Mar 242017
When World of Final Fantasy was first announced, fans weren’t sure what it was. Well, it turned out to be a pretty awesome turn-based RPG.
World of Final Fantasy feels like a strange hybrid of Final Fantasy, Pokémon, and Kingdom Hearts.
In some ways, it’s a crossover game, with characters from across the entire Final Fantasy series present in a single world called Grymoire. However, their lives and motivations make sense in the context of this new world, even if they have similarities to their original counterparts.
The main protagonists are two original characters, twins named Lann and Reyn. They enter Grymoire to search for their missing family and learn the truth about their past.
They also learn they have the ability to capture monsters, which leads to the Pokémon-esque monster catching system. Each monster, or Mirage, has its own requirements to be caught. For example, you might need to use fire attacks on one Mirage, while another just needs its HP lowered.
(You can repeat the process on the same Mirage to make it easier to capture–something I didn’t realize until halfway through the game.)
In battle, your captured Mirages fight in “stacks” with Lann and Reynn. The monsters in your stack determine the abilities you have available, and some can stack to form more powerful spells. Every Mirage has its own skill board to fill out as it levels up, with a few blank slots to allow a bit of customization.
It’s an interesting twist on traditional Final Fantasy combat, and if you dislike the new battle menu, you can change it to a more classic style from the settings. World of Final Fantasy also has random encounters and fixed save points–in short, it’s the most traditional Final Fantasy game we’ve had in a while, although it still lacks a proper world map.
(They showed off a little world map and airship in previews, but they’re disappointing when it comes to actual navigation.)
But even though I wanted a world map, I loved World of Final Fantasy. It’s fun to play, it’s a solid turn-based RPG, and it has a pretty good story.
Before we get into the story, I want to discuss what I considered to be World of Final Fantasy’s greatest strength and one of its greatest weaknesses: intervention quests.
Intervention Quests
Early in the game, you meet The Girl Who Forgot Her Name. This mysterious character has power over time and space, and therefore lets you “intervene” to help your allies.
This means you’ll get to see story events that don’t directly follow Lann and Reynn, but Lann and Reynn will fight the actual battles. These are some of the most interesting and often funniest scenes in the game, and they give the various Final Fantasy characters a chance to really shine.
Both the intervention quests and main story are filled with Final Fantasy references.
Unfortunately, while the setup makes sense since you’re messing around with time and space, I often wished they were normal side quests encountered normally in the world, instead of selected from a list. Most don’t involve any gameplay aside from the battles, and I couldn’t help but see missed potential.
Additionally, there’s a certain point in the game where the story is also tied to completing intervention quests. When they become the main focus instead of a side activity, the pacing slows to a crawl. A traditional JRPG structure could have greatly helped World of Final Fantasy there.
But those are minor criticisms of a pretty awesome game. Now, intervention quests may be entertaining, but what about the overall story?
Story and Writing
World of Final Fantasy’s writing uses a lot of subjective humor. Either you’ll love the banter between characters, or you’ll find it (and them) annoying.
Lann and Reyn use the manzai style of comedy we discussed recently in reference to Lady Layton’s humor. Lann is the boke (funny man), and Reynn is the tsukkomi (straight man).
In our Lady Layton discussion, I mentioned Abbott and Costello, and if you don’t like a style of humor that focuses heavily on one character (Lann) saying stupid things and getting words confused, while the other character (Reynn) gets annoyed, the twins will drive you crazy.
I loved it and found it entertaining. That, together with humorous shout-outs to the Final Fantasy series and many funny monster descriptions made World of Final Fantasy’s writing a treat.
The story itself starts out simple, but it gets pretty crazy. It isn’t just a cute adventure where you catch monsters and fight alongside chibi Final Fantasy characters, but a full-fledged JRPG story in its own right.
If it feels too slow and simple when you start out, give it time. Major revelations and twists are waiting for you ahead. The characters are interesting, the plot is intriguing, and it’s definitely worth it to play for the “true ending” in order to experience the full plot.
Even then, although the story is self-contained, World of Final Fantasy’s in-game “Who’s Who” guide introduces so much expansive lore, they easily have room for a prequel, a sequel, or even a new series.
Click for World of Final Fantasy lore spoilers
If you did the intervention quests to reach the true ending, you know there’s a Bahamut aside from Brandelis. Actually, they’re both Bahamuts.
There’s a family of Alexanders, too. Were you wondering why Alexander, such a powerful being in other games, was reduced to a bridge here? That’s because Big Bridge Alexander is only one of them. The primary Alexander is in the game, too.
She’s a major character.
In fact, when Brandelis refers to the “A-Worlds,” that’s his name for Alexander’s worlds.
See, after the Cogna invaded a different world, Alexander merged with the soul of a woman named Roksanne, and started calling herself Enna Kros… and she created Grymoire after looking at other worlds in the Extraverse and picking the pieces that she liked…
(Yes, World of Final Fantasy’s lore says all Final Fantasy games, and possibly things like Kingdom Hearts as well, exist in a massive multiverse that inspired Alexander/Enna Kros to copy pieces for her own universe.)
(And after my silly “Enna Kros is Xehanort!” theory, I’m glad I didn’t imagine all of the weirdness surrounding Enna Kros, such as the Girl Who Forgot Her Name hesitating over what gender to consider her.)
Toss in references to Enna Kros having other forms, hints that maybe we’ll meet her other chosen heroes in another game, and the ending’s open-ended nature, and World of Final Fantasy is begging for a sequel.
Side note: Chibi Enna Kros is adorable.
The story might look simple on the surface, but when you dig into the lore, it gets kind of insane… and if they don’t make another game in the series, all of that lore will go to waste! So, where’s our sequel?
If you haven’t figured it out, I loved World of Final Fantasy. It was an excellent game and a worthy addition to the Final Fantasy series. If you love turn-based RPGs and monster-catching games, definitely give this one a try!
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[…] loved World of Final Fantasy, and the amount of optional lore made me hope they had a sequel or prequel […]