The world of mobile games has taken a vastly different path than that of console games. Rather than creating simple yet effective, fully fleshed-out gaming experiences on mobile, app stores have become saturated with half-baked games that prey on players' more addictive personality traits by feeding them microtransactions and advertisements.
These experiences leave a sour taste in the mouths of gamers, causing some to avoid mobile games altogether. This is a shame as the platform itself has a lot of potential to become a hub for some incredible adventures, and Final Fantasy Dimensions is proof of that.
Final Fantasy Dimensions Has a Great Storyline
Final Fantasy Dimensions has all the hallmarks of a classic Final Fantasy game, including a gripping and fantastical storyline. To give a brief and spoiler-free rundown of the story, it follows eight kids as they try to reunite the worlds of light and darkness. The game explores themes of war and friendship, and of course, there are some fantasy elements to spice things up a little bit.
The story in Final Fantasy Dimensions is well-developed while still being simple. Many Final Fantasy games have extremely in-depth and sometimes convoluted storylines, but Dimensions takes a step back and recaptures some of the simple joys that made the series so popular in the first place.
The campaign is a hefty 50 hours long, which is enough to keep you entertained for countless train rides, toilet trips, or wherever you enjoy playing mobile games the most. The fully fleshed-out storyline of Final Fantasy Dimensions is a breath of fresh air among the many other mindless games that can be found in app stores. It may have been released over a decade ago, but it still holds its own among the best mobile games released in 2022.
Final Fantasy Dimensions Returns to Its Retro Roots
Final Fantasy Dimensions both looks and plays like you have teleported back twenty years. Although it's played on a modern device, it feels like a classic Final Fantasy game that you would have found on consoles in the past.
The art style has a big role to play in delivering its retro feel, and the charming and whimsical 16-bit graphics feel right at home on mobile. The graphics aren’t trying to do too much, causing the system to crack under the pressure and impacting the gameplay negatively.
Mobile devices aren’t consoles at the end of the day, so they aren’t equipped to play console-like games to the level of quality a PS5 could provide. Final Fantasy Dimensions is unapologetically quaint, taking a leaf out of the book of retro titles that didn’t require next-gen technology to be enjoyable.
Final Fantasy Dimensions Is Not Compromised by Mobile Game Tactics
Many mobile developers create endless games with constant live-service elements to keep players coming back time and time again. They are full of advertisements, in-game timers that place your avatar on the precipice of death and make you cough up cash if you don't want to wait 24 hours to continue, or incredibly steep difficulty jumps that make you pay to level your character up just so you can keep playing.
The reason why Final Fantasy Dimensions is such a successful mobile title is that it’s just a simple, classic, and honest game that is perfectly suited to the system. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can actually achieve a sense of satisfaction when you complete the 50-hour campaign, and that feeling is something mobile games are generally lacking.
The screen you play Final Fantasy Dimensions on may be small, but the game itself isn’t. You control two different parties of characters, there are countless items to collect and two massive worlds to explore. There is also a vast job system with 18 different roles. It gives gamers a chance to play a classic Final Fantasy JRPG without having to download a video game emulator for your iPhone, iPad, or Android.
Nothing is compromised or stripped away in terms of gameplay to fit the game onto a mobile device. It's structured just like traditional Final Fantasy titles were and is just as fleshed-out as other entries in the series. You just have the added convenience of being able to play it on the go.
Final Fantasy Dimensions Offers Great Value for Money
Mobile game tactics are used to squeeze every penny out of the player and eventually make the developers far more money than they ever would have gotten with a one-off purchase price. While it is possible to find free mobile games that don't have in-game purchases or ads, they are few and far between.
Final Fantasy Dimensions features none of these tactics. The prologue is free to play, almost like a demo of sorts. Then the player can purchase the rest of the chapters as they get to them or buy them all together for $13.99.
$13.99 for a 50-hour-long JRPG is great value for money, and works out to about 28 cents per hour of enjoyment. Some mobile gamers that have become used to free games may think it is too expensive, but $13.99 for 50 hours of uninterrupted gameplay, with zero ads or micro-transactions shoved in your face seems very reasonable.
Final Fantasy Dimensions Is What Mobile Gaming Should Be
Final Fantasy Dimensions is an absolutely wonderful mobile game that is almost sad in a way. Not because the story is upsetting or the gameplay is less than perfect, but because it gives us a glimpse into what the world of mobile games could have looked like. Just simple, enjoyable games that don’t try to empty your pockets at every turn.
The classic JRPG formula that Final Fantasy Dimensions uses feels totally at home on a mobile device, and the 16-bit art style is colorful and bold enough to absorb on a mobile's small screen. We can only hope that more developers take inspiration from it, and we get more mobile games like this one.