Every other week, Square Enix decides to make a game rammed to the brim with Final Fantasy fan-service to remind themselves how great they are, but unlike many other companies who pull this trick, Square tends to put at least some effort into making each game feel distinct on its own. From the Kingdom Hearts series to the Dissidia fighting games to a pile of inexplicably good looking mobile game, advertising is more valued in actually good games.
From that pedigree comes World of Final Fantasy, an unholy fusion of the monster capturing genre with the series’ iconic bestiary with the format and combat of the series’ past efforts. What follows is a good, worthwhile game that, so far as I’ve played, has a few issues that hold it back from true greatness. In terms of other Square RPGs, I’d say this is a small step above the deeply flawed Bravely Default. Inherently compelling, but possessed of a couple key missteps that might keep this game out of some hands.
So, you play as twins Reynn and Lann, who wake up from their dull lives one day to realize they’ve been living in an empty city the whole time. In short order, they are empowered by a mysterious Enna Kros to switch between their normal “Jiant” forms and small, chibu “Lillikin” forms, and are told to collect monsters, aka "Mirages," in the fantasy world of Grimoire.
The combat itself is lifted straight out of Final Fantasy’s past, where everyone has to wait a set amount of time before being able to do stuff. Not terribly involved, so the more interesting stuff is in the whole "totally not Pokemon” angle this game has got going on.
So, once you’ve captured some “Mirages,” you stack them on top of Reynn and Lann, who can even ride on top of large monsters. The whole system is easier to use than it is to explain, and it lends itself to some compelling min-maxing shenanigans. The game also manages to extract a lot of visual humor out of putting things on heads.
The spoken humor is a big part of the writing, and it’s somewhat dependent on puns and goofy slapstick humor. None of it is particularly bad, but one character might annoy some players. So there’s this floating mascot fox named Tama who follows the twins around, and prevents them from dying upon falling in battle. Tame also randomly injects the word “the” in front of random "the-words." I can the-handle this kind of character just fine, but anyone with less "the-fortitude" is going to dive for the Japanese "the-dub" faster than "the-lightning."
The visuals in World of Final Fantasy are surprisingly good on the Playstation 4, even though it’s working on a smaller budget in a vain attempt to be scaled to the Playstation Vita, even though the people handling that port proved to be somewhat out of their depth. All of this is to be expected from Square Enix of course. Failing all else, any game they make — god willing — will look good.
In conclusion, what you’re getting into if you buy World of Final Fantasy is a 3DS RPG on the Playstation 4, with all the attendant weirdness that implies. Do with that info what you will.
Logan Graham is a junior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. How do you feel about the Kingdom Hearts franchise? Let him know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.
