World of Final Fantasy: Day One Edition (PS4)

The perfect balance between nostalgia and freshness.World of Final Fantasy (WoFF) is a glorious journey of light-hearted humour with surprisingly accurate in-date puns clearly designed to appeal to a younger audience. ("Did i just get owned?") However, whether intentional or not, WoFF is best suited for veteran players who have been there for all, or most, of Final Fantasy's journey. Everything from the battle system, to the cameos - most of which act as summons, to the classic beasts/fiends with hilarious descriptions, tugs on the heartstrings of those that have watched this series evolve throughout the ages.It is more than a Final Fantasy meets Pokemon clone, but the inspiration drawn from other "Monster collecting" titles is present throughout.Firstly, the game establishes that this is a story-based, full-fledged Jrpg that you're about to invest 50+ hours of your life into. The cutscenes are long, but beautifully animated. The characters do much more than stand around, shaking their heads and waving their hands, which is a go-to for cutscene heavy jrpgs. The camera and actions made during each scene sets a tone, and shows expression. They move, they gesture, they blink and sometimes, they break the fourth wall. All of this works, and makes it known that WoFF wasn't lazily slapped together for a quick cash in.Secondly, catching monsters isn't as simple as lowering their hp and throwing a "Prism." Instead, you have to create a Prismunity, and each monster has its own specifications. Sometimes it will be just to lower their HP, sometimes it'll be to heal them, sometimes it'll be as complicated as dishing out X amount of damage with a water attack, or landing a critical hit, or getting rid of every other monster first. This keeps WoFF fresh, and gives grinding/re-visiting areas a bigger purpose than a lot of Jrpgs.If I had to pick a fault with WoFF, i'd say its biggest lay within it's two protagonists themselves as neither seem to show much development (Note: I'm only 20 hours in) The male (Lann) is the butt of most jokes, often resulting in Reynn (his twin sister) scolding him for his stupidity. Sometimes, this'll happen not only in a cutscene, but then during a in-field conversation, then at the end of the dungeon in another cutscene. Okay, we get it, he's not too bright. I put this down to the games "intended" younger audience.However, all in all, the characters are at least tolerable and beautifully voice acted. (You can also use the original Japanese dub if you pre-ordered or get your hands on a day one edition) It's also worth mentioning that cameos such as Yuna and Lightning have their original voice actors too, giving you that extra jolt of nostalgia.WoFF has earned its place alongside the main titles and shouldn't be considered a throwaway spin-off, only intended to be played by kids or casual gamers. It is the perfect gift to long-time FF fans, and will be enjoyed mostly by those who know the cameo-characters backstories. (Although, new players who aren't looking to play an FF game, but like monster collecting, will still find some great gameplay here)The only reason not to buy this is if you're looking for something exactly like Pokemon, with little-to-no story. This isn't the kind of game where you should be skipping the ten minute cutscene just to get back to catching things. (However, there is a fast forward button that allows you to do this in R1, which also works to speed up battles too)

I got this today and love the new stacking system, just a whole lot of fun capturing monsters or 'mirages' and having them balance on your head in battle, wobbling around! Very nice colourful areas although they are very small, well detailed with typical Final Fantasy flourish. Music as always is top notch and the plot is completely bonkers and loveable as only the Japanese can do :-) Game is 10GB installed with v1.01 patch and single save is 3.15MB, has option of Cross Save.I won't talk about the story as not to spoil its enjoyment, character dialogue is witty and self deprecating which endears me to them. The combat is where this game shines, I remember the fun of Dragon Quest's on the Nintendo DS capturing monsters and adding them to your party, this game has that and then introduces 'stacking' where the monsters are 1 of 3 categories, S, M or L for small, medium and large. As usual your party starts off weak and get stronger through stacking and learning abilities.I find having the brother and sister, Lann and Reynn, in Jiant mode, where they are normal size, the best early on. This is because you get the M size monsters, Floating Eye and Copper Gnome, in the Nether Nebula dungeon. This allows you a 3 stack, 'Bigstack' which gives a good advantage in battle. Capturing monsters in the right prism can be a pain as they all have different criteria to be captured. So the Floating Eye needs to be the last one standing, Copper Gnome physical damage to low HP, etc.I think Mandragora will transfig to Marlboro as there's Bad Breath which inflicts all sorts of ailments on a mob. Beating Ifrit I get 'Fritt' which has 3 transforms (!) Last one has Firaga and Crimson Cyclone, even better than Hellfire :-) Counter as well. This game is something else.Actually in the 1st hour the game tempts you with a murk rift which contains of all enemies, Behemoth! He annihilates my party and after being resurrected you go back to near him and see he's at lv 24! Interesting as he is an L so once you capture him (2nd time around and good luck!) you can put your party into Lilikin mode and ride around on The Mighty Behemoth. Even an M monster like Copper Chrome has 3 states to transform into, the last has mouth watering abilities like Grand Sword, Mighty Guard and Invincible. So the amount of monsters, transformations, elemental affinity stacking and so on are mind blowing.Also have nice puzzles to açcess new areas in dungeons where they use the weight and elemental attributes of your monster pack, together with stacking again. I hope this game has larger areas to explore the more I get into it, side quests are nicely done and I did the 'Best Helm in the Realm' quest, in inventory they are in Adventure Log - Miniventures. Has the potential to be an excellent game, hope its a long one, loving it so far.I like the way the game opens up as I play it, getting Champions is ace and from the pre-order you get Sephiroth. Finally captured that pesky Babyhemoth and he's worth it for the Counter passive ability. Brilliant game.

The game looks like a mix of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon so if you like any of those games (or all of them, like me), you should feel at home playing World of Final Fantasy.The first thing you notice is how cute everything looks. Your characters have got an option to choose between big form (reminds me of Kingdom Hearts characters) or a small chibi one. Most of monsters and NPC appears in their chibi forms which for some may be cuteness overkill but I guess you can check the style by playing a demo and decide whether it's for you.The combat is turn-based and seems a bit slow at the beginning until you discover R1 button to speed everything up. In your travels you fight and collect monsters which you may later use to fight alongside your characters (or on top of them you go for stacking - joining characters into one stronger unit but with fewer moves). On the whole the combat is fun and may appear a bit easy at times, but within dungeons you also meet stronger monsters which you may tackle when you feel ready (effectively making the combat at easy or difficult as you wish).I've put about 20 hours into the game now and so far the game didn't become tedious , FF characters bring a bit of nostalgia into your game and there is still a lot to do whilst playing so if you're looking for a nice RPG to play, I would definitely recommend it. there is a demo version on PSN but you may find the combat confusing at first when you play it, everything is explained and introduced gradually in the full game which makes getting to know the rules of the game much easier.