Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
Developed By: Square Enix, HexaDrive
Produced By: Square Enix
Release Date: March 17th 2015
Available on: PS4, Xbox One
The Fabula Nova Crystallis series of Final Fantasy continues on with the release of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. It originally released a few years back on PSP and only in Japan, so it’s nice to see it finally come stateside. But what is Type-0 and is it worth a try?
The story of Type-0 has you controlling a group of fourteen student/soldiers trying to reclaim the land of the Dominion. Final Fantasy Type-0 may be the darkest entry in the series. This gritty, war-torn world managed to evoke my emotions from the start with the telling of the death of a forgotten soldier. It tugs on the heartstrings more when you learn that every dead person in the universe is erased from memory by the crystals even moreso when you draw the connections to the real world. There are a few cutscenes, but much of the story is told from newsreel style footage, seeing the amount of deaths of the battles helps them feel real. During their free time between the battles, Class Zero can explore the campus and the world. There is always something to do between classes, whether you feel like trying expert trials, which are far higher leveled than your team can handle without near perfection or studying in class to increase your magic defense.
Most of the main missions are somewhat open linked rooms. Generally you’ll just kill a few enemies and move on to the next area, but occasionally you’ll have to look for keys to advance. You’ll mow through the hordes of soldiers and magitek armors to make your way through the battlefield. Like most games, there is a boss at the end of each mission. The tired trope of forced loss boss fights happen too frequently for my taste. While the fights are technically winnable, the enemies are such a high level that you’ll be forced to lose in your first playthrough. The other mission type you’ll come across play a lot like a RTS. These missions are simple, but are overall pretty boring. Basically, you just send troops from one city to the next while helping take out an enemy units that spring up. After you take an area you’ll just rinse and repeat until you win.
While the story at its core was excellent, it winds up being marred by the subpar voice acting. Each character is an archetypal anime character and dealing with Deuce’s ditzy persona or Nine’s unceasing utterances of “hey” and “yo” gets old quickly. There are a few solid performances, but the english dub ends up hurting the overall experience. At least, while the characters are designed as generic archetypes they do evolve through the course of the story, and watching them wrestle with being both a student and a soldier is one of the high points of Type-0.
If you’ve played Crisis Core on the PSP you’ll be at least somewhat familiar with the combat. Each character has their own unique weapon attacks and selectable magic that you can map to the face buttons. Each character seems a bit set in style based on their weapon of choice, but thanks to the wealth of abilities each character can set your team is immensely adaptable. One of my favorites to use is Seven, her weapon of choice is a bladed whip and she works best at a range. Originally I used her solely as a ranged character; however, after a while I gave her a AOE attack that inflicted stop, which let me wade into battle with her more easily. Characters still have strengths and weaknesses, but the abilities let your teams plan for any circumstance. At its crux, combat revolves around dodging successfully and striking when their weakest either does massive damage or instantly kills them. The “break sight” and “kill sight” systems help make battles, even boss fights end quickly. It’s rare that dispatching an area took more than a minute or so. Before a mission you can also apply an eidolon for your team, at the cost of one of you party you can call them forth for enough time to wreak some havoc.
As your teammates fall in battle the next in line can jump in to help, in a way this makes Type-0 feel a bit Pokemon-esque where you’ll have to train your team evenly so that one death doesn’t throw the entire mission off. And trust me, your teammates WILL fall in battle, quite often in one or two hits if their level isn’t high. Thankfully, you can train characters by replaying each mission as many times as you like or leaving them to train at the academy between play sessions. Part of me loved the concept of training all of my party members up, but it does take a serious time investment to keep them all close to even.
The main character models in the HD remake are pretty impressive and look crisp. The same cannot be said for the NPC’s and some of the backgrounds, most look generic and they stand out for all the wrong reasons next to the main characters. The news reels and cutscenes also look crisp. Some of the musical tracks in Final Fantasy Type-0 do a lot to help set the world, especially during the opening scene. While I’ve already mentioned my dislike for the English voices, the other sound effects are pretty solid.
Final Fantasy Type-0 is a powerful entry in the franchise. The power and emotion caused by its story does much to hide its portable origins. It’s got a few issues, but it’s one of most worthwhile JRPG’s I’ve played in a while.
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