Final Fantasy Record Keeper (iOS) Review

The actual story and lore in Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is not much to brag about, as it is barely an excuse plot to introduce the fan service in a, for a fantasy world, believable way. The essence of the past has been kept in paintings to keep the memory of the times of old fresh, but they have recently started to fade away, and it's up to the historian Tyro to save the paintings by entering the world within them. These are, of course, the older entries in the Final Fantasy series.

Beside the fan service to long-time fans of the series, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper also offers one of the better Final Fantasy experiences in recent times. The battle system is a throwback to that found in Final Fantasy VI, which is arguably one of the best combat systems in the series to date, and it is the one best fit for a free-to-play smartphone game as proven here. The auto system even makes it so that trash battles can be played without any further input at all, to save up spells and such for the boss battles at the end of each dungeon.

Speaking of the dungeons, the system in which dungeons are fought is similar to many titles in the free- to-play RPG market. Stamina is spent to enter the dungeons and then they are fought through. The stamina is restored over time, or can, in true free-to-play fashion, be bought for money. The rate in which stamina is restored is extremely generous, though, with one stamina point restored every three minutes. To give a picture of how much that is, in the current stage of the game, the last missions in the story mode cost around five stamina each to complete, and one dungeon contains around five missions (the maximum that can be held is somewhere between 30-50 depending on how many stamina shards have been obtained). Most story dungeons drop refills of stamina, which basically means that it is possible to play through most of the story mode without having to ever wait a long time. The only time some waiting can be expected is when doing the challenge events that pop up every now and then, which offer new characters. It is a very generous free-to-play title in that department.

There are also - for being so early on in the game's life cycle - a decent number of dungeons. There are 21 different ones in total, each with a challenge mode. This is excluding any challenge dungeons that are currently available and daily dungeons. With the promise of more to come, this makes for a beefy experience, especially as the quality of the dungeons is good, with exciting boss battles that are sometimes very skill-testing.

The generous stamina system and how well it is put to effect through Final Fantasy: Record Keeper makes it one of the very best free-to-play experiences out there. It is truly a game that any Final Fantasy fan should try, and as it is free there is no excuse not to do so. Even in this early chunky state, it could very well have served as a paid game in its own right, but with more to come it might end up with a high amount of great content.