War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a free-to-play game in the eye-searingly popular Final Fantasy series.
It is a spin-off tactical RPG of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. It was announced on December 2, 2018 and released in Japan on November 14, 2019, followed by the worldwide release on March 25, 2020. Just as how Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is the Brave Frontier to the Final Fantasy series, War of the Visions seems to take some cues from another Gumi tactical RPG, The Alchemist Code.
The story is set in the distant past of Lapis in Brave Exvius, on the continent of Ardra, which is enveloped in a net of conflicts between nations. When a carriage transporting princess Machérie of the Hourne Kingdom is besieged by thieves inside Leonis territory, prince Mont of Leonis is sent to lend aid, only to find himself and the princess trapped in what now is an open war between the Leonis kingdom and Fennes, their sworn enemy. Further complicating the matters is the net of alliances (Hourne has recently allied to Fennes as part of a treaty, which involves Princess Machérie's marriage to King Muraga of Fennes), and the involvement of the Crystal Sanctum, which seeks to advance the war to their own purposes.
War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius contains examples of the following tropes:
- Animal Motif: Pretty much all of the kingdoms in Ardra has national animal they proudly emblazon on their flags and many people from each country exhibit traits according to said animal. The only country that doesn't have Animal Motif is the Crystal Sanctum.
- Anti-Frustration Feature:
- The Version 2.0.0 update saw the addition of a pity mechanic, guaranteeing an Ultra Rare after every 5 pulls. It also guaranteed 3 shards for every featured unit and Vision Card in the Whimsy Shop, lessening the time it takes to level them. Both mechanics were introduced to the Global version months after the Japanese version.
- The game gives every player a copy of Mediena, one of the strongest Ultra Rare mages in the game, after about a week of playing. Even Day 1 players who never pulled her got a copy.
- The game has a separate step-up banner guaranteeing most top-tier Vision Cards (and all espers) after 10,000 Visiore.
- Arranged Marriage:
- Princess Macherie of Hourne is engaged to King Muraga of Fennes as part of an alliance between the two nations and the story begins with her trying to travel through Leonis to get to Fennes for the wedding. Also as part of the alliance, Macherie's older brother, Dario, is already married to Muraga's "daughter", Vinera.
- Prince Mont of Lionis is engaged to Princess Glaciela of Wezette as set by Mont's father and Glaciela's grandmother, to smooth out their alliance in face of Fennes' harrassment. Mont ends up marrying Marcherie while Macherie swears oath with Glaciela, so their realms are joined anyway.
- Badass Army:
- There are several named Divisions in the story, but the one held in highest regard appears to be Hourne's Solidus, with their presence being the tipping point in several battles in the story so far. Serjes even notes that Wezette's Equito would need Leonis's sacred relic to match Solidus. We get a nice demonstration of what Solidus is capable of during King Robb's Big Damn Heroes moment for the Nitor division.
- And then there's the army of Rundall, whose strength is such that Sadali started manipulating the war to make sure they were out of his way, and Sosha deserted (and eventually joined Leonis) because the battles were getting boring.
- Battle Couple: Vinera and Dario fight alongside one another against assassins from Fennes.
- Big Damn Heroes: As Nitor (alongside Shadowlynx and Kitone) are being overwhelmed by the forces of the Crystal Sanctum, King Robb and Solidus arrive to turn the tide.
- Boring, but Practical: While Hourne and Leonis's sacred relics allow for Summon Magic, Fennes's sacred relics are ultimately just magical telephones. While not as flashy as summoning heroes or espers, this gives Fennes a massive logistical advantage against other nations
- Chick Magnet: Both of the twin princes of Leonis have shades of this. Etre, Yerma, and Nasha all enlisted in Fortem for the chance to court Sterne, and Mont is implied to have the affections of Macherie, Glaciela, and Kitone.
- Color-Coded Armies: Each main army has a color attached to themselves; Leonis is red, Hourne is a strong magenta, Fennes is gold and purple, Wezette is blue.
- Died Standing Up: Sir Owe's fate. Dorando and Gargas don't even notice he's died until they get closer.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats Ice, which beats Wind, which beats Earth, which beats Lightning, which beats Water, which beats Fire. Light and Dark are effective on each other and have no elemental resistances.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Dorando and Gargas may be complete assholes but if there is one thing that is undeniably certain, it's that they care very much for their adopted son Nador.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Sterne, whose frustration and resentment at Oelde's refusal to field him in battle turns into outright patricidal rage after he and his mother are left behind while Oelde flees the kingdom. He willingly joins Sadali for the opportunity to murder Oelde.
- "Interlude - Book of Hope" reveals that this is also the case with Sadali.
- False Flag Operation: When the princess's carriage is attacked, suspicion falls on a neighboring country; however, some quick discussion puts it into doubt, with no (immediate) clue as to who's actually behind the event. Eventually they realize Fennes was behind this event to get a reason to invade Leonis.
- Greater-Scope Villain: In Arc 1, much of the warmongering between Leonis, Hourne, Fennes, and Wezette is sparked by the growing threat of Rundall: a massive military nation which recently conquered the entire west half of Ardra. All signs point to Rundall planning to continue their advance east until all of Ardra is under its rule, and the four eastern nations all seem to recognise that only a united army has a hope of defending themselves, leading to plots to unify eastern Ardra through diplomacy or military force.
- And then in Arc 2, Rundall arrives on the eastern front... and it is revealed that it is attempting to unite Ardra to fight against an even greater Greater-Scope Villain. Said Greater-Scope Villain, Gilgamesh, turns out manipulating the continent of Ardra so the great houses is strong enough to fight the real, real, Big Bad the Realmscourge..
- The Highwayman: A royal convoy is attacked, and the 'bandits' try to appear to be highwaymen to help hide who's actually behind the attack.
- In Love with the Mark: Vinera with Dario.
- Interface Spoiler: The monthly login bonuses in Global tend to go ahead of upcoming banners and give Unit Shards for the month's featured UR unit, which might now be out for even a week into the month, as is the case with Glaciela, for example.
- Item Farming: Most of the in-game events revolve around item farming. The collaboration event forces the player to farm event currency and then trade it to either shard or crafting recipes and materials. The raid event is basically repeating normal quests to get a random chance to fight a raid boss to get event currency which can be traded with recipe and materials to craft UR-rarity item. Moreover, there are also events to farm materials to upgrade the crafted equipment. With the exception of collaboration events, some of these events are repeated once every several weeks.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The release of Sterne, Knight of Ruin, spoiled his Face–Heel Turn against Leonis. Much like in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, the character is publicly made available with full promotion.
- Love Ruins the Realm:
- While he initially allied with Sadali because Sadali promised him power, Muraga's downfall ultimately caused by his wife Melnia manipulating him on Sadali's order. This caused Muraga to favor Melnia over his loyal cousin and strategist Oldoa, and became Sadali's pawn to seduce Sterne away from his family. After his death, Fennes's status is in-question because the power vacuum; Melnia abandoned Fennes after the nation served its purpose and Oldoa decided to become mercenary to exact vengeance on Melnia.
- King Oberon of Heindler had Conflicting Loyalty to his childhood friend King Jayden of Rundall and his fiancee Princess Lucielle of Ovis. When Jayden attempts to conquer Ovis and call on his alliance with Oberon for the invasion, the generals of Heindler think that Jayden is taking advantage of their friendship while generals of Rundall think Oberon would be biased when facing Lucielle. Lucielle's ambitious younger twin Shalze took advantage of this by disguising herself as Lucielle and manipulated Oberon's feeling. Oberon ended up stabbing Jayden in a fit of madness, and he started to spent extravagantly on military projects out of paranoia. Not even his beloved younger sister Alaya can talk him down.
- Avarted slightly with the main characters; when Mont made his feeling for Macherie known, many in Hourne fear that Lionis attempts to supplant House Hourne from their own realm, especially after Lionis retreated from their homeland because of the Realmscourge's deadly miasma. Macherie knew this and attempted to reject his advances, but Engelbert decided to stamp any dissent that arise from union.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Some units have very simple, defined roles to build around. Others, like Kitone and Whisper, are best built around more obscure stats like evasion and attack resistances. This usually requires extremely specialized gear and Vision Cards to pull off, but they become powerful if you can build them to their stat.
- While the first Final Fantasy Tactics units focused on their conventional roles, the second batch primarily focused on dealing debilitating status effects like Disable and Stop.
- No Ontological Inertia: The warring states of Ardra in practice are a collection of villages and tribes that unite under the most prestigious of houses, who claimed their Divine Right of Kings through blood oath with otherworldly beings. If the lineage of the king is extinguished, the country disintegrates and the villages that swore loyalty to them would be raided and annexed by other houses, such as Lykeros when Jayden massacred the royal family. Fennes survived destruction when the previous king died in a war against Oelde because Muraga's clan had conquered previous inhabitants, becoming the new Fennes.
- Power Equals Rarity:
- Downplayed, as far as units go. The gap between some Ultra Rare units and Mega Rare units exists, but is rather small for casual play. Mont is considered on par with an Ultra Rare unit, and other easy-to-obtain Mega Rares like Gaffgarion, Shadowlynx, and Rairyuu are considered close behind low-end Ultra Rares. Salire, the only Mega Mega Rare unit, is outright on par with Ultra Rares. Phoebe and Chell are strong support mages despite their rarity, while Mia is a good thief at Rare. On the other hand, the early 100-cost units, whose shards cost twice as much in the shop, are considered to be at best a minor upgrade to the best Ultra Rares. Thancred is an egregious case, since he is limited-time, has no Limit Burst (not to mention an underpowered kit), and his Trust Mastery Reward has no ability attached to it. Gilgamesh used to suffer from a low HP pool, and got underestimated due to slight Masterof None issues. Winged One is split between ATK and MAG skills. It took six months for Gumi to release a cost-100 unit that was considered the best in his class, and even then some questioned whether or not he was worth it because of Gumi's track record.
- Subverted with Vision Cards. Vow of Love, which is widely accepted to be one of the best Vision Cards in the game, is a Mega Rare. An Ultra Rare card with more party ATK exists, but most use Vow on their tank because of its Hate increase. Leonis Castle is a very strong defensive vision card, while Hourne Castle provides gobs of ATK to its user. Both are Rare cards. In contrast, some Ultra Rare cards are considered niche or unusable trash.
- Repeating Ad: The title screen automatically shows an animated promotional trailer for the game. If you click on the screen to close it, it automatically replays the ad after five seconds of inactivity. The developers eventually patched how much it repeated.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: It is revealed that the entire plot was caused by Gilgamesh and Amnelis constantly turning back time after they were exiled to the world of Lapis because one of Amnelis' superweapon the Realmscourge went out of control and brought destruction to the world. Gilgamesh and Amnelis joined forces with Sadali and his lover Exia to nurture Ardra's civilizations, so they're strong enough to defeat the Realmscourge. But now, they're Out of Continues, Sadali went mad from Time Loop Fatigue and commited Face–Heel Turn, and the Realmscourge woke up early...
- Summon Magic:
- Espers are recruitable by summoning the Vision Card of the esper through the gacha system. In the story, Machérie can summon Ifrit.
- Just like Rain from Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Mont, the main character, can summon Visions to aid him in battle. Others, like Jayden, can as well.
- Tech Points: Called 'job points' here. Every time you battle (or level) with a character you get points that can buy stat boosts, extra attacks/abilities, or boost ones you already have.
- Temporary Online Content: Unlike most Final Fantasy gacha games, actual units from the franchise are limited. Their shards cannot be farmed through Hard Quests, and they only appear in the shop when their banners are available. Global Original units like Fryevia are also limited-time.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The AI does not take friendly fire damage from AoE attacks, while you do.
- Time to Unlock More True Potential: All visions have multiple ratings in the form of Limit Breaks and awakening levels. The Limit Break level and awakening level of each vision determines the level cap, stats, equipment, and ability that they can use in battle.
- To Be Continued: The plot is released episodically, with new areas released over time (usually biweekly). Wherever the story missions end is where the message is displayed. The Japanese version of the game is a few chapters ahead of the international version.
- Villain Episode: More than a few missions have the player standing in as the villain side fighting the heroes.
