Final Fantasy Explorers
The Ff universe finally goes monster-hunting
Considering how many genres Final Fantasy has segued into over the years, it’s odd it’s taken Square Enix this long to finally get in on the monster-hunting gig. And while Explorers doesn’t quite offer the depth you’d find in Capcom’s pack-leading Monster Hunter series, or Nintendo’s excellent Xenoblade
Chronicles X, it does offer hours of slaying that’s made all the better with eidolons, chocobos and co.
In a similar vein to Final Fantasy
Crystal Chronicles, Explorers is a semi-open-world adventure that tasks you with collecting powerful crystals, looting a million different items and genuinely laying the smack down on any goblin, aquilan or other FF creature that happens to stroll your way. Much like other games in the genre, Explorers sticks to the monster-hunting formula pretty tightly: pick up a mission from your central hub village of Libertas, head out into the wilds of Amostra, kill everything in sight and eventually find, locate and defeat a giant beast.
To keep things acutely FF, these bosses are some of the bigger enemies from the regular games, including the summonable eidolons. They’re an impressive sight, especially the first time you rock up to fiery Ifrit or scantily clad ice queen Shiva, but these encounters soon become a weak point. Fights take far too long (even with a party of decently levelled monsters/co-op partners), and the inability to select more than a handful of targets on an eidolon strips each encounter of any real sense of tactics or depth.
The entire adventure can be tackled solo or co-operatively with friends. Playing solo brings AI partners to the mix, and it’s here that Explorers adds a neat twist to the usual formula. Enemies randomly drop special items, which you can take to the Monster Lab back in Libertas and create your very own crew of beastly allies. Grinding through new enemy types to find that elusive resource, and then fusing them together to add even more variety to your party, is a great touch that never gets old.
You can also choose from a variety of jobs, which offer the basic template for different play styles. Monks, Paladins and Dragon Knights offer styles geared towards melee, while Black, White and Time Mages err towards ranged magical attacks. From here, you can purchase suitable weapons and upgrade these to offer new attacks and special moves that create handy timed buffs.
With its cute, Final Fantasy IX- esque characters and general cutesy vibe, Explorers won’t be for everyone, but if you’re looking to finally give that monster-hunting malarkey a try, or you’re a FF nut in need of a little variety, Explorers provides a worthy entry point.