FOR THE RECORD: You may know Brady Fukumoto from his pieces on educational games, or his coding on EdSurge’s new navbar and news sector pages. What you may not know is that he is also an obsessive gamer. Having beaten nearly every Final Fantasy from IV to XIII (including X-2 and VII:CC but excluding XI and XII), Fukumoto knew he was in for a completion challenge when he saw Final Fantasy Record Keeper (FFRK) announced on the iOS app store. He attests:
Final Fantasy games are a guilty pleasure of mine. With proper preparation and analysis, the frequent random encounters and big boss fights become virtually automatic. Sort of like setting up a line of dominoes then watching them cascade. FFRK takes the battle mechanics of Final Fantasy, removes the story, cranks up the nostalgia, and doles it out in weekly bite-sized chunks. For a Final Fantasy Fan like me, it’s like a Phoenix Down straight to the heart.
Now, most of these type of mobile games are designed to be never ending, with new content being regularly released as long as the game remains profitable. Fukumoto, however, claims to have beaten FFRK and cites the following screenshot as evidence.
When asked what he plans to do with his hour-long BART rides from Berkeley to EdSurge HQ in Burlingame now that he’s retired from FFRK, Fukumoto replied, “I’m getting out of Dodge for about a week, but when I come back I’ve got something big planned that I think EdSurge readers are going to love.”
