When I was a kid (well I guess it was more like high school), I was really into role-playing video games.  I started playing them on the 8-bit Nintendo with titles like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, but I didn’t really get into them until the 16-bit era.  And then I was hooked.  Games like Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Lufia 2, and many others took up most of my gaming time back then.  But when the 32-bit days came along, I kind of got out of the loop.  College and other commitments kept me from playing RPGs for long hours like I used to, but also the newer RPGs kind of grew up, but my tastes in games didn’t.  Sure I would find a few here and there that would interest me, like Final Fantasy 9, Tales of Legendia, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but it’s definitely not like how it used to be.  That’s why World of Final Fantasy makes me so happy.  It’s like Square-Enix went back and made a Final Fantasy game just for me! (Vita version reviewed here)

In the game you play as twins Reyne and Lann (they look like Kingdom Hearts rejects), who are a boy and girl who wake up in a strange timeless town and have lost their memories.  But everyone else seems to remember who they are.  Turns out they’re supposed to be powerful Mirage Keepers, and can lead an army of monsters to do their bidding.  But they don’t remember any of that and don’t have any monsters, so they set out on an adventure to visit familiar fantasy worlds and battle and capture recognizable Final Fantasy critters.

And when I say familiar worlds, I mean it!  You’ll visit people and places from other Final Fantasy games, like Cornelia and Princess Sarah from the first Final Fantasy game, battle Faris the pirate from FF5, ride Magitek Armor from 6, and much more!  Half the fun of the game is seeing who you’ll run into next!  Nearly all the characters you meet are short and squatty, with big heads, just like how they looked in the old FF titles!  Your twin characters can shrink down to their size, too, which comes to play in battles.

And speaking of battles, they’re random turn-based fare like a standard RPG.  The twins can fight themselves, but they’ll fill out their party with help from familiar Final Fantasy monsters like Moogles, Chocobos, Bombs, Behemoths, Goblins, Cactrots, Summons, and many more!  But to have them on your team, you’ll have to capture them first.  If this sounds like Final Fantasy Pokémon, well, it kind of is.  But one cool thing about most FF spinoffs is that if they are based on another game genre, Square-Enix will do something with that game to make it stand out on its own.  Good examples of this include the fighting game Dissidia Final Fantasy and the music game Theatrhythem Final Fantasy.  World of Final Fantasy does this as well, in the form of how you capture and battle these monsters.

In most monster battle games, you must lower the hit points of the monster you want to catch.  That happens with some of the monsters here, but not always.  Other monsters you must cast certain spells on them, give them certain items, or have them be the last monster standing.  You can even cast a spell on monsters to see what you need to do to catch them (it’s called Libra, so don’t forget that).  Luckily you get unlimited tries to catch the monster you want, and since you only need one, you usually won’t need to capture another one like it.  Once you have a monster in your party, battle with it to level it up and edit its moves on a skill tree.  Once you have enough experience and skills, you can even evolve your monsters into more powerful ones, usually.  You can also summon other familiar characters when you are in a pinch.

The other way this game separates itself from Pokémon is HOW you battle.  You can have your monsters fight separately, giving you more turns, or you can stack them on top of your head.  It’s a little silly, but when you stack them on your head, you combine your hit points, power, and spells all into one, but you also stack your weaknesses, too, so be careful.  Also, enemies can knock your stack off balance, and if you fall, you’ll be dizzy for a moment.  Even so, you’ll want to be stacked most of the time.  You have to think about how to stack your monsters, though. Larger monsters go on the bottom, while smaller ones go on top.  You can even shrink yourself down so you can ride on larger monsters.  Enemies can stack themselves up, too, so you have to watch out!

The game does have a few problems here and there.  They still require the use of save points to record your progress.  I’m all for RPGs using classic gameplay elements, but not being able to save anywhere is one retro aspect that just needs to go away.  This is especially troublesome in longer dungeons, which doesn’t work on the handheld Vita as well (luckily you can cross-save data on the PS4).  Some of the dungeons aren’t designed as well as others either.  I wish there was a way to switch out monsters during battles, as you don’t always know what you need to do to catch them.  The learning curve is slightly steep and they don’t hold your hand through the game, which is good but it also makes things tough sometimes, which is misleading since the game is so cute.  And some may find the game a little TOO cutesy, but I don’t.  If you enjoy classic Final Fantasy games, monster battle titles, or just think today’s games take themselves too seriously, then you should check this one out!

Kid Factor:

World of Final Fantasy is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes.  While you do fight monsters with attacks and spells, they just disappear when defeated.  According to the story, you don’t even kill any of the monsters.  They just warp back to their home world when defeated.  Most of the other descriptors are in the text only.  While most of the text also has spoken voice, reading skill is still needed for the menus and such.  I’d say this game is best for older kids who have mastered Pokémon already and want something new and more challenging.  It’s also a great Final Fantasy game for the whole family, too!

Tags: Game Reviews