, 2016 in several countries before being released officially in June 29, 2016. The global version of the game is maintained by a Singapore subsidiary of A-Lim's parent company, gumi.

On September 8, 2017, Square Enix released a spin-off game named Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Tap! for Facebook.^[1] Due to low interest, Tap! has been removed from the platform as of mid-2019.

On December 2, 2018 Square Enix announced another spin-off game based on Brave Exvius called War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which is a tactical RPG.

Gameplay

World

The world map is presented as a series of fixed contact points, with a fixed set of dungeons (battles) located in each area. The player must fight through all of the battles in a given stage, expending associated energy per round, to unlock and advance to the next stage. Clearing all required dungeons will advance the story to the next waypoint, and gives a one-time reward of 100 Lapis (the game's premium currency).

Towns may be freely explored and dungeons that are already cleared can be replayed if desired. In "explorations", the player can traverse a given area for treasure and other items, but will also encounter random monsters. Entrances and exit points are marked on each area map: yellow for individual rooms and stairs, green for the entrance, and red for the exit.

Battle system

FFBE Battle look — A typical battle scene.

The game uses a turn-based combat chain system that is thus far unique among series titles. This is attributed to the A-Lim company's involvement, as a similar chaining system is implemented in their game, Brave Frontier. The player may select a party of up to five units and a companion unit (or "friend") to deploy in battle, each with his or her own unique skill sets. When in battle, the player can select actions for the units to perform by swiping the units' panels in different directions. With an action selected, tapping a unit's panel will immediately execute the chosen action.

To set a battle command, the player can bring up a command window depending on the direction flicked:

Up - Default attack.
Right - Abilities. One can select a spell (which can be White, Black or Green Magic), a special ability, a Limit Burst or an evocation.
Left - Items. The unit can use one of ten items set at the battle inventory, selected by the player before the battle.
Down - Defend. Decreases the enemy's attack damage by half.

The player is also allowed to strike multiple targets in the same turn, targeting the enemy by tapping on them. (Party members can be targeted by holding tap to a desired unit and, once a detail window pops up, by tapping "Target" button.) Enemies can do the same during their turns, so preparing a strategy turn-to-turn is critical to success. The same goes for unit selection: According to their skill set, units perform one or more roles in battle—Physical Damage, Magic Damage, Hybrid Damage, Tank, Healing, Support—and must be carefully selected as the player accesses harder content.

Chaining can be achieved by tapping panels in quick succession, and combining the units' attacks. There are two types of chains: Spark Chains (attacking with multiple units at exactly the same time) and Element Chain (attacking with multiple units using attacks of the same element). It is important to note that since every character's attack animation speed is different as well as the number of hits involved, timing when each unit should strike is crucial to chaining accurately. With proper equipment and specialized chaining partners (two or more units that chain adequately or perfectly), the player can deal up to millions of damage under the right conditions.

Winning a battle does not have immediate rewards as in typical Final Fantasy games. Instead, all materials collected and experience points gained are tallied at the end of a story battle round, or at the end of an expedition.

Vortex

At the Home screen, the Dimensional Vortex (which in truth, is located at the Farplane) offers different features for players. Following the update to Version 2.3.0, it is categorized in three different tabs: Event, Enhance and Nemeses. In the Event tab periodically appear events (usually with a two-week duration), which allow the player acquire rare items and improve their units's development. There are several types of events, though the most common are those sponsored by King Mog and the collaborative raids.

The Enhance tab contains four different chamber, with a fifth added every weekends, which the player can battle through to obtain gil, experience points, crafting materials or awakening materials, and occasionally, utility units to be used to enhance units. Every day, one Chamber of the player's choice can be opened at no cost, while unlocking others during the same day requires 100 Lapis per dungeon.

Finally, the Nemeses tab contains the Chamber of the Fallen, containing a series of single-level dungeons with very powerful bosses called trials, which can be challenged at the player's discretion. Rewards such as high-end equipment can be obtained for defeating these bosses the first time. It also allows easy access to the Chamber of Arms, where endgame "10-man trials" (which work with the Swap Battle mechanics) take place. Training the Soul, to be completed with story units only, is also available.

Other modes

By using arena/colosseum orbs which are refilled every hour, the player can access the Arena and the Colosseum. At the Arena, the player fights against AI controlled units of other players and accumulate points by winning against them. Consecutive wins increases the amount of points one receives. These points are used in a weekly and monthly leaderboard, giving better rewards the higher one ranks. Whereas the Colosseum is a mode that pitches the player against different monsters. Both the Arena and the Colosseum have several limitations for the player: consumable items, Lapis continues and friend units cannot be used.

Expeditions is a mode that allows units to be sent on expeditions, which must be funded with gil and party of up to five units, to bring back treasure. Each expedition lasts for a specified period of time, the maximum being a entire day, and up to four expeditions may be running at the same time. Each expedition is ranked by difficulty (the lowest being D-rank and the highest being S-rank), with higher ranks requiring a higher number of more powerful units to complete. Each expedition has a different bonus requirement, and units that meet its requirement will gain a higher success rate.

Synopsis

Characters

File:FFBE - Season Two Key Art.jpg

Season Two cast artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.

The game's story follows the main cast, whose units are acquired by the player as they progress through the narrative. However, these units do not need to be used at all to complete the story and the player can summon a myriad of miscellaneous units (original to the game's lore or lifted from other games in the series) to build their parties.

Rain is a knight from Grandshelt who, upon hearing the pleas of girl encased in crystal, sets out to protect the world's crystals.
Lasswell is Rain's childhood friend who seeks to protect Rain in order to honor the memory of his hero, Rain's father.
Fina is an amnesiac, innocent girl who was sealed by the Earth Crystal and seeks to help Rain and Lasswell in their journey. She has a mysterious past embodied by her other persona.
Lid is an airship engineer from Dirnado determined to inherit the name Cid who guides the party to the Wind Shrine.
Nichol is a tactician from the Olderion Federation, who meets the party at a time where he must protect his homeland from monsters due to the defilement of his country's sacred waters.
Jake is the womanizer leader of the rebel army opposing the Zoldaad Empire's tyrannical ruler.
Sakura, who despite her childlike appearance, is the centuries-old founder of Magi Nation Mysidia, and seeks the party out to give them some answers to their enemies' mysterious pasts.
Veritas of the Dark is a mysterious armor-clad man who seeks the destruction of the crystals scattered across the world, and the leader of the Sworn Six of Paladia.
Raegen is Rain's father, Lasswell's adoptive parent and a renowned knight, who has been missing for many years.

Story

Season One

Visions—Storied heroes whose dreams transcend even death
Lapis—A world of crystals and the visions within
By the light of the crystals, a realm flourished. But now, a shadow falls...
Their world on the edge of ruin, two knights set out to drive back the shadows...
Let a new tale of crystals and heroes begin!
Crystals, heroes and high adventure
As legendary warriors join forces across time and space
Are you the hero of light we seek?
Pre-registration trailer for the global release.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

The game opens with Rain and Lasswell aboard their airship as they battle a horde of monsters. Perplexed by the monsters' strange behavior, a young woman trapped in a crystal appears before them and begs assistance from them. She leads them to the Earth Shrine, where the Earth Crystal is under attack by Veritas of the Dark. He proves to be a formidable foe, destroying the crystal despite their opposition. As the two knights lie defeated, the girl reappears, grants the power of visions so that they may save the world and teleports them outside the crumbling shrine. As Rain and Lasswell find their men killed and airship destroyed by Veritas, they decide to journey on foot to Royal Capital Grandshelt and report the events to the King of Grandshelt.

On their way to the castle, they find it under siege, burning down by mysterious figures known as the Sworn Six of Paladia lead by Veritas of the Dark, who tries to kill the knights. Rain is saved by Fina, the mysterious girl that was trapped in the Crystal and who has no memories of herself. The trio travel the world intending to put a stop to the Veritas' rampage. Traveling to Lanzelt Ruins, they come across Veritas of the Dark who was retrieve powerful artifact known as the Sacred Ring of Paladia. The trio come close to defeat him, but the Darklord manages to overpower them and take his leave.

The trio then travels towards Dirnado where they meet the young engineer Lid who is hopeful to inherit the title of Cid as the best engineer. On their way they find Veritas of the Heavens who has been kidnapping Dwarves for an unknown purpose. Joined by Lid, the party comes across Evan, Lid's older brother who is on the servitude of the Heavenlord and repairing an ancient, powerful airship known as the Invincible. Trying to protect the Wind Crystal, the party faces the Heavenlord, unmasking him as Cid, the legendary airship engineer for whom future engineers are titled after on his honor. Cid destroys the Wind Crystal, unleashing The Heart of Babel a device needed to power their airship for their machinations.

The group makes their next stop at the Olderion Federation where they encounter the strategist Nichol and their brother Elle, who are in search for their sister, the Water Priestess Luka who can purify the waters to deter the increase of monster activity. After finding Luka, the party comes across Veritas of the Waters a sadistic mage who has wounded the Leviathan polluting the waters of the nation. Through Luka's help, Leviathan comes back to its senses and forces the Waterlord to retreat, however, she would attempt to flood Olderion and kill its populace. Fina fights her and regains her memories, adopting the persona of Dark Fina. With the help of pirate captain, Mercedes the party is able to go to the Water Shrine to protect the Water Crystal from the Waterlord, but Rain awakens a mysterious power that is too much for him to handle and threatens his life. Elle dies in combat but his death prevents the trap the Waterlord had planned, allowing the party to defeat her. Dark Fina uses the remaining power of the Water Crystal to restore Olderion to normal and saving Rain, but Luka must pray underwater to purify the waters. Nichol decides to join the party.

The group heads to the militarized nation of Zoldaad who is in the midst of a civil war with a rebel faction. The party is coerced to join by the rebel leader Jake in order to save Grandshelt from an invasion. With Jake's help they sabotage key facilities. The party faces Veritas of the Flame who easily defeats the party and is reveals he crafted Lasswell's blade that has hidden potential. On their way to chase the Flamelord, Lasswell sustains grievous injuries he keeps hidden. The party battles the Flamelord and are able to win through Lasswell's determination to win that unlocks his blade's power, but collapses from his injuries. The Darklord restores all fighters to their top condition and a new battle ensues, with the party's victory. Jake, however, destroys the Fire Crystal in order to save his nation, releasing Bahamut the strongest Esper from its slumber. The party soon comes to a direct confrontation against Zoldaad dictator, Sozhe who is in truth, controlled by Dr. Lazarov, a mad scientist obsessed with immortality. After freeing crown prince Shera, the party is forced to kill Sozhe and soon pursue Dr. Lazarov who attempts to genocide the nation from atop the Invincible but is blasted by Bahamut's Megaflare. The group battles Dr. Lazarov and defeat him, freeing Zoldaad from its reign of terror.

As Jake joins the party they meet Sakura, a deceptively young-looking old mage related to the Veritas who promises to aid the party and on her request, march towards Mysidia the land of mages. The group comes to face Veritas of the Light and Veritas of the Earth Sakura's older sister and Fina's rival respectively. The Earthlord restores Fina to her older self but at the risk of endangering the other Fina. The party is forced to travel to a memory world in order to rescue Fina, and learning of the Veritas' past in the process as warriors from the nation of Aldore in the world of Paladia who battled the forces of Hess in a bloody global war, and were betrayed by their homeland and sent to Lapis through the power of the Eight Crystals, and their plot to destroy them to return to their world to enact revenge on their former masters, despite the catastrophic consequences for both worlds. The party succeeds in saving Fina, splitting her in her two selves. The party defeats the Lightlord and Earthlord, and now closer to the truth than ever, and learning of Rain's father's involvement in the entire affair. Sakura joins the party.

Their next destination is Gronoa, a continent plagued with toxic miasma and residence of the last, Dark Crystal. Helped by aides of Shera the party survive the deadly miasma. The party come across the Lightlord once more who chastises Sakura for betraying her. As the party defeats her, the Lightlord taunts Rain to kill her revealing she killed her mother, Sophia, but Rain refuses. The party then finds the Dark Elf, a former enemy of the Veritas who turned mad after 700 years of imprisonment. The party tries to stop him but his suicidal devotion to destruction allow him to overpower them. The Lightlord, blasts the former Sage of Hess and destroys him. As both parties prepare for a final battle, Veritas of the Frost a lost member of the Veritas takes a village hostage and forces them to fight in a tournament to determine the strongest and satisfy his bloodlust. Lasswell obtains a massive power boost through disciplined training and easily overpowers his comrades, including Rain and begins to feel guilty over thoroughly beating his adoptive brother, contrary to his inferiority complex. Rain, however awakens his true power and duels Lasswell once more, defeating him with the two coming to terms with one another. The Frostlord then fights the party for the Dark Crystal and is beaten, but soon after the Veritas appear to destroy the last Crystal. The Frostlord is revealed to be none other than Raegen, Rain's father and the true leader of the Sworn Six, leaving the latter to question the Darklord's identity.

A major battle ensues between both parties but as the land begins to collapse they are teleported to the land of Pharm. Nichol boiling with a drive for revenge against the Waterlord's crimes relentlessly pursues his hated enemy, with the party behind him as they terminate the Veritas one by one. Soon Nichol comes across his nemesis who is revealed to be Folka, the first Water Priestess of Olderion and his long ancestor, who uses hypnosis techniques to create a bloodthirsty personality to fight as a warrior. Nichol is unable to claim revenge and ultimately forces her to devote herself to help others as punishment, to which she agrees with. The party eventually find a weakened Lightlord along the Darklord, the only member left capable of fighting. A decisive battle ensues with the party's win. Their victory, however, is short lived as Sol a former lieutenant of Hess turned a nihilist psychopath by his imprisonment, destroys the Crystal with the intention to annihilate both worlds of Paladia and Lapis, the Darklord dies at the hand of Behemoth K, Sol's companion.

The party goes after Sol to stop him climbing the Land of the Crystals, with little time left as all Crystals have been destroyed. As Fina begins to disappear due to two of her being unable to exist at the same time, Dark Fina with the help of a reformed Lightlord and Waterlord, performs the ultimate sacrifice, turning herself into a new Earth Crystal, allowing Fina to live and granting her the powers of a Sage of Hess allowing the party to advance. They come to face Behemoth K who proves too powerful, so the two Veritas teleport themselves away with him, enabling the party to pass. The party catches up with Sol as he plots to open the Interdimensional Gate that will allow both worlds to collide. Sol is defeated but reveals his trump card, the Chaotic Darkness a monstrous vision made up of humanity's evil with whom he tries to destroy the world.

The powerful Vision creates a bizarre distortion known as the Wandering Lands which the party navigates. The party comes to face Behemoth K who has killed the Veritas and teleported chasing them. Furious over the death of their reformed comrades, the party defeats the weakened beast, who released from his insanity begs the party to kill Sol to save him from himself. The party comes face to face with Sol and his diabolical vision, and manage to defeat both of them after a lengthy battle. Unfortunately, the Chaotic Darkness mutates into a more monstrous form, before trying to lay waste to Lapis. With the party intending to defeat the horrendous beast, the prayers and hopes of all inhabitants of Lapis irradiate powerful light that weakens the monster, allowing the party to terminate the mutant vision. Before they can celebrate, Rain and Raegen awaken to their hidden power in an attempt to force close the gate and prevent a catastrophe. Sol, however, regaining his strength tries to ram himself against the Gate to force it wide open. Rain clashes with him and the two disappear as Rain's Crimson Saber falls with the party in disbelief. Lasswell is confident Rain is alive and vows to find him.

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Spoilers end here.

Music

Main article: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: Original Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is primarily composed by Noriyasu Agematsu from the group Elements Garden, who previously worked on Chaos Rings for Square Enix. He wanted to preserve the nuances of the music from Final Fantasy III and VI, even while recording with a full orchestra. Agematsu is also known for having contributed some of the music for Wild Arms 5 and Wild Arms XF of the Wild Arms series.

For events based on other games in the series or outside the series, it features original music from those releases. For example, in the first Final Fantasy XV King Mog event, it used the themes "Daemons" and "Horrors of the Night", and during the collaboration with NieR Automata, "Bipolar Nightmare (Vocals)" was featured. The game also borrows some music tracks whenever it directly homages scenes from previous games in the series, as seen in some key scenes involving the Water Priestess Luka, in which the original NES version of "Priestess Aria" is played.

Development

Developed by the creators of Brave Frontier, the game was first revealed at the Final Fantasy Live Event in Tokyo alongside Final Fantasy Dimensions II (back then named Final Fantasy Legends: Toki no Suishō) and the Final Fantasy Portal App.^[2]

Releases

The game was in closed beta testing for the Japanese audience until September 2, 2015.^[3] It was well-received in Japan, with over 6 million downloads as of March 28, 2016.^[4]

The English version was soft-launched on Swedish app stores for iOS & Android on May 11, 2016.^[5] It was released to all mobile device app stores on June 29, 2016. As of March 2018, the global version has surpassed 30 million unique installs.

On May 16, 2016, Square Enix launched a massive registration drive^[6] for the global game, offering in-game rewards to players who participated. With over 10 million Crystal Points earned during the campaign, the first five rewards tiers and one bonus rewards tier were available to all players until July 17, 2016.

Due to the status of loot crates in Belgium, Brave Exvius was withdrawn from all app stores In the country as of December 3, 2018.

Production credits

Producer	K Hirono
Director	Hisatoshi Hayakashi
Scenario	Yukinori Kitajima, Nanako Saito
Character Supervisor	Kazuko Shibuya
Sound Effect	Shintaro Takai
Map Supervisor	Yoichi Kubo
CG Movie	Kazuyuki Ikumori
Music Composer	Noriyasu Agematsu
Assistant Producer	Shizen Tei
Line Producers	Kazuhiko Otsuki, Yutaka Utsugi
Publicists	Ichiro Yazaki, Keiko Ogawa, Hiroko Tanaka
Technical Director	Yoshinori Jou
Marketing & PR Lead Planner	Takahiro Noma
Marketing & PR Creative Chief	Kiyotaka Sousui
Marketing & PR Manager	Noriko Watanabe

Gallery

Trivia

Brave Exvius has played host to well over two dozen collabs in its first two years of service, more than any other mobile title or MMO within the series.

FFBE Ariana Grande Promotion — Promotion for Ariana Grande collaboration.

In 2017, pop star Ariana Grande was featured in the game and has several variant units to her name. The first, Dangerous Ariana, is based off Grande's alter ego, Dangerous Woman. Her song "Touch It" was featured in the game and arranged as a Final Fantasy Brave Exvius remix.^[7] Chic Ariana, meanwhile, is based on her real-world persona, as well as Sportive Ariana and Charming Kitty Ariana.
- After the Manchester Arena bombing 22 May 2017 attack at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester, England, the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius global team sent a message through the game and all social media channels extending their condolences.^[8] This was the first response of the video game series to a real-world event. Final Fantasy XII was reworked in Japan following events of similar gravity, but no statement was issued outside of Japan.
In 2019, pop star Katy Perry was featured in the game. Three units are named after her: Popstar Katy, Immortal Flame Katy and Lovly Katy.

External links

References

[1] FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS TAP! NOW AVAILABLE (Accessed: December 02, 2018) at Square Enix Press Center

[gumi-2] A-lim x Square Enix Collaboration – Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius

[3] ttp://www.siliconera.com/2015/08/26/final-fantasy-brave-exvius-beta-test-for-android-starts-today/

[4] ttp://jp.square-enix.com/company/ja/news/2016/html/174aa97ba6738d7a552d371d459a514b.html

[5] ttp://toucharcade.com/2016/05/12/final-fantasy-brave-exvius-soft-launch/

[ffbereg-6] Square Enix, Inc,, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius registration page

[7] ttp://gematsu.com/2017/01/final-fantasy-brave-exvius-adds-ariana-grande

[8] A message from the Global FFBE team

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 * In 2017, pop star [[Ariana Grande]] was featured in the game and has several variant units to her name. The first, [[Dangerous Ariana]], is based off Grande's alter ego, Dangerous Woman. Her song "Touch It" was featured in the game and arranged as a ''Final Fantasy Brave Exvius'' remix.<ref>http://gematsu.com/2017/01/final-fantasy-brave-exvius-adds-ariana-grande</ref> [[Chic Ariana]], meanwhile, is based on her real-world persona, as well as [[Sportive Ariana]] and [[Charming Kitty Ariana]].
 <!--Brave Exvius made a statement on the Manchester Arena tragedy of 2017 via its collaborative connection with Ariana Grande. While the investigation into the incident has mostly completed, the events of the attack have no bearing on the game and are still an especially sensitive matter to citizens of Manchester and of Great Britain. Therefore, we must request that the scope of our coverage here be limited to statements already issued by the game's staff. -->
-** After the [[:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017 Manchester Arena bombing|22 May 2017 attack]] at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester, England, the ''Final Fantasy Brave Exvius'' global team sent a message through the game and all social media channels extending their condolences.<ref>[[:File:FFBE Manchester Stmt.PNG|A message from the Global FFBE team]]</ref> This was the first response of the video game series to a real-world event. ''Final Fantasy XII'' was [[Censorship#Final Fantasy XII|reworked in Japan]] following events of similar gravity, but no statement was issued outside of Japan.
+** After the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017 Manchester Arena bombing 22 May 2017 attack] at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester, England, the ''Final Fantasy Brave Exvius'' global team sent a message through the game and all social media channels extending their condolences.<ref>[[:File:FFBE Manchester Stmt.PNG|A message from the Global FFBE team]]</ref> This was the first response of the video game series to a real-world event. ''Final Fantasy XII'' was [[Censorship#Final Fantasy XII|reworked in Japan]] following events of similar gravity, but no statement was issued outside of Japan.
 * In 2019, pop star [[Katy Perry]] was featured in the game. Three units are named after her: [[Popstar Katy]], [[Immortal Flame Katy]] and [[Lovly Katy]].