Ever Crisis is an avalanche of microtransactions and frustrating mobile design that makes one of Square Enix’s greatest achievements a miserable experience.
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Right from the off, Ever Crisis pelts you with materials, quests, and bonuses. There are daily login popups, a premium hunt, a special shop with limited items, special weapon draws. The shop has special packs of legendary or epic items, multiple reward passes, memory packs, daily packs of items, and packs of Red Crystals - used as an in-game currency. At the bottom is a section for items purchased with Gil, a currency gained through completing missions, but these are barely useful.
Prices vary on these packs from £1.99 to £69.99, with some purchasable with Red Crystals. Red Crystals range from £2.99 to £69.99 for a bunch. The Monthly Legendary Bundle Pack, for instance, costs 5000 Red Crystals, which would require spending £39.99 on 6200 Red Crystals. The Premium Hunt Season Pass is £12.99, which rewards players with items and vouchers for more items.
I have room in my life for exactly one gacha game, which I don’t spend money on. Sometimes this is a fun little distraction, even though progress is slow without buying currency. This is how I felt about Record Keeper before they shut down the global version. I love FF7 so I’m giving this a shot, but it’s been a week and I’m struggling. There are so many superimposed mechanics that it feels like a new player starting a free to play game at year 5 or 6 of its life, after they’ve steadily added new mechanics, currencies, and other powercreep for years. But it hasn’t been out for years, it’s been out for a week and there are already so many things to keep track of. It feels like work.
Also, the “automatic” battle AI is VERY good. Better than I am. And you can double the speed so the battles go quicker. At first I was relieved because it meant I didn’t have to pay attention while grinding, but why am I doing this at all if I’m not even playing it?