Recently I finished Mobius Final Fantasy, which is to say the main story, not counting all the extra crazy that they put in, that is literally infinite with constant updates soI can always login and find something to do. But I have always been a fan of the storylines, so finishing the main story felt like I accomplished something. I really doubled down on this game a couple months ago when my phone ran out of space and I had to delete an app, and as the only app that had back-up on my PC, it got cut, but then I just wanted to be done because it was kind of a wake up call that this had gone on long enough. It has actually been just over two years since I first downloded it shortly after it's initial release and since it was released in chaptes, it took time to finish. The extra time I dedicated to it recently pre-empted a lot of other things which is why my Twitch channel all but died, and next month is NaNoWriMo when I'll dedicate my free time to what may be my last NaNoWriMo novel, so I won't be hardcore gaming until December, but this was a huge part of the puzzle. Anyway, now that I finished the story, I want to review the game in full.
Mobius Final Fantasy is an audio visual spectacle to rival any of the numbered console games, but the mechanics do leave a little bit wanting and the story doesn't start out much better, but by the end, it does all make sense in it's own weird way. The game begins with Wol (or whatever you want to call him) awakening on the shores of Palamecia being called by the disembodied voice Vox along with many others to fight the fiends of Chaos. As you go forward, the momentum doesn't ever really slow down long enough for you to really figure out what's going on, you just meet a few random individuals filling the traditional roles of Final Fantasy telling you that you are meant to fulfill a prophecy as the Warrior of Light to defeat Chaos, proving yourself one minor fiend at a time. Garland, Mog, Echo the Fairy, Princess Sarah, and Cid all appear and elaborate on the prophecy, but the wierd thing is that other than these characters, Mog's fellow moogles seem to be the only native population of Palamecia, the world that you must save despite the fact that it all seems to be just one battlefield after another. Any player with any sense starts to wonder what the point is, but then Wol wonders too. As the script seems to get lazy, Wol goes a little meta as he waxes philosophical about just why he's fighting at all. Then Meia joins him, a witch who has been branded a heretic because she loved one of the past Warriors of Light and deterred him from his path costing him his life. As the story draws to a close, the mind blowingly horrific truth is finally revealed, none of this really matters, it's just a neverending cycle in which this world with it's own laws that may defy physics and every other science we know perpetuates the war between the Warrior of Light and Chaos. It just repeats endlessly with no real end, despite the theme of hope, the truth is palamecia has no hope because it actually is just a battlefield that relies on nobody ever stopping to think about it, compelled to just fulfill the prophecy to save the world as they have been told. Wol finally figures it out and the game ends with Wol, Meia, and Princess Sarah attempting to defy the prophecy...but did they really succeed? The gmae totally seems to make it up as it goes along and near the end, they actually admit that Palamecia warps to fit the narrative as it unfolds,that perhaps even the heresy to defy the prophecy is actually the prophecy merely testing the Warrior of Light as he reaches the same inevitable end as all the others who have come before him. The last scene is Wol, Meia, and Sarah each in a crystal foating in space, are they oing to a new world or just starting the cycle over again?
One possibility is that this is actually part of the time loop from the first Final Fantasy game. The story mirrors the original game with the same major bosses, and they say the hope of Palamecia goes to another world to help another Princess Sarah, which suggests this whole thing is actually just some prologue to the original game taking place in the time space in the middle of the 2000 year time loop. Of course, I've also said that's where Dissidia takes place, and we now also have to consider Record Keeper, Brave Exvius, Kingdom Hearts and World of Final Fantasy, so at this point I really don't know how any of this fits together anymore, the meta-multiverse is starting to collapse under it's own weight. But what a wild ride it's been and it is fun.
So I guess the question is, is Mobius Final Fantasy worth it? Yes, I would say it is. The mechanics take some getting used to and the PCversion proves this was made for a mobile device, not a console. It is largely a game of rock-paper-scissors with every enemy having an elemental affinity/weakness and every technique having an element to exploit that weakness or be foiled by that affinity. More often than not, the variety feels cosmetic, jobs limit your elements but you can just swap them around to fit the changing requirements of each battle. But speaking from experience, I picked my favorite job (Red Mage), my favorite abilitites (Fira from the Belias card, and whatever, though Cure, Flameshift, Fire Essence, or a selection of eggs from the gil shop work fine) and I just boosted everything with in game power-ups and I made it to the end and only paid real money twice, and both times it was just a lack of patience. Everything is available in game in abundance, so if you want to just play casually, this game is a fun romp through final fnatasy nostalgia that leavesme with just one question: why couldn't this have been Final Fantasy Spirits Within?
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