Figure Fantasy came in on our radar thanks to a great press release posted by Komoe Technology Limited over on gamespress.com. The game’s trailer showed a really high production quality and their focus on mentioning the “Unboxing Experience” piqued our interest. We already reviewed our first premium mobile game so let’s try a freemium one. Let’s see if Figure fantasy is a good free mobile game?
Figure Fantasy Review
It’s not always that I feel so conflicted about a game, but oh boy does Komoe Technology’s Figure Fantasy take the cake. This Free2Play title is now out in Open Beta (which is usually publisher talk for “we’ve got this mostly complete game that we want to make money out of with minimal extra effort”) on both iOS and Android and it’s definitely a handful.
Figure Fantasy is a GORGEOUS game, with some of the best graphical assets I’ve seen in a while. Bringing the figurines to life is some great voice acting (in both English and Japanese) and every collectible is given its own personality and quirks, which is made clear seconds after starting the game. Another surprise was brought by the cinematic segments which, albeit short, definitely showcase what a considerable budget can get you.
Unfortunately, that’s about where the good parts stop and the criticism begins. And there is a lot of criticism to be given.
Unboxing the negatives
I am no stranger to Gacha games, having spent many hours and far too much money in other established titles across the genre. Nor am I a stranger to anime or collectibles. So, you would think that Figure Fantasy would be right up my alley, right? Well, you would be wrong!
Figure Fantasy brings to light many of the negative trends that we’ve seen in the last decade in the gaming industry. It takes an idea with massive potential and staples on “features” that manage to completely ruin the experience.
The core collection mechanic is plagued with microtransactions and the game is far from shy about it. In the first hour or so it gives you a taste of the unboxing experience, only to ultimately send you to the in- game store where the prices left me dumbstruck. With prices going up to $99.99, Figure Fantasy is definitely going for the maximum profit.
What does spending $99 in this mobile game get you?
Not that much. A couple figurines, some premium currency and a couple other doodads and… VIP status. Yes, the grandfather of microtransactions from late 00s browser games is back. Obviously, the tiered VIP status is far from permanent, with “privileges” lasting as little as 7 days! With keywords like “limited”, “exclusive” and “special”, the game wants you spending as much money as you can. We’ve seen Gacha games do this in a toned-down manner, but Figure Fantasy is definitely not subtle about it.
The actual game part is as simple and stripped down as possible . Your team of figurines does idle battling, which gets you various amounts of the different currencies (and there’s a bunch of them, too). These idle battles are joined together by a story mode, which seems like more of an after-thought. The writing doesn’t do the voice acting any justice, as it’s a blend of generic anime-ish dialog. The story itself is plain old boring, but are the story-related combat stages any better? Nope. Pick 5 figurines, level those up every now and then, set the combat to automatic and you’re done.
There is no sense of accomplishment throughout the entire game. The microtransactions are forced onto you, the auto-combat is, essentially, a series of animations that serve little to no purpose and everything you could possibly find entertaining is locked behind some sort of currency or resource. All of these add up to a dull experience that manages to negate any appeal the game might have had
AR(e) we there yet?
In our initial reaction post we said that Figure Fantasy screams “We wanted AR but didn’t have the time”. This statement is proven to be (sadly) true by the very presence of an extremely poor AR implementation that is bad enough that they felt like they needed to bury it behind so many menus I actually had a bit of a hard time finding it the second time around.
All in all, we don’t consider Figure Fantasy to be a good free mobile game. Figure Fantasy is a free to play gacha game that seems to have had its entire budget focused on visuals, ending up with a final result that is shallow and screams “give us money for virtual waifus”. But if that’s your thing, then you might just love it. Just, don’t expect the “Unboxing” experience to be more than just a gimmick to sell to the press.
Closing Words
We don’t think Figure Fantasy is a good mobile game, and certainly won’t make our list for best smartphone games. It has great graphics, amazing voice acting with a pretty uninspiring take on the idle combat genre, but it’s let down by it’s most prominent feature: Unboxing Figurines. It turns out that the “Unboxing” is nothing else but a funnel to get you to spend money with a touch-based gimmick that grows old after your 2nd unboxing.
Regarding the Augmented Reality feature: They just have it hidden behind several nested menus. In order to give it a go, you need to progress through the game until it becomes available (about an hour in).
Curious about the unboxing experience and want to see it in action? We have you covered:
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