The Verdict
I had a really rough time with Final Fantasy Explorers. Comparing it to Capcom's already established series was always on my mind, and honestly, it's unavoidable when you're familiar with it and a big fan of the franchise.
I can't deny that what FFE tries to do differently, sometimes works in its favor. The more faster paced combat will appeal to those that don't like MH's more tactical and methodical weighty combat, and the ability to switch Jobs that truly change up the way you play is certainly welcome.
Things get a bit more tricky though when the other systems fall apart, instead of coherently fitting together as part of a whole. Let me put it this way, I'm a huge fan of Monster Hunter games, and those that fit in that genre, no matter how wildly different they are from one another. But even I had a hard time fully loving this game. For every thing I liked, I found another that was aggravating.
Don't get me wrong, just because some of these aspects doesn't appeal to me, the Monster Hunter snob, doesn't mean that they won't appeal to you. What saved this title for me was the Final Fantasy branding. Had it not have that going for it, I doubt I'd keep coming back to it. But without it, this would have been a rather poor implementation of the MH formula.
The Positives
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I would call FFE an easy entry point for those that might be interested in MH type games.
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The Job system is pretty fantastic. Only a handful of them are unlocked at the start, but as you progress, you'll unlock better and more specialized ones. The starting Jobs do a decent job at showing you the differences between each. Black Mage is a ranged damage dealer, White Mage is a support healer, Monk is a melee DPS machine, Knight is a melee tank, etc. The more specialized jobs like Dark Knight, Ninja, Samurai and Blue Mage add more layers to already existing classes.
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The combat for the most part is fun, and relatively easy. You still have a Stamina bar of sorts, though here it's called an AP bar. While it does drain when you run, it's also used as the primary resource for pulling off skills. Unlike MH, this combat is closer to games like Toukiden and Soul Sacrifice, meaning it's more immediate and action focused, rather than weighty. You only really have one button to attack with your main weapon, and then your four face buttons become skills when either the L or R button are held down.
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The skill system and by extend, the mutation of skills is pretty great too. As you progress through the game, more and more skills will be purchasable from the Crystal in the main hub town. All of these skills carry a load, which means later in the game, you won't just be able to equip the most powerful skills, but instead pick and choose which ones work with your particular build.
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Being able to utilize an Airship to drop you off at specific points on the map to make completing quests easier is certainly welcome. A lot of the time, you'll still need to head into separate areas, as only some are accessible by ship, it still eliminates the need to run extremely far every time you start a new mission.
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As you defeat enemies, you have a chance to capture their soul, and then summon it again to use as a companion for a one time fee. You can then bring monsters with you on missions, who will level up and get increasingly more powerful. It's a great alternative for those that will play this game mostly solo.
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The Trance system is enjoyable, and not in any way gamebreaking. As you go through the game, you'll either unlock famous character Magicites, or you can encase Eidolons in it and then equip them to gain various buffs and super attacks. Once you build up your Trance gauge, you can temporarily transform and even unleash a signature attack based on the character you're using.
The Negatives
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While it's probably not fair to compare the likes of FFE to the fantastic gameplay of Monster Hunter, it does fall into the same genre, and hence warrants it. For one, monsters in FFE don't seem nearly as threatening. Case in point, MH starts you off with killing an Aptonoth, a rather big but ultimately harmless creature. Then the game visually tricks you by sending Velociprey or Jaggis at you, which are smaller Velociraptor-like monsters, but are far more deadly. But it isn't until your first big monster hunt that you realize it was all in preparation for this. Big monsters like the Lagombi, a Tigrex or a Rathian all have unique movesets, giant health pools, and look downright menacing. On the flip side, FFE's encounters are all more or less the same. There is really nothing much differentiating a small Mandragora from a Skeleton, or even from a bigger Dragon. They all have limited movesets that they'll continually spam, and not one of them is more threatening than the other, aside from a larger health pool.
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This further extends to Eidolons, the famous summon monsters like Ifrit, Shiva and Bahamut. Sure, these take time to kill, but their constantly repeating movesets leave much to be desired. These aren't the threatening boss fights like in MH, or other games in the genre. These are more or less the equivalent of bullet sponges. Easy to take down, just takes a longer time to do it.
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As you fight using skills, you'll accrue Resonance, which is a number in the top left corner of your screen. Once you reach a certain point, you'll be able to activate a Surge. By holding L+R, you can then select from one of four buffs that appear randomly. The Surge system seems cool in theory, but the fact that it chooses them at random is pretty infuriating, especially if you're trying to complete subquests that call for specific Surges to be activated.
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The previous point further extends into capturing Eidolons. I kid you not, this is probably one of my most hated aspects of the game. Capturing them revolves around taking their health down to about 5% and then activating a Surge called Encase. Simple, right? Wrong. I've attempted the first mission which requires you to capture any Eidolon over 10 times. Sometimes my monster companions killed Ifrit. Sometimes I killed him because I tried to get my Resonance high enough for a Surge. Sometimes I've had him at 5% and Surge but no Encase. It was absolutely infuriating. Turns out, that you also have to wait for the Eidolon to perform their Rage global move, which then triggers Encase. You know what would be really helpful, if the game told you that in the Tutorials section! Instead, all I got was a rudimentary "When the boss has low health, use the Surge command Encase."
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The map is confusing to navigate through. Again, unlike MH, which has the full map laid out so you can easily navigate from one area to another, not to mention make trips shorter by taking various shortcuts, FFE instead has all of its sections separate, and then contains multi-layered sections that still only appear as a single dot on the map. So even though I'm being taken to the map right before the Ifrit fight, I still have to trudge through 3 randomized floors until I can finally get to him.
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Tying AP to both stamina and skills seems backwards. I get that running will consume your AP, as that makes sense. What makes less sense is when the AP gauge replenishes slower because you're targeted by enemies you don't want to fight. That makes running from one area to the next tedious as you'll consume a ton more AP this way. Not to mention, tying skills to this makes this system even more frustrating, especially during runs where you simply want to get to the boss without fighting the smaller trash mobs.
I'm a pretty big fan of the "Monster Hunter" formula. It has proven to work as a pick-up-and-play format for portable titles, and even for extended play sessions on consoles. They're games which require a lot of grind in order to attain that armor set you've been eyeing, or that weapon that has a higher attack value than your current one.
Final Fantasy Explorers is very much falls into the genre of "MH" clones. You create a character, you set out to rid the land of beasts, and collect precious resources in order to continually advance your gear. But Explorers has that Final Fantasy flair that makes it distinctly Final Fantasy. For one, you have a long list of Jobs you can freely switch, Eidolons to fight and capture, and even play briefly as famous characters like Cloud, Squall and Terra.
But even though Final Fantasy Explorers sounds like a dream combo for those that enjoy both the FF and the MH franchises, it never executes properly on either. Let's take a look at what works, and what Explorers doesn't fully deliver on.
