Review: World of Final Fantasy

There really has never been a more exciting time for Final Fantasy fans than right now with the strong build up to Final Fantasy XV in full swing with animated web series and a feature length film in Kingsglaive all building to its release later this month. But there is another game that really deserves to take centre stage right now for fans and it is a game that has completely taken me by surprise, so much so that the last Final Fantasy game that captivated me so much was Final Fantasy VII. It is time to step into the ‘World of Final Fantasy’.

World of Final Fantasy introduces us to the brother and sister heroes Reynn and Lann, who wake up unable to remember anything other than their names and that they are siblings. A mysterious woman who introduces herself as Enna Kros, explains to them that they are both in fact Mirage Keepers, endowed with the power to control creatures known as Mirages and that at one time they were both so powerful that they could ruled the world together. However their memories connected to the Mirages as well as the Mirages themselves has been stripped away from them. Enna Kros tells them that they should travel into the world known as Grymoire, the land of the Mirages, to recover their Mirages and in doing so hopefully reclaim their memories and discover what happened to them.

World of Final Fantasy for me is really a cocktail of traditional Final Fantasy games blending in with the charm of Kingdom Hearts with all the fun and excitement of Pokemon. That combination actually completely threw me as it was much unexpected. If fact if I am truly honest, my attention has been so focused on Final Fantasy XV that this almost snuck past me until I tried the playable demo on the PSN Store and it totally grabbed my attention in a surprising way. Visually this is perhaps the cutest game I have played this year, taking inspiration clearly from Kingdom Hearts and it is all the better for it. It is simply a beautifully drawn world to explore with so many adorable characters and Mirage creatures to meet that it really has such a wonderful aesthetic to enjoy the further the player dives into it.

But the foundation and the strength of this game is that of the Pokemon element, the Mirages. The twins must build an army of sorts by collecting Mirages along their journey in Grymoire. Mirages come in many shapes and types and by capturing them, the twins can harness their abilities and powers to become even stronger. Just like Pokemon, Mirages are captured in battle and the player will need to learn how to unlock each Prismtunity, the chance to capture the Mirage in a prism. The ways vary from using physical attacks to reduce the Mirage’s health to using a specific power or elemental attack to activate the Prismtunity and either Reynn or Lann will use a Prism to try and capture that Mirage. A total of ten Mirages can be carried at any one time, with any surplus Mirages sent and stored in the Prism Case safely back in their own world Nine Wood Hills, looked after by the Mirage Serafie. This Prism case can be accessed via any travel gate or save crystal to exchange the Mirages travelling with Reynn and Lann which comes in handy once you begin to level the Mirages up.

Mirages have three forms or Transfigurations that can be unlocked as each grows in power by unlocking their skills and abilities through XP earned from battling. Mirages can have three stages; small, medium and large. As the Mirage learns a new transfiguration they will become stronger and learn new powers and abilities which Reynn and Lann can then use in combat. Using the Prism Case and once unlocked, the player can choose which Transfiguration they wish to use but each one still has access to the attributes of any Transfiguration unlocked so if you have unlocked the attribut bonues of the medium Transfiguration but choose to use the Small form, Reynn and Lann can still benefit from any of the bonuses of the medium form. Special attacks remain locked to the transfiguration. This all becomes very useful when it comes down to the combat in World of Final Fantasy, and something that to me is the most fun combat system in the Final Fantasy series yet,  Stacking.

Stacking allows the player to organise and build a stack that consists of three levels using the three forms a mirage can have of small, medium and large which translates into top, middle and bottom. Now each stack must include Reynn and Lann so each can have two Mirages with them in a stack. The stack pools together all the health points and powers of those within it so the player can put together very powerful teams combining different types of Mirages. Now Reynn and Lann can have two stack builds which the player can set up to use. Both twins have the ability to change from large size, known as Jiant to medium, known as Lilikin and so they can either be the base of a stack or the middle. In Jiant form the twins have their own special attacks which utilise the power type of the mirages in the stack. In Lilikin form they take the middle position and so a different large form Mirage takes the base and allows for stronger attacks to be used. It really is the most rewarding combat system for a Final Fantasy game in recent years, still using a turn based system from traditional games but refreshed by being able to tailor each stack to face the dangers Reynn and Lann face.

The search to meet and capture Mirages by itself would make this game deserving of having the attention of any Final Fantasy fan but of course the story is also something that elevates this game so much for me. Unlike more recent entries to the series, World of Final Fantasy has a very easy to follow yet epic level story for players to experience. Thought and attention has clearly been taken to avoid what so many find to be troublesome in Final Fantasy stories in that at times as the player you can easily lose track of what is going on. Here the story is split into chapters, often when the story takes the twins to a new region and this bite size approach allows the flow of the story to always make sense and using by the Adventure Log in the menu, you can easily check where you are by reading the synopsis of each chapter as you move forward in the story.

The story is where I felt the inspiration that came from Kingdom Hearts and serves as real fan service for those familiar with the Final Fantasy series. Along their journey, Reynn and Lann will come across iconic characters from the Final Fantasy universe such as Squall from Final Fantasy VIII, Lightning and Snow from Final Fantasy XIII and Tidus from Final Fantasy X. It is so much fun to see them but more then that, they also fit really well into Reynn and Lann’s story that it just works so that as the player you do not even question why or how they are there. Once encountered, the player has the opportunity to purchase them as Champion Medals, gaining the ability to call on them in battle as a summon type attack. The animation of each Champion’s attack is something really special to experience especially when your own personal favourite appears such as my own in Cloud.

At the time of writing this I am now 42 hours into the game and story, and I still have so much to do in terms of catching and levelling up Mirages but I am still being distracted by side missions such as the Coliseum and Intervene Missions. The Coliseum serves as a battle arena where the player can take on challenges of different Mirage types in ever increasing difficulty which are all level based so you can gauge which ones you can tackle. Now whilst you will not earn XP from these battles, you can get items as rewards and you can also capture the Mirages you face, some of which are rare or higher Transfiguration stages to what you may have encountered in the story. To my surprise I then discovered that the Coliseum also has an online battle mode which allows you to use any of your captured Mirages and setup stacks to battle other players online and also to trade Mirages opening up a whole new extension to the game experience. Intervene Missions are fun side story missions featuring the Champions and are full of fun humour. Here time and space rules are bent to allow Reynn and Lann to step in to fight a battle for the Champion instead of them; again rewards are items and at times the chance to capture a rare Mirage.

I have not been so captivated by a Final Fantasy game since FF VII, and leading into FF XV’s release at the end of November, this game has completely caught me off guard. Everything about World of Final Fantasy is just special in the wonderful nods to previous games to the excitement of capturing and battling Mirages to make them stronger. The story is beautifully written and told with some memorable moments that simply lift this title from being more than just a fan service game before the big release in XV. It is so accessible and easy to learn but with such a deep gameplay in the Stacking combat system and Mirage collection that I would easily recommend this game to old fans of Final Fantasy and new fans who may only have been familiar with more recent titles or the remastered releases.

World of Final Fantasy deserves more attention and time on the centre stage, it is so well crafted and put together as a Final Fantasy game that if XV was not releasing until 2017, it would be enough to shine a spotlight on the Final Fantasy series. It is charming, funny, challenging, rewarding and satisfying to such a degree that for me it has jumped right to the top of my own 2016 Game of the Year list. As someone who initially dismissed this in the hype build up for Final Fantasy XV, I cam so pleased that the playable demo on the PSN store changed my mind and snapped me out off that hype train.

I will be spending a lot more time adventuring with Reynn and Lann long after the story has ended, and I heartily invite you to join them for the ride as well!