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World of Final Fantasy (PS4) review

On November 8, 2016 by Ash Meehan

At its core, World of Final Fantasy is a game for fans of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy franchise, with the main characters Lann and Reynn encountering various beloved Final Fantasy characters such as Tifa and the Warrior of Light. However, with that said, World of Final Fantasy doesn’t require you to have in-depth knowledge of the Final Fantasy franchise, as encounters with these characters can be seen as fan service to long-term fans.

Regarding World of Final Fantasy I believe the simplest way I could describe the game is Final Fantasy meets Pokémon, as the main characters can capture wild creatures known as mirages with devices known as prisms, and once captured the mirages, can fight beside you by stacking with one of the two main characters. However, unlike Pokémon, capturing mirages requires more work, as you need to meet certain requirements to capture them; for example, one mirage requires you to heal it in order for you to attempt to catch it. This added complexity helps World of Final Fantasy stand out from Pokémon.

Now, as I just mentioned the game has a mechanic called stacking. Stacking involves captured mirages standing on top or below the main character. Up to two mirages can stand on each character, but there are size limits as stacking can only go large, medium, and small. When a mirage stacks with a character the stats of all three characters are combined. Another mechanic is the fact that Lann and Reynn can change from their normal size to chibi versions of themselves, in the game normal size is known as Jiants and chibi is known as Lilikin, all the people you encounter are Lilikin. The ability to change size allows you to reach previously unreachable chest and change your stack composition because in Jiant form you are the base and in Lilikin form you are the middle.

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Now I mentioned how combat involves stacking creatures on top of the two main characters, but what is combat like as a whole? Well, if you take away the capturing of mirages, combat in World of Final Fantasy is your straightforward turn-based game. Combat uses an active time battle system with players able to perform basic and ability point attacks. When it comes to selecting your moves you can do it via the classic or basic UI. The classic UI harkens back to older Final Fantasy titles and is the most straightforward to use. The basic UI, which is the default UI, is slightly more complicated. I say complicated because it can take some getting used to because instead of selecting an ability from an abilities tab like in the classic UI the basic UI requires you to move the left analogue stick over the right creature and select the ability. The complication of the basic UI can be seen when trying to select an item because the only way I could use one in the basic UI was by pressing L1 to change to the classic UI.

In terms of combat difficulty, combat is incredibly simple. In my entire playthrough, I died only once and that was due to a king bomb self-destructing just as I killed it. However, while combat is painstakingly easy, it is something you need to endure, as the only way to level up in World of Final Fantasy is by killing monsters that you randomly encounter in dungeons. Speaking of levelling, the game does a great job of dividing out experience points, the six active party members receive a split of the experience earned, the six reserve members receive a flat 8% of the total experience, and those in storage receive no experience.

Moving away from the combat, let’s talk about the other aspects of World of Final Fantasy. Firstly, dungeons play a big part in the game. In dungeons, you fight and capture mirages to gain experience, further the story, and simply explore. Dungeons also have some nice features that include the Gimme Golem, a creature that blocks your path until you give it a specific item, and before you panic, the item you require is usually near the golem. Dungeons also require you to use support abilities. Support abilities are special field abilities mirages can learn via their mirage board (more on that later), support abilities include flying over a gap and burning down an obstacle. Support abilities are mirage type specific, this means you will have to hunt for specific mirages, which can be annoying and time-consuming.

Regarding the mirage board I just mentioned, it is something akin to a skill tree for mirages. As each mirage levels up they receive skill points, these skill points can then be spent on unlocking support, active or passive abilities. At the end of each board, there is a transfiguration orb, these transfiguration orbs allow you to grow your mirage into a more powerful mirage, for example, a chocochick can become a chocobo once it reaches level 10; transfiguration is optional as the new mirage will most likely be a different size.

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Now when I finished talking about combat I said you could only level by fighting, but while you can only level via combat you can still perform quests. There are numerous quest types in World of Final Fantasy, side quests that involve killing or gathering an item, coliseum quests that have you fight a predetermined creature, and finally intervention quests. Intervention quests are the most interesting of all quest types as they involve helping mirage champions, characters from past FF game, while they are the most interesting due to their appearance intervention quests are kill quests as the quests involve interfering in a champion’s mission to change the course of a fight.

Now I haven’t mentioned it yet, so let’s talk about World of Final Fantasy’s story. The game’s story focuses on the twins Lann and Reynn from Nine Wood Hills. One day during their work routine they realise their world is completely empty apart from a mysterious café customer called Enna Kros and an energetic creature called Tama. Enna tells them that nothing is what it seems and when she tries to get them to try to remember their past they cannot, and so Enna Kros and Tama tells them how they were/are Mirage Keepers who helped save Grymoire. With this in mind, Lann and Reynn decide that to try to regain their memories or find something about their past they should venture back into Grymoire and collect as many mirages as possible.

While, Lann and Reynn, who are helped by Tama, go to Grymoire expected a happy adventure, they quickly learn that Grymoire is not a happy place, as The Bahamutian Federation are using their own Mirage Keepers to take control of the world for their own nefarious deeds. As the story goes on the twins stumble upon a prophecy and someone who can connect them to their past, and as such a simple adventure becomes a journey to save all of Grymoire.

World of Final Fantasy’s story is straightforward, if not a little slow to get started. Personally, I enjoyed it as it never felt like it went to over the top. If you are looking for a nice straightforward story than World of Final Fantasy is a game worth buying.

Now, while I say story makes the game worth buying, the characters might make you second-guess yourself. The twins Lann and Reynn are polar opposites, which means Reynn is intelligent and the voice of reason while her twin brother Lann is about as dense as a neutron star. For me, Lann’s character while charming can be annoying as he likes to joke around and not pay attention to some plot points, but with that said there are points in the game where Lann can be interesting and a fun character to have. The third main character, Tama, who is a fox-like creature, exists to be the game’s mascot, offer information, and have an odd speech pattern with the creature randomly throwing “the” into a sentence such as “the-funny” etc. Tama is also a pure and innocent creature.

The three main characters in World of Final Fantasy can be hit or miss, and while Lann and Tama did annoy me at the start, they did eventually grow on me.

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Now before I reach my conclusion, let’s talk graphics and audio. In terms of graphics the world is beautiful, but the main character’s appearance can be odd, in their chibi form they blend in well, but in their normal forms they look like out of place and very plastic like. In terms of audio, I noticed no issues, the game has both English and Japanese voice acting along with English subtitles.

Conclusion

World of Final Fantasy is an enjoyable Final Fantasy experience that offers something for new and old fans of the franchise. While I enjoyed the game’s capture mechanic, there are minor issues such as the annoying combat UI and game difficulty.

SCORE: 8.5/10

Pros Cons
+ Capturing mirages – The basic combat UI can be anything but basic at times
+ Stacking creatures – Combat is rather easy
+ Numerous treats for fans of the Final Fantasy franchise

 

Developer Publisher Genre Rating Platform Release date
Square Enix Square Enix JRPG 12+ PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita October 28, 2016

 

*A review code was provided by the game’s publisher.*

For more information on World of Final Fantasy, visit http://worldoffinalfantasy.square-enix.com/gb/.

Author: Ash Meehan

Hi, I’m the creator of SG Gaming Info. When I’m not working on my writing or creating content for this site’s YouTube channel, I like to relax and enjoy character driven story games.


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