FF: Record Keeper

[Flip]

I know its mobile... but, pretty awesome! I'll play it, until they make me pay for something.

http://www.androidcentral.com/final-fan ... her-spring

[Julius Seeker]

I've been playing this on iPad, it's a decent game if you want to see characters fight together from different Final Fantasy games.

I do have some criticisms though. The game is kind of a semi-casual game, which means that the play sessions are too short and repetetive to be a traditional game, but too long to be a good casual game. In order to really maximize your logout bonus, you have to play for about 20 minutes if you want to effectively take advantage of your logout bonus.

The sort of casual gaming experience I prefer is log in, check progress, do my stuff, log out, all in under 2 minutes if it can be managed; and then occasionally spend longer periods of time on optimization. If the game had some sort of tasks that could benefit me by doing them quickly, and coming back in 8 hours, I might feel better about not maxing out my stamina gauge each play session.

That said, the nostalgia does carry this game, and so that's the reason why I continue playing, the above is just something that annoys me about it. Although I am slowing down, and playing only once a day now, unless there is something I really want.

[Flip]

Yeah i def am of the same opinion on how to keep me interested in a casual game. I play Clash of Clans and can quickly log in, collect my resources, build a few things, then log out in 2 minutes. But, if i want to totally re-layout my base that can take an hour, while still being fun.

[Julius Seeker]

Just got Paladin Cecil.

The battle can be won the same way as the original FF4 battle on the top of Mount Ordeals. Just hit defend a bunch and wait until the reflection Dark Knight dies.

I also spent a bunch of mythril for some rare items... Let's just say my results did not fill me with any confidence in actually purchasing rare draws, the stuff ai got was fairly shabby except for this one 5 star dress.

[Don]

Do these games even disclose your odds of getting something? In MPQ it does but from what I can tell it's definitely not the norm. I'd think it should be illegal to not disclose your odds. Even slot machines have to verify that their odds are within a certain % payout. Heck, I remember buying the artbook for Million Man Diffusion Arthur (also from SQIX) and all the artwork that looks nice are like OMEGA ULTRA SUPER DUPER RARE +++ and I'd assume it'd have taken considerably more than the cost of the artbook (~$50) to get them all, though of course in the game itself you could use those characters for playing too.

[Julius Seeker]

If I had the patience, I am sure someone has data mined the xmls somewhere, I found a forum post that suggested 1/100 chance to get the Masamune when it was available.

The standard in mobile games generally do not have the odds available unless it is a marketing point. If your interest is really high though, everything big gets data mined, and it is likely in gamefaqs or the wiki.

[Flip]

I like the game so far, but im only 5 or 6 series of battles in. Its relatively quick and looks like it has some decent depth with the equipment, so that'll be cool to tweak.

So, the daily item is random? The very first one, i got some 3 star dagger that just destroys everything right now, so the game is really easy.

I'm a little surprised at the quality, though. The menus look a little chintzy. Not like old school polished, just aged for a new app.

[Flip]

Now i'm up to the point where Stamina matters, which is a little annoying. I'm having fun playing the game and want to keep playing, but the forced time outs get me. I havent spent any real money so far and dont expect to.

My party right now is my guy, Wakka, Aerith, Cloud, and Kain. We are cleaning up, so the game has yet to be too hard, except some of the Normal difficulty quests on the special events (like the Aerith event) i had to try a few times. I've given up on getting Mastery on everything, but fully expect Expert and the Mastery reward for the whole quest. If you Mastery all the battles leading up to the boss, then only Expert the boss, it seems like they give you the Mastery rewards for the whole quest, which is nice.

I used all my mythril recently on the rare item wheel and got Wakka's 5 star ball and some other 4 star weapons. This is definitely the main reason why i'm cruising through the game so far. Physical attacks are just way better than magic right now, but one healer/pump spell caster has been useful. Wakka is great since he can be in the back row.

All in all, its a good little game and the Events are good additions. I find myself running out of Gill, but i guess i can sell some orbs i've been hoarding.

[Julius Seeker]

FF6 content is now up. It's interesting going through Narshe and Figaro with Cecil, Cloud, Kain, Rydia, and Wakka. Although now I really want to replay FF6

[Flip]

Haha, yeah this game makes me want to replay 4 and 6, although i know i probably never will. My rare randoms have been pretty crappy lately, i obviously got real lucky to get those 5* and 4* items off the bat. This whole game is a grind to just get 5 mithril and then hold your breath on a random rare, lol.

[kali o.]

I see it is a DeNA game, which I bet means it...

- has gamble packs, that likely give better odds the more you spend (usually 5/10/15)
- has some rare % number for recruitment, with a RNG for success
- will have a cap where you have to spend money or progression will slow ridiculously vs. the content

I will try it, but most DeNA games are everything that is awful about mobile games (which is interesting, because I remember someone saying Nintendo was teaming with them....).

[Julius Seeker]

Close. Except replace recruitment with equipment acquisition; characters are the carrot to get through the battle content. Also, instead of spend more to increase odds, equipment has a standard daily draw, or a premium rare draw - which is guaranteed to give you good equipment; the price for the rare draw is flat aside from people who want to purchase it in groups of 10... You get your 11th draw free I that case.

I am not really familiar with any other games the company has done though. So I have no grounds for comparison.

The main reason I play the Final Fantasy one is due to the nostalgia factor. As I said above, the game is a little too non-casual for my tastes in a casual game - in that the play sessions are too long, and there isn't enough in the way of a offline gameplay progression outside of new content distribution. The draw for me is come back tomorrow for some free stuff, come back next week for new content - which is fairly good in regards to the content being Final Fantasy related collectibles and memories of events and locations.

The big flaw in the model is that I don't feel particularly incentivized or pinched to purchase any premium currency. It's not like Clash where I can see a clear gameplay benefit to spending the currency, or other collection based games where I can pick up some sort of addition that I want. The item draw seems to be the big thing, but it is not lucrative enough to justify actually spending any money on it; based on the sample portion you get by spending Mythril.

As for Nintendo, they are partnering with them for mobile development and distribution. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the stock market, as that and their new merchandizing with Amiibos has caused their stock value to double over the past three months.

[Julius Seeker]

I got Terra, gave her 5 star Regal Gown and a 4 star Great Sword max level, including her magic, she's like Rydia on roids.

[kali o.]

Meh - I got a 5 star on my 1st (rydia, ice whip) and nothing but 3 star since. I hate gamble mechanics.

[kali o.]

Meant to post this but keep forgetting. My RW/friend code: DCMN

Game has nothing to do with skill, but it is a fun little collectathon that doesnt require money (unless you are OCD).

[M'k'n'zy]

Meant to post this but keep forgetting. My RW/friend code: DCMN

Game has nothing to do with skill, but it is a fun little collectathon that doesnt require money (unless you are OCD).

My code is wpbH, sharing a 59 Sephiroth with Shadow Flare. Hard to beat the insane damage. As for not requiring skill, have you been trying to break into the level 70+ elite missions yet? Stats can only take you so far on those, they get NASTY.

[kali o.]

Ya, I am boss rushing and all that noise. Reta meta, blah blah. I even did the vit0 exploit while it was around. All the high level stuff is just a Save/Load bore to satisfy the RNG overlord.

I am still firmly of the opinion it doesn't require any skill -- at best it requires grinding for specific orbs and/or exp/eggs. Not to say it isn't fun, because it is, but I feel bad for the OCD player that wants a specific relic and starts pouring money into the game.

Adding you now.

[M'k'n'zy]

I don't have the time to farm everything I want to. I always manage to get every character and memory crystal so far, but I am reaching a point where I am starting to struggle just because I don't have the time all the time to get all the orbs I need. I really need to get protectga and should be able to get the greater earth orbs I need out of this event, but then I need to refine it at least once so I get more uses out of it 8^( Thankfully I have a few friends with Sentinals Grimoire which is really helpful.

[kali o.]

I havent found protega all that useful outside of one event, but to be fair, I have a keepsake which I can usually sub in. I am sure you probably have done so, but the big game changer for me was making: *5 retaliate, 2x *4 double hit and unlocking Josefs second RM.

With Seph holding an OWA and almost maxed, I am sure you can reta meta this event with ease.

The interesting event will be the tellah/golbez one. If I am gonna stand any chance, I need to: keep all eggs, level paladin cecil this sunday, make two comets and hone the Faith from this event. As a stretch goal, if I can farm 15 or so *4 holy orbs, I will hone carbuncle.

All in all, a tall order. Not sure I can get it done.

[M'k'n'zy]

I haven't made any 5* abilities yet, I am just breaking into the higher level missions. My main team is Squall, Lightning, Seph, Paly Cecil, and Garnet for a healer.

[kali o.]

I think you kinda have to give up the idea of a "main" team, at least if you wanna tackle the high stuff (typically the last 2 or 3 of the banners and the added + and ++ battles). I use eggs to 30 and make sure I farm the Sunday dungeon - you can at least hit mid 40s that way for the event. Though I dont find that part of the game fun...

I dont have a main team anymore, but for all story+dailies, I run seph (with owa, lvl 65 and retaliate) and then 4 others that need xp to hit 50. Seph can one hit most stuff, so even if he is wasting xp, I find it far more quick and brainless to always use him.

If I could run only a main team, it would totally be:

Wakka, Cloud, Seph, Rydia, Yuna

If Dark Cecil had better skills, he would replace Cloud...but he doesnt

[Don]

I've noticed Record Keeper is generally pretty mediocre on the revenue list and even though the stuff you can find without paying isn't super reliable it's not like the guys making those are purposely trying to put certain games down, and this makes me think if you ever give people a way to get anywhere in a game that doesn't involve paying a lot of money, all you do is just get less money. It's no secret that most games depend on whales to make their money, and it seems like the whole mobile market is so dominated by whales that offering a reasonably good deal is literally shortchanging your own game because you are indeed counting on the guys who drop hundreds if not more on your game for no apparent reason and you don't want to make it remotely possible to get to the top without money because even the biggest whales will notice if other people are catching up without spending money. It's kind of like a lecture I attended on piracy that says just because Bill Gates can afford a $20 CD or $50 game, or even 10 times that amount, he's not going to be inclined to give you even $20 if he knows his neighbor can easily get away with downloading the stuff for free. People just don't spend big money if they know other people can get away with similar results while not spending so it seems like you have to make it very P2W to do well financially. I've seen games that try to offer a reasonable deal but those invariably do much worse than the typical P2W. Maybe those games are on the wrong market and should be on the PC instead where not totally screwing your customer is at least somewhat appreciated.

[kali o.]

Well, your definition of mediocre in profit is pretty loose there -- it's been consistently in the top 100 for the English release since March (?) and the Japanese version, correct me if I am wrong but it is pulling ~15 million a month. Not every game is gonna be a clash of clans or mine craft...but those are the exceptions.

That quibble aside, I think the mobile market will fatigue eventually. Consumers will savvy up, and be a little less loose with their digital wallets. I also bet that eventually, the gamble mechanics of these games will be deemed illegal and/or require regulation of some sort. It **IS** gambling even though most older folks have trouble reconciling seemingly worthless digital goodies with the traditional payoffs such as...money.

More on point, FFRK is just as awful as any other game. Whales, however, can spend far less at a time thanks to semi-reasonable RNG. 5% chance to pull the good stuff, with a 2nd roll to decide which item. $100 basically nets you 3x at the 11x pull or 10x at the 3x pull. Random is random, but the whale can certainly get lucky and spend as little as $10 every 2 weeks...but that's pretty rare. But barring equally bad luck, the average whale is unlikely to spend more than 100 or 200 every two weeks.

FFRK does a decent job extracting casual support though, encouraging the $1 per 2 weeks support (100 gem 1st pull per banner), with the occasional dip into frustration gem spending.

Now, as for me personally, I buy 1 Google Play $50 card a month. If I spend it, tough shit, that's my budget. I try to support games that keep me entertained but its way too easy for me to blow thousands in a moment of weakness. Same reason I bring a set amount of cash and no wallet whenever I hit a casino.

[kali o.]

I haven't made any 5* abilities yet, I am just breaking into the higher level missions. My main team is Squall, Lightning, Seph, Paly Cecil, and Garnet for a healer.

By the way, I read that back and realize now the way I wrote that was probably needlessly confusing. I should have used R# to denote honed rank. I havent made any 5 star stuff either -- orbs are way too rare for that. Double cut and retaliate are both 2 star IIRC, and you can just farm Tuesday daily on Hard...thursday too I think.

For others who don't play and know how the reta strat works, you stick a skill called retaliate (preferably R5) on your heaviest hitter. Throw a double cut on two others (R3+). As a bonus, stick Josefs Double hit materia on your mage or healer. You can cast boost on your heavy hitter too. Have your heavy hitter use retaliate, then target him with double cuts (or attacks with Josefs double hit). Each strike will miss and your heavy hitter will retaliate against the enemy instead. Retaliate lasts around 3.5 rounds...but its safer usually to do retaliate, other skill/sb, retaliate.

So lets say Seph is your heavy hitter and hits for 4k each time. Youll get 6 missed attacks/retaliates per round, for 24k damage, not including the extra hit your 5th character can do or the other skill/sb your heavy hitter does every other round (I like launch). Of course, plenty of skills to boost the damage too - status reels, break(down), etc.

[M'k'n'zy]

The only reason I have a main team is because I just don't really have the time to farm to get all my characters to level 50. I have others up there, Tidus is at 59, Terra is at 50, and at least one character from every game is at 50. I am using Squall and Lightning because they seem to be the best two spellblade users right now overall stat wise. Paly Cecil has a load of HP, does good damage, and has good utility in his abilities, and Seph is Seph. Garnet has worked great for me with Curaga and I finally got Protectga. Usually for me, getting through a harder mission involves trying to bring an ally with Sentinals Grimoire, otherwise I just can't absorb the damage from most of these bosses. I can clear a high level dungeon on normal enemies with no real problem, just throw a heal every now and then, but the bosses at 80+ tear me to hell.

[kali o.]

Oh ya for sure, 90% of my follows were on people with Tyro's SG...it seems essential (a large chunk of my follows switched to Boon, but 9 times outta 10, I still have SG on the list). The only other way to deal with damage is to quit and load every time RNG doesnt go your way in a fight..which is tedious.

I assume you have all the break skills too, ya? Those help with incoming damage (especially useful on aoe magic users).

And I get the time thing. Sadly, the game makes realm synergy almost essential for the upper level stuff (and the "dont get KO'd for event character" objectives). So you pretty much have to get the characters in the banners to 40+ to have mastery chance of the content. Thats why I like the reta strategy - speeds up levelling/fights and makes it brainless. Since you have Seph already with OWA and near max...hell, you are really lucky and could start doing it easy.

Alternatively, you can just not bother with the last few event fights. You miss out on a free skill/gear and some 5* orbs, but its not a big deal, since you are unlocking everything else. Hell, that is probably the better way to enjoy the game.

[M'k'n'zy]

I do have at least one character from every game at 50, including Josef. Where do you get his memory crystal?

Now that Shellga is out, I am hoping that combining that and/or Protectga with SG will be a great bit of damage reduction. I do have the break abilities. I tried to make one of the 4* varients, but I don't have a good character that can equip it right now.

Also is Red XIII worth leveling? I have his SB weapon from the event, and haven't leveled him yet. I tried to get Lightning's because apparently her SB is really powerful as well, but after 2 10+1 drops, I didn't get it.

[kali o.]

- Josef can be a pain in the ass. Gotta run FF2 content (difficulty doesnt matter, aim for best stamina to xp ratio). I spend about 500 stamina before I got it, hopefully you are luckier.

- it will. I would probably focus on shellga with the golbez event ahead. The breaks are my second skills on my fighters, whenever possible (sometimes exception is spellblades) - usually double cut + a break.

- wow, the Pin? Damn right he is useful. Lucky you. Id focus on levelling him (and Aerith if needed) now.

- I blew all my mithril and monthly gem budget on the event - didnt get the sabre or vega. Very lame.

[M'k'n'zy]

I did get a gold bangle, which is an awesome armor piece. I meant Josef's limit break item so I can level him past 50, I don't have it yet.

[kali o.]

Oh, his memory crystal is in a FF2 elite dungeon. Forget the name. If you havent unlocked it yet, you can do so by completing classic story missions.

I just mastered the current last fight in the aerith event...honestly, I have not idea how you could even complete it without reta or luck. You must blind (thanks seph!), you must SG (or get very lucky), gotta dodge the petrify and you need to magic break for the rocks (I think).

[M'k'n'zy]

Yeah, I probably won't even try that one yet. I am almost to the memory crystal for Aerith at this point, and I got the Greater Earth Orbs I needed to make my first Protectga already.

[Julius Seeker]

I should pick this one back up; it's a great nostalgia fix, especially with the music. The last thing I did was complete my FF8 team.

I am going the efficient route for this one, using characters and equipment for the proper worlds. I agree though, it takes too much time to play, and I tend to jump from game to game on mobile on almost a weekly or biweekly basis, with the exception of clash which only requires 1-3 minutes a day, it's my new Utopia (old casual browser game some of us here played for years back in the late 90's early 2000's).

[M'k'n'zy]

I remember Utopia myself Seek. I am working hard to break into the higher level stuff, but I also have a few games I play, including the incredibly fun Marvel Future Fight, so I just don't have the time to REALLY grind this game the way it needs to be. At least I have plenty of 5* gear without having ever spent a penny on it.

[Julius Seeker]

This is my current mobile/casual fix: http://www.rivalkingdomsgame.com (Android/iOS)

It's like an advanced Clash of Clans, but requires more time as it has a much heavier emphasis on attacking, Clash encourages at least 2 attacks per day. This one encourages many more than that, rather than using resources to build your army, you just attack with what troops you have capacity for up to once every 20 minutes with a stack of 5... So if you want to do near max efficiency, do 5 attacks every couple of hours. Unlike clash, there is no searching through dozens of targets, you get one and you attack it. There's a fast forward button so easy targets can get demolished in seconds. In addition, it works on streaks, your first battle will always be one with just a single defence, but when you get to a streak of 10 wins or so, it starts to become difficult -- resource rewards get progressively higher until you lose, and mystery boxes occur every second battle.

Overall, Rival Kingdoms is a more advanced version of clash, but requires 20-40 minutes a day for, reasonable progress... Spread out over 4 or 5 sessions of course.


I would love to see a Utopia mobile app, I checked out the game recently, and it is really dying down to nothing, only a few thousand players left. Casual browser games are almost a thing of the past.

[M'k'n'zy]

I play a few too many games on my phone. Marvel Future Fight gets most of my time, it's a lot of fun and easy to play for free. Obviously Record Keeper, and then I play Astrowings 2, which is a fun little shump game, I also play Dominations, which I just started, but it's been pretty fun so far. Those 4 alone are enough to keep me busy, then I have others I kinda off and on play.

[Don]

A game doing $15 million a month would have to be doing $100K/day and that's top 10 territory for US based on the sites that are willing to share revenue numbers. Sure that's limited to just iPhone but I assume that accounts for most of the market and that Google Play/other stuff at least is nowhere near a majority of the total revenue. I mean if top 100 is doing $15M/month on #100 then that means they have to total for at least 1.5B/month even though the revenue surely is concentrated on the top so it'd probably be closer to 15B/month and that seems to be just way too money. Another way to put it is $15M = $180M/year so you're saying 5 random top 100 mobile games put together is roughly equal to WoW at its height since $1B/year is roughly where WoW topped out. I know the mobile market is pretty crazy but I sure don't see anything that'd indicate a handful of random top 100 games would beat WoW's revenue during its height. I don't doubt there can be a huge burst of activity. Fallout Shelter was beating Clash of Clans for a week or so and that'd probably project to at least five hundred millions of dollars per year but it sure dropped back down to earth pretty quick.

[Julius Seeker]

Square just released Final Fantasy 8 triple triad on iOS, and also this:

[Don]

I would love to see a Utopia mobile app, I checked out the game recently, and it is really dying down to nothing, only a few thousand players left. Casual browser games are almost a thing of the past.

I saw a Settlers Online on Steam which seems to be a browser game ported over, but Steam isn't nearly as lenient if the reviews are of any indication so it's pretty hard to make the transition to Steam.

[kali o.]

A game doing $15 million a month would have to be doing $100K/day and that's top 10 territory for US based on the sites that are willing to share revenue numbers. Sure that's limited to just iPhone but I assume that accounts for most of the market and that Google Play/other stuff at least is nowhere near a majority of the total revenue. I mean if top 100 is doing $15M/month on #100 then that means they have to total for at least 1.5B/month even though the revenue surely is concentrated on the top so it'd probably be closer to 15B/month and that seems to be just way too money. Another way to put it is $15M = $180M/year so you're saying 5 random top 100 mobile games put together is roughly equal to WoW at its height since $1B/year is roughly where WoW topped out. I know the mobile market is pretty crazy but I sure don't see anything that'd indicate a handful of random top 100 games would beat WoW's revenue during its height. I don't doubt there can be a huge burst of activity. Fallout Shelter was beating Clash of Clans for a week or so and that'd probably project to at least five hundred millions of dollars per year but it sure dropped back down to earth pretty quick.

Your numbers don't add up but that aside, FFRK made 9 million in its first month in Japan. While revenue typically declines after the 1st month, I don't think you realize how popular the JP version is -- the entire Global/Western side of DeNA's revenue is ~15% of the revenue in Japan.

As for the yearly revenue, last I checked, the global mobile game market was expected to hit $30b this year. So ya....Meanwhile, DeNA is doing ¥28b in game revenue alone a quarter, assuming they have 10 money maker games going at a time, that's over $150k a day, per game.

My issue is still with your definition of mediocre profit. Even as a reptilian, jewish, corrupt freemason billionaire, I would love to enjoy such...mediocre...revenue streams.

[Don]

Why bring Japanese numbers unless you know there's somewhere that has a detail breakdown of these numbers? As far as I can tell anything outside of US is considered proprietary at least based on what can easily be found online and DeNA has a gazillion games and while Record Keeper is definitely on the top amongst what DeNA makes it's pretty hard to make a conjecture about how the revenue is divided up in a company with a lot of games that you've no idea what they're even about. The only site I can find that's willing to share would be US numbers for iPhone (everything else still requires a paid subscription) and Record Keeper is usually in the $10-$15k range and generally hovering in the top 100 range. It's also pretty top heavy as Clash of Clan (#1) + Game of War (#2) seems to make roughly as much as #11 to #50 put together at a very rough glance. When you're talking about global numbers you obviously have each country's games that make an incomprehensible amount of money to someone outside that country. The Japanese stuff isn't even close to the stuff that makes money in China that seems to be designed with the quality of "Diablo 5" but still rake in millions. Unless you're owning stock in Tencent or whatever it's not particularly interesting why certain games do way better in some country.

Hearthstone makes about $20M a month on the PC and ever since it's been available on mobile it usually hovers in the teens and it sure hasn't surpassed its PC revenue yet (though probably going to happen soon), so you use that as a reference point and get that $250M/year would get you into the top 10 range quite reliably especially if you remove the casino stuff in the top 10 that is obviously not remotely competing for the same 'game' space compared to even say a match 3 game.

[kali o.]

Why bring Japanese numbers unless you know there's somewhere that has a detail breakdown of these numbers? As far as I can tell anything outside of US is considered proprietary at least based on what can easily be found online and DeNA has a gazillion games and while Record Keeper is definitely on the top amongst what DeNA makes it's pretty hard to make a conjecture about how the revenue is divided up in a company with a lot of games that you've no idea what they're even about. The only site I can find that's willing to share would be US numbers for iPhone (everything else still requires a paid subscription) and Record Keeper is usually in the $10-$15k range and generally hovering in the top 100 range. It's also pretty top heavy as Clash of Clan (#1) + Game of War (#2) seems to make roughly as much as #11 to #50 put together at a very rough glance. When you're talking about global numbers you obviously have each country's games that make an incomprehensible amount of money to someone outside that country. The Japanese stuff isn't even close to the stuff that makes money in China that seems to be designed with the quality of "Diablo 5" but still rake in millions. Unless you're owning stock in Tencent or whatever it's not particularly interesting why certain games do way better in some country.

Hearthstone makes about $20M a month on the PC and ever since it's been available on mobile it usually hovers in the teens and it sure hasn't surpassed its PC revenue yet (though probably going to happen soon), so you use that as a reference point and get that $250M/year would get you into the top 10 range quite reliably especially if you remove the casino stuff in the top 10 that is obviously not remotely competing for the same 'game' space compared to even say a match 3 game.

Uhh...what...?

To answer your first question: DeNA themselves announced FFRK's first month earnings. To answer your second question: DeNA is a public company and breaks down the earnings regionally. They also don't have nearly as many games as you pretend, and since FFRK is their strongest current performer, it's not hard in the slightest to extrapolate.

FFRK is not nearly as popular elsewhere as it is in Japan. That's true. So what? That's not the issue you brought up -- it was, and I quote, "I've noticed Record Keeper is generally pretty mediocre on the revenue list " and "..if you ever give people a way to get anywhere in a game that doesn't involve paying a lot of money, all you do is just get less money."

Nonsense. As much as I hate most of DeNA games and the mobile models in general, they are one of the top 10 in the industry. Lets not pretend they don't know how to chase the whales. I guess I see your issue...you are likely using some estimate site with US data to come up with your theory. Your data set is flawed and, thus, your theory is flawed. Simple.

[kali o.]

Also, this banners + and ++ battles made me change my mind on Protega. It was invaluable -- I had no room for the Keepsake.

[M'k'n'zy]

Also, this banners + and ++ battles made me change my mind on Protega. It was invaluable -- I had no room for the Keepsake.

I just got Shellga today as well. I wish both didn't take the 4* earth orbs, those are never really EASY to get....I want to hone them each at least once.

[M'k'n'zy]

So just to let everybody know in case they don't already, it sounds like we are getting close to some big events coming up. The orb festival starts shortly, and we are also getting close to Cloud's second memory crystal and his SSB, the first one we will have.

Sadly we have lost out on some content as well, like the FFII event that gave out Firion's memory crystal. Kinda pissed about that.

I also found out that eventually there will be blank memory crystals which will take the place of any memory crystal that is in the game that you haven't collected yet, which means even if you haven't been able to collect some from the regular dungeons, you can still break characters level cap if they have a memory crystal in the game already.

[kali o.]

Haven't had time to play much recently (still event complete up to + battles, don't always finish them though). Plus I burned out a little spending all my mythril trying to get Golbez's axe...I failed.

[M'k'n'zy]

OK this orb festival event is AWESOME. It's basically a gil and EXP event combined, with tons of chances for 4* and even 5* orbs. I am running it as often as my stamina will let me, and am using it to level some characters for whom I broke their level cap but haven't actually leveled them past 50 yet, as well as some others that are close to 65 but not quite there yet. This is awesome. On top of that, you have 4 phases of relic draws at half price for an 11 pull. Glad I saved up a ton of mythril for this.

[M'k'n'zy]

Looks like I have a good chance of getting Seph's MC2 to level him higher. I have never had such an easy time against a level 99 boss.

Plus, it looks like this holiday event is going to be a Christmas version of the Orb Festival, so if anyone has been thinking of giving this game a try but hasn't yet, now would be a good time to be able to get some high level characters fast.

[kali o.]

With the exception of a few save/load reliant +/++/+++ battles, most of them are easily doable if you can complete up to them. The ones that need save/load luck...hell, I skip em because I find it a waste of time. I am sure you will be able to complete Sephs event.

The upcoming festival will be nice, if for no other reason than to load me up with another 20mil or so, since the orb breakdown feature is coming soon. I think we get the lucky draws again too -- which is the only time you can justify without a doubt spending money.

Edit: You have OWA, I forgot. You can master this event no problem.

[M'k'n'zy]

Well, I just did a 10 pull and drew two of Seph's SSB weapon, so I am really set now ^_^

I also took Luneth's weapon off of the beginners pull to get Advance, will be changing my share to that.

[kali o.]

Well, I just did a 10 pull and drew two of Seph's SSB weapon, so I am really set now ^_^

I also took Luneth's weapon off of the beginners pull to get Advance, will be changing my share to that.

Jealous