This might vilify me in the eyes of die-hard series veterans but I feel like Final Fantasy, as a series, has been in a bit of a rut for years now. And with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, we see exactly the sort of fresh perspective that could return the series to greatness.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD was originally built as a PSP spin off of the still-divisive Final Fantasy XIII but after that game launched in the West to a chorus of what could charitably be called “mixed” fan reactions, Square Enix swept Type-0 under the proverbial rug and it never saw release in the West.
Without going completely overboard and blowing their budget, there’s only so much that Square can be done in terms of HD upgrades on a title like this and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD’s visuals are full of artifacts that betray its handheld heritage. Character and monster models are quite nice and their animations, while certainly serviceable, are a far cry from the realistic walk and run cycles of the Final Fantasy XV demo that dropped with Type-0. You’ll spot muddy and low-res textures most frequently in indoor environments and you’ll remember with a jolt that this is not a next-gen title you’re playing.
And maybe it’s because Square Enix knows that this title is a bit of an “also-ran” in the great Final Fantasy pantheon, that they display a kind of eagerness to do things differently with Type-0. It’s not all beer-and-skittles – a few of their more experimental story moments and systems are clunky at best – but when taken as a complete experience, all of these disparate elements form a Final Fantasy game that is far more cohesive than any of the many spin-off titles Final Fantasy XIII is still dragging in its wake.
As if determined to distance itself from its infamous lead-in, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD opens with the now-traditional lengthy opening cutscene, but one that plays almost like a documentary rather than the operatic CGI bombast that usually accompanies the start of a new Final Fantasy title. The world of Orience is divided. The Militesi Empire have ruined a perfectly good peace treaty and are in the process of invading the remaining three countries, with each built around powerful and mysterious crystals. These crystals allow the armed forces of these nations to wield powerful magic but, unfortunately for them, the Militesi are towing a brand new piece of tech. Dubbed the “Crystal Jammer”, they’re rending any and all magic thrown at them null and void.
Caught in the centre of all the devastation are Class Zero, a collection of school kids. When one of their number, and his chocobo, dies (very) slowly and agonizingly during the game’s intro, it’s a clear message from the developers that this isn’t going to be a regular (or as regular as FF ever gets) Final Fantasy story. This is a war story, and a surprisingly grim one at that. While the game isn’t without moments of levity, the trajectory of the plot here is almost exclusively straight down. Indeed, one of the game’s strongest suits is it’s ability to keep finding new ways to torture its characters. Just when you think their situation couldn’t deteriorate any further, they discover exciting new lows like being framed for a brazen crime or one of them contracting a virus that will surely kill them.
Class Zero has a total character roster of 14 individuals who make up your party. While I really struggled to tell them all apart to begin with, the longer I played the more I found the game takes the time to build and grow their characters and express their more identifiable traits. They’re a surprisingly likable bunch and it provides a real impetus to keep you moving. You want to save them and get them out of this mess.
Quite a bit of the game is set within Class Zero’s military school and between the game’s many, many missions you are given downtime with which you can do whatever you like. Explore the academy and talk to other students, go shopping and fill up on potions and phoenix down, and partake in activities that will scoot the passage of time along. One instance saw me leave the school entirely to romp around grinding through monsters and when I returned to the school I found that six hours had passed in-game since I’d left.
This adds something of a balancing act to what you get up to when you aren’t on-mission. If you need to get out there and grind hard so you’re ready for whatever the game throws at you next, you might miss crucial parts of the story and information you could use later by taking the time to chat to various NPC’s inside the academy. Striking the right balance is key here because the game doesn’t hold you hand on it. This means if you’re always grinding and levelling up, you don’t get the appreciate the story that should be making you want to play it more. However, spend too much time chatting to people and you’ll suffer the curse of the JRPG genre – being under-levelled and getting stuck in a battle that is utterly unwinnable.
Further changes to the usual formula present themselves in the way you move from place to place. There’s no sprawling world map here so you can’t just galavant around wherever you like. The plot is actually quite on-rails as it takes you from battle to battle with the progression of the war. Instead of being quite free to move through the game as you please, you’re dropped into quite specific sequences with specific objectives. This surprised me initially, and so did the fact that all of the combat in the game is in real time. If you played Kingdom Hearts, this should feel quite familiar to you.
Every member of Class Zero can be levelled and they’ve all got surprisingly expansive skill trees that can be filled out for better moves and attacks. When you get into combat, though, you’re the only one in control and you’ll need to dodge, attack, block and keep attacking with spells and skills to survive.
While long-time, die-hard fans may be affronted by so many changes to the Final Fantasy formula, the truth is that it works. It boils down to having a wide-variety of characters that all play quite differently – wielding Trey’s bow is entirely unlike carefully waiting to use Cinque’s agonizingly slow, heavy mace attack. Swapping them around is, in itself, rewarding.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD wants you to find the combat simple so that when it drops the difficulty hammer on you later – and it does, often and without warning – you can still maintain a grip on the situation. Learning how to dodge with each of the characters is extremely important and will often be the difference between victory and defeat. Boss fights are far from being cakewalks and will go downhill fast if you aren’t on your game. Even regular enemies become serious threats as they become more powerful.
As I mentioned in my hands-on with Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae last week, I fell off the JRPG wagon years ago. After being let down by so many games in the genre over the last ten years or so, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD surprised the hell out of me. Everything it gets right is about balance – simple combat and difficulty spikes, it’s got something for newcomers and series veterans alike. It’s able to stand apart from the game it spun off from by virtue of it’s own many strengths. Not everything in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is polished to a shine but it kept me interested and determined to keep playing and that’s more than any JRPG has been able to do in years.
Review Score: 8.0 out of 10
Highlights: Makes many smart adjustments to the FF formula
Lowlights: Those looking for a next-gen looking FF game will be disappointed
Developer: Square Enix/Hexadrive
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Released: March 20, 2015
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Reviewed on Xbox One
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