Operation Backlog Completion 2024
Nov 022018
 

November is here, which means our Celebrating All Things Spooky contest is over. We had four winners this year: Moombit in first place with 33 points, Tord Laudal in second place with 28 points, and Jonathan and Ludwig Von Koopa tied for third place with 10 points each. The winners have been contacted about choosing their prizes.

When I reviewed Costume Quest 2 on Halloween, two other topics could easily have made for a blog post instead, so let’s cover those now.

World of Final Fantasy 2??

I loved World of Final Fantasy, and the amount of optional lore made me hope they had a sequel or prequel planned.

When World of Final Fantasy Maxima was announced, I was a little disappointed it wasn’t a sequel (and that I can’t update my Vita version to get the new content), but thought it might increase our chances of getting another game.

In a recent interview, World of Final Fantasy director Hiroki Chiba spoke about the possibility of a sequel, as reported here by Gematsu.

First, the new content in Maxima “tells a bit of the afterstory of Lann and Reynn.” More importantly, however, he wants to make a sequel:

While there are no plans for a sequel, I have fully written the story. If Square Enix gives us its approval, we can start development right away.”

The story for a theoretical World of Final Fantasy 2 has already been written, and all they’re waiting on is for Square Enix to decide a sequel should be made. This makes sense, especially given the lore I mentioned earlier. With all those background details, I’m not surprised they had sequel ideas… although it being fully written already is more than I expected.

I’d buy a World of Final Fantasy sequel in a heartbeat. Say the word, Square Enix, and my preorder is yours.

And amidst my hopes for a World of Final Fantasy sequel, a different not-quite-sequel made an appearance.

Deltarune

Basically, the Undertale Twitter account told players who had finished the game to be ready for something on Wednesday, and it turned out to be a link to Deltarune.

Being a huge Undertale fan, I downloaded it right away with the hope that it would be some sort of demo for a new game from Toby Fox.

And then it just kept going.

You can either view Deltarune (or more properly, Deltarune: Chapter 1) as a long demo for Toby Fox’s next game or a short game that will eventually be continued. As for its connection to Undertale, that’s still a bit unclear.

Click for Deltarune spoilers
When I started Deltarune, at first I thought it was a sequel to Undertale’s pacifist ending, but too many things didn’t add up.

Then I thought it might be a prequel, with Kris being the first fallen human’s actual name… but again, too many things didn’t add up.

It seems like it’s an alternate universe, possibly due to Gaster’s experiments. There are signs that Gaster is linked to Deltarune, and Gaster being alive in this universe would explain at least a few of the differences.

Anyway, Deltarune: Chapter 1 is a nice little game in its own right. It feels a lot like a fresh take on the Undertale format, especially where combat is concerned. In Deltarune, you have new options, such as the ability to defend, use magic, or ask one of your party members to perform an action.

Undertale is one of the funniest games I’ve played, and while Deltarune didn’t have the same effect on me, it was still enjoyable. It had funny moments (especially thanks to Susie and Lancer), heartwarming moments, and a few surprises.

Click for major Deltarune spoilers
And then the ending happened. What was that? What was that?!

Right now, the most prominent fan theory is that Kris was rejecting the player’s control, since characters in the epilogue comment on how different you’ve been acting and you still have control over the heart at the end.

It was a pretty unsettling scene, and it left me wanting to know what will happen next.

If you haven’t played Undertale, I think you could play Deltarune and still enjoy it. You just won’t get as much out of the references… and theories from fans about what’s going on in Deltarune are a minefield of Undertale spoilers.

Since the release of Deltarune: Chapter 1, Toby Fox finally released some information about it.

First, he describes it as “not the world of Undertale.” This has led some fans to believe he’s saying the two are completely unrelated, but if you go on to read his full answer, I think he’s mainly reassuring fans that this hasn’t undone the game’s ending or anything like that. Alternate universe theories still feel applicable.

(Especially since there are too many connections for it to be completely separate.)

Next, he says that creating the full game might be impossible.

……

To be more precise, he says it took him a few years to make this demo, and given how long the rest will be, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to make it without a team. He has no idea when it will be finished, although he mentions 7 years as the maximum amount of time he’d want to put into a project.

Deltarune will be released once all the chapters are completed. This is good news to me, because I was concerned it might be an episodic release. Chapter 1 serving as a demo for a longer, full game is much better.

He also say there won’t be multiple endings, which is a little disappointing, but one of the big takeaways here is that he isn’t trying to make Undertale 2. He just wants to make a new game.

Anyway, Deltarune: Chapter 1 was a lot of fun, and it pretty much stands on its own even though it’s obviously hinting at more to come. I just hope we don’t have to wait until 2025 to see how the rest of the story works out.

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Nov 202017
 

When I finished World of Final Fantasy, the one thing I really wanted was a sequel.

Not only was it a fun, cute game (and a new turn-based RPG in the Final Fantasy series), but it also had tons of series potential, especially if you read the Who’s Who character bios.

Well, it looks like I’m getting my wish… although not quite what I want right away.

A mobile game called World of Final Fantasy: Meli-Melo has been announced. It will be out in Japan for iOS and Android later this year. It’s a casual take on World of Final Fantasy gameplay, but it’s unclear whether its story will be the same or not.

While I’m not crazy about a casual mobile game, the Famitsu announcement of World of Final Fantasy: Meli-Melo also said “the World of Final Fantasy series will continue to spread out in the future.”

I hope it spreads out to a full-fledged sequel or prequel next.

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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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