Game Review #7

Title screen

Title: World of Final Fantasy: Maxima

Genre: RPG 

Developer(s): Square Enix

Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One

Release Date: October 25, 2016

About the story:

Amnesiac twins Lann and Reynn journey through the world of Grymoire to gather pieces of information about their past. In their quest to regain their memories, they meet people and creatures who knew things about them. The world is currently engulfed in a war and they are the ones prophesied to put an end on it.

World screen

Battle screen

Gameplay:

World of Final Fantasy (WoFF) is one of the many Final Fantasy spin-offs, WoFF employs the Active Time Battle (ATB) system but the game can also be set to the classic turn-based where the enemy will wait for the player's command before acting. The player mostly battles mirages (monsters and a couple of characters) from the Final Fantasy lore. mirages can be imprismed (capture / tamed) when several conditions are met, the conditions for every mirage is different which can be somewhat challenging. When a certain level is met, or if a certain item is obtained by the player, the mirage can be transfigured (synonymous to evolution or transformed).

Menu screen

Mirage Board screen

Your main characters, Lann and Reynn are customizable using Mirajewels and Champion Jewels, Mirajewels range from bonus stats, magics, elemental resistance and resistance against negative effects while Champion jewels allows Lann and Reynn to take the form of some of the characters from other Final Fantasy games and gain their skills. Mirages on the other hand can be strengthen via their Mirage Board, every mirage has one which contains bonus stats, magic, the ability to transfigure, field abilities and more. Completing a mirage board will also allow the player to choose an extra skill for the mirage with the completed board.

Mirajewel screen

Stack screen

Most actions in this game (attack, using magic / skills, summons) requires ability points (AP) to use. Every character and mirage has 4 maximum which replenishes every turn. The player can control up to 6 characters / mirages per battle if he/she chose to unstack. However, unstacking would mean that the character's / mirage's individual stats and skill are the ones that will be utilized. Stacking (combining) them will result to a unit with all the stats and skills combined, however, they can only act once per turn. Stacking is a pretty good mechanic in this game, it adds a new layer of strategy since the enemies can stack too to create a more powerful unit, the player can choose to just fight it head-on or use skills that can topple (unstack) the enemy to pick them off individually when they're weaker. The characters can change from Jiant (large) to Lilikin (medium) forms while mirages have different sizes ranging from small, medium, large, xl. The size of the mirage is vital to stacking since you can only use one of each (L, M, S) and that includes the main characters depending if the player has them on Jiant or Lilikin mode. XL mirages are different, they can't be used on a stack. They have huge stats and the player can control them as long as they have health points (HP) or AP remaining. Once the HP or AP is depleted, the XL mirage is gone. Each XL mirages can be used once per battle so the player should bring at least 2 just in case. Aside from the main story, there are also a lot of side quests that can be done to earn items, some of which is vital to progress the story as well. WoFF also offers tons of stuff to do like Colosseum battles where the player can fight previously fought mirages to imprism them or get some items. Intervention quests where the player can fight in place of some Final Fantasy characters which are given some unique story lines to fit the game's narrative. WoFF utilizes characters from the whole lore, some of the famous and lesser known characters are included in the plot, some are added as medals (closest thing to a summon in this game) and the jewel (which is mentioned above). It won't be a Final Fantasy game as well if it doesn't have mini-games, there are a couple of mini-games to play on WoFF, some are extremely annoying but not really necessary to finish the main story. There are also some stuff that is a good addition like the field abilities of mirage which allows the player to interact with objects throughout the dungeons, mirages can also be ridden instead of the main character just running around. A Final Fantasy game won't be complete without an airship as well but in this game, it's kind of unnecessary since the dungeons and towns can be accessed via portals. There are some stuff that can be done exclusively by the airship but those are really minimal.

Verdict:

Gameplay: 4/5
Story: 3.5/5
Aesthetics: 4/5
Audio: 4.5/5

World screen

Airship screen

World of Final Fantasy has a stand-alone version called Maxima which contains additional mirages, storylines, quest, etc. This game is fun, even though it's target audience are kids, adults will also have a blast with this game. WoFF makes a great job of teaching the player how to play the game, it's also easy to navigate and not grind heavy. While it lacks some of the good aspects of a RPG (character customization, equipment setting, etc.) the game makes up for it with challenging the player to strategize and compose a stack to suit each player's gameplay.  There are also puzzles throughout the dungeons. The game, especially the maxima version has tons of content as well. The story and dialog is mostly light hearted but there are dark and somewhat depressing themes overall. The game mostly utilizes 3D models for the gameplay and the cutscenes but there are also cutscenes that are done anime style. The music is just amazing. There are scenes that are hauntingly beautiful not because of the visuals but because of the music. The game gives the player a great auditory adventure. All in all, this game is totally pleasing in all aspects. A fun RPG that has tons of contents and will consume a good 80-100 hours of gameplay but it can also be played in a laid back and casual way. The aesthetics are generally pleasing, mixed with good music and the dialog, while some are silly, is also good as well. The story is somewhat slow for me but it picks up mid-game and it gets good the longer you play through it. WoFF is another solid spin-off, probably the best there is and it's a game that every player whether a Final Fantasy fan or not should play.