Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis Launches; Old-school and Gacha in One Game [Update]

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis debuted as a free-to-play game and another side-scrolling installment in the universe of perhaps the most popular game in the Final Fantasy series. The title is available free of charge (with microtransactions) on mobile devices with Android and iOS and requires an initial 237 MB (Google Play) or about 1.3 GB of disk space (App Store).

1. Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis - official website

As a reminder: Ever Crisis is, so to speak, a collection of stories from the universe of FF VII - not only the games, but also the Advent Children movie. A return to the past also brings the classic turn-based combat system (with only three characters), which was abandoned in more recent installments. Of course, the whole thing has been adapted for mobile devices.

Not such a bad gacha?

The mobile nature of the game also manifests itself in another way: in the gacha system. Fortunately it is not needed to unlock characters, but weapons and outfits for them are acquired randomyly. We can buy packs for in-game currency (blue crystals) or money.

For now, there are very few reviews or even opinions ( on Google Play the average rating is 3.6/5 out of 32 reviews), therefore we lack information on how this system works. Nevertheless, for now Ever Crisis seems to be quite generous to gamers.

1. Square Enix is giving away a handful of gifts as part of its "launch campaign." Just for logging in, players receive 3,000 blue crystals. On top of that, the company is giving a total of 7.7 million crystals distributed to all players (that's the reward for 1.7 million pre-release registrations) and 2,000 more as part of the "distribution prize."
2. Launch celebration has translated also into bonuses in the form of special offers and guaranteed 5-star weapons.
3. In addition, it looks like the developers did not go overboard with hiding the best "drops" behind negligible chances. According to beta test participants players have a 7.5% chance of getting 5-star weapons every time, leaving aside the aforementioned promotions and the so-called "pity system" (increases the chance of getting better items after a series of unlucky packs). For comparison: in Genshin Impact ordinary "wishes" have a 0.06% chance of rewarding a player with 5-star loot (per DotGG).
4. The game also enables you to increase the drop chance for a coveted item if you add it to your wish list (per Android Police).

Of course, it's hard to evaluate this kind of system barely a day after its release, especially when we don't have any fresh information about it. Time will tell if Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis will prove to be a rare case of (relatively) healthy gacha, or will it follow in the footsteps of its competitors over time.

Ever Crisis with a bug on Android

Unfortunately, mention must also be made of a bug that prevented some users from playing on Android devices. As we read in the official announcement (X/Twitter), Ever Crisis can forcibly close when launching the game after downloading the initial files. Even if the title is indeed not "aggressive" with microtransactions (by the standards of gacha games), this glitch has effectively spoiled the mood of some fans.

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis

September 7, 2023

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• Overview

• free-to-play
• jRPG
• game release
• Square Enix
• Final Fantasy (franchise)