4 things all Final Fantasy fans should know about Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

YOU CAN BREED CHOCOBOS?! How did I not know about this.

I've had this pre-ordered for a while as I really fancied the look of it. Some of the videos I've seen on Youtube look pretty slick, especially when you consider it was a PSP game.

It will be arriving on my doorstep on day one!

The chocobo breeding, with color blending and stat variance, sounds like what I was daydreaming they'd implement in XV. I guess this means they won't, but that makes me all the more excited for Type-0!

Also happy to hear Ishimoto moved away from rock for this OST...I wasn't super enamored with his work on Crisis Core.

I'm super psyched about this game! I'm gonna need to get a PS4 for this!

I wish I had a job.

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Originally Posted by Freya

YOU CAN BREED CHOCOBOS?! How did I not know about this.

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First I've heard of it as well.

Also I knew that this game was part of the FNC and that it would have a different interpretation of the mythos, but this is the first I've heard about how L'Cie ties in to Type-0.

I AM EXCITE.

Chocobo breeding! :D
Six hours!? :(

It is looking really nice! Have it pre-ordered, can't wait to get it.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Chocobo breeding! :D
Six hours!? :(

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Six *in game* hours. Not sure what time that works out to in real time.

Ah, yeah, forgot that. Shouldn't be too bad, especially if there is a way to fast forward using campfires.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Ah, yeah, forgot that. Shouldn't be too bad, especially if there is a way to fast forward using campfires.

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I didn't even realise that Type-0 had in game time so I'm not sure how it will work.

There's also an overworld map with random encounters and an airship you can fly around, like the first nine Final Fantasy games had.

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Originally Posted by DMKA

There's also an overworld map with random encounters and an airship you can fly around, like the first nine Final Fantasy games had.

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Oh and aren't there airship battles?

Okay wow, I knew like ... none of this stuff. Airships and overworlds and chocobos. Oh my

Also whats-her-face's legs are pretty sexy in that chocobo pic

No, I haven't been drinking .... much

I got hold of a copy yesterday and it's pretty great so far. (SPOILER)Don't worry about the six hours in-game time - in between missions you get a set amount of hours of 'free time' with which you can run around talking to people/buying items and equipment/completing smaller missions and other stuff. Every time you complete something it uses up two hours of your free time so Chocobo breeding shouldn't really take too long.

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Originally Posted by Perducci

I got hold of a copy yesterday and it's pretty great so far.

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H-How :stare:

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Originally Posted by The White Wizard of Fynn

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Originally Posted by Perducci

I got hold of a copy yesterday and it's pretty great so far.

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H-How :stare:

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:smug: I work in a video game store and we got our delivery a week early. FFXV demo code will be unusable until next week, though.

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Originally Posted by Perducci

I got hold of a copy yesterday and it's pretty great so far. (SPOILER)Don't worry about the six hours in-game time - in between missions you get a set amount of hours of 'free time' with which you can run around talking to people/buying items and equipment/completing smaller missions and other stuff. Every time you complete something it uses up two hours of your free time so Chocobo breeding shouldn't really take too long.

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So lucky.

Also I read your spoiler when I quoted you (luckily it's not a spoiler at all xD) so note to self: don't quote posts with spoiler tags. I like the sound of whatever it was you were talking about, which I won't say incase of spoiling the non-spoiling spoiler.

Ah, I'm pretty excited for this! I pre ordered it so hopefully I can dive right on in after I drool over how nice the box art looks. I hope this soundtrack is one to make me cry! Breeding chocobos should be fun, I just wonder to what extent the stats will vary.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

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.

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No. :erm:

It literately has one theme. The soundtrack is literately Variations on a Theme of Type-0. The vocal tracks are practically a joke.

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Originally Posted by Leigh

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

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.

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No. :erm:

It literately has one theme. The soundtrack is literately Variations on a Theme of Type-0. The vocal tracks are practically a joke.

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Just because the soundtrack mostly comprises of variations on a track doesn't make it bad. In fact, it makes it more thematically cohesive. Hamauzu does that a lot and it was used to great effect in FFXIII, regardless of the game's actual quality.

Disagreed Leigh, soundtrack has a buttload of variety and I like a lot of the songs on it.

Well we will agree to disagree then! :) I personally found XIII a pretty bland affair, as the thematic cohesiveness struggles to translate to a medium that you spent some 50 hours within. Then again, the joys of melody seem to have been substituted in favour of a seamless transision in musical ambience amongst modern composers.

There may be nothing wrong with the way it is presented in the game, but I will never understand why someone would buy the soundtrack to listen standalone. There seems to be a great push for minimalism in soundtracks these days, in a desperate attempt to emulate their cousin; the motion picture, which started the whole trend with the Hans Zimmerfication of every single soundtrack.

Oh well. I cannot comment on modern music, I don't listen to anything post year 2001! Haha

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Originally Posted by Leigh

Well we will agree to disagree then! :) I personally found XIII a pretty bland affair, as the thematic cohesiveness struggles to translate to a medium that you spent some 50 hours within. Then again, the joys of melody seem to have been substituted in favour of a seamless transision in musical ambience amongst modern composers.

There may be nothing wrong with the way it is presented in the game, but I will never understand why someone would buy the soundtrack to listen standalone. There seems to be a great push for minimalism in soundtracks these days, in a desperate attempt to emulate their cousin; the motion picture, which started the whole trend with the Hans Zimmerfication of every single soundtrack.

Oh well. I cannot comment on modern music, I don't listen to anything post year 2001! Haha

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Hey, I keep listening to the XIII soundtrack. I love Hamauzu's impressionistic flavor.

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Originally Posted by The White Wizard of Fynn

Hey, I keep listening to the XIII soundtrack. I love Hamauzu's impressionistic flavor.

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There's no Yoda's Theme though. :(

If people like it, then all is cool if it works for them. :) For me, though, it feels like Track 1 is reasonably interesting, and you're waiting for the next exciting tune, only to be presented with 60 repeat cycles of Cleyra's Trunk. :p

I jest of course, but I just don't find the music memorable. The problem is the structuring of modern soundtracks. It's incredibly well layered, I can't say they are 'bad' or untalented conposers, but in balancing out harmony and rhytmn, they seem to underdevelop the punchline, an actual exciting and interesting melody.

I just played a couple hours of it and there was quite a variety of music, it didn't all sound like different renditions of the same tune. But maybe it gets more prevalent later in the game? Otherwise I'm not sure where that allegation stems from

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Originally Posted by Vyk

I just played a couple hours of it and there was quite a variety of music, it didn't all sound like different renditions of the same tune. But maybe it gets more prevalent later in the game? Otherwise I'm not sure where that allegation stems from

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I haven't had the chance to play the game, so my accusations are mainly based on just listening to the soundtrack as music for the sake of music.

I'll try and elaborate a little more on the dynamics of the soundtrack. There are multiple melodies of course. The problem stems from a lack of musical variety. It is awash full of uninspired ostinato and heavy rock-influenced drumming. Everything feels like it needs a vocal line over the top of it.

The tracks that do have a melody of recognisable quality are few and far between. And these are overused in terms unashamedly throughout the track listings.

The Beginning of the End / 我ら来たれり / Warera Kitareri
Theme reused in : -

- Three Hours That Changed the World
- Horror of the Abyss
- Guided Conclusion
- Arms of Steel
- White Lightning/Thunder
- A Day Like Any Other
- The Heart Boils
- War: Life of Darkness
- The Vanishing Soul
- Human Strength and Weaknesses
- Divine Fire
- Vermilion Fire
- Ending Theme (Type Zero)

It is my understanding that 'Time of Tranquillity / Peaceful Times' is used as the defacto theme for 'every' town? Now since I haven't played the game, perhaps there isn't simply enough variety in location to warrant a multitude of original composition work.

My frustration comes from that, being an ex-PSP title, there is room to be a little more interesting with the soundtrack. The graphical quality isn't rendered in the hyper-realism of flagship consoles. Less focus on having to meet cinematic sound expectations of blending perfectly with the environment. I am aware though that this is 2011/2015. Perhaps there isn't a call for original compositions for every situation anymore.

Maybe I just find him a boring composer, so there may be more tunes than I can cognitively accept, therefore I might just disregard them from my consciousness as being little more than interludes and transitional set pieces to the next variant of "The Beginning of the End / What Becomes Of Us". I might just be living in the past. I just find it boring, no matter how much I listen and try to like it. :cry:

Let's crack open the FF Wiki for this one.

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The "Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII" plays while the party travels on the overworld before the Meteor is summoned, but as the game's main theme, its motif is heard in many instances throughout the story. Its variations are the tracks "Holding My Thoughts into my Heart", which plays when the party leaves Midgar and at Mt. Corel, as well as in several towns; "Steal The Tiny Bronco!", which plays during the sequence at Rocket Town where the party acquires the Tiny Bronco; "On That Day, 5 Years Ago", which plays during the Nibelheim Incident flashback; and the airship theme, "Highwind takes to the Skies". The melody of the main theme is also included in the game's ending theme, "Staff Roll". Bits of the main theme melody also play in the background of "Under the Rotting Pizza", which is the theme of the Midgar Slums, and in "Who... Am I?" that plays during times Cloud questions his identity.

The main theme melody plays late into the "The North Cave" track, that plays in the Whirlwind Maze of the Northern Crater and on the overworld after Meteor has been summoned. The main theme is also part of the ending when "The Planet's Crisis" plays; many themes appear in "The Planet's Crisis" as it plays during the game's final cutscene of the game. The main theme is played twice: first at 1:13, (alongside "Tifa's Theme"), then at 5:00, with a quiet piano while the characters talk.

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Reusing/sampling a main theme is absolutely fine.

Luckily I prefer Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack! ^_^

And there are lot more themes I can hum from Final Fantasy VII that aren't related to the Overworld Theme! Which I doubt will be the case with Type-0.

Different strokes for different folks I guess! :)

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Originally Posted by Leigh

Luckily I prefer Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack! ^_^

And there are lot more themes I can hum from Final Fantasy VII that aren't related to the Overworld Theme! Which I doubt will be the case with Type-0.

Different strokes for different folks I guess! :)

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While true, you have to keep in mind this isn't a be-all and end-all game for Square-Enix, but rather a port of a PSP game. The soundtrack was designed for a game that was designed to be released in a single region. Now that it's going global, I can hardly imagine they would redo the soundtrack from scratch.

I agree that variation is great, but if you sit and listen to a soundtrack then you will find that a lot of games re-use themes a lot of the time, and that's just the result of listening to each track once. When you play a game, you notice the re-use of the theme but as other songs are played more often than once, the breakup of said songs becomes more tolerable. I would never say that VII overused the theme or even got close to it, because of the other awesome tracks that were very important. If every single track that doesn't use the theme ends up being used only once, then sure, that's something you could be annoyed about. But for all you know, one of those other songs that didn't use the theme is akin to Aerith's Theme, Gold Saucer, Those Who Fight or the Turk's Theme, and get played a lot as well to help break up any repetition.

This is why I generally play games before I listen to soundtracks. ;)

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

This is why I generally play games before I listen to soundtracks. ;)

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Yeah...I tend to be swayed too much by my initial visceral interpretation and get ahead of myself. I mean no ill to those who have played and like the soundtrack as is. I may change my mind. I have a tendency to 'jump the gun'. ^^;

My default state in life tends to be 'Doom and Gloom'. Haha!

Well, I guess you can only end up pleasantly surprised that way. ^^;

FF8 is majorly guilty of just using the same two/three songs as a base.

Nothing wrong with not liking the soundtrack, of course. Just feels like you're grasping for reasons you don't like it, and coming up with reasons that can be said of every FF game. It's just not your cup of tea and that's fine.

I'm only a couple hours in and the worst thing I can say about the music so far is that none of the original work sticks with me. Its not bad, it just doesn't register. But I'd much rather not notice the music than hate the music, so that's fine. The main theme that is an actual song from Bump of Chicken is completely memorable. Especially the scene in which its played. And they use the Crystal Prelude a LOT. But honestly, other than that, I've probably only encountered just one town and its theme, the overworld, and the battle/mission music. So I can't say I've been exposed to very many opportunities to weigh in on either side of the argument. It also doesn't really help this particular discussion that I have no experience in breaking down music critically whether objective or not. So I can't critique or refute anything from a compositional standpoint