Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

After finishing the opening level for Final Fantasy Type-0, I couldn’t wait to get back into combat. The intense, but speedy, battle system made running around the world of Orience a magical experience. Coupled with an engaging story that had me hooked from the beginning, delivering everything from shocking disbelief to overwhelming joy, and I didn’t put down Type-0 until the end credits rolled. Japanese owners have had to chance to wage war in Type-0 since it was released in 2011 on the PSP, but this is the first time western owners have had a chance to enter the fray and it was worth it.

Final Fantasy Type-0 has you guiding a group of gifted teenagers through campaigns to capture and eliminate powerful beings that are aiding enemy nations. This group is called Class Zero, made up of 14 warriors that are imbued with magical and physical abilities that surpass any ordinary soldier. This doesn’t mean that these heroic figures are accepted for their incredible feats, instead those outside Class Zero see them as outsiders due to their special treatment from academy that house all these candidates.

Type-0 doesn’t limit you to controlling one character. Instead players are able to switch between any of the members at any time. Depending on who you control can yield different results, causing a conversation to go an alternate way. Some side quests require you to speak, or interact, in order to complete certain tasks. For example, Dr. Arecia Al-Rashia will speak to certain Class Zero members with warmth and kindness while those who she has little affection for, like Rem and Machina, has a more disdain attitude when talking. All of Class Zero’s cast has their own unique persona. However, most of the other characters are easily overshadowed by the sweltering romance between Rem and Machina who constantly debate whether duty or their feelings are more important.

The plot quickly becomes complicated with various different names and places continuously being spoken about. By the end of the first half you’ll attempt to grasp everything only to have another myriad of major story points introduced quickly. As far as military plots go Final Fantasy Type-0 is an adequate one, filled with dramatic political fights and military jargon.

Simply put, Type-0’s combat is marvelous. All 14 characters are made playable, each with their own distinctive styles, abilities and weaknesses. Each character can be outfitted with up to four moves: a physical attack, a defensive spell and two abilities that can either be a magical attack or a unique attack only available to that character. During the course of a battle only three members are allowed to fight, but you can only control one of them. You can switch between any of the three instantly and if one of them should fall you can given the chance to switch from the other Class Zero characters. Combat is quick and unforgivable, but don’t fret as your AI companions are effective in aiding in defensive, supportive, and offensive tactics. Both enemies and allies attack in real time, requiring the player to remain constantly alert of everything that is happening.

This also leads to one of Class Zero’s issues: training everyone. With 14 members keeping everyone properly leveled and trained becomes an issue quickly since characters who don’t participate in battle obtain no experience. With 14 distinctive fighting styles training a select few characters can yield problematic results in future operations.

Most of the story missions will have you facing against enemy soldiers and giant robots, though the overworld has plenty of random encounters for you to contend with. While this curtails facing against random opponents, Type-0 allows you to face multiple groups of enemies if you choose to after a fight. Granted these opponents grow stronger with each fight, but it offers a faster way to gain experience. While it doesn’t alleviate the tedious need to grow stronger for upcoming battles it does quicken the pace.

By earning experience players unlock new abilities and tactics to use. These can be linked to one of two ability slots. Also included are summons that can be used in exchange for sacrificing one ally for the remainder of the battle. These creatures can deal massive damage and the more you use them the stronger they become.

Magical spells can be further customized using a mysterious resource called Phantoma. This substance is earned by defeating enemies and absorbing it from them. Players can then use this material to decrease spell casting time, increase its power or decrease the cost. The amount of customizing options given in Type-0 is outstanding, allowing players full control of how they wish to develop each member of their team.

Despite this Type-0 isn’t the most visually pleasing game. This is an HD remake of the PSP version and it shows. Character models are dull,  lip-sync is horrible and most of the environments are uninteresting. Most of the time you’ll ignore this during combat, losing yourself in the fluidity of battle, but during long cutscenes it was hard to ignore these things.

Final Fantasy Type-0 is the action packed Final Fantasy game that a lot of fans have been waiting for. The frantic and fluid combat system, coupled with intricate customizing option, is an RPG fans dream. While the story is does offer some heartwarming moments it’s still tough to fully immerse yourself in. Once you start playing you’ll easily lose yourself in the world of Orience, it’s that good.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
Twitter | YouTube | Facebook