The first thing I need to comment on is the surprise I had at how long the game was. The core game took me 46 hours to complete. Yes, there were times where I did some extra grinding in the game, but as a whole I think I played it at a good pace. So, yes, it is a long game. The game says it has 4 chapters, but I'd really break it up into 12. The prologue, the 8 job chapters, the dark matter collection, castle avalon, and the void. Each chapter had plenty of character development and story and a number of different areas to explore. However, I will say that in the 8 job chapters the gameflow gets a bit repetitive. Go to initial town, do short dungeon, travel to 2nd town, grind alot of money to upgrade equipment, go to final area, kill general, profit. Each job chapter probably takes 4-5 hours to complete. Yes, there is alot of grinding to do. Upgrading equipment in the game certainly gives you a noticable effect, and you'll need it for the boss battles in the game.
I loved the boss battles in this game. Compared to other Final Fantasy games the bosses seemed to be developed with a lot more HP than in other games. They really wanted the fights to take some time, and beyond that, as the fights went on, they got tougher with certain boss attacks getting upgrades and doing more damage. Healing and DPS were at a premium and needed to be balanced greatly. For most of the game I used offspec healers, such as summoners or dancers, until the end when you really needed a Seer.
That leads me to the main system of the game. The job system of the game. I'd place this job system somewhere between FF III and FF V. It had the stat upgrade aspect of FF III, in that you'd be more powerful if you levelled up the job, and the ability building aspect of V where you can mix and match different abilities as you unlock them. Tied to this were Fusion abilities, which were abilities that could be permanently learned and required having specific abilities from two different jobs equipped. There are a number of these, some more useful than others, though certainly necessary to complete all the content. You can't grind all the jobs during the core game as you must spend JP to increase the max level of a job to a maximum of 20. You receive JP at points during the story, forcing you to make some decisions as to who will fulfill what role as you play through the game.
For all the hours put into the game, there are really relatively few sidequests to speak of. An ore collecting mission here... a casino there... but none of them were really even worth the time, the gear they would give you was quickly replaced. The end game sidequests involve Fangs and Tails... fangs would sometimes drop off high level monsters and could be used to collect things to help quicken some of the grinds. You could get accessories that give you more exp or more ap, or more items, or better rare chance items... This leads me to tails, which are rare drops off of specific monsters and can be traded for unique items. There are a few worth getting if you're truly looking to max out your charcters. I was not, my goal was simply to beat the max level entrants of the Gladiator's Arena.
The Gladiator's Arena is postgame only content. There are 3 monsters you can fight. Gigantuar, Omega Weapon, and Adamantoise. Beating them gives you rewards, however the more you beat them the stronger they get. Beating the Gigantuar will give you more Job Points for levelling up classes, Adamantoise will give you Adamant Ore which can be crafted into strong armor, and Omega Weapon will give you access to unique weapons and accessories. This is the first game I can think of that really has content that is geared towards max level characters. I beat max level Omega Weapon at level 88 and it is truly one of the crowning achievements of my gaming career. No kidding. These are long fights taking 8-10 minutes minimum and really require a great amount of strategy, damage, healing, timing, everything. Beating max level Omega weapon took me 7 or 8 tries, each one making me change my strategy slightly until I had the composition and abilities needed to overcome it.
The story of the game, is really nothing original. In fact it is fairly derivative. It seems to be have some pieces of II, III, V, and VI all mushed together. That being said though it is still a very engaging story with strong character development and a well thought-out overarcing idea. The writing assumes you to be a fan of the Final Fantasy series and includes a number of jokes from previous games as well as pop culture in general. Also, many of the locales and NPCs refer back to some of the earlier games in the series.
The graphics and sound are not going to win awards, but they certainly do an admirable job of what they are trying to, which is, to create an experience very much like was available back in the days of the Super Nintendo. The 16-bit look and feel is recreated very nicely. There are no cutscenes or any stand-out moments to speak of graphically, with perhaps one exception. The quasi-3d effect they achieved on the staircase in Castle Avalon was pretty cool. The music was okay. There were really no stand-out tracks, but its hard to get excited when you're comapring this with some of the best soundtracks in gaming history.
Overall, I truly feel I got my $20 worth out of this game. A very nice recreation of the 16-bit era, with some of the most polished Final Fantasy gameplay I can recall. Great monster design, an interesting take on the job system, and some excellent post-game challenges. It all adds up to a very good inclusion into the series which unfortunately will be overlooked by a lot of people as it does not have a roman numeral attached to it. Oh well, will just have to spread the word!
The story of the game, is really nothing original. In fact it is fairly derivative. It seems to be have some pieces of II, III, V, and VI all mushed together. That being said though it is still a very engaging story with strong character development and a well thought-out overarcing idea. The writing assumes you to be a fan of the Final Fantasy series and includes a number of jokes from previous games as well as pop culture in general. Also, many of the locales and NPCs refer back to some of the earlier games in the series.
The graphics and sound are not going to win awards, but they certainly do an admirable job of what they are trying to, which is, to create an experience very much like was available back in the days of the Super Nintendo. The 16-bit look and feel is recreated very nicely. There are no cutscenes or any stand-out moments to speak of graphically, with perhaps one exception. The quasi-3d effect they achieved on the staircase in Castle Avalon was pretty cool. The music was okay. There were really no stand-out tracks, but its hard to get excited when you're comapring this with some of the best soundtracks in gaming history.
Overall, I truly feel I got my $20 worth out of this game. A very nice recreation of the 16-bit era, with some of the most polished Final Fantasy gameplay I can recall. Great monster design, an interesting take on the job system, and some excellent post-game challenges. It all adds up to a very good inclusion into the series which unfortunately will be overlooked by a lot of people as it does not have a roman numeral attached to it. Oh well, will just have to spread the word!
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