Ranking Every Final Fantasy Spin-Off Game

It’s a sad state of affairs that just one dedicated handheld console, the 2DS XL, remains in production in 2020 and is on life support. The continued rise of mobile gaming has all but killed the demand for dedicated systems, bringing to an end a three-decade era where Nintendo’s Game Boy and DS families enabled the enjoyment of proper gaming on the move.

In stark contrast to their home systems, for which the number of games has always been quite limited, Nintendo’s handhelds were seemingly a free-for-all for developers, prompting the creation of an awful lot of cheaply-made drivel to offset classics such as the Pokémon series.

Calling Final Fantasy Explorers ‘drivel’ is a tad harsh, but not completely unjustified. Released with zero fanfare on the 3DS in 2016, it contradicted its title by featuring zero-to-little exploration in favour of a quest driven structure from a central hub, with free roaming pointless outside of grinding.

Overly simplistic despite incorporating 21 of the series’ classic jobs, Explorers suffered from being mind-numbingly dull, even if played in co-op. Randomly generated dungeons were repetitive and its ‘monster hunting’ mechanic was much better enjoyed by switching the game off and going to play Monster Hunter instead.

Though Explorers was designed as the start of a new subseries, its lack of appeal and success has certainly nixed that idea, leaving it as a quirk in the franchise best ignored.