FF Type 0 Marshal Cid

What defines a Final Fantasy game? For years, only the core numbered games garnered much relevance. But with the release of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on new generation consoles, and the fact that it brings with it the demo for the next major Final Fantasy. But is Final Fantasy Type-0 HD simply a placeholder until you get get your hands on a better Final Fantasy game, or can it go toe to toe with any of the big titles?

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD centers on Class Zero, and elite group of cadets who are able to wield all sorts of weapons, fire off impressive magical spells and learn a variety of abilities. They are led by a special doctor whom they all call Mother. While every member of the class is made unique in conversations and thanks to their specific weapon classes, only a few of their characters are really expanded with any meaning. There’s Ace, your starting character who wields a deck of cards and manages to retain some memories of dead people in his dreams – everyone else immediately forgets about anyone who dies. While this is explained partially as a way to avoid the depression and sorrow that death can bring to those who lose a loved one, throughout the game it feels much more sinister.

FF type 0 2

The other developed characters include Machina and Rem, two childhood friends who end up in the class together and have a special bond. They are the outsiders in the group, both with secrets to keep from their classmates.

The rest of the characters range across what you’d expect from a group of school kids. There’s the brainiac girl, the airhead, the tough guy and all the other cliches. They even have suitable weapon types to suit their various personalities. Each weapon type is only able to be equipped by the pre-set character. While you can purchase upgraded weapons, these will be allocated to the set character.

FF Type 0 3

The game follows a very specific format. You have set missions to complete that generally revolve around running through the maps, killing enemies, running from some over-powered bosses and doing your part for the war effort. While I found that I favored the characters that suited my play style, each cadet brings a unique element to the party and can be immensely helpful depending on the requirements of the various battles. Of course, without a briefing that explains what you can expect in the upcoming battles, I often ended up with parties ill-suited to taking down the big boss. While you can change the character you control (of the three in your party) on the fly, reorganizing your party can only be done at save crystals. Of course this adds an extra challenge to the strategy, although it also makes the game feel a bit dated.

Other outdated elements include the request tracking system. Much like you’d expect from a JRPG, there are tons of side missions for players to undertake. However, these can only be tracked one at a time and must be returned to the issuer upon completion. While either of these could aspects could be forgiven, on the newer consoles it ends up feeling like an outdated mechanism to hand in one quest at a time. Added to this, most quests only reward you with items rather than EXP or other character improvements. After a while, it stopped feeling like it was worth the effort to complete these side quests, especially when time is limited.

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Between missions, you are given “free time” to explore, engage in conversation with those who have an exclamation mark above their heads, train up in lectures or traipse around the open world doing side missions. However, each conversation uses up two hours of free time, with a journey into the open world slashing eight hours of free time. Given that you only have a preset amount of time, I often felt that side quests outside of the main base simply weren’t worth the hours that could be used for training, breeding chocobos or discovering more about character interactions. Many of these conversations are particularly amusing and help bring the game to life.

As a PSP port, my expectations for visuals weren’t very high, which ended up being a good thing. While the cut scenes look fantastic, there are still some irritating elements. The camera feels unwieldy, often jittering while running down hallways or refusing to pan out during combat to determine the best path for dodging. While you can lock onto a target during combat, changing targets can be tricky and unintuitive. Textures are obviously not as impressive as we’re used to in the current generation and the game ends up feeling like an upgraded port rather than a new generation game.

FF Type 0 1

However, it’s made worthwhile thanks to the intriguing story and darker elements in the game. The core gameplay itself is solid, and with some unique blood and gore, it feels like a more mature addition to the Final Fantasy console family. Despite being originally released for handheld, the game offers hours of gameplay. With three difficulty ranges and the ability to replay specific missions, there is tons of replay value as you try to get a perfect score on each mission. While this title may be a real shock to fans of traditional Final Fantasy games, it’s well worth playing and offers a compelling JRPG to fill the void during the long wait for Final Fantasy XV. Plus, thanks to added knowledge of the Fabula Nova Crystallis universe, fans will have greater appreciation for upcoming plot lines in Final Fantasy XV.

Last Updated: March 16, 2015

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
Thanks to being an excellent PSP game, the glossed up version feels like a unique and enjoyable Final Fantasy experience. With deep storytelling and an interesting take on existing lore, fans of the franchise will want to play it. However, if you already gave it a whirl on PSP, it might not necessarily be worth the money to dish out for it again.
7.5
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD was reviewed on PlayStation 4
72 / 100

27 Comments

  1. Umar

    March 16, 2015 at 15:35

    WAAAAAH, you were busy playing this?!!!Did you get the FF XV code already?So jealous, waiting for mine on friday. Okay, gonna read the review now lol

    Reply

    • Her Highness the Hipster

      March 16, 2015 at 15:39

      yea, this was the [redacted] i picked up to play all weekend 🙂

      Reply

      • Umar

        March 16, 2015 at 15:41

        WAAAAAAAAAAAAH I hate you (not really). I expect an impression piece soon?

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          March 16, 2015 at 15:52

          YES!

          Reply

  2. Thami Afurika-Jin HD

    March 16, 2015 at 15:42

    Nice! Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae review coming up as well? Even if it’s 3 hour long demo I’d love to hear about it.

    Reply

  3. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 16, 2015 at 15:47

    Is this really a JRPG? I don’t see anyone with pink or blue hair.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      March 16, 2015 at 15:50

      Did you not see all the phallic weapons?

      Reply

    • Sageville

      March 16, 2015 at 15:52

      Is it me or do all the characters in these JRPGs (except hideous villians) all have the same perfect faces.

      Hell sometimes I can’t even tell the gender based on the faces…..

      Reply

      • Dutch Matrix

        March 16, 2015 at 16:05

        Coming Soon:
        “How to tell the girls from the not so manly men in JRPG’s” by Umar

        Reply

      • ReaperOfSquirrels

        March 16, 2015 at 16:07

        You: “That female character is pretty.”
        Umar: “That’s a guy… -.-”
        You: “But… but… damn… what about that one?”
        Umar: “That’s a guy too…”
        You: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          March 16, 2015 at 16:22

          Wait…. Lightnings a girl?

          Reply

          • ReaperOfSquirrels

            March 16, 2015 at 16:27

            Huh? I dunno who you’re talking about… I’ve never played FF

          • LightningFarron19

            March 16, 2015 at 19:46

          • Hammersteyn

            March 17, 2015 at 07:36

            Your opinion…

          • Spaffy

            March 17, 2015 at 07:47

            No one can be more woman than Zoe.

          • Hammersteyn

            March 17, 2015 at 08:37

            He’s certainly trying….

          • Spaffy

            March 17, 2015 at 08:49

            😛

          • Her Highness the Hipster

            March 17, 2015 at 09:03

            <3

          • Admiral Chief

            March 17, 2015 at 08:32

            Last time I checked, Zoe was flesh and blood and not some character in a game

  4. LightningFarron19

    March 16, 2015 at 19:44

    Clearly this game at a critic standpoint (76 our of 26 reviewers so far) can’t hold up to even FF13-2 (which got a 79%).

    Also Zoe:
    >The other developed characters include Machina and Rem,

    Coming from the woman who thinks Lightning Farron is a “poorly developed character”, this is a hilarious line to read. Why? Because the Type-0 characters are so poorly developed. Only 2 out of the 14 cast members are actually with dimension.

    Yeah, nice try but your bias is showing.

    Reply

    • Umar

      March 17, 2015 at 07:19

      Lightning is probably the most underdeveloped and uninspired protagonist in the entire series, and I say this in the back of FF XII’s Vaan. To think a woman who, from humble beginnings would become a goddess and saviour of the world would end up being so utterly bland. Lightning could’ve been of the best the series has ever seen instead she’s nothing more than a forgettable side-dish to the main that is Noctis. #DealWithIt 😀

      Reply

      • LightningFarron19

        March 17, 2015 at 08:16

        First of all: Did you really just use a hashtag? Really?

        Second of all:

        What Lighting Farron did in FF13 character development wise:

        >Try to be an overprotective mother to Serah but realizes that by doing so she is pushing Serah into Snow’s arms for desperate comfort.

        >Teach Hope Estiem how to fend for himself and become more independent. Eventually opening up to the child and treating him like her own son

        >Forgive Snow for what he had done and even support his wishful (though childish) thinking back in the Vestiege and Grand Pulse.

        >learn to become a leader in the group instead of a follower (like explained in that Flashback she had about her conversation with her commanding officer)

        >Learns to work together with other people when Fang tells her to calm down in Palumpolum.

        Third of all: if she was forgettable, how come she’s so damn popular?

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          March 17, 2015 at 08:46

          I think the pink hair really went over well with their target market. The main game itself was boring,bland and linear.I had to force myself to play through the game and when I finally got to the final boss and unlocked the ability to free travel I just didn’t care anymore. I traded the game and needles to say it left a bad taste in my mouth. So bad that I didn’t bother with the sequels mainly because I never finished the game.

          Reply

        • Umar

          March 17, 2015 at 08:55

          Firstly, hashtag was used in jest….bleeeeeh 😛
          In any case, sure you can mention all of those, and fair enough she did some of those things, but she was 1-dimensional and bland in those moments, she was more of a bitch to Hope than an actual mentor as in all honesty, all the development that Hope had as a character was due to Hope, and only Hope. All the research and advancements were made by Hope. Sure she forgave Snow after everything was done, but again, she was a MAJOR bitch to him for MOST of the game, how do you classify that as character development when they only ever give her the slightest of development when the game ends….

          Look at Squall, for most of the beginning of the game, he’s an emo douche that just wants to be alone, but then we get to the end of disc 1 and we get to see what a great LEADER he is, how he comforted Irvine and took it upon himself to challenge Edea. Lightning was just a selfish and morbid character for a huge chunk of the game that hardly acted like a leader.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            March 17, 2015 at 09:01

            Hope deserved the abuse 😛

          • Umar

            March 17, 2015 at 09:10

            ROFLOL!!!!…..Shame, he did watch his mother die by the hands of the homeless Snow.

  5. ramiya

    August 5, 2017 at 17:40

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