Final Fantasy Type-0 had originally released on the Playstation Portable system and was never brought to the Western market. I was excited about this Final Fantasy game that seemed like it was full of action and combat. Thankfully, they announced a Final Fantasy Type-0 HD version that was going to release for PS4 and PC. I had waited for a sale and picked it up for PC only to realize that my computer couldn't run it very well. I had gotten a new computer in the past year and so continued playing it on and off until I decided to really sit down and get through it the past two week.
Final Fantasy Type-0 is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, which means it takes place in the same universe as Final Fantasy XIII. FF Type-0 takes place in the land of Orience where the regions of the land are divided into four nations, each blessed by a Crystal that grants its people powers. Like many other works of fiction that talks about divided land, one nation wants more power from the other nations which leads to political strife. What I believe the game wanted to achieve through its story was the depiction of human struggle on both sides of a battle, a common theme among stories of war.
The game starts off with scenes of an invasion to a city. A young man wanders the battlefield and asks around for someone in a red cape. Shortly after, soldiers march in and start blowing up buildings, impaling the man's comrades in front of him and getting shot in the process. The man is saved by his Chocobo and finds a sword to fight off the remaining soldier. He continues searching for the one with a red cape only to have the Chocobo shot and have soldiers surround him. At the last moment, he yells out for the boy he was looking for. The one called Ace fights off the soldiers and runs to the man named Izana to try to heal him. But it's too late and Ace's healing magic takes no effect to the severely injured and bloodied Izana. Up to this point, I don't really call that much blood (if any) being depicted in a Final Fantasy game. The one's dressed similar to Ace fights off the remaining soldiers in the area and turns to Izana. As Ace and company stood there, they witnessed a dying man and his Chocobo companion as they cry out in agony of not wanting to die. This opening felt so real, as in it didn't feel like a poorly written scene for a videogame like most cut-scenes in videogames. It was a surprising opening and I was taken aback by the grim scene from a Final Fantasy game. Despite this, I was excited to see how emotionally involving and deep the story was going to be throughout the game.
Well, I was pretty disappointed in that regards because everything after that opening took a sharp 180 turn into the other direction where the writing, characters, and delivery of dialogue were awkward, cheesy, humorous, and/or abrupt. This is just story we're talking about. In terms of gameplay, it's a game with good ideas mixed with a myriad of poor design choices.
[Pros of the game/Things I liked]
+ Characters: First and foremost, I want to talk about the characters of the game. With 14 characters all dressed the same way, I didn't think there would be much to distinguish the characters by other than the weapons they used. But as I played the game, I grew fond of each of the characters because of their specialty on the battlefield as well as their personality. I will admit now that the characters don't have much depth to them, that they're trope-driven, and that they're hardly believable in the scope of reality (considering how real the characters felt in the opening); however, the interactions between the characters were some of my favorite moments from the game.
[Class Zero]: An Elite group of individuals that carry out dangerous missions
= Ace (Cards): Ace is often depicted as the leader of the group, even though he really isn't. He's young, but has an air of maturity with a calm and collected way of thinking. He's the voice of reason in the group and the one that tries to keep everyone together.
= Deuce (Flute): Deuce is kind of hard to keep alive since she isn't much of an offensive character, but I like to have her in my party and buff the other two characters as it helps a lot. She's soft spoken and kind to those around her. She's among one of the girls that gossip within the group.
= Trey (Bow): Trey isn't exactly arrogant, but he definitely likes to show off his vast knowledge. I find it funny in one of the study events where their Commanding Officer asks them a questions, he's first to answer but answers incorrectly. When Cater starts experiencing cases of déjà vu and gets scared because of it, she turns to Trey for help. He could've said "it's probably nothing" or ask "do you feel ill in any way?" to reassure Cater that she was okay. Instead, he goes on a long winded explanation of what might cause it and the history and research that goes into that topic.
Trey was a really useful character and saved me a lot in missions with the ability to take down flying or unreachable enemies as he has the longest range in the game with lots of damage behind it.
= Cater (Magicite Pistol): She was a good support damage to have in the party as she's able to attack a decent amount of times at a mid-range without putting herself in danger and having to worry about healing her. She's blunt and headstrong so she doesn't hesitate to speak her mind, even if it might upset the people around her. She experiences déjà vu and didn't understand why she feels like so many events have happened before. It is revealed in a secret clip after beating the game that they have all looped the many events of the war over 600 million times.
= Cinque (Mace): I do not like playing Cinque as she's slow with attacks taking forever to bring out and recover from, but she's pretty awesome to have in the party because she's sometimes able to knock an enemy down or stun them. Why did they have a tiny little girl wield such a large and heavy weapon anyways? Cinque's voice makes me laugh. Her English voice (It's Cristina Vee, I can hear some Noel in the voice) makes her always sound out of it, slow and/or ditsy. Her Japanese voice makes her sound playful and child-like. She's the kind of girl who's in her own little world, so that's kind of what they're trying to go for. I didn't really like playing her, but she had a fun personality and liked her interactions with everyone. I also like how she gives endearing nicknames to everyone. Mog=Moglin, Queen=Queenie, Rem=Remski, etc.
= Sice (Scythe): Loud mouthed and vulgar, Sice is very much a tomboy. Her attacks kind of go all over the place as she dives forwards when she swings, but I really like the damage behind it. Her straight-forward, unabashed personality can come off as rude and conceited. But she shows that she expects a lot out of herself and doesn't want to rely on others. This still doesn't stop Trey from lecturing her about all the things he knows
= Seven (Whipblade): Seven looks pretty much like Lightning, but with silver hair rather than pink hair. Seven has a decent range in attack and damage, and she also can get an ability that has three different elements. Seven is the big-sister type character. She's mature and reliable which makes her a popular upperclassmen at the academy. One interesting thing about Seven's outfit is that she wears spats under her skirt because she often twirls upside-down with her whipblade to attack all around her.
= Eight (Knuckles): It might be just me, but I feel like Eight didn't have much of a presence within the group. I did take note of him whenever I used him in fights as he has this one move that lets him continuously punch an enemy as long as he has the energy to keep doing it. Personality wise, I feel like he was the most forgettable.
= Nine (Spear): Nine is brash, hot-headed, and dumb, yet I like him so much. If I were to choose who the most memorable male character was from the original 12, it'd be Nine. With the Japanese voice, he's the stereotypical meathead who wants things simple and would much rather fight things out rather than negotiate. With the English voice, he's an awkward dude who can barely speak correctly saying "hey" and "yo" a lot and it's entertaining to watch any scene he has a speaking role in. I mean, who even talks like that?
He has pretty good burst damage and defense which helps when you're left with ranged units that need protection.
= Jack (Katana): I didn't like Jack at first. With his weapon out, he has the slowest walk in the game. But then I thought of it in Monster Hunter terms and sheathed my Katana whenever I wasn't close enough and then attack to bring it out when I was in range. After doing this and utilizing dodge more often, he quickly became my favorite melee character to play. He has high damage and can quickly counter after dodging out of the way. He has a unique style of play that was a bit more challenging but satisfying. Jack is the class clown of Class Zero and is full of optimism. His easy going attitude is a nice contrast to every else who seems to be a lot more serious other than Cinque.
= Queen (Longsword): Queen is the studious and intelligent one of Class Zero. She emanates a sort of elegance that matches her cool and collected mind. It's strange that her weapon is a Longsword when her stance and style of fighting matches those who wield rapiers. She's fast and can quickly close the distance which makes her a good duelist and for taking out multiple weaker units.
= King (Dual Handguns): He's the strong silent type but is very manly when speaking. He can be pretty useful against close to mid-range enemies that fly or unreachable by melee characters. It's especially satisfying kicking an enemy down and shooting them while they're on the floor.
= Machina Kunagiri (Twin Rapiers): They did a very poor job developing this character. There was quite a focus on this character in how he changes, how he grows, his relationship with the rest of the characters, but they were all so abrupt and scripted that he ended up being one of the most hated characters of the cast. In terms of combat, he was nice to have around to take down enemies with large health pools. But as a character in the story, he didn't quite seem realistic and his motives were confusing. Half way through the game, he disappears and isn't even playable on main missions.
= Rem Tokimiya (Twin Daggers): Much like Machina, she was supposed to have a big role in the story. But she was a rather boring character. Even worse, she didn't feel particularly strong in combat either. Her attacks were somewhat fast, but were so weak that it didn't compensate for it. At the very least, she was the "kind girl" who watched out for everyone with Machina in particular. So she wasn't a character I could really hate.
= Kurasame Susaya: The Commanding Officier of Class Zero. When he was introduced, he demonstrated his experience and abilities when Nine, Cater and Ace attacked him while he had total control over the situation without a bit of hesitation. It shows how powerful he was and that he's really "cool". Other than one other scene where he shows concern over the members of Class Zero, there were no other mentions of his character that would make the player understand who he was, why he's important and powerful, and his impact with the rest of Class Zero. When he was sent out to battle, all he did was sacrifice his power for the l'cie to summon an eidolon (really strong entity) and that was the end of his character. What I found out was that there is a manga that tells the whole story of his time at the academy, his contributions to the nation, the comrades he lost, and the sacrifices he made to led him to become the "Ice Reaper". He was a really cool character that was entirely overlooked in the game.
+ Music: The main theme had a nice melody that was memorable, but it's played in over a dozen different variations throughout the game. Overall, the music was pretty good and it was a pivotal element to the entire experience of the game. It's definitely not as memorable as the music from other Final Fantasy games, but I enjoyed it and it brought out the atmosphere and immersion of the game.
+ The School Theme: The setting of the game being set in a school was done in Final Fantasy 8 and I really liked it in that game as well. It was somewhat nostalgic of FF8 to see the characters be part of a school with other students, instructors, and such. It felt welcoming and familiar to come back to the school grounds after each mission and finding new events around the campus.
+ Combat: In all honesty, combat wasn't that great yet I enjoyed it so much. Setting up my party, choosing specific builds for my characters, and fighting off waves of enemies in real-time was a nice change in pace from the other Final Fantasy games. And since there's 14 characters to play, it never felt too repetitive.
+ Voice Acting: This is probably not a good thing, but I enjoyed how bad the English voice acting was. Having learned what it's like for voice actors who work on localized games, I can't blame them specifically for a lot of the bad voice acting. A lot of lines in the game don't feel like they have the correct contextual situation in mind when they're delivered which is common in a lot of localized games when voice actors are given the script but not the situation. This ends up with the English voice overs having some interesting results such as each character's personality exaggerated through their voices. The Japanese voices are quite stereotypical of each of their respective characters, so it matches up pretty well. So with the Japanese voices, it's not as entertaining, but it's certainly more believable thus more immersive.
+ Cinematics: Although the game was originally released on PSP, all the major cinematics that weren't in-game scripting were pre-rendered clips created in order to have PS3-like quality to them. During these Cinematics, movements were natural, voice acting were (usually) contextually correct, and the moments had impact. This is quite a difference from the in-game dialogues and scripted motions that looked awkward and jarring. The best Cinematics that held a lot of meaning was the very beginning and the very end of the game.
+ Humor/Dark Themes: With the way the game started out, I didn't expect much humor. But there are many moments that were so awkward or out of place that it's hard not to laugh (like anything that Nine says in English voice). There were moments in the game where the darker themes felt like it held weight and meaning behind the story, and yet so much of the game's story and character development was such a mess that it didn't do it well enough. The few events where it did have impact left an impression on me.
+ The "What-if" Ending: Even though this is the fake ending, it was cute and fun. I loved it so much. This ending showed what the lives of Class Zero would be like if there weren't a war going on and they got to enjoy their school lives. This makes it that much more harder to accept the true ending.
[Cons of the game/Things I did not like]
- Free Time: I actually liked the "Free Time" the first few times I had to go through it. You get to talk to your fellow schoolmates and see different events that ranged from informative, to funny, to sometimes being a waste of time. As the game goes on, there are less events to trigger and a lot more side quests you can do. These side quests were probably meant to get the player to go out and earn some levels; however, they were long, boring, and tedious without the rewards to compensate for them. Free Time became a waste of time and I ended up going straight to main missions after triggering all the events.
- Side Quests: As I mentioned, side quests just didn't feel worth the time and effort to do. I did all the side quests the first few times and realized how long it took to do them while not really being properly rewarded for them for the time I spent on them. It certainly felt like filler/padding to extend the time spent on the game and it just wasn't that fun.
- Conquering missions: I didn't expect to see a game of tower defense in an Action-RPG, but there it was. You choose one character to move around the overworld and lead your army into the opposing faction's city to weaken its defenses before invading it. It's a tedious process that requires you getting knocked down over and over again. It's clunky, boring and annoying.
- Slow and abrupt pacing: Perhaps it's because it was originally developed for the PSP, but cinematics and events tend to fade in and out a lot of scenes. When it's not doing that, the narration for the story is long winded and boring. It's trying hard to drive home the idea of "war is bad and everyone is affected" and it loses its audience through the droning of narration rather than just showing it through action or gameplay (like the beginning cinematic of Izana dying. That was powerful and had meaning).
- Lazy on story details: I had a similar complaint to Final Fantasy XIII when I read all the notes in-game and thought that the notes did a better job at telling the story than the game itself. That should never be the case for a videogame. At the very least, FF13's story was easy to understand even if it was told poorly. With FF Type-0, the story details are cryptic and sometimes never mentioned in game and can only be known to those who read everything from the notes. And even then, character development is non-existent for some which led to some dumb moments.
- No connection to characters: I did say I liked the characters, but unfortunately the game didn't really do much for them in terms of character development. Very little backstory, motives, and changes are given to characters throughout the game which made it difficult to connect with them. Lots of characters die throughout the game, and yet a lot of times it's hard to really feel sad for them when we barely got to know them at all. At one point in the game, Class Zero's little merchant girl Aria (who is hostage to the enemy) suddenly has a connection to one of the enemies. There is no build up to that moment, it just reveals itself and happens. The player confronts this one enemy multiple times and yet knows little to nothing about him. He tells Aria to go home and that there will be a lot of fighting and she refuses to go home and tells him not to die. Just when things are about to end and he was about to retreat from the fight, he finds a bomb near him set by one of his comrades without permission. He sacrifices himself and prevents the bomb from needlessly killing that much more lives. It sucks, but who was he? This happens quite a few times throughout the game and it just felt like cheap moments to try to make it feel deep.
- Level requirement spike: For about 35%-45% of the first half of the game, there is little need to grind for levels in order to get through the main missions. But at one point of the game, the recommended level spikes up by a large amount. As I've mentioned before, side-quests are boring and not really worth it. So the only other options is to either go into the arena to train, have a character go into secret training (and you can use an exploit to level them extremely quickly), or replay a previous main mission in order to level the characters. But then it presents another problem in the game:
- Leveling characters up: Characters level up individually. Only three characters can be in the party at a time. There are 14 characters in the game. This means you have grind levels for 5 separate groups every time they're under-leveled. With the amount of levels needed at that difficulty spike in needing higher level characters, it feels like an aggressive waste of time to repeatedly fight the same enemies over and over for hour on end before you can progress the story.
- The last area: Despite over-leveling my characters to avoid any further difficulty in confrontation, the game still decides to throw enemies that take forever to kill with some of them possessing the ability to kill you in two hits should the 2nd hit land shortly after the first one. I was well over 10 levels above the enemies and still took quite a bit of time to take down each enemy across the two dozen rooms laid out at the last area.
- The last boss: As if the game didn't waste enough of your time already, the last boss goes on with his soliloquy as your characters stumble around with the little bit of strength they have left to fight and overpowered gargantuan of a monster as it takes a swing at them every once in a while to take them out of their misery. After everyone falls in battle, another cinematic takes place and then each member is revived and controlled by the player. Each of those characters can't be killed and can continue to attack the monster until they take a set amount of health away before getting knocked out and switched out with another character. This process takes a LONG time as the boss is level 99. Even with invincibility, the characters can still be knocked around. It wasn't fun, it didn't have the dramatic effect that I'm sure they were going for when they designed this, and I did not feel satisfied after beating it.
- The True Ending: I don't think there was ever a more painful ending to watch from a Final Fantasy game than this one (except Crisis Core, everyone keeps mentioning, but I haven't played it yet). Much like the opening cinematic of the game, the graphics are pre-rendered and it looked really nice. The motions were more natural and the quality of the voice acting was much better (although it was still not very good in English). Also like the opening cinematic, it felt very real and meaningful as the twelves characters that I got to know and love are now facing the reality that they're dying from the damage done to their phantoma (kind of like their soul). They all begin to cry and share each other's sorrow. As that happens, Ace sings a song that calms everyone down. They didn't want to be sad and start imaging what life after the war would be like now that it's over. They laugh and smile as they wonder what kinds of places they can visit and things they can learn making for a hopeful future. As the credits roll, Machina and Rem burst through the classroom doors and find their former comrades and friends had already passed as they lay next to each other next to their weapons erected with their capes attached flailing to the wind like a flag. It was such a painful moment and the biggest slap in the face was the Machina survived. I can't say that the ending was bad, but it made me feel bad. It was a sad conclusion as it did off one of the main things I liked about the game: the 12 main members of Class Zero.
Despite it all, I'm glad I played through the game. It's definitely not one I could recommend and not a game I want to play again any time soon. But still, I'm glad they localized it and I got to play through it.
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