Sunday, June 26, 2022

Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) - End of Service

This week I received some very disheartening news.  My favorite game on mobile that I've been playing ever since it was released is being shut down later this year. :(  I actually blogged about this 7 years ago when it first came out, and as an devoted Final Fantasy fan I was super excited when I finally got a chance to play it (it had been out in Japan a couple years before).

The game has had so much content added to it throughout the years, but as a Day 1 player who basically logged in every day and rarely missed any rewards, I've been able to keep up with all the challenges the developers have presented me.  It's not really surprising that the game is getting shut down, in fact I've only ever spent $30 on the game lifetime at the beginning, just wanting to support the developers for a game well produced.  It truly was Free-to-Play with not even a single ad, so I imagine it does not bring as much income in as other games.

Here's the screenshot of the End-of-Service notice they announced earlier this week:

So basically my favorite mobile game of all time will be gone after September of 2022. :( At first I was really sad and somewhat upset, since I've invested so much time and love into this game.  However, I've accepted that some things will just come to an end and have made the following goals for me to complete before it's all over.  Here are the things I still want to accomplish:

Magicite Dungeons - I've pretty much 5-starred all of the Magicite Dungeons (which means beating all 5 bosses in each element).  I still have Wind and Lightning to do, but had been saving those to do for "Dr. Mog's Homework".  This will be the easiest thing I have to do on the list.

Dreambreaker - So far I've only mastered FF7 and FF9 and have not attempted any of the others.  My gear in each FF realm is good enough where I should be able to master all of them, but getting sub 30-second clear times in each is probably not going to happen.  It's okay, the rewards for clearing them fast aren't necessary, although it's gonna take up a ton of Rat Tail for me to upgrade most of the Historia crystals needed to help defeat each boss.

Dragonking - This one might be difficult.  The only one I've attempted and completed (no mastery) is FF7.  But since I'll be setting up parties for all the Dreambreaker runs, it should help prepare me for the Dragonking bosses.  This section is the final and most difficult of the Cardia Records.

Labyrinth - This one is my least favorite, since it requires clicking through a "maze of portraits" to complete each dungeon.  The rewards are really good (hero artifacts are some of the strongest gear in the game you can wield), but the time required to farm them is not really worth it in my opinion.  I've skipped the elemental/realm bosses in the labyrinth up to this point, but my goal would be to complete those as well if I have time.

And that's about it.  Everything else in the game I have basically mastered.  I have about 3 months to finish out my goals, which when set reasonably should be doable.  I'm still gonna be really sad when the game finally does get shut down and I'm not even sure what game I would play afterwards.  I still occasionally crush candy, but I moved on from Simpsons Tapped Out.  Square Enix's only other decent mobile Final Fantasy game is Brave Exvius, but I didn't like it as much as FFRK and eventually walked away from it with no intention of coming back.  Ahh well, it is what it is!

Updates to come at the end of September with tons of pictures to show off my collection and mastery of this wonderful game. ♥