History VideoGame / FinalFantasyBraveExvius

** One that fortunately only comes up with sidequests is "Defend". "Defend" is both a basic guard action any unit can do in battle (simply swipe down on a character's status bar), and an enhanced guard ability available only to certain units. Several sidequests require use of Defend, which can confuse players unfamiliar with the ability (as a sidequest, it always means the ability).

* BonusBoss:
** The White Dragon, the Demon Chimera, the Brachiosaur, and the Erinyes on the Farplane. Unlike every other fight, attempting these fights requires no energy expenditure (except if you want a rematch after winning), and defeating them for the first time gives a weapon. Friend units are locked out, but the bosses are easy enough to beat after playing the game for a bit. Although most weapons have fallen to PowerCreep, the rest are usable in the current meta.
** The Chamber of the Fallen was the first section of the Vortex dedicated specifically to challenging bosses. These bosses follow a traditional fight model, costing NRG and allowing you to bring a friend unit. They may be a boss rush, or just one series of bosses. Defeating them gives [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity +1 equipment]], but they have special missions for 10% Trust Moogles, more infinity +1 equipment, and strong abilities. All were considered very strong upon release, and though some have fallen to PowerCreep, everything from Gilgamesh on up is still respectably difficult.
** The Chamber of Arms on the Farplane also contains bonus bosses. There are thirteen bosses in total released over the course of 8 months. Unlike the conventional Farplane fights, these take NRG to complete as well. What distinguishes these are that you can take ten units instead of six. Items and friend units are banned, as are duplicate units. At the start of each turn, you're given the option to swap units to and from your five-man party as you see fit. They're some of the toughest battles in the game, and have the same special missions as the Chamber of the Fallen fights.
** Limited Vortex events are usually capped off with a limited boss fight during the final week, which plays out similar to a boss fight in the Chamber of the Fallen. Their difficulty varies, though on average they aren't quite as tough as the Fallen bosses.
** The Chamber of the Vengeful features trial-level reruns of previous bosses. Unlike other bosses, you are strongly encouraged to use multiple units, with mission rewards for clearing with multiple units (up to 25). The units featured in the original event not only get bonus stats, but are tailor-made to take down the boss.
** 3-star Bahamut normally doesn't have to be fought. You just have to wait out four turns without attacking, which can be exploited in various ways. If you choose to attack him, however, he'll fight back, and you have to beat a boss with absurdly high health and defensive stats, complete immunity to all elements unless he debuffs himself, randomly shifting physical/magical immunity, and the ability to one-shot anything he hits. Win and you get [[BraggingRightsReward a shiny gold medal]] to prove you slogged through a fight that takes hundreds of turns to finish.
** 3* Asura similarly can be skipped, but can be fought for a gold medal if you're willing to kill the boss three times in a row.

[[quoteright:278:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/final_fantasy_brave_exvius_logo.jpg]]

''Final Fantasy Brave Exvius'' is a [[AllegedlyFreeGame Free-to-play]] game in the [[RunningGag singularity-defyingly popular]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. It is the fourth global mobile title, after ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAllTheBravest'', ''Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade'', and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyRecordKeeper''.

A spinoff tactical RPG, ''VideoGame/WarOfTheVisionsFinalFantasyBraveExvius''[[note]]Screenshot of the TitleScreen [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wotv_ffbe_titlescreenv100.png here]][[/note]]
, was announced on December 2, 2018, with the first Japanese gameplay trailer released on June 9, 2019, followed the next day with an announcement of plans for a worldwide release. Just as how this game is the ''VideoGame/BraveFrontier'' to the ''Final Fantasy'' series, ''War of the Visions'' will also seem to take some cues from another Gumi tactical RPG, ''The VideoGame/AlchemistCode''. Its global release was on 25 March 2020.

* FakeBalance:
** Despite all weapon masteries not stacking, Gumi decided that Letters and Arms would stack anyway. At the time of its release, the only magic sword released was Enhancer, which has only 21 MAG (as much as a low-level rod from Grandshelt). The next MAG sword (Silvia's Sorcery) was released about eleven months after Ingus. On release, a mage with Letters and Arms and Enhancer was about equal to a mage using 2 Omnirods and stacking MAG+30% materias. This made sword mages viable. However, four months after the release of Letters and Arms, Global got an exclusive character, Fryevia, who had a 112 MAG sword. If you were lucky enough to pull a Fryevia, her Needle TMR took away the main drawback (low weapon passives) of MAG swords. This got more obscene once Silvia and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII Drace]] were released, making high-MAG swords much more accessible due to her lower rarity. Because Letters and Arms is the only stacking Mastery in the game, sword mages have drastically higher MAG than non-sword mages. For example, Ashe, a 4-star base, has the third-highest MAG of all mages in the game when equipped with her best possible loadout. With her best equipment, this means she has a MAG advantage that rivals multiple 5-star bases in the game.
*** This is somewhat obsolete due to the variety of magical Masteries available.

* NamesTheSame: Coming up more and more is that the game is starting to run afoul at just how often certain names are reused in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. This happens most often with equipment, but it has come up for characters, too. To prevent confusion, the game of origin is nowadays appended with a parenthetical for subsequent iterations of a given name (so the Trust Master reward for [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Cecil]] is "Excalibur," while the bonus item earned by sending out a unit with a super-high attack score is "Excalibur (FFBE)").

* PensieveFlashback: Late in Season 2, Lasswell and his group ([[spoiler:Physalis and the Sworn Six]] -- dang, they're all {{Walking Spoiler}}s) get disrupted while trying to teleport to TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. They get trapped in a weird version of HyperspaceOrSubspace that is populated with crystallized memories, which they view as they try to find an exit. They are memories of the first confrontation with the Season's villain, which has just happened: Rain uses a new technique to NoSell the villain's attack, and they chase him through a teleporter. Only, the flashbacks tell a different story: [[spoiler:the attack lands, with the result that [[KillEmAll every person viewing the memories is seen to have died in them]]. Rain, the SoleSurvivor, gets helped by an Akstar who still has all his limbs and eyes. This eventually leads to the revelation of our missing-limbed-Akstar's true identity.]]

* {{Gainaxing}}: A common feature for most female units in the game. Notable examples include Domino, Summer Lid, and Barbariccia.

* TheCameo: About half of the visions are characters from earlier ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. ''VideoGame/BraveFrontier'', ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', ''VideoGame/KingsKnight'', ''VideoGame/TombRaider'', ''VideoGame/JustCause'', ''VideoGame/StarOcean'', ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'', ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', and ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' characters also appear. This isn't just the heroes; prominent [=NPCs=] and villains join the fray. Ariana Grande and Katy Perry also appear in the game.

** Update 3.6.5 made the game unplayable for a large number of users. Ostensibly due to compatibility issues with the implementation of 64-bit support, a wide swath of devices not compatible with that standard were rendered incapable of running the game. It took most of the day for the playerbase to figure out a workaround, which certainly wasn't help by Gumi's recommendation that players simply find a compatible device and use that instead. It took several days for Gumi to work out that the actual problem was the implementation of expanded item descriptions

** Japan also gets some collaborations due to licensing, like the [[VideoGame/SaGaRPG [=SaGa=] franchise]] and the full ''[[VideoGame/WorldofMana Mana]]'' series. They also have released other collaborations, like [[Anime/FullMetalAlchemist]].

* UnstableEquilibrium: The story mode starts out difficult for a beginning player, but over chapter and season breaks, during which the player can collect more powerful equipment from events and so forth, the rate at which the player grows more powerful quickly eclipses the difficultly of the story levels, to the point that a seasoned player will tear through every boss like tissue. It gets to the point that a well-equipped player will find themselves having to deliberately hold back when fighting bosses in order to get enough crystals to perform a Limit Break or summon in order to accomplish a side mission, and even that can be circumvented with specific units. This trend is reflected in the side missions themselves, which have become progressively easier with each season. The conditions in the first season involve tasks such as doing specific elemental damage or a number of limit bursts/magic/etc., while those in the fourth season can basically be summarized as "win", with the only caveat being a set number of turns.

** July 2022 added the Chamber of Supercite. Grouped into four sets of missions that can be played once daily, each group drops 25 of a pair of supercite and five esper ore (one of the two colors in that set) can be stolen from the final boss. This is more than double the supercite you can reliably earn from expeditions daily and is more esper ore in a single day than you'll craft from Relics in an entire month. The drawback is that playing the missions is '''incredibly''' demanding on NRG, requiring 680 NRG for all the missions or merely 400 for the final ones to farm esper ore. As you only naturally accumulate 288 NRG a day, and daily ad viewing only rewards about 10 NRG pots (100 NRG) based on luck, the missions serve as a steady drain on NRG pots unless you only play one or two. While long-time players and whales are less likely to be inconvenienced in the short term, it does lock out newer players.

** The same update that added the trust coin system, allowing you to trade maxed Trust mastery units for coins that can be in turn traded for rare items, added the Moogle Cave expedition, which allows you to increase the TM value of five different units every four hours, three times a day. Though it still takes several months to max out a unit (four or six, depending on base rarity), it makes getting the coins somewhat easier.

** Since Neo Vision units require shards to upgrade, which are obtained by converting other versions of that unit, a daily shard dungeon was added to allow the farming of shards for Neo Vision units you already possess, up to five unique units a day. With time, the only limit to improving Neo Vision units is your supply of enhancement pearls.

* DifficultySpike:
** In Story Mode, the game slaps you with this ''hard'' once you hit the second half of Dirnado. While the bosses prior to this were tanky but manageable, the ones after the Dwarven Mines both hit like trucks and take ScratchDamage from most attacks unless you've started to get your characters to 5* and high levels, with matching quality gear. For the Colosseum, this hits hard in the Advanced section, where enemies suddenly gain immunity to Gravity spells and have the StoneWall spike in stats that monsters gained as of Dirnado.
** In Vortex events, the jump from Pro to Elite is punishing. Bosses are typically twice as strong at the least with more than double the health. If your team doesn't have several Trust Master rewards amping them up and/or a very capable friend unit, expect to get stomped. This isn't as bad with the exchange events, which are typically easier than standard Vortex missions.
** With the introduction of 3* espers, Siren starts off as a relatively normal boss with a measly 1.2 million HP, single-target Sleep, and Water-based magic attacks with a non-elemental threshold attack, nothing too difficult for a party capable of beating the latest story missions. The next on the list, Ifrit, has ''50 million HP'', has hard-hitting physical and magical fire attacks, and opens with a 100% fire resistance debuff that he'll reapply every so often. Beating this one basically requires a magic tank designed to completely nullify fire damage. If you don't have that, you better have beaten Gilgamesh and obtained Bushido Freeform, else it'll be a wipe.

* DisappearedDad: Rain's father, Sir Raegen, hasn't been seen in years. Rain isn't exactly looking forward to any reunions, though. [[spoiler: He hasn't disappeared at all. In reality he's Veritas of the Dark. Or Veritas of the Frost. But he was really just himself all along.]]

* FakeLongevity: The Chamber of Vengeance has a mechanic that rewards the players for completing the various levels with up to 50 different units. In theory, you could use five different teams in each attempt to complete it as intended, which is a viable strategy in the easier levels when the boss dies to any good chain. In practice, not all players are going to be able to rotate that many appropraite units in their lineup unless they've gotten lucky with with summons, so instead they'll keep the major roles static and swap out one or two units as needed to get the rewards. For example, building a provoke/evade tank can be done with virtually any unit if you have the right gear. Since the trial only costs five NRG to play, the only significant investment is time.

** July 2022 added the Chamber of Supercite. Grouped into four sets of missions that can be played once daily, each group drops 25 of a pair of supercite and five esper ore (one of the two colors in that set) can be stolen from the final boss. This is more than double the supercite you can reliably earn from expeditions daily and is more esper ore in a single day than you'll craft from Relics in an entire month. The drawback is that playing the missions is '''incredibly''' demanding on NRG, requiring 680 NRG for all the missions or merely 400 for the final ones farm esper ore. As you only naturally accumulate 288 NRG a day, and daily ad viewing only rewards about 10 NRG pots (100 NRG) based on luck, the missions serve as a steady drain on NRG pots unless you only play one or two. While long-time players and whales are less likely to be inconvienced in the short term, it does lock out newer players.

* AttackReflector: The Reflect buff causes any magic attack that would hit the target to bounce back at the opposing team, either to the individual that used it or the entire party if it's an [=AoE=] attack. In addition, if someone in your own party has the buff and you deliberately target them with magic (healing, for example), it will hit the enemy instead. It doesn't work against spells which ignore a portion of magic defense (such as Ultima), most level 8 spells, or skills which do magic-typed damage. Dispel magic trumps it.

** 3-star Bahamut self-destructs in four turns if you never attack. If you choose to attack, well, [[MarathonBoss hope you have a few hours set aside]].

** The Assimilator of Unknown Origin in the Clash of Wills isn't ordinarily an example, but it becomes one if you turn on all the health modifiers. At a whopping 500%, the boost gives Thranothor ''15 billion'' health, and on a burst turn you can expect to do around a fifth of that total. It's notably the first [=CoW=] boss that does not penalize turn count, simply because players cannot be expected to knock down that health total in ten turns. It gets even worse if you activate the Challenge AI modifier, which causes the boss in its first phase (100%-75%) to retaliate with [=AoE=] instant death if you do more than 500 million damage in one turn, forcing you to poke away until you hit the threshold for that phase.

** Unless you have multiple hybrid units that do non-elemental, fire, lightning, or wind damage (of which there are precious few, and they're all five-star bases, limited, extremely low-level, or some combination thereof), the Venomous Vines of Death is guaranteed to be a long battle, as it contains two parts - one is extremely resistant to physical attacks, and the other is extremely resistant to magical attacks. Outside of anyone capable of gearing out two solid hybrid attackers, the choice is generally whether the player wants the first half to be quick and the second taking a long time, the first taking a long time and the second being quick, or both taking a decent chunk of time.

* MasterOfNone: Units generally at best have two areas in which they're capable -- even then, it's generally more like "good at one, and passable backup in another if need be." Units that attempt a balance at more than that typically lag -- [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII Fran]] gets hit hard by this as she attempts ''four'' things (physical attack, magical attack, support magic, and healing magic) and generally falls flat at all of them compared to specialists.