Review in Progress: Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis

destructoid.com:

By the time I spent about an hour with Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis, I was hit with an overwhelming wave of familiarity. Not because of nostalgia for Final Fantasy 7, though I have fond memories of that game. Rather, it was because I have seen virtually this exact same game on mobile devices for the past seven years now.

Despite what Square Enix’s frankly confusing marketing might leave you to believe, Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis is just a gacha game. Calling it “another possibility for a remake” maybe isn’t untrue, but it’s a bit misleading. Games like Genshin Impact or even Square Enix’s own Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent have really raised the bar for mobile games, so I don’t blame anyone for thinking Ever Crisis would be more than it is. But rather than reaching for those loftier heights of quality on the back of the Final Fantasy brand, Ever Crisis is a firmly complacent title. It is as gacha as any gacha that you’ve ever played, and we need to establish that before we continue.

So in short, Ever Crisis is probably not the game that I imagine many hoped it would be. But what if we set all of that aside and just judged the game on its own merits? Does it, at the very least, function well as a simple time killer to put on your phone?

Well, now’s as good a time as any to reveal myself as a gacha game sicko to you all.

Disclaimer: All screenshots have been cropped to fit on the page. Some shots may not be fully reflective of the game.

Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis (iOS [reviewed], Android)
Developer: Square Enix, Applibot
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: September 7, 2023
MSRP: Free-to-play with microtransactions

My relationship with gacha games is much like my relationship with fast food. I’m never