The compilation of remakes packaged as Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis is currently a mobile exclusive, free-to-play game, but many FF7 fans are likely hopeful for a port to consoles like Switch and PlayStation 5, or even Xbox and PC. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters were initially launched on PC and mobile, but they were later ported to PS4 and Switch. Final Fantasy 15 Pocket Edition was also a mobile-only title, but it was ported to home consoles and PC several months after its initial release. These precedents might give reason to hope for Ever Crisis console ports, but the automated battles and gacha design of the game complicates matters.
Where the Pixel Remasters were classic Final Fantasy games with a new look, and FF15’s Pocket Edition provided a simplified action RPG take on a mainline Final Fantasy game, Ever Crisis is a gacha game first and foremost. The mobile original Final Fantasy Dimensions would make an ideal candidate for a console port, since its gameplay was close to the Super Famicom’s Final Fantasy 5, complete with ATB and a Job System. Ever Crisis does have elements that harken back to the PS1 Final Fantasy 7, making it feel more like an authentic remake than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, but only on a superficial level.
Ever Crisis Is Not A Self Contained, Offline Game
The initial impressions of Ever Crisis are strong, letting players dive into a high definition take on the Avalanche mission to destroy a Mako reactor, the same sequence depicted in demos for the original Final Fantasy 7 and again for the FF7 Remake. Character models retain stylized chibi designs, like the PS1 classic FF7, during exploration, while battles feature graphics comparable to the PS4 FF7 Remake. Players move using touch controls, since FF7 Ever Crisis lacks controller support, but it is easy to envision a smooth transition to a home console version. Once this introductory sequence ends, the problems inherent to an Ever Crisis port become more evident.
Where the Pixel Remaster series and FF15 Pocket Edition were fundamentally offline, self-contained games, the entirety of Ever Crisis’ design is based around an always online, cash shop supported model. Other free-to-play games like Fortnite have successfully made the jump to consoles, along with several MMORPGs. Even a few gacha style games like Genshin Impact have been ported to PlayStation consoles, but the hands-off design paradigm of Ever Crisis is clearly targeted solely at mobile platforms. Where Genshin Impact features more exploration and action game elements, the dungeons of Ever Crisis are few and far between, providing truncated, brief snippets of gameplay in an otherwise passive player experience.
Ever Crisis does feature a battle system akin to the ATB of the original FF7, but like many mobile titles it features an auto battle option, along with faster battle speeds. Most of the Ever Crisis missions are dialogue scenes followed by a series of battles, with truncated dungeons sprinkled throughout the storyline. As it is currently designed, there are no in-game shops encountered during the story, only a shop visible outside the story mode itself. This shop lets players spend Gil they earn during the story on items used for weapon enhancement, among other things, but new weapons are acquired through the game’s RNG-based gacha system.
Technical Limits Do Not Prevent A Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis Console Port
The gacha design shatters Ever Crisis’ FF7 nostalgia, as it caters to mobile users playing in short bursts, or while multitasking with other activities, thanks to its auto battle function. There is no in-game exploration, and the sparse playable dungeons do not meet the expectations of gameplay for any console RPG, much less a flagship of the genre like Final Fantasy. On a technical level, there is nothing stopping the game from being ported to home consoles right now. The Switch already has several games in its library that the console cannot natively run that are only playable through cloud streaming, and Ever Crisis is likely less hardware intensive.
A player cannot reasonably advance through Ever Crisis’ story without powering up using extraneous modes that exist simply to pad the game’s length and keep players logging in. Large spikes in the recommended party power level require players to revisit the gacha shop in the hopes of drawing better weapons or engage in repetitive Solo Content activities to accrue character experience or weapon enhancement items. Solo Content is limited by vitality, a common design staple of F2P mobile games, that prevents players from simply grinding at their own pace, either forcing them to log in day after day, or spend money to speed up the process.
These design facets are, sadly, normalized among many F2P mobile titles, but such games aim to provide a way to pass the time rather than an engrossing game experience. A player spending an hour or so with Ever Crisis each day on their phone while they do other things might not raise eyebrows. Sitting down at a console to play a game with minimal player interaction and brazenly advertised monetization is another matter. In its current form, Ever Crisis is not enough of a game to warrant a console port, but simply another mobile gacha that carries the veneer of a beloved JRPG classic.
A Console Ever Crisis Port Would Need To Remake It Into A Proper Final Fantasy
There is story content to FF7 Ever Crisis that interests hardcore FF7 fans, but it is packaged within the largely idle game format of a gacha title. This makes it easy for some to write Ever Crisis off entirely, just as The First Soldier failed to connect with FF7 fans thanks to its mobile exclusive, battle royale approach. The wasted potential of Ever Crisis comes from what many fans wanted it to be, and how close the game comes to delivering, on a surface level. Ever Crisis‘ graphic style and game engine could perhaps be repurposed to deliver a true throwback RPG compilation of FF7 and related titles.
Using the bones of Ever Crisis, expanding on its dungeons, and replacing the gacha elements with traditional JRPG shops and character progression, offers a better route to a console port. Ever Crisis proved another FF7 remake approach has built-in interest, one that stays closer to the original story, aesthetic, and gameplay style, but showcasing more modernized presentation than a simple remaster. That is not what Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis offers at present, but given the enduring popularity of FF7, if Square Enix expands it into a real game, and not just a gacha, it could absolutely succeed on home consoles.
