Apex Legends and Final Fantasy: Details and Controversies on Crossover

Apex Legends and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are joining forces for a highly-anticipated collaboration, which has left some members of the community unhappy. From January 9 to January 30, players of Apex Legends will have access to a new limited-time mode in which they can wield the powerful R2R5 Potent Sword and get their hands on a series of new cosmetic items, including Legendary and Epic skins, stickers, and emotes. However, the monetization strategy for this event has caused a lot of controversy.

For three weeks, Final Fantasy VII Takeover will replace the unranked battle royale mode in Apex Legends. Here, players can use the R2R5 Buster Sword to shoot, block bullets, and unleash a powerful Limit Break. The R2R5 can deal light and heavy attacks, block shots to reduce damage taken, and dash forward to reach enemies more quickly. Players can also fill the dedicated gauge to unleash the special ability: the more damage they inflict, block, and take, the faster the attack will be available. If players can’t find a Potent Sword R2R5 right after landing, they should keep an eye out for supply capsules around the map.

New effects will be added to the game in the form of Materia (the iconic magical element of the FFVII universe), which provides different advantages depending on the color, such as additional damage for critical hits for purple, HP absorption by damaging enemies for blue, instant recharge of a weapon that creates lightning that damages and slows enemies for green, the power to discover the remaining health of the enemy by inflicting damage for yellow, and a Soldier Nessie that fights alongside players for red.

In addition, new skins are available in the Foreign Lands, including a skin inspired by moguri for Wattson, one inspired by Barret Wallace for Newcastle (with a coordinated Spitfire skin), one inspired by Yuffie for Valkyrie, one for Horizon that dresses her up as Aerith with a coordinated charge rifle skin, one for Wraith that makes her look a lot like Tifa (and we already know it will be very popular), and one dedicated to Crypto inspired by the iconic protagonist of FFVII Cloud.

These skins can be purchased with Apex Coins and are part of the 36 limited-time cosmetics themed around Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Players can collect them by purchasing Event Packs to obtain items from the elimination pool, including the legendary Buster Sword, the first mythical cosmetic that can be equipped by any Legend. During the takeover, players can earn guil, the event currency, by playing the new limited-time mode and completing challenges. They can use this currency in the rewards store to unlock event items.

This free store will be updated every week, and inside it, players will find a selection of event items, badges, and Event Packs that have a chance to drop the new cosmetics. They can also use guil to purchase additional battle pass stars and accumulate seasonal progress. The challenges will change every 24 hours, and players can earn a limited number of guil per day. For completionists, there are also four stickers to obtain through Twitch Drops. There is also a deathbox skin that adorns it with a single wing with visual and sound effects, but the community is not happy with the prices that Respawn will adopt.

On the Apex Legends website, it reads, “Complete the Apex Legends Final Fantasy VII Rebirth collection by the end of the event to automatically receive the One-Winged Angel animation for death boxes, which can be equipped by any Legend in the new Melee tab of the lobby.” The community has pointed out, after doing the math, that since “all 36 items will be randomly assigned through Event Packs” (as stated on the Apex website), to be sure of obtaining the One-Winged Angel skin, it may be necessary to spend more than $300 on loot boxes.

In previous events, if a player wanted to obtain the Heirloom, they had to purchase all of the event items, which required a spend of around $150. This time things are a bit different. The R2R5 Potent Sword can only be obtained through Event Packs, but with an infinitesimal probability of 1%. Players on the Apex subreddit have done the math and found that the chances of actually dropping the sword by purchasing 30 packs, for example, is 3.4%. So, to have the guarantee of obtaining it and thus completing the collection and receiving the deathbox skin, the total spend could exceed $300. Needless to say, the fans are not happy.