As one of the most anticipated mobile games of 2022, Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile certainly lives up to its expectations with insanely gorgeous 3D animations and intricate live-2D graphics that inject souls into the franchise’s well-beloved characters.
The tactical RPG brings back the excitement and stirring emotions experienced via the classic manga and anime series, without forgetting to provide a refreshing experience with a newly written side story featuring a sneak peek at the supporting character’s behind-the-scenes efforts. For those who can’t wait to learn what this game of the year has to offer, here is our review of Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile at its previous CBT held last week.
▍Revisit the Series’ Climax with Full 3D CG Animation
One of the reasons why Fullmetal Alchemist remains one of the most popular franchises in decades lies in the attractive characters designed by the manga author, Hiromu Arakawa. And in Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile, the characters gets a revamped look with advanced 3D CG technologies and every signature character becomes playable in this game.
Once you opened the app, you are thrown up into a climax battle of Edward, Alphonse, Izumi, Mustang, and even Hohenheim fighting against an “enemy” who drives a mighty power. This is a prelude that proves well what Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile has to offer, while at the same time, it is a tutorial that provides a foretaste of its strategic battle system. Check out this impactful opening in the video below!!!
What surprised me when I actually experienced the battle was the smooth movement of the character reproduced in 3D. Each unit will move through the battlefield subdivided into squares and use normal attacks, two types of skills, and Ougi (mysteries) to battle with enemies, but each of these actions runs speedily and smoothly.
The skills animation of each character reflects their own individuality, for example, Edward drags a sharp spear from the ground as a weapon, and Alphonse’s hand-to-hand fighter styles all stay true to the original series. This is also one thing that I love about this game when you can’t help but bring all your units to the battlefield, just to enjoy the beautiful skills animations coming with it.
▼ Skill Animation of Edward
▼ Skill Animation of Alphonse
▼ Skill Animation of Roy
▍Fully Voiced Main and Side Story Add depth to Worldview
When the first battle (tutorial) is over, the game will automatically redirect to the first episode of the main story. Edward and Alphonse – The Elric brothers came to investigate the Philosopher’s Stone in a town where a religion that worships the sun god Leto is widely worshiped. Rose, the girl whom the Elric brothers met, was also one of the believers and was fascinated by Father Cornello, a spiritual leader who can manipulate miraculous works.
Rose completely believed in Cornello’s words that he could revive his lover who died in an accident a year ago, but on the other hand, the Elric brothers immediately find out that the “miracle” is simply alchemy.
If you follow the synopsis up to this point, fans will soon know that Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile follows a story true to its original manga. But one should know that though the game’s main story traces the original story right from the beginning, it is also a digest that highlights only the signature scenes. The lines are also slightly changed showcasing the humor unique to the series.
As you can expect, the second episode of the main story follows the incident in the mining town of Youswell, the third episode is the encounter with the national alchemist Shou Tucker and his daughter Nina, and the fourth episode is about “Scar” – The story of Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile will be drawn in the same flow as the original in the previous chapters.
Each chapter has a total of 4 stages, and it was organized smartly so as not to spoil the tempo of the play. Even users who have no knowledge of Fullmetal Alchemist can capture the essence of the story immediately. What is more remarkable is that the main story is full voice! It also tickles the hearts of fans as the voices used are all newly recorded.
To add depth to the development of the main story, Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile also has a Side Story system to supplement what was really happening from different perspectives. For example, players will be able to learn what happens to Rose after the Elric brothers exposed the wrongdoing of Father Cornello.
It is also refreshing that unexpected characters such as Bald, who leads the Eastern Liberation Front, Blue Squad, and Yoki, who got suspended from managing the Youswell coal mine, will play an active role.
▼ The main screen will also change according to your main story progress, as well as the character lines and their interactions.
▍Command the Units to Fight in the Turn-Based Tactical System
Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile features a turn-based tactical battle system, which finds similarities to mobile games like The Alchemist Code and WOTV FFBE, with the latter also under the belt of Square Enix. Players will command the units to move on a grid-like board and act in normal attack/ skills/ Ougi (mystery). Ougi is a powerful action but unleashing this will need to accumulate its gauge to the fullest.
As each action has a different range of attacks, and some of them can attack a wide area, arrays of strategies can be applied according to the distribution and situation of the enemies. Also, by releasing the potential ability of the unit, you can unlock the units’ “Link Attack”, which means the characters from the same division/ organization will deal additional damage if they are targeting the same enemy.
In addition, one of the six attributes is assigned to the unit, and the compatibility of the attributes makes the battle advantageous or disadvantageous.
When fighting a strong enemy, you have to go around cleverly while checking the danger range of the opponent and examining the above-mentioned factors. The operation itself is intuitive and simple just by tapping the screen, but the strategies required are extremely deep. Sometimes, you will also need to avoid the powerful attack from your opponent, showcased in the red zone as below, so to grab the key to victory.
In Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile, the rarity of the unit is classified into three types, R, SR, and SSR, but it is an interesting point that at present, even R units can play an active role in battles. There were units that can help expand the range of strategies, such as Yoki, who can summon soldiers to participate in the battle, and Fuery, who has the mystery of attacking a wide area from a distance.
Also, as “Link Attack” is now in sight, it seems reasonable to build teams with members of the same division. Personally speaking, I adore building the team with the units of Shadow of Amestris, simply because of the interesting skills that these Homunculi possess.
For those who are not used to tactical RPGs, Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile also has a “State Alchemists Test” system that teaches you steps by steps on the strategies that can be used in battles.
▍Character Training Makes it Easier to Get Involved
As for character training, in addition to increasing the unit’s level or uncaping the unit, you can also unlock the character’s “Potential” to bring out their different abilities. It is also possible to raise the unit’s stats by equipping Memory Imprint, cards that can be equipped with up to 3 in each unit.
Memory Imprint can be obtained by clearing specific stages in Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile, so don’t fret about having another pool that dries your money. Personally speaking, each Memory Imprint features a beautiful illustration that is available only in the game, so farming stages seem to be a daily chore for those who want to collect them all.
One drawback is that it is extremely difficult to fully uncap a character, considering that the same unit is required to move up to the next cap. Also, depending on the cap, not only the same unit but also a unit with the same cap is also required. With a 3% gacha drop rate of SSR character, the most difficult part is not getting an SSR character but fully uncap an SSR character.
▼ Whether it is an SSR, SR, or R character, you will have to pull that same character repetitively to fully uncap that character (don’t forget that all characters start from only 1 star)
As a considerable number of items are required to properly develop a character, players can expect an abundance of content available in Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile for farming and grinding. But there are also exploratory contents specializing in item collection, such as Continental Travel History where you can obtain items automatically over time.
▼ The calming design of Continental Travel History allows the Elric brothers to travel peacefully and is one of the small things that make you feel right at home
Satisfying a fan’s desire to become an alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile also has an Alchemy system for Memory Imprint which allows you to combine cards and create new cards. But unfortunately, you only get around 1% to get an SSR Memory Imprint.
▍Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile is Simply Amazing!
As an anime game adaptation, Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile excels from its anime game counterparts taking into account its complicated and deep strategic battle system. The efforts of Square Enix are well appreciated as you can really feel their passion to bring this legendary series alive. As a fan of the first anime series that aired in 2003, the mobile game reignited my passion for the series while bringing back the thrilling emotion I once experience in childhood.
I’m not saying that the game is perfect, as it does have flaws in terms of game balances and progress. It has all the problems that we don’t like about tactical RPGs, such as heaving grinding and the huge amount of time needed to tackle high-level stages. Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile tries to resolve it by providing a skip option, an auto, and double speed mode. But still, when you go forward, the time you spend on a single-stage rises and I don’t think that’s what the current gamers want when they have some many options on hand.
Nevertheless, Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile is simply amazing and, without a doubt, it will become the game of the year when it officially releases this summer.
