That’s right. Pop superstar Ariana Grande will have her own character in Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius.
Grande posted this video on her twitter, showing off concept art and animations of her character’s sprite. The model is based off of her Dangerous Woman latex bunny mask. Could it be related to the Viera?
Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius was a free-to-play collaboration between Square Enix and Gumi, the creator of Brave Frontier. Brave Exvius already has 8 million downloads after releasing in 2015 (Japan) and 2016 (North America).
Reviews on mobile games are much harder to find compared to the glut of console game journalism. But luckily for you, American Matt told us all about it back in July.
He also wrote a review for us if you’d like to read more. Here’s a quote:
“Brave Exvius is the mobile RPG I’ve been waiting for since I got my first high-end smartphone. Its systems are deep and compelling enough to remain attractive over a long period of time, the free-to-play limitations hardly seem limiting at all, and the monetization is handled very gracefully; I have no doubt that Square Enix will make money off of this game, but you certainly won’t feel as though they’re twisting your arm.”
Why Ariana Grande though?
Is there really that much crossover potential?
I google imaged “Ariana Grande fans” and did see her hugging these Japanese girls.
Japanese people tend to like Final Fantasy right? Is Square Enix racist?
You may not believe this, but a few Brave Exvius fans on Reddit have stated they might not be ok with the decision. Surprisingly, there seems to be more confusion than anger, which is pretty good considering the usual internet reaction to just about anything.
“ok…i’ve spent the last hour wrapping my brain around Ariana being in FFBE…i’ve gone through the 5 stages of grief…
we’re through the looking glass people…i want a darth vadar and a bill murray from ghostbusters…”
“I want Beetlejuice. I had to google who this lady is, not sure if I like that we have some sort of celebrity character unit in BE.”
“like WTH happened to FF in FFBE… And how the hell did Rain ever heard of her… Why GUMI WHYYYYY!!!!
The thread is a good read, especially if you appreciate terms like “whale” “pull” “farming” “5-star-base”.
Personally, while it’s a bit of a surprise, I view F2P games as psychological cash grabs that will obviously use any means necessary to maximize profit. We’ve already seen the all-star cast of the crappy Kingsglaive film, and Square Enix’s marketing of everything Final Fantasy (and numerous mobile titles) has been incredibly aggressive.
If this move makes them more money and somehow leads to more great Final Fantasy games (that don’t feature pop tarts) then I say bring it on.
