WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY® Reviews

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[h2]An interesting spin on the Creature Collector genre that is only held back by a lackluster narrative and somewhat unrefined combat gimmicks—an overall okay experience that slightly overstays its welcome.[/h2] [h3]Story and Setting[/h3] Players control the amnesiac siblings Reynn and Lann, who awake in an entirely empty city. There, they meet the enigmatic Enna Kros, who explains to them that they are so-called Mirage Keepers, and in order to recover their memories, they will have to embark into the land of Grymoire. Grymoire, effectively, is a giant amalgam of various Final Fantasy worlds squished into a largely comedic and shounen-esque adventure setting. For instance, the second chapter takes the player into WOFF’s version of Cornelia, from Final Fantasy I, wherein they are introduced to the various races of Grymoire—most notably the Lilikin’s, which are the Chibi-fied versions of the more well-known original Final Fantasy characters—as well as the overarching conflict with the Bahamutian Army. The writing isn’t ideal and suffers from a variety of issues. Chief among them is that WOFF heavily relies on its references to other Final Fantasy titles. On its very face, someone who is not otherwise aware of the other titles will barely be able to build a connection to the various characters, as each chapter tends to be relatively short and not particularly keen on breaking the constant norm of lighthearted adventure storytelling. While this writing does fit the aesthetic of the game, it does very little to support the gravitas the story is trying to build—especially towards the overly depressing ‘regular’ ending, before heading into the Postscript. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428115707 That is to say, WOFF cannot really be recommended for its narrative. And even for people who are aware of its inspirations, it’s a pretty rough sell, as the novelty of seeing your favorite characters play a heavily distilled role of themselves for an hour or two before passing the spotlight to the next character can wear off pretty quickly. [h3]Gameplay[/h3] WOFF, fundamentally, is a Creature Collector—with some very unique twists I have not seen in other contemporary titles within the genre. The most unique feature is the Stack-System. In essence, every character, including the twins, is assigned a size category ranging from S to L, and also XL as a special type. Players now have two stacks to build—with one slot for each size, leading to a full team of six characters. As the name suggests, characters literally stack on top of one another and thereby add their various stats together. Equally, stacks can be undone to be able to control each character individually at the cost of vastly reduced stats against the enemy. This, at first, is pretty janky as it severely limits your team-building options; however, it also works pretty decently as a core combat mechanic. The second unique aspect of the gameplay is that each Mirage—i.e., capturable character—features a unique skill tree that players can progress through and which partially applies across its various evolutions. I don’t think this is particularly amazingly implemented for a variety of reasons. Each node individually does not feel like it is particularly powerful, unless it features a new active ability; it is also often the case that evolutions are not merely locked behind a level—leading to quite a number of characters being artificially locked halfway through the game for no discernable reason by the player. Overall, a huge issue with WOFF is that there is little reason to switch between characters by the time you hit the midgame. The team with which I beat the final chapter was exactly the same as the team I used ten chapters ago, and the crux of this is that level-ups and peripheral power systems are simply more impactful than individual skill trees. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427473128 New monsters cannot just be caught. Every capturable enemy has a unique prerequisite to become capturable for a time. This may be as simple as dealing regular damage but can also be a bit more difficult and require elaborate setting up, such as the fight needing to only have the enemy and a single character on your team alive. I have no strong feelings about this; occasionally it can be fairly annoying if you find an enemy you really want to capture but are incapable of doing so due to lacking the ability coverage needed to make it capturable—on the other hand, it also introduces some nice reactivity during mundane gameplay and makes you consider your limited team options more strongly. Finally, dungeon design is also a little mediocre and typically is very linear with simple gimmicks to break up the monotony. They’d be fine if they weren’t excruciatingly long. There are pretty disgusting outliers such as the Big Bridge from FF V, which here is, of course, also just a linear bridge, stretching for multiple screens at a time that almost entirely only consists of pressing forward and tackling the random encounters. The Big Bridge is a very on-the-nose example of this by virtue of its setting alone, but many dungeons do not feel vastly different from being a mostly straight corridor—it isn’t necessarily horrible, and there often is some variation in how to navigate them, but the issue is fundamentally in the sheer length many dungeons stretch out to. [h3]Graphics and Sound[/h3] Graphically, WOFF is also a very mixed bag. Monster models, as well as the Lilikin, are nicely detailed and remain expressive; however, regular human models often skirt on the uncanny—which is particularly jarring given the presence of Reynn and Lann throughout the story. Environments tend to be pretty gorgeous and excel at showcasing select locations from other Final Fantasy titles. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3427473186 This presentation was, for me, the most enjoyable experience while playing WOFF—walking into Saronia Docks and hearing a remixed FF V’s [i]Pirates Ahoy[/i] was just one of many memorable moments. One outlier was rare, fully animated cutscenes—somewhat comparable to how Persona would include little anime-esque scenes between chapters. I didn’t find them to be particularly enjoyable, however, in large part due to the included writing, rather than the quality of the animation itself. [h3]Technical Issues and Performance[/h3] WOFF ran overall surprisingly well. Looking around at other reviews and the Discussions board, a frequent complaint is that the game crashes on startup. This is true; however, it is also easily fixed by launching the game as an Administrator. Past this, and some graphical limitations, I have not encountered any issues throughout my playthrough. [h3]Final Thoughts[/h3] WOFF is a victim of mediocrity—and a victim of being a game for an extremely niche audience. To be able to enjoy its story, players need to be pretty aware of many other FF titles while also being able to stomach its juvenile story and also being into this kind of turn-based RPG—of which it is very innovative itself. But if you are in this niche, and thankfully, I am—then WOFF is an okay experience to go through that simply makes me wish Square Enix took the experience they made with this title and truly made a sequel that worked out the little complaints that currently stain its experience. A smoother power progression, a less intrusive protagonist, a refined Stack-System, and a gentler experience curve; and I would be confident that WOFF could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its genre peers. Sadly, however, it remains only just an okay experience for a handful of highly devoted Final Fantasy fans.