WK Plays Final Fantasy Type-0

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm a bit ashamed of myself for being one of the few people on this forum really pushing for info and talking about letting this game get a release, that despite picking it up once I got my PS4, I never bothered to play it outside of the Japanese demo back when it was a PSP exclusive. So, wanting a little FF goodness, I finally started playing this game recently. It's been interesting so far, I'm currently in the middle of Chapter 3.

Pros:

I'm really digging the historical narrative so far, in fact the world building in this game in general has been really interesting.
As I do remember from the demo, I do like the variety the full cast has in playstyles, which really helps with monotony since the gameplay is rather limited. I'm digging the fact the party has multiple special moves or support abilities that both expand their normal repertoire of moves or allow them some good variation for their playstyles.
Going with the above, I appreciate how enemy challenges really come down to the team you're using. I got flattened easily by the Flying Mech boss Bashtor was piloting in Chapter 2 with my initial team of Queen, Jack, and Sice, but coming in with King with his dual guns and timing the crit bonus Killsight attacks made that fight way more manageable and rewarding.
So far, I'm digging most of the cast except for two people. I appreciate the contrasting personalities of Class Zero.
The darker storyline is pretty good so far, this game is not really holding back on the horrors of war.
The crystal stealing the memories of the dead from the living is an intriguing idea which allows the game to keep some of its levity and not wallowing too much in "war is hell" which I feel is a nice balance.
Enemy variety has been better than I expected. While I'm already seeing some re-skins, considering this is a handheld action-rpg originally, the enemy variety has been better than some I've played.
I love the Class Moogles. They are a hoot to talk to.
I certainly give the game credit for being more challenging than usual for these types of games. Missions have a tendency to throw enemies at you you shouldn't be fighting yet, the overworld especially has some areas with beef gates waiting to trounce you if you stray too far from your objective. Mission objectives are also brutal and I appreciate that speed isn't the end all be all ranking element.
Oh hey, an explorable world map, what a quaint concept.
Exploring the school has been less tedious than I thought it would be, course it probably help I can finally understand everybody.b The time mechanic between missions reminds me a lot of Persona's calendar system.
I liked the FFVI shout out in Cid's room, he has to Magitek Armors that are prefect recreations of the ones from FFVI as statues.
I like the weight l'Cie have in this game. I really feel like Tabata's team captured how fantastic and frightening these beings should be.
Though I have yet to properly meet them, I like the idea of Concordia's faction being monster tamers.



Cons:

While the historical aspect lends the game an interesting narrative, it leaves much to be desired with the human to human interactions. I sort of feel like the game is trying too hard to use a mature narrative element, but also throw in the usual high school anime tropes and its a bit jarring in places.
I am not a fan of Rem or Machina, in addition to being the two blandest characters among the cast, they also feel the most conventional. I can already see these two usurping the more interesting Class Zero in the story department, and I'm already dreading it.
I wish there were more ways to get money in this game. I'm annoyed I haven't had much chance to really outfit the party with new gear outside of what I find in missions because while things are not terrible expensive, having to outfit fifteen characters at once still adds up quickly, especially when the game already foreshadows that you should not be playing favorites and should spend time with everyone.
One QoL element the HD Remaster should have implemented was the ability to switch out your party leader from the normal menu and not from save points. This would make the school events that require certain party members way less tedious than they are.
If I'm going to be frank, the UI for the menu system is pretty awful all around. I get they were trying to go for a tactical "mission" minded format to add weight to how you outfit your team, but its honestly more grating than anything and just makes things more tedious than they should be. I may have forgiven this when it was a PSP game since its obvious it was really tapping that system to the fullest, but being on better hardware should have made them clean this up better, especially with so many characters to keep track of.
I'm also annoyed that Phoenix Downs seem to only apply to characters in your active party. Its bad enough they are rare, but to also have them be conditional in their usage just seems a little counter-intuitive.
While I appreciate the fact the game is more challenging than other FFs, I also feel that much like XIII itself, its difficult for the wrong reasons, due to a lot of limitations placed on the player.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

This game is a gem.

I really enjoyed playing as Seven. The whipblade was addicting.

Don't sleep on Deuce. People see that a character plays the flute and they're like "meh", but if I remember correctly her agility alone can get you through places you're under prepared for. By the end of the game she was probably my most used character, particularly in a pinch.

Fun fact: One of the things I learned from interviewing Orion Acaba (Nine) was that the english voice acting for Agito had been done at the same time as Type-0, even though Agito never did end up getting a release. That being said, I imagine it was just a bunch of "oohs" and "aahs".

[Psychotic]

My favourites to play as were Eight and King, but as LWL says Deuce is absolutely broken if used correctly.

What are your thoughts on the soundtrack?

[Fynn]

This has been sitting in my steam library for a while. Will definitely have to get to this eventually.

[Aulayna]

An opportunity to drop my Deuce (lel) video you say?

71NZ8ayTQUE

[Aulayna]

TIL that if you translate the lyrics of the opening cinematic song from Latin to English it pretty much gives you the footnotes of the plot of the entire game.

_VDA57wDiUs

This blew my mind. How rad!

[Wolf Kanno]

Sorry I haven't been posting as much, had a frantic weekend, but I have been playing a lot. I'm currently in Chapter 5 I think. We just escaped from the empire and have been accused of assassinating the matriarch of Concordia. Of which I have a strong suspicion that a certain dumbass in my party may have actually done.

Pros:

The plot has been very good so far. Kind of a nice balance of taking the interesting mythology of the FNC project but giving it more of a FFTactics/FFVIII vibe which really works for things here. Its been really surprising how so many elements I've wanted the series to explore are all neatly here. This game is dark, political, morally grey in a lot of places, yet has enough wacky elements to never get too serious for its own good. The setting is just so better thought out than XIII and XV. This game honestly should have been FFXIII.
My favorite characters to play as are Jack, Queen, Duece, Ace, and King. Though if I'm going to be fair, I like using everyone for different reasons except maybe Trey and Cinque since their play styles are little too off for my taste.
Finally got to play around with the summons, and they are pretty impressive. I actually like them a little more than I did in the demo oddly enough.
Milities was pretty awesome in Chapter 3 and 4. I loved the shout out to FFVI with exploring the region on a MA unit, and I love the FFVII shout out with the awesome Scorpion Tank boss fight in Chapter 4. I remember this mission in the demo, but it was even more awesome with some actual context.
Money is no longer an issue cause my dumbass self finally figured out I should just resort to RPG 101 tactics and actually sell some of these vendor trash items I'm hoarding for no good reason. While I wish we had some better defensive options, I'm not really hurting for cash outside of the SPP stuff for their private armory.
You know, the mission and dungeon variety has been really good so far in this game. I'm digging the fact that all the main story missions have interesting objectives or gimmicks to keep them from growing stale. I still love how the Scorpion Tank fight borrows elements from the X-AT0M0S fight from VIII that gives a really cool cinematic feel to the party's escape from the capital and hide the fact that the dungeon layout for this stage is actually incredibly linear, but you don't notice because "holy shit! I'm being chased by a robot spider scorpion tank that's barraging my party with missiles every time it shows up!" so the overall game design has been fairly good.


Cons:

I think it's really silly that you can only have one side mission registered at a time, especially annoying with the ones that involve leaving Akademia and eat up a huge chunk of your time. I get this won't be as much of an issue in NG+, but its a little annoying right now since I prefer to be efficient in these types of matters.
The way the Phoenix Down item works in this game is stupid. Like I don't understand how I'm allowed to use potions and ethers from the menu whenever I feel like it, but phoenix downs can only be used in battle and has to be specially equipped to my party for it too work. It just seems like they went out of their way to make this item as inconvenient to use as possible.
While I like the summons in this game so far, I'm not sure if I'm just mistaken on how to do this or if I'm right, and they are limited to story missions only; but I really wish I could spend more time leveling these creatures more/
The one gripe I have with the plot is that it suffers from the same problem The Last Story has. Its a really intriguing world with an overall great cast that gets pulled down by having the two most generic and boring characters have too much story focus. While I enjoy their playstyles, I pretty much hate Machina, who is an idiot, and Rem is just bland and boring with goddamn soap opera cough no less. During one of their many "Rem are you okay?" "Oh Machina, I'm fine, its just my asthma" scenes, of which there is already too many for my taste, I actually screamed at the screen that the two of them just need to get a room and smurf already, cause their awful sexual tension was ruining an otherwise perfect game for me. I actually was jumping to joy when Machina tried to call Class Zero out on their actions and they pretty much just clapped back to his frustration. The guy is a tool.

[Wolf Kanno]

Been chipping away at this. Still in Chapter 5 though.

Pros:

I haven't really talked about the War Battles. I've only done the second of what I imagine will be three or four total battles, but I really appreciate the gameplay change. Despite how simple and straight forward it technically is, I appreciate that it really does reward strategic thinking where sending the right troops, and taking out bases in the proper order make the battles go more smoothly. We recently liberated Elbion, and I imagine the team is going to be dealing with the Concordians and their Azure Crystal soon.
I'm really digging the unique setup with l'Cie in this game. XIII, and to a much lesser extent since it dropped a lot of the terminology, XV both really played up the angst of being chosen by the Crystal. In Type-0, I like the fact we see the l'Cie from an outsiders perspective, your party is mostly human and so the l'Cie are treated as these revered demi-gods in the game. They show it to, the "fight" with the Primus l'Cie of Militesi pretty much showcased how far these beings outclass normal humans. I also like the fact that since their obligated to the Crystal only, they tend to ignore what humans are doing. They've actually been a very intriguing part of the story because the humans are fighting to protect their homelands and crystals, and it seems like the Crystals really don't give a shit.
I think its interesting that the game gives you different models of the same summons. From the looks of things, I imagine there are only five different summons, but then you get thing like Rubicante, who is a different model of Ifrit that sacrifices his HP for higher attack power and a permanent Regen effect. Its an interesting idea that is only hampered by how limited summons usage is in this game.
I'm happy I'm finally unlocking more spell types and variations. The ROK class of spells have been a interesting.


Cons:

Despite being remastered, I'm surprised by how many bugs pop up in this game. The most annoying and most common is the one where the game stops registering items or treasure chest commands. I first encountered this in Chapter 3 when I was exploring the sewers and found a treasure chest that I couldn't open because the command prompt would never register. I ran into it again during one of the Expert Trials with an item on the floor I couldn't pick up because again, the character could never register it was there. Another bug I've seen is one that prevents you from moving into new areas. This one does correct itself, but I'm not sure why it pops up. My only guess is that the game prioritizes loading in enemies over transitioning to areas.
I'm a little annoyed with how Expert Trials exist for NG+. I guess I could grind to high heaven to do them, but it really does feel like the game is purposely telling you to ignore them until then. I've come so close to beating one of them recently, but I get slaughtered in the final part of the mission thanks to the souped up Supersoldier enemy units and their overpowered machine gun fire. Even summoning tanky Golem in the fight just had me witness him get torn to shreds by them.
Secret Missions are a little game breaking and a little too easy to abuse. Perhaps I should just exploit this so I can beat that Expert Trial...

[Wolf Kanno]

Didn't get as far as I would like. Killing time between missions is more work than you would think.

Pros:

I didn't care for her at first, but once the "reveal" happens, I ended up really liking Aria. Her fun misadventures after the incident have been pretty amusing so far.
After several failed attempts, I finally beat an Expert Trial that helped liberate part of the region. I kept getting my ass handed to me in the final section where you had to capture an escape ship and needed to fight a crap ton of enemies in a small plaza with snipers. I was only able to do it by taking a serious gamble and using Jack to OHK all the enemies while ice skating around the ship to avoid sniper fire. I completely lucked out and was able to score a Killsight with the leader super soldier, which both knocked him on his ass and took out most of his health, leaving him as an easy kill for Jack. I unlocked a new magic for my trouble and got an upgrade for the Fire Rifle spell. The story twist at the end of the mission was amusing as well.
Nice to see the Ice Reaper finally get some characterization, shame that it's heavily foreshadowing his eventual demise. With that said, I'm already expecting this game to have a bit of a downer ending.
While I don't converse with NPCs as much as I should outside of the Class Moogles, I do really like the atmosphere they create, especially with all the resentment with Class Zero. As well as really pointing out how messed up the whole "Crystal removes your memory of the dead" plot angle. The setting is really fucked up actually.
I may need to find a guide, cause I feel I've reached a dead end with Chocobo breeding. I do enjoy it even if it is not as useful as it was in VII. I can't seem to make anything past Swiftfoot Chocobos.
While King is basically "easy mode" I must say that I have really warmed up to some of the other characters such as Seven and Sice. I may do a breakdown of my thoughts on the team later.


Cons:

Another QoL issue I wish they had done for the remaster is allowing you to teleport within the school to any other section. Seems weird I have to teleport back to the main hall to teleport to a different part of the school.
The Emina quest is a little sketchy if you ask me. I know Japan seems to love voyeurism but this questline is really creepy. This is almost as bad as the massage minigame in X-2 but at least that quest was also funny. This one just makes me feel dirty.
I am really starting to hate guns in this game. They are fairly realistic, and its been annoying watching a mission go south because you didn't see a stray sniper bullet and watched as it killed your party member.
In hindsight, I'm starting to really dislike the summon system in this game. While I am fine with them killing a party member to be used, and they are limited in time due to their power, it is annoying that they are relegated to missions only, severely limiting their usefulness. They just feel like a mechanic I'm more likely to use in NG+ when I stop giving a damn about mission scores cause my team is overpowered enough to compensate for it.

[Wolf Kanno]

After finally giving up on trying to do the expert mission to reclaim the Merori Area with its BS aerial units, I finally jumped into the story section of Chapter 5 which segued nicely into the intense Chapter 6. I am now currently in Chapter 7.

Pros:

Holy hell I'm really digging the plot of this game, this is how you raise stakes people. I can now safely say that Rubrum is at best the designated heroes of the story, but in truth, I'm kind of hoping we lose the war cause the Suzaku Crystal is smurfed up. Though I tip my hat to the Type-0 team, this is how you build a solid world setting.
I should have known by the name of the place The Big Bridge that I was going to fight him...
Yes, I finally get Odin!
Holy hell Bahamut Zero and Alexander are frightening.
I have a pretty good idea of who the new l'Cie is and I am looking forward to kicking their ass.
I am now even more curious about what is really going on in Concordia. I also now really wish we could have known more about Lorica.
I am going to reiterate the fact that I really like how the l'Cie were handled in this game. I am still in disbelief that the mortals don't panic whenever one of them shows up and tells them they're going to get involved. It has yet to end well for anyone.


Cons:

I am really close to the end now. I only have two more chapter. :(
smurf the war battle to claim my last territory. I knew I was screwed because my level was too low for it, but that last part where the Dreadnought airship shows up to basically win back all of the territory you reclaimed in one fell swoop is bulltrout.
While I am sure this game is going to force me to do NG+ to get the full experience, it is a bit surprising how I am close to the end. Yet despite being relatively low level for it, the game brimming with high level extra content. You can tell this was done by the Crisis Core team.

[Aulayna]

While I am sure this game is going to force me to do NG+ to get the full experience, it is a bit surprising how I am close to the end. Yet despite being relatively low level for it, the game brimming with high level extra content. You can tell this was done by the Crisis Core team.





You're right. NG+ is pretty much essential to get the full story.

[Wolf Kanno]

It's interesting how in the beginning of the game when you're first introduced to the downtime parts, you freak out cause you feel like you don't have enough time to see all of the events going on around Akademia, but now I'm reaching the point where I feel I have too much time. While I'm still trying to finish the Emina quest, I'm taking a break from it as its both creepy and getting way too expensive. I was happy I finally found that scientist guy again, didn't think I could access his hidden lab, so I'm wondering if I missed a few sequences because I haven't checked until now.

I did go out to see the damage done from Alexander. I really appreciate the World Map showing off how devastating this war is getting. We've watched the map get reworked three times already, and I can only imagine it's going to get a lot worst in the coming chapters. I was able to pick up another l'Cie stone and a certain Name Tag, so that was pretty interesting. Maybe I missed out on it from not checking back with the scientist guy earlier, or perhaps its all being held back for NG+ but I really wished the game would explore Kurasame a bit more outside of the manga side story. He definitely feels like the "Hero of another story" type of guy. The recent experiment by the scientist guy is a bit touching, but also incredibly creepy when you think about where he got that eye...

One thing I haven't touched on that I really appreciate about Type-0 is how the cities you liberate have their own little stories or side events going on. Like helping to gather the citizens for the mayor's first speech in the first town, or trying to clue in the country bumpkins on what the hip people find cool so they can woo the traveling performers in town, or recently helping the one mayor track down the Jewel of Isach for the town festival. They're short, not terribly involving most of the time, but they do add a lot of character to the world. I also love the Lorican Knight who lets you hear the final thoughts of the l'Cie you find their shards. His relationship with Chocobos is hilarious.

Anyway, I think I have about three days worth of time to kill now in-game, and sadly all of the available quests seem to be either be way out of my level range, or involve completing one of those high level quests first. So yeah, I'm just trying to burn time while making sure I don't miss out on any extra story moments. I know I can just talk to the one NPC to jump me to mission day, but I don't want to miss out on any extra story content.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

While i'm still trying to finish the Emina quest, I'm taking a break from it as its both creepy and getting way too expensive.

Sounds about right.

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, I'm heading off to conquer Militesi.

Pro:


Guess who got themselves an airship? :ffvisexy:
I finally figured out what the different type of Chocobos are good for. Didn't realize I could bring them into war battles.
I honestly only need three more trophies to Platinum this thing. The only tough one for me is the "Collect 25 Knowing Tags" one. The other two I believe are story related trophies.
Finally got a decent weapon for both Ace and Deuce that make them into less glass cannons Hallelujah!
Finally started doing more with the creepy scientist guy.
I don't think I'm far from breeding every type of Chocobo.
Concordia makes me think of the Oompah Loompahs when I actually visit their towns.
Deuce is an absolute beast against the Lv.99 Giant Flan enemies in Innsmouth Keep. Everyone else has to work it a bit to keep themselves from getting accidentally killed, but she just walks around and that slightly faster than walking speed pace and just murders those poor things.
Speaking of, I love the H.P. Lovecraft reference. Though I feel it needs more fish people. Maybe the Dracobolites will move in?
Speaking of murdering things I shouldn't, with a little practice, I was able to use Jack to take down a Malboro.
I have recruited to new people into Class Zero, though it doesn't look like it means anything.
I am very amused by the way Rubrum and this war in general is reminiscent of the Yugoslav Wars. Rubrum's plight feels a bit like the Bosnians where they were initially forced into the war thanks to outside forces, so they garnered a lot of sympathy due to the fact they were victims in the beginning of their part of the conflict, but come a few years later and some powerful allies, they suddenly didn't want to end the war for more nefarious reasons. Likewise, Rubrum comes across as a nation simply trying to defend themselves from aggressors but, now they've become the conquering force in Orience. While Concordia has gotten off easy, visiting towns in the empire that have been "liberated" by the Dominion shows a more ugly side to this war. Hell just the first time you visit the empire, and the soldiers are horrified to learn that the Dominion is sending children to war is the first indication that something is wrong within the Dominion.


Cons:


I think I may have screwed up on the con artist chick questline. I gave her the money all three times, but she ended up only giving me a tenth of my last payment and she's disappeared. I rarely ran into her so I'm wondering if I missed a step cause I read somewhere she gives you 200,000 gil if you do her questline properly.
While I appreciate the airship, I wish it controlled better.
The Concordia campaign was rather anti-climatic. I imagine something is either going to happen in the final chapter with them, or this is something that I won't learn until NG+. There are just too many loose ends.
Oiy, I can finally travel around the full map, and the main lesson I'm learning is that I'm either not high enough in levels, or I haven't completed enough Expert Trials to actually unlock everything.
The Tower of Agito is horrifying. I figured it was an endgame area, but I wasn't expecting the first room to have four Lv. 127 Tonberries...
Speaking of stupidely high levels. How the hell do you get higher levels in this game? I'm around Lv.35 for most of my team, and it just seems like it takes an act of god to gain a level anymore. Am I seriously going to have to use the Secret Training cheat just so I can actually visit these post game areas? I had a hell of a time fighting the Lv.44 Iron Giants guarding the Setzer.
The scientist guy is incredibly creepy as well, and I probably should have known when I learned he's associated with Emina. It's amusing in a dark humor kind of ay, especially since a lot of his dialogue gives me the impression that him and Kurasame were and item. Or at least its enough yaoi fan bait the way he talks about him.
I am annoyed that Emina and the Science dude seem to both be available at the same time. I may have gotten farther with the science guy if I had known this since Emina is a giant creepy money pit of a quest.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I'm sure it's a coincidence, but it's nice timing that you're playing the game this month because it celebrated it's 5th anniversary on the 17th. HD, anyway.

[Wolf Kanno]

Finished, and holy hell the ending was really gut-wrenching. I know all three FNC entries tried to go with a bittersweet tragic ending, but again, I feel Type-0 succeeded the most in this regard. I'll give more details later as its super late where I am. I will say that Type-0 really should have been FFXIII, maybe with a better budget and being built for console from the start could have hopefully ironed out the few glaring issues I have with this game, but story wise this game really checked off a lot of boxes I've wanted the series to do for awhile. Not sure if I really want to dive right back in with NG+ or wait a little while.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. The tragedy of this game is the number of people who bought it for the Final Fantasy XV Demo and then never really got around to enjoying the game proper. From what I could gather from various trophy and achievement sites, less than half of all players get through chapter 2, but maybe that number's larger when actually viewed on PSN.

When I first beat Type-0 I was absolutely enamored with it, and started the New Game + right away. It's worth it, not only to choose different tasks to do during the day you couldn't before, but for the added story content and different ending. Plus, the gameplay was so fun I wasn't ready to shelve it yet.

I also associate this game's release with a really exciting time during our forum's recent life. It was about that time in 2015 I was trying to make the rounds doing interviews with voice actors, and we were pumping out content in anticipation for this as well as XV ranging from said interviews, to podcasts, to art compilations, and music thoughts. Here are a few stand out related to Type-0:

Here's our interview with Orion Acaba, the voice of Nine. (http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread.php/162055-EoFF-interviews-Orion-Acaba-the-voice-of-Nine-in-Final-Fantasy-Type-0-HD!)

Psy's thoughts on every NPC somehow being F'ing rude as hell. (http://home.eyesonff.com/content.php/3533-Why-Final-Fantasy-Type-0-HD-s-NPCs-have-driven-me-into-a-murderous-frenzy)

RIP to whatever Type-Next was going to be. I suppose it could end up being Final Fantasy XVI, but I suspect it was just an idea relegated to the dust bin.

76876

[WarZidane]

RIP to whatever Type-Next was going to be. I suppose it could end up being Final Fantasy XVI, but I suspect it was just an idea relegated to the dust bin.


Sadly, that was definitely thrown out the window the moment Tabata left Square-Enix. I had my doubts even before that, but still had hope, but when he left Square-Enix, yeah, that's never happening, Type-0 was Tabata's baby.

[Psychotic]

Re-reading my article about the NPCs still makes me angry.

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, so let's get on with discussing the final chapters of Type-0

Pros:

Suck it Machina, you're a loser! We'll let the real heroes save Orience.
The end of Anri's story is just... wow.
The ending is pretty good, maybe one of the best endings within the series to be honest. It is a little cheesy, but hits nice emotional punch at the same time as the game brings back to light that you're dealing with kids who've never known anything but war.
I think Type-0 wins the award for being the darkest entry in the series.
While it lacks challenge, I appreciate the way the final boss fight was handled. Brought back some memories of P4 and Crisis Core.
The ending theme is really good, especially now that it has a bit more context for me.


Cons:

While I'm sure it's because most of it is detailed in the Expert Trials, Chapter 7 might be one of the weakest chapters in the game from a first playthrough perspective, which is a shame cause the game had such great momentum before that.
The last chapter also feels a bit like it comes out of nowhere, but again, I feel like a NG+ playthrough with the extra story bits will iron this out.
Some of the Trials in the final dungeon are incredibly vague in description, making them more annoying than they should have been.
I really disliked the opening to the last Chapter where you're fighting one of the new enemy types, but Rem's also narrating a bunch of important info, but you can't really pay attention to it cause you're getting your ass handed by a new enemy and the game doesn't exactly tell you that the fight is fixed, so don't worry about it.
I am a little annoyed that Machina kind of gets out of this story relatively unscathed. Considering how much of a whiny selfish jerk he's been for most of the plot, it was annoying that what little retribution he gets for his actions are largely mitigated. Guy deserved a bad ending.
I do feel like too much info gets hidden behind the NG+ wall for this game. Nier and BoFV handle the whole "gotta play the game twice to understand what's really going on" dynamic much better. The final chapters are lackluster and overly vague about motives and details to be satisfactory.
I am both looking forward to and dreading NG+. On the one hand, I really want to get all those juicy story details, and I'm looking forward to being able to do all the Expert Trials since they are consistently the best optional missions in the game. On the other hand, leveling is a complete chore in this game and I'm not looking forward to having to grind all of the cast to the mid Lv. 60 range just so I can actually finish some of the game's toughest challenges. I imagine the easiest way to do this is to simply just bump up the difficulty to Agito in NG+ so the enemies will be relatively close to my own levels, and then play the game normally, but part o me is also concerned that the difficulty level just boosts these enemies stats, and not their XP gains.
Overall, I will agree with Psy's judgment and say that most of the non-story related missions are a complete chore, and I hate whoever thought it was a good idea that you can only hold onto one basic request at a time. Really made some of the downtime sections last way longer than they needed to.
Likewise, I really loved the way summons were handled mechanically speaking, but I feel it was a mistake to make them story mission only. I probably would have gotten more mileage out of them if I could use them on the field when I'm doing all those pointless fetch quests, rather than always ignoring them in story missions cause I don't need the mark against me for needless party casualties. I know I can just go into Mission Mode and do them, but I feel its silly to create a mechanic you won't use in a normal playthrough. That's just bad design.

[WarZidane]

Yeah, back when I first played it, the whole start of the finale felt so sudden and jarring. Also agreed that Machina is the worst.

The reliance on NG+ is unfortunate really, just earlier this week I was actually tempted to play the game again and popped the disc into my PS4, but somewhere along the way I lost (read: deleted?) my save files so I had to start a fresh NG and I just went "never mind". :p

[Wolf Kanno]

Character Overview part 1:

Ace - I really enjoy him, partly cause he balances being both the nice guy and the pragmatist of the group. Seriously, talking with him while using Machina shows his Sugar and Ice personality really well. I enjoy using him though I feel he's one of the more technical characters to use. As such, he tends to fight better under player control as the A.I. just doesn't seem to understand how to use him. He has the shortest range of the long range weapons users and he is very much a fragile character. There is also a slight delay in his attack so he can't land Killsights without a little practice. I feel his best trait is the fact his dodge is a damn teleport move which makes getting around enemy fire a cakewalk. Overall, I like his character and wish I could play him better, I need more practice.

Deuce - The Lethal Joke character of the team, she can be incredibly dominating in a fight if you use her well. She reminds me of Riki's playstyle from XC as his move sets are also based on "overtime effects". He healing/buff skills are pretty awesome and thankfully the A.I. is good with them. She can be an offensive powerhouse, but it requires taking direct control as you need to stay aware of enemy movements and keeping her range proper. I love her personality as well. She is actually the type of character I feel Rem was trying to be, sweet and someone you really feel for, but unlike Rem where the game kind of shoves her in your face and tells you to love her, Deuce is more subtle and thus more charming.

Trey - One of my least favorite characters to use, I could just never get his rhythm right to find him satisfying to use. He may have the best range of the party but he has one of the slowest windup for his attacks since it takes in account him drawing the bow. His special moves are funky and weird too. I love his personality though and I love the running gag about his long winded lectures.

Cater - It took me awhile to really get into her. I feel the turning point was the Gilgamesh fight. I love how speedy she is and how her play-style really brings me back to my MMX roots with balancing quick rapid fire shots or using full charged shots to win battles. I do have issues with her skill set though as I often felt her debuff skills rarely worked on anything I wanted them to, whereas the Elementalist skill is a pain to unlock and fully power it up. Had a lot of fun with her though. Her prickly personality was fun too, and I appreciate her calling Machina out a lot.

Cinque - The other character I hated using for most of the same reasons as listed above. Her moves are really slow and landing Killsights with her is more of a chore than I would care for. She's an absolute beast when her attacks land but she's a liability in fights against speedy bosses, of which many of them fall into that category. Her special moves are little more user friendly than Trey's but she requires a bit more finesse to use than I'm willing to invest. especially when characters like Jack can do her same role with half the hassle. Her personality is amusing, but I didn't care for her VA. She always sounded like she was waking up from a nap or was always high on something.

Sice - I love Sice, everything about her actually. One of my favorite weapons, broken specials, and I dig her personality. She's what I would call a Killsight specialist, as I feel she works the best when you're landing those crits and deathblows with her. Her Destruction Wave move is my favorite skill among the party and I never really bothered experimenting much with her after that. Her sarcasm was amusing for me, and I liked how she usually said what I was thinking a lot about the plot. Her animosity for Machina was also appreciated.

Seven - I feel that she, along with Deuce and King, are some of the most low key members of the class. She has her moments, but she tends to be quiet and lays low in major story sequences. It took a while to really notice her among the more rambunctious members but I really love her. She's probably the closest to my personality of the group. Her whip sword style also makes her one of the really techy type characters to learn, and while I lump her along with Ace as someone I wish I was better with, my results with her are always positive. I do need to play around with her skill set though, as I just never really got a good set going.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Seven is the GOAT. If there's one part of the game I missed out on, it's using all of the characters to their fullest extent. I would typically leave a spot in my party for her, basically the person I chose as my "main character", only giving me 2 other spots to experiment with in rotation.



76879

[Wolf Kanno]

Character Overview Part 2

Eight - Eight is a bit like Seven for me, a little low key outside of his short man syndrome, and someone I really wish I was better with. He's not a traditional monk from the series, his blows don't hit that hard as much as he's just incredibly combo friendly, and he's also very fragile for a melee class. Not helped by his attacks being short range in nature often meaning that if you don't approach enemies correctly, you'll often trade blows. I love how his skill sets are moves that mostly change his fighting style, making him a really fun character to use when you get a groove going. I just wish I got into that groove more often. I appreciate his maturity among the class, a nice contrast to the fact he looks the youngest on account that he's so short. Don't tell him I said that...

Nine - Might be the worst dragoon in the series. He's hardly as broken as other characters of his class and his skill set outside of Jump leave much to be desired, though that is par the course for the class within the series. This isn't to say he's a bad character gameplay-wise, rather the big issue is that his dragoon abilities just don't translate well in this particular action-rpg. He can still be powerful, and I appreciate that Jump does splash damage if you use it within a group. He's best strength is honestly his durability. He tends to survive better than the rest of the glass, and that's saying something cause most of Class Zero could be described as glass cannons, some are just more glassy than others. His personality is a bit obnoxious, and I feel the direction of his VA could have been better, but I liked Nine overall.

Jack - Of the entire class, my opinion on Jack probably took the biggest 180 degree turn. I was really disappointed with him when I first used him, and was sad my samurai character was likely going to be a bench-warmer for me. By end game, he was my Soulsborne warrior of death. If I was goign up against something big and nasty that neither Deice or King could cheese, Jack was my main man To get past his obnoxious slow battle walking animation, you learn to spam his quick parry move, which allows him to basically skate around the stage. Its silly looking but I've played enough Zelda to know I don't give a shit anymore. It oddly makes him one of the fastest characters to move around stages. He also sports the highest attack power of the group. If he lands a crit from a Killsight, he can shave over two bars of life, sometimes just kill the enemy outright even if the Killsight is yellow. His personality has a few hidden depths revealed towards the end, but this guy is basically Demyx from KHII in personality.

Queen - The closest thing to a red mage this game provides, Queen is really balanced in most areas so she's really good at fighting melee combat but she's geared towards magic a bit more heavy than other characters, learning Twinspell way earlier than most of the cast. She has a few good skills as well, but I feel her BS healing one is one of her better skills, especially against flans. I usually geared her with two magic spells the most. Her fast lunge attack in her combo makes her incredibly Killsight friendly and she's pretty nimble too. While she may be one of the more stereotypical characters being a class president type character, she's still rather fun to watch.

King - Ah yes, Type-0's Easy Mode on Normal Mode. King is an interesting character cause I really feel like he isn't as balanced as he should be. King will likely be the character who introduces you to the power of Killsight. His guns are pretty powerful, but his range, speed of attacks, and Killsight friendliness makes him the best character to main during a lot of the games boss fights. I remember getting my ass handed to me in the first Bashtar fight, and then when I switched to King, I murdered him in less that twenty seconds.The man makes a difference. Also, unlike some of the other long range specialist, I feel he has some worthwhile skills like Iron Will or Point-Blank Shot, and his melee kick is powerful and fast unlike Ace's short range melee attacks. While he's not perfect for every scenario, and his magic ability is awful, I feel he's a good character to have as backup when shit hits the fans cause he usually helped me turn a bad mission into a success. His personality is pretty low key but I really liked his confidence. In a lot of ways, I imagine Nine thinks he's like King, in terms of being a respected badass you don;t cross, but we know why he's Nine and we call this guy King.

Rem - I didn't mind Rem outside of feeling like the game tries a little too hard to make me care for her. Giving her a soap opera cough was probably not the best way to do this. Yet outside of her strange attachment to Machina, I didn't really mind her. She's a fun character to use who has a major flaw that most RPG character wish they had, which is basically the fact she has too many good options. She's probably the most build friendly character of the cast being one of the games best mages and being handed some pretty game breaking skills like Undying Wish. You can do a lot with her, whereas I never got that same feel for the rest of the cast. Her biggest flaw is the fact she's a mage type build but her weapons are close range dual knives that much like Eight, places her in harm's way most of the time. She's also a character I feel the computer just doesn't really know what to do with when its controlling her.

Machina - I can't really tell you how much I hated this guy but 76880 was my general reaction whenever he was on the screen wangsting about Class Zero, or how he was powerless, or how he wants to protect Rem. I really hated this guy. He has a similar problem as Yuzu from Devil Survivor in the fact that his reaction to what is going on in the plot is fairly realistic, but the fact he never gets over it and keeps reacting with shock and indignation got old the further along the story went. I went from finding him mildly annoying to loathing him. From a gameplay standpoint, he's not too bad, but a little weird as he feels abit clumsy to use like Cinque, but if you get him going, he brings on the hurt just like her. I did find it annoying that all of his moves are horribly expensive, especially when they aren't as broken as some other moves, so he always felt like one of the least developed party members on my team. Not helped when he starts going MIA for some of the later missions. He's a bit easier for my to play as than Cinque, but my aversion to his personality and role in the story has me let the A.I. deal with him more than me personally. Also, am I the only one who thinks he should roll up the sleeves of his school jacket just to balance out his look? I mean he's trying too hard to look like some regal superhero. Guy needs to pull the rod out of his ass and lighten up.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Would be interested to know if you obtained any new outfits and if you have a preference for what you like on different characters.

Using this picture, for example, I think Nine looks really good in the red coat but I can't remember if I unlocked those or not.

76881

[Wolf Kanno]

I unlocked most of the summer outfits except for Deuce and Cinque because it's hard to get the 30 Killsight for them without grinding specific enemies.

I kept flubbing missions, so I never achieved the SPP rank needed for the cool Winter Uniforms, so I will aim for that in my ng+ playthrough. I don't think I have the patience to try and unclok the new Gold Uniforms for the HD version after looking at the requirements.

[Psychotic]

What are your thoughts on the soundtrack?Answer my question! I DEMAND TO KNOW

[Fynn]

I can share mine, if you’d like!

[Aulayna]

Glad to see this game finally getting some more love on EoFF.

if we weren't so close to VII-R I'd totally bust out the old sig/av sets again.

[Psychotic]

I can share mine, if you’d like!Do so immediately.

[Fynn]

Ok so overall I am enjoying the soundtrack. However, I feel that Takeharu Ishimoto is out of his comfort zone here and it shows. I think he works best in TWEWY, Crisis Core and Dissidia, since it’s clear that heavy metal, pop, and techno is where he truly excels. Some of the symphonic tracks in Type-0 really work, but others not so much, especially the ones where he uses violin midis that just go way hire than any actual violin would never go, so that’s kinda grating to me, though I don’t notice it as much in the game proper. I do like the main theme though and how it’s rearranged in different tracks. It’s got a very strong melody.

My biggest pet peeve with this soundtrack, however, is the world map theme. In isolation, it’s a perfectly fine, very epic track - but why in the smurf is it a rearrangement of the Chocobo theme? The world map theme is supposed to be the main theme, or at least something that drives home the tone of the game, and to use such an iconic theme in the series to play as your main world map theme for a game that’s all about the horrors of war is just... bafflingly distracting? I would’ve adored this track as this game’s Chocobo theme - as a world map theme it‘s just grating

[Psychotic]

Oh man yeah! I forgot about the chocobo theme world map. What on earth was that about?!

[Wolf Kanno]

The OST isn't bad. It's got a nice historical epic feel to it and I like a lot of Ishimoto's arrangement for the Chocobo theme (including the world map) and the Moogle theme. The ending theme was really poignant, especially with that ending. I feel my biggest issue with the OST is that it feels like you only really here about four or five tracks for most of the game, so it didn't take long before I was tuning things out. Not a bad OST, but not something I'm itching to pick up either. I still think The World Ends with You was Ishimoto's best OST. I was never partial to CC's score, and Dissidia was okay, but I've honestly heard better arrangements of some of those FF themes on OCRemix.

Update:

I'm in NG+ still playing on normal Mode so I can tackle the Expert Trials and Crimson Codes without pulling my hair out. Its going by a lot faster as I'm already at Chapter 3. The new plot elements have been good, and I'm happy we finally got to meet Tiz (Ten) and Joker as I was a little perplexed they were absent from the card motif. I will say that I'm probably going to power through this playthrough as I really want to move onto a few other games at the moment, but I know if I don't do this now, it will be forever before I get back to it.

One final thing I forgot to mention in my overviews is that I do appreciate keeping up with the NPCs in this game. The ones in towns don't change much, but it is interesting for the cadets. I feel for Fuyu the most, the awkward little sister to Aki who really has a rough time of it. I think the real horror concerning the crystal stealing the memories of the dead from the living plays out the best with the NPCs as opposed to the main story. Though creepy scientist guy does add some real layers to it.

I am also grateful that certain questlines carry over. I may have to start all over with Carla (apparently I missed the first time she asks for money) but I'm grateful Emina and Science boy start back where you left off. I also think its cool that the symbol of quest completion for some of the NPC remain when you redo it.