Final Fantasy Record Keeper to have its 2nd Anniversary in about a month

[T.G. Oskar]

Not much to say, but it's something good (and random) to discuss.

Long story short: Final Fantasy Record Keeper is a mobile, F2P with gacha battle simulator that has you, as the eponymous "Record Keeper", restore "Records" which contain all of the Final Fantasy stories from I to XIV, with Tactics tagged in, and soon enough XV and World of Final Fantasy. The reason is unknown (and only recently there's some sort of clues), but you have to get into the Records and fight classic monsters with all your favorite (or loathed) characters tagging along.

Or, you just get to fight. And fight. And fight some more. And, curiously enough...it's fun. No dungeon crawling, no deep story - just battles all the way through, but it's the battles themselves which are fun. They're also in glorious pixel art, with good ol' Active Time Battle.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, no? Well, surprise surprise, FFRK is about to have its 2nd Anniversary in Global (it already had its anniversary on Japan), with a load of goodies around. I'll explain for the non-players:

• First, there will be special banners. This is your "gacha", which is in essence gambling; you can do it via Mythril, which you can acquire just by logging daily or finishing "dungeons" (i.e. collections of battles), or you can spend real money for it (Gems, the Premium currency). These are half-priced Lucky Draws which are curated - that means you ONLY get the stuff from characters, and from a select list, and nothing more, for half the price (typically 50 Mythril or 3000 gems, so 25 Mythril/1500 gems for half-price). The gacha allows you to get high-level Relics for your characters, which allow them to learn Soul Breaks (i.e. Limit Breaks), which are divided into Unique (run of the mil), Super (more powerful, and give you stat boosts when mastered), Burst (same as Super, except you enter Burst Mode and replace the Attack and Defend commands with special skills) and Overstrike (as Super, except it has ridiculous damage multipliers and allow you to break the damage cap of 9999 HP, up to the first limit of 99,999 HP. There will be three such Lucky Draws (one containing Medicas, or AoE healing Soul Breaks; the other containing only Burst Soul Breaks, and the third...I can't really recall), plus the Ultros Selection (a handful of SSBs, BSBs and OSBs chosen by the players via survey), and then a set of five Anniversary banners containing old and new relics.
• Orbfest! The "Orbfest" is the given name for special events that allow you to "farm" (repeat the event for acquisition of) gems, which allow you to create and hone your skills (i.e. Fire as Black Magic, Lifesiphon as Combat skill, Ifrit as Summon magic, etc.) These events are for a limited time, but also offer great amounts of Gil (the currency you use for...well, honing and refining weapons/armor and stuff, but is otherwise useless) and more importantly, XP. Completing each for the first time also gives you Mythril.
• Record Missions! These require you to complete new or previously completed missions for prizes (which will most likely be Orbs). For this, the requirement of Stamina (your limiting factor when speaking of how much you can progress) is halved, meaning you can complete more missions per day. That is, when you're not spending time in the Orbfest anyways.
• Mythril galore! Every now and then, there are special prizes just for logging in, and that usually includes effort-less Mythril. A bunch of it is expected.
• Mythril Dungeon! While not entirely confirmed, when Japan had its anniversary, there was a special dungeon that you could repeat. There, and only there, players had the chance to farm for Mythril, which could be acquired by defeating enemies - to a total of 50 Mythril, enough for a single "pull" on any banner (or for what Mythril is also useful, such as expanding your item/ability slots on inventory, or refreshing Stamina)
• Whatever other surprises happen (usually music remixes playing on different parts of the game, mini-games, and whatnot)

The 2nd Anniversary will be by March 25th of this year, though some of its parts will appear much earlier. There's already a login bonus every weekend giving effortless Mythril (3 per day), as a countdown for the Anniversary.

So, is anyone here playing the game AND excited for the Anniversary, or lured by nostalgia and deciding to give it a try? It's fairer than most other games in terms of its gacha (allowing you a guaranteed high-rate Relic if you make the 11-pull, which costs as much as 10 pulls so they're basically giving you one for free), it can be quite engaging (battles don't always revolve over who has the better items; some thinking goes a long way, and many of the old strategies for the bosses are re-enacted), and has constant events, so it rarely gets stale - the power-creep is there, sure, but not as strong as with other games. And, in a way, it can be actually played for free, without having to invest anything (that way being if the gacha is lucky, though even then you can do well with the events with minimal items, and recent Relics offer very solid Soul Breaks), which is a plus.

[Rowan]

i recently started playing again, and im loving it. I've managed to get so much stronger in the time since i started about 6 weeks ago and I just defeated my first difficulty 160 (in the FF8 event). Im also happy that I can now take on the nightmare dungeons. I am saving all my mythril for the anniversary banners as I hear they will be loaded with amazing relics and some lucky 25 myth pulls also.

Great game, fun, addictive and the sense of progression and acheivement is on a high level.

[T.G. Oskar]

I started playing about a month or so from Day 1, so I'm quite ahead, but not by much. I chose to play on the first FFVI event, because of...obvious reasons. Got a bunch of her relics, including her BSB. Also, the Random Number Gods have turned Mama's Boy into my decidedly unwanted Salty Bae, because I got a bunch of relics outta him, even if refuse to use him.

After looking a bit more, the Lucky Draw banners actually consist of:

• Curaga Medica banner: all items on the banner are Burst Soul Breaks or Super Soul Breaks that heal at Curaga level. So that can mean stuff like Relm's SSB, but it can also mean stuff like Vanille's Burst, or Y'shtola's super burst. The idea is that you'll be out of there with at least one Medica, and a chance for a Burst Medica.
• Burst Soul Break banner: all Relics on the banner grant Bursts to the party. So, it can be stuff like Squall's Burst, Cloud's Burst or Bartz' Burst, but it can also be the Bursts of Cid Raines, Alphinaud, Maria or Fujin; AKA, the most sought-after Burst Soul Breaks.
• En-Element banner: all Relics on this banner grant the character En-Element, which makes their attacks with said element stronger, increase resistance against said element, and change regular attack to one of the same element. This can be a Super Soul Break or a Burst Soul Break.

All three offer a possibility of great relics at half-price, so it's wise to save at least 75 Mythril for all three. With at least one Medica, one Burst and one En-Element, your party should be a bit more solid than before, unless you end up with poor stuff (it can happen). I'll pull on all three because they're half price, and there's a chance for good relics.