Brave Frontier

Brave Frontier (ブレイブフロンティア, Bureibu Furontia) is a Japanese mobile role-playing game developed and published by A-Lim, originally for Apple's iOS and later for Android and Kindle Fire. It was first released in Japan by A-Lim on July 3, 2013,^[1] and later released worldwide by Gumi Asia on December 13, 2013.^[2]

Gameplay

Brave Frontier's gameplay is similar to Square Enix's Valkyrie Profile.^[3] Players have to create name and choose a starting unit before the tutorial. Players have a choice between four starting units. The storyline focuses on the unnamed summoner and players have to complete every stage to access a new area. Players are allowed to bring up to 5 units in each stage with a "friend" unit in quest mode. Players make friends through friend request. Attacking units rewards the player with Zel, Brave Burst Crystals, Heart Crystals and Items. After an enemy is defeated, the player proceeds the next stage until the boss, which is required to go complete a level. After completing, players are rewarded with Zel, Karma and items, as well as acquiring units from each mission. When players complete the entire area, they'll be rewarded with one gem. However, if players fail a quest, they use one gem to continue.

Units have the ability to execute special attacks, known as Brave Bursts. When activated the unit uses a powerful attack. Brave Bursts can also provide a booth in health points or increase the overall stats to gain an advantage against enemies. Super Brave Bursts can also be executed but only if a unit has a 6 Star Ranking and maxed out their Brave Burst. Another version, called Ultimate Brave Bursts can be used by 7-Star and Omni Evolution Units after filling the Overdrive gauge.

To level up a Brave Burst, Players have to fuse units they own or use Burst Frogs. Fusing with Burst Frogs guarantees a Brave Burst level up, unlike using units which only have a slight chance of leveling up.

Aside from quests, the player can also fuse units with the ones obtained in each mission in order to level them up. Once a unit is now in its max level, is it now capable of evolving. The requirements to evolve eligible units are different. Each unit has their own ranking as well, with the Omni Evolution being the highest. Players can obtain more units through Honor Summons and Rare Summons, they require players to use gems and Honor Points in order to summon units. Players can sell units for zel or equip them Spheres and by Gems through micro transactions.

Items can also be synthesized into useful items, such as potions, tonics, and revives. Spheres are also made in the same fashion, to increase a unit's overall stats. The town provides a lot of items used for these, some items must be obtained through dungeons cleared by the player. Another thing is the town can provide more important items if the player upgrade each establishments using karma.

Brave Frontier has event quests available inside the Vortex Gate, allowing players to obtain evolutionary units, Zel or promotional rare units not found in Rare Summons. Certain dungeons, such as Metal Parades and Jewel Parades, require keys to unlock for a limited time. In-Game Events are in the Vortex Gate, and players will be rewarded with a free unit if completed. Players can challenge each other in the arena and win prizes for attaining a certain rank. The game also features Frontier Hunter trials, allowing players to raise their Hunter Ranks, Raid Battles, a Slot Machine Feature, Daily Missions and Grand Quest.

Story

The game is mainly set in the fictional land of Grand Gaia, a world ravaged by a war between humans and the Gods that took place many years ago. It is a land surrounded by a veil of mystery but engulfed in havoc as certain places have been conquered by four fallen gods, who have betrayed their fellow gods. The Imperial army and the Akras summoners hall are doing their best to handle the chaos the fallen gods and their demonic legions are causing, but have not been able to push them back. But, amidst the chaos, a god by the name of Lucius summons a hero to be his champion and liberate Grand Gaia from The Four Fallen Gods.

Characters

The story focuses on a summoner (the player) who has been summoned by the God of the Gate, Lucius, who pleads to him to save Grand Gaia from destruction. After arriving in Grand Gaia, the player meets Lucius's advisor, the goddess Tilith, who guides the player throughout Grand Gaia in order to restore the balance in the world and protect everyone against the Fallen Gods. Along the way, the player encounters certain people who assists in their quest to save the world. In the first land of Mistral, the player encounters two summoners from Elgaia: Karl, an axe-wielding male summoner who is supportive to the player and Seria, a sharp-tongued swordswoman who is very harsh towards both the player and Tilith, yet has a caring personality. Both of them are searching for Graham, under orders from the Akras Summoners' Hall to bring him to justice. Both of them also help the player in stopping the Four Fallen Gods from causing havoc to Grand Gaia. As the game progresses, they are tasked to defeat the Four Fallen Gods, Maxwell in Mistral, Cardes in Palmyna, Zevalhua in Agni Region and Afla Dilith in Vriksha. After which, Eriole and Tesla have to be defeated too in Atharva. Finally, the world of Grand Gaia comes to a close, with the team finding out Lucius' true intent and blaming Tilith for not informing them earlier on what was to come. They have no choice but to slay Lucius in Bariura. This action results in the release of the seal to the Ishgria underworld.

Alongside the two, the player also encounters Lugina, a summoner and leader of the 23rd Demon Slayers Division "Sky Guardians" who is very boastful of his abilities and his mission and Paris, an Imperial Guard serving as bodyguard to the imperial family of the Randall Empire who is very calm and takes orders from Eriole, the leader of the Imperial Guards and the series's secondary antagonist. Alongside him is a mysterious man named Arc who is also Lucius's disciple. On the Player's way to Palmyna, he encountered "Elder Grah" Grahdens, one of the Summoner Elders who manages the Defense Bureau who is old and wise; seeing the player as the only savior of Grand Gaia and the one who can defeat the Fallen Gods.

Development

The game was first announced after the Gaming Company A-Lim was officially registered in March 2013. The company, formed from the combined efforts of Gumi Ventures, B-Dash Ventures, and Fuji Startup Ventures, a company owned by Fuji TV.^[4] Hironao Kunimitsu officially stated that the company would have "key advantage over other game-makers in the market."^[5] Hisatoshi Hayakashi, the game's executive producer stated that the game was inspired from various RPG games such as Final Fantasy, Valkyrie Profile, Romancing SaGa, Star Ocean and the Tales series; Hayashi explained, "Originally, we wanted to have players walk around towns and dungeons, but then we thought about mobile devices and small screens and suddenly, knowing how far you were into a dungeon was quite scary, and walking in towns was not as enjoyable as it should be. But I am convinced that if we can somehow represent the fact that players are walking around cities and dungeons, talking to people and fighting monsters, all on a mobile device, they will really get into the RPG world."^[6]

The game was released on iOS in July 3, 2013 and received many positive reviews upon its initial release. Due to its success, the game officially received an Android release later in the year, followed by a worldwide release on December 13, 2013.

Promotional units

Following the game's release, several promotional in-game units were released exclusively in both Japanese and global versions of the game, including crossover units from magazines such as Famitsu and other smartphone games such as Emperors SaGa, Deemo, Puzzle Trooper, Rise of Mana, Secret of Mana and the Tales series. The developers also collaborated with other media franchises such as Crypton Future Media's Vocaloid mascot Hatsune Miku^[7] and the film series The Hobbit.^[8][9][10]

Music

The game's music was composed by Hikoshi Hashimoto, who once composed music on various Sega games. The game's official soundtrack, titled Brave Frontier: Original Soundtrack (ブレイブ・フロンティア オリジナルサウンドトラック, Bureibu Furontia Orijinaru Saundotorakku) was released in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment Japan on July 23, 2014.

Reception

Gamezebo gave the game a generally positive review, stating that "It's got its heart in the right place aspiring to be like the Final Fantasy or Xenoblade series, but it’s still caught up in the platform paradigms we know all too well. In other words, it’s fine for its time, just not timeless."^[11] The global version of the game became the most downloaded game on both Android and iOS platforms with a total of 10 million downloads as of August 2014.

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)