Final Fantasy Type-0 is about to see the light of day in both North America and Europe next week in the form of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
If you’ve been keeping tabs on Type-0 then you will likely know all of the information in this article already, but a lot of Final Fantasy fans are still in the dark on what Final Fantasy Type-0 HD actually is. We’ve put together this handy guide of 4 things that Final Fantasy fans need to know about the upcoming release to help them decide if they are interested in a day one purchase.
You can breed chocobos!
Everybody’s favourite minigame from Final Fantasy VII has been brought back for Type-0 HD and it’s better than ever. Chocobos with as wide ranging hues from light green to dark purple can be bred, each with their own different stats in speed, attack and evasion.
Breeding should be familiar to all long time Final Fantasy fans, with the ability to capture wild chocobos and the use of greens to affect the type of chocobo you’re going to get. Interestingly chocobos in the world of Type-0 are born into broods, and so there’s a chance you could find yourself with 8 eggs ready to hatch!
There are a couple of downsides to breeding, however. The first is that your chocobo is “expended” once you decide to breed with it, so don’t get too attached to old Boko. The second is that it takes a whopping six in game hours for a chocobo egg to hatch and mature!
It has a fantastic soundtrack
Takeharu Ishimoto was brought on board to compose the original soundtrack for FF Type-0, and he has previously worked on other Square-Enix titles such as Crisis Core and The World Ends With You.
Ishimoto was given the themes of war, life and death and so he tried to shift away from the usual rock songs that he likes to write, and instead went with a more orchestral and choral theme, recorded in none other but the Sydney Opera House.
The HD version has remixed and re-recorded songs, and a brand new song composed for this version called “Transience”. Ishimoto lists his favourite songs from the soundtrack as “What Becomes of Us” and “Peaceful fighting”, both of which are included in this article for your auditory pleasure.
It forms part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series
FF Type-0 shares its mythos with the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy and with the upcoming Final Fantasy XV. That means that yes, the term L’Cie is going to be flying around with fervour again.
If you weren’t a fan of the FFXIII trilogy though then don’t worry, as the concept is implemented in a different way in Type-0. The game is set in the world of Orience, a world with four different nation states each based around one of the four crystals.
A L’Cie is branded by one of these four crystals and is bound to serve its will. Each L’Cie is given the gift of eternal youth, though this is counterbalanced by the gradual loss of both emotions and memories. A pretty neat stylistic choice for the L’Cie is that their eyes will glow with the colour of the crystal they are serving.
The original was a smash hit in Japan
Final Fantasy Type-0 was both a critical and commercial success when it was originally released for PSP in Japan, and has to date sold over 810,000 copies, being added to Square-Enix’s Ultimate Hits list.
Famitsu magazine in Japan gave it a 39/40 score, noting that its vast array of characters made for “a very different FF” and stating “The amount of volume here is overwhelming, too - you get the idea they really did everything they wanted to with this title”. Dengeki PlayStation handed the game a 91.25, averaged out over four reviewers, opining that the “tension of battle” was a particular high point.
The title was so successful that it spawned an episodic spin off game for iOS and Android called Final Fantasy Agito, presently boasting over a million users. It has also been serialised in manga and novel forms due to its popularity.
So there we are! For all of the initiated, we hope our little guide has given you some insight into the latest addition to the game series we all know and love, and maybe if you're interested it'll inspire you to check Final Fantasy Type-0 HD out when it releases next week!
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