Back in January, Square Enix released Final Fantasy: All the Bravest, a game about getting as many Final Fantasy character sprites on the screen at one time while finding creative new ways for players to pay for things. It wasn't a very good game. What Square Enix should have done was make Nimble Quest, the latest from the creators of Tiny Tower.
Remember the game Snake? You control a line that eats dots to become a longer line sort of thing? That's the basic idea behind Nimble Quest. You start with a single fantasy role-playing archetype — knight, mage, archer — and as you wander through the game's playfield, auto-attacking enemies that get close, you run across more heroes. As your party size increases it becomes more powerful, but also harder to manage. It's wonderfully challenging.
This is a survival game with a perfect difficulty scale, the goal to advance to the next stage and unlock new party members that will (hopefully) help you get further next time.
Watch this replay, courtesy of the game's built-in Everyplay support, to see a player more advanced than I get things done.
Now imagine how amazing this would be with Final Fantasy characters.
Along with progressing through the single-player game, upgrading power-ups and collecting heroes, Nimble Quest also features a sort of online multiplayer arena mode. Players can join existing guilds (like #KOTAKU) or create their own, participating in endless arena battles for a spot atop the leaderboards in a series of regular timed guild quests. Players have to spend tokens (which can be earned or purchased) to participate, but with honor at stake I'm sure they won't mind.
Part of me wishes NimbleBit would team up with Square Enix for this game, but that part of me also realizes that the opportunities for paid content would have driven the publisher mad with desire. Nimble Quest would have been one hell of a Final Fantasy game, but I'm glad it's not.
Nimble Quest
- Genre:Snake-based RPG
- Developer: NimbleBits
- Platform: iOS
- Price: Free