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Yes, this card I'm holding
WILL KILL YOU! |
It's probably important to start this review off by stating that I am going to have a bias towards any Final Fantasy game due to my fandom of the series. I mean, I'm not one of those guys that has a Yuna figurine on my shelf or cosplays with a giant buster sword, but I have played every main series Final Fantasy game (except for
FFIII) and beaten most of the ones that I've played. Now, I'm not a completely blind fan either. There are plenty of games in the series that I dislike such as
FFII for its short and boring story,
FFXII for its annoying characters, broken battle system, and boring story, and, oh wait I actually don't hate
FFXIII? It definitely has problems but I ended up somewhat liking it. I talk about it more in a previous post which you can read
here.
Anyways, all of that aside, this post is about
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD which is a mouthful to say so I will shorten it to
FFT0 from here on out. Now, implied by its title, you'd think that this game was an HD remaster of something and with that thought, you would be correct. However, when this game came out, being a die-hard Final Fantasy fan, I could only wonder how I have never heard of this game before. Well, the answer is simple. It was a Japan only release... on the PSP... in 2011. Why no NA release? That is a damn good question because, as a PSP RPG, this game is awesome (well, I'm guessing). It's the only PSP RPG I know of that has world exploration (other than Dissidia Duodecim which had very limited world exploration). Though, I'm not here to review the PSP version because I've never played it.
The HD remaster for Playstation 4 is pretty awesome despite falling short in many areas. Why? Well, because it does a lot of things awesomely too. Readers at home, which should I start with first? The bad stuff or the good stuff? Well, since there's no interactivity with this, that last question was completely pointless and I will make the decision. I'll start with the bad stuff because I have more to say about the good stuff than the bad stuff.
As an HD remaster, this game falls short just about everywhere. Unlike the well done
Final Fantasy X/X-2 remaster, this game did not get the same attention to detail. Sure,
FFT0 was not nearly as popular as
FFX, but I think part of this is due to the platform of the original source material. Playstation 2 games generally have better graphics than PSP games so in order to make
FFT0 an effective remaster, it would have to make much greater improvements than the
FFX remaster. Long story short, it doesn't. Some portions look decently improved like caves, character models, and battle environments but others such as ground textures and some building textures look like they belong back on the PSP.
As far as the NA localization, this wasn't done very good either. Main character voice acting is very hit or miss. Some of the voice actors sound like actual people conversing while others sound like they were dropped in from an alien spaceship right before delivering their lines. Side character voice acting is about the same except for the commandant. His voice acting is hilariously bad to the point where you will laugh out loud at your television even when trying to hold it in. His only tone of voice in any situation sounds like he is shouting while closing his throat which results in a combination of a snarling dog and a chain smoker turned up to eleven all of the time.
Some scenes in the NA version (at the very least) have no voice acting at all. If you play this game (which I recommend you do) be sure to turn on the subtitles otherwise you will have some cutscenes that involve people sitting there with no dialogue at all.
The characters themselves will be a matter of preference. Characters like Cinque, a brain dead bimbo, and Nine, a meat head who says "yo" a lot, will definitely annoy some players. However, if you liked characters in previous Final Fantasy games, you will find that these two characters among others are a nice breath of comic relief in what is an incredibly dark and heavy game.
The rest of the complaints I have revolve around the story, which isn't much because I actually really like the story in this game. As a quick background, the story takes place in a world where people draw their magical powers from their nation's crystal. In order to do this though, the people basically treat the crystals as gods and do what is requested of them by their respective crystal. In some instances, this involves becoming what is essentially a demi-god called a l'cie and fulfilling a goal called a focus that the crystal gives you. If you complete your goal before dying, you will be incased in crystal which is considered a huge honor, I guess.
All of what I just explained to you is never explained in this game. The only reason why I am familiar with it is from playing
FFXIII which has very similar lore and terminology. If you go into this game without knowing the
FFXIII lore, you will be hopelessly lost right from the get-go because this game just throws around terms like l'cie and focus without explaining any of them at all. Final Fantasy games have a history of telling convoluted story lines but this is pretty ridiculous. As a Final Fantasy fan, I actually kind of enjoy the convoluted story telling because it gives the game a bigger feeling of awe and wonder. But without the background on the crystal lore, it's just out of control. Otherwise, this game's convolutedness is about on par with other Final Fantasy games, whatever that is worth to you.
Which, on that train of thought, this game's plot is definitely peppered with plot holes. I guess it kind of comes along with the convolution but there's one that just drives me nuts that I
can explain to you without spoiling anything. Early on in the game (right after the very first level) you learn that one of the defining characteristics of this world is that people get immediately forgotten after they die due to the crystals' influence in order to eliminate the grief caused by losing loved ones. In fact, this is such the case that on multiple occasions throughout the game, right after a boss battle, the boss will have their final words, then die, then immediately one of the main characters will remark that they can't remember what they were talking about or to whom. So, this is some pretty strong shit. But then there are other times, like the opening cutscene of the game, where someone that Ace knows of dies and his classmate, Queen, asks him if he wants to take a moment to mourn before moving on to the next mission objective. There are two problems with this. One, they should have immediately forgotten who that corpse was that was laying on the ground as soon as he died. Two, if they forget everyone who dies, how could they possibly know what mourning is if they never had any reason or inclination to do it? Sometimes dead people are remembered due to written records and documentation so that explains some of the plot holes (especially if the person who died is a major political figure). But the one I just described wouldn't be explained by that because even if Ace wrote the guy's name on a piece of paper, there would be no emotional attachment to the name because he wouldn't be able to remember the person associated with the written name. He would need a whole diary to even get a single drip from a tear duct.
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| I swear officer, I don't remember! |
Phew. I had more to say about the bad stuff than I thought...
On the flip side of all of that, like I said, I actually really like the story. It's probably my favorite Final Fantasy story since
FFX. The story centers around an elite group of cadets called Class Zero, who are basically being trained to specialize in combat specifically to prevent the world's apocalypse foretold in a prophecy. However, their nation, The Dominion, is on the brink of losing a war with their neighbors The Militesi Empire so they get deployed to fight in the war despite just being teenage kids. The game has a lot to say about real-world issues such as the horrors of war, the use of WMDs, the impact of war on society, blind faith, and imperialism; to name a few. It does this while telling a very compelling, if convoluted, story about the camaraderie of the cadets and dealing with the heavy burdens placed on them by the various powers of the world. Without spoiling anything else, I like it a lot and am glad that this approach to Final Fantasy has been taken.
This game is incredibly gritty for a Final Fantasy game, demonstrating the horrors of war at every opportunity. In fact, one of the first things you will notice when purchasing this game is that it gets an M rating from the the ESRB which I believe would make it the first M rating for any Final Fantasy game. Why does it get an M rating? Well, you'll find out very fast that this game has a lot of blood. The opening cutscene starts with a guy stumbling in the street trying to keep his guts from falling out and encounters enemies. But he then gets saved by his trusty chocobo whose beautiful golden feathers are spotted red from blood. Yeah, never thought you would see that in a Final Fantasy game did ya?
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| Poor chocobo gets shot shortly after |
Oh yeah, and the amount of blood and destruction only increases from there. Just wait until the end of the game...
Moving along, the combat mechanics are excellent. They're not the greatest but they are very good nonetheless. Animations are all fluid and polished while a lot of fun. There are a total of 14 students in Class Zero. 12 are the original students named after playing cards (2-9, Jack, Queen, King, Ace) and two more, Machina and Rem, are added after the first level. In a typical mission, you can have three cadets in combat at once while the other 11 stay in the reserve unit to take the place of any cadet that falls in combat. Of the three cadets in combat, you control one at a time in a very action oriented kind of gameplay. You can run, dodge, attack, and use special moves depending on what abilities you have equipped to your character. However, you can't jump which can get annoying in some situations.
The character customization is one of the areas where this game really shines. Each of the 14 playable characters are unique from one another in combat style and weapon type usage so there is definitely a character in this game that you can have fun using in combat. Because each character has a different fighting class, they also have different special attacks that you can unlock using AP which you obtain by earning experience points and leveling up. At any one time, a single character can have 2 moves equipped. The way you allocate these slots it completely up to you. You can have 2 special moves, 1 special move and a magic attack, or 2 magic attacks (if that character has the dual-cast perk). Like other RPGs, magic consumes MP. Special moves consume another bar that I don't know the name of that refills whenever you strike enemies with your regular attack. Each character also has 2 equipment slots and a support spell slot where you can equip a cure spell, protect spell, etc, or a block which doesn't consume MP.
Now, if this seems like a lot to take in. It kind of is. Inventory and character management can get overwhelming when trying to constantly optimize 14 characters all at the same time. But it does keep things fresh and interesting constantly dealing with different characters instead of the same few characters over and over.
Now, you might think that this game is pretty easy if you have three people in your party and eleven in reserve if you die. Well, you couldn't be more wrong because you will die, a lot. Most levels are difficult to get through without at least one casualty which means you have to be tactful along with skilled at dodging to survive. Even if you are a much higher level than the enemy you are versing, there are some enemies that have moves that kill you in one hit; most bosses have a move that they frequently use that is an automatic kill. Also, there is a status ailment in this game called "killsight" that will allow any enemy to kill you in one hit with any attack. So you can see how shit becomes tense.
In one of the earlier levels in the game, you will gain access to eidolons (also called summons in other FF games) to help you out in tight spots. They are player controlled and incredibly powerful so they're incredibly satisfying and, of course, fun to use for the minute or so they are available before they disappear. The trade off is that you have to kill yourself to summon an eidolon. Yup, that's right. This is the only FF game where summoning requires human sacrifice. This is certainly an aspect I could see a lot of evangelists having a problem with if they weren't scared away by the blood and violence already. In games like FFVIII, you can basically spam summons without any repercussion other than watching an excessively long cutscene. However, this game really makes you consider the consequences of using an eidolon since you have a limited number of cadets that can die before you lose. On the plus side, you should be able to figure out how to exploit Rem's "Undying Wish" ability rather quickly. It doesn't cast Reraise on you for long but it's enough time for you to summon an eidolon. When your eidolon vanishes or dies, then Rem will revive and you can repeat the process to keep summoning. It's probably not in your best interest to exploit this too much though because each time Rem dies, it adds a casualty to the mission report which means lower grade, which means worse items and less money awarded. Also, you won't level up any of your characters this way which will screw you in the end because the final dungeon doesn't let you summon any eidolons at all.
Speaking of which, the final dungeon in this game is incredibly inspired. Definitely one of my favorite final dungeons and definitely one of my favorite endings to any video game. I won't spoil it but I really enjoyed the ending to this game.
Some of the optional levels are called regional campaign missions and pretty effectively mix action gameplay and RTS together. Basically, these levels involve The Dominion trying to capture multiple cities at once so you fight and direct troops from the world map view which is a pretty cool touch to an already awesome game. These levels are a lot of fun but I definitely feel like they could have done a little more regarding difficulty as it is never hard to figure out what you're supposed to do to beat the level. Also, I beat every single one of these levels without using anything other than the Blaze unit type. They should throw situations at you where you basically have to use the other unit types. But yeah, pretty cool to see something like this in a FF game. It reminded me a lot of the game Brutal Legend for those of you who have played that.
To wrap things up, some other things that this game does well is world map exploration. Since it was originally done on the PSP, the world map is dialed back quite a bit. However, it's done in the same style as FFVII, FFVIII, and FFIX so it was very nostalgic exploring a world map like this and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. This game also has a ton of replay value. On the second playthrough, you'll be able to complete dungeons and levels that you were previously not high enough of a level to complete. Also, on the second playthrough, each main mission will have an alternate mission that you can complete instead that will give you a more complete picture of the story. Basically, this game beckons you to play it a second time, giving you a lot of value for your dollar. Also, it comes with the FFXV demo. What did I think of that? It was really good actually. If the actual FFXV plays anything like the demo, we're in for one hell of a game.
So, that was Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. I really recommend this game to anyone who is a Final Fantasy fan and would really push others to give it a try as well since it effectively breaks the boundaries of traditional RPGs and gives you a truly unique and fun experience. I'm already on my third playthrough and I'm still enjoying it as much as when I picked it up. So maybe you will too.
Chocobo Image: In-game screenshot taken by me
