Final Fantasy Type-0 - Review
After so many years, the game previously known as "Final Fantasy Agito XIII" has been released in the rest of the world, it has been selling in Japan for the last four years as a PSP game but now it upgraded as a HD Remastered Edition.The story focuses on Class Zero, a group of twelve students from the Vermillion Peristylium, a magical academy in the Dominion of Rubrum. One day, the Militesi Empire launches an assault on the other Crystal States of Orience, seeking to control their respective crystals. When Rubrum is attacked, Class Zero are called into action and become entangled in both the efforts to push back and defeat the forces of Militesi, and the secret behind the war and the existence of the crystals. The setting and presentation were inspired by historical documentaries, and the story itself was written to be darker than other Final Fantasy titles.
It is, indeed, much darker than other titles. Remember when you kill, for example, a soldier in past games, he would disappear like magic? Well, this time you can see blood while attacking them and scream painfully. The battles are very similar to "Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core", real time and action based with a different attack in each button of your controller. The reaction of the character you control is fast and differs depending on the which one you wanna use. The fights are very fast and fun to play as each of them feels different. Summons are back and you can control them, just like in FFXIII but you must sacrifice your entire team to use them.
The characters are likeable, all of them have their similitudes but also their differences in personality and movements. Each of them have their own attacks and settings, you have 14 different to choose, that's the biggest number of main characters I remember in a Final Fantasy game, and all of them feel different while using them either in battles or exploring. For now on, my favourite is Seven, she kinda reminds me to Lightning (in appearance) from the XIII Saga, and her amazing whipblade is so fun to use.
Exploring is fun as well thanks to the world map, which is back again. Kinda reminds me to VII and VIII with unpredictable battles appearing while walking around. There are tons of cities (most of them look exactly the same) and secrets places, like caves, to explore and find weird items and secret boss fights. You can interact with every character in the cities and some of them will give you interesting information about past events of secret places (like those caves I was talking about).
It feels like if you're playing an old Final Fantasy, we have to thank to the graphics for that. This was a PSP game that has been remastered in high definition so it's not surprise the downgrade graphics. Still, it doesn't look that bad, the main characters look way better and the effects during fights is another plus. Some parts still have the original graphics, easy to spot them but you won't feel eye pain.
The soundtrack is another plus with some memorable songs like the Chocobo song and the Battle theme, it does feel like any Final Fantasy title with some of the songs that will make your memories resurge. The voice acting (you can choose english or japanese) is well done as well but if you prefer to listen to the english acting, the mouth movements may not get along with the voices.
· Graphics (6.0) - If this was a review from a PSP game, the note would be a perfect 10 but this is a next-generation video game and the remastered graphics look quite good with great colors and special effects with some elements that look exactly the same as the original.
· Sound (8.0) - The music has some memorable moments that will make you remember from older Final Fantasy games but the voice acting could have been better, while the main cast has decent voices, the rest are quite laughable. The english voices don't match with the mouth movements sometimes.
· Gameplay (8.5) - The highlight of this game, battles are fast and entertaining with so many choices for the 14 different characters you can control and custom at your own will. Some old Final fantasy themes are back like the world map and the high level of difficulty. Missions are thrilling but they may get repetitive after a while.
· Story (9.0) - As I said before, the darkest plot ever seen in a Final Fantasy game. The main story is simple but enjoyable and the change to discover details and secondary plots talking to other characters and looking for other missions will make you see how wide their world is.
8.5
