Short Type-0 Impressions

[Rabla]

FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 (REISHIKI) Short Review
By Blair 'Rabla' Andrews

ADVANCE WARNING: I really don't write reviews. This may be like, the third time I've done it. So this may be bad. It'd be cool if you read it anyway though <3

Final Fantasy Type-0 is a game thats been 6 years in the making and is the second entry to the 'Fabula Nova Crystallis' series. The game opens to a cinematic introducing the world, which really shows off the point of why i've called it 'Final Fantasy: The Last Airbender' at times. Basically, the four nations Suzaku, Byakko, Soryu and Genbu live in peace on the continent Orience. For whatever reason, the leader of Byakko, Cid Austyne, declares war, and his army sweeps across the nation until eventually arriving at Peristylium Suzaku, a magical academy on the state of Arkham. Peristylium Suzaku guards its nation's crystal, which is the source of its magical power. Byakko forces advance on the school, and after activating a machine that disables the crystals power, starts to move towards its victory. However, in a burst of flame from the sky, Ifrit crashes into the battle, accompanied by a hooded boy. His comrades appear and, throwing their cloaks into the air, Class Zero makes their debut to the stage.

This is the point where you get to the main menu. Hit New Game and you'll see what happens next, which I won't summarise but will point out it involves Byakko troops murdering the bro-est Chocobo ever, which is more than enough motivation to keep killing them for the next 60 hours you'll be playing this game for.

After a nice opening credits sequence to some cool latin chanting, you take control of the card using mage-kid Ace, with the smart but blunt Queen and the class rebel Nine at your side. Gameplay and combat is simple, the analog pad moves your character and each face button represents a different action (Generally Triangle for Attack, X for Defense, and Circle and Square are spells/skills). You move through a large, war-torn area slashing those bastard chocobro murderers left and right. Thats the basic rundown of how the game works. You kill a few guys, watch a few cutscenes, and eventually get to make an airship explode. After Machina and Rem prove how incompetant they are, you as Ace, Seven, and Jack stylishly enter the arena and summon Odin. You can run around and have fun, or you can just hold Circle for a while and you'll kill the boss straight away. Of course, its not really dead, so you have to go beat up its head again on foot. After a few more cutscenes, you'll be asked to save.

Now that you're halfway through the game you can change disks. ..hah, no not really... I mean the halfway part, you still have to change disks here. Unless you're using the PSN version in which case I commend you for your great choice.

Disk 2 is where the game really begins. You're left to explore the (admittedly beatiful) school you attend, and head to class. After an odd meeting with your new teacher, You'll be able to start exploring, going out to the world, and taking missions. I can't remember everything on the exploration side, but if you go to the chocobo farm there are these two baby chocobos which follow you around. Talk to a guy there and he'll give you a Male and Female chocobo you can use to ride around the world map.

The first mission involves raiding a town literally right outside the school that is currently under Byakko control. You have to head though and take down all the enemies in your way and defeat a big mech at the end. Missions like this are pretty simple, and the only variation is really difficulty and setting. Some City Conquest missions you'll have mutliple paths to take (for example, the 3rd mission in the game has a split. Taking the out-of-way path nets you the summon Ifrit and will really help you take out the boss there). The other type of mission (at least the only other one I know so far) are RTS Missions. You control a single character and move onto the world map. Troops from Suzaku will combat ones from the opposing nation, and fight for control of camps and cities. Usually these missions involve a City Conquest anyway to actually win the battle. When you complete this, the entire area becomes part of the Suzaku nation. I found these really fun, since you can direct troops around at camps and directly take on groups of enemy soldiers and mechs.

Customization-wise, you obviously have the Alto-Crystarium. Alto-C works pretty similar to weapon upgrades in 'The 3rd Birthday'. You upgrade individual spells (I haven't worked out if this is overall or character specific yet) and depending on the upgrade, certain stats will rise and fall. Then there's the Upgrade section, where you use AP (gained by leveling up) to unlock abilties and ability boosts. Eidolons also upgrade through this method, and gain HP and strength (and hopefully more time they can be on the field, I haven't found that yet). Usually when you 'buy' something in this, new abilities and boosts will become available for you to spend your AP on, so even if you don't think you'll use these abilities, you'll have to buy a few to get to the better stuff.

And thats all I can really say, mainly because thats all I know and theres nothing left to say anyway.
I guess at this point I'd give it an X/10, but only being 5 or so hours into the game I don't really want to. I'll just say it is very enjoyable and large, it looks great, combat is fluid, and everything else is cool.

[Oracle]

Now I really hope this gets released in the West. I have to say, I'm more excited than I was previously.

[Agent Dunham]

Even if you had finished the game, the way you've written this, it wouldn't be a review. What you have done is produce an extended summary about the opening of the game. Any actual critique you've included is sparse and shallow. There needs to be more focus on what the game does and whether you think it's been done well. Perhaps you could compare it to other titles in its genre or series, or on its platform.

Here's a small example for a fictional third person shooter:

The game has about 10 guns for you to use. The aiming feels different than most games, but you'll get used to it after a while. As you shoot through goons...

The number of weapons available is noticeably fewer than other big games of the genre, such as Gears of War or Uncharted. However, there's a nice balance between weapon types and they function similar to their real world counterparts. Aiming felt incredibly sticky and a look through the options menu showed no sensitivity adjustment. That such a massive oversight has been made for a core feature will make or break it for some players, but you might adjust as you proceed through the game.

Even though both of those passages are talking about the same thing, the second is more informative. Right now, your write-up is closer to the first than the second. If your interest lies in writing a review when you finish the game, you might want to think about shifting the focus to the game's technical and design aspects. At the moment, you're issuing a regurgitation of what you, as a player, do. People read reviews to know what the game does.