This Final Fantasy game is yet another in a long string of disappointments from Square; however, that being said it was still a pretty good game as I found it better than part XII and XIII. Just not much better. This is a shame too, as the game had the potential to be incredible as they changed the combat here and while I prefer turn based the action combat in this one was really fun. You had 14 playable characters and all utilized different weapons and skills. Speaking of the characters, they are very well done and you sort of care for them. I say sort of care for them, mainly due to the game's main problem. The story is very problematic and disjointed. The game also relies too much on a second play through to get everything and beat certain bosses. There was a good story in there somewhere, but the best way I can describe it is that you seem to be shown the story in snippets. Many times characters would be talking and the screen just goes dark. You sometimes wonder if what you are watching is a flashback or if it is happening at the moment. The story was just so fragmented, it seems like you were required to do reading or something as things literally happened off screen. So while I had a blast fighting and overall it was okay, the story is kind of garbled.
So the story has a country that primarily uses magic getting invaded by an army. This army employs a magic blocking device and all looks hopeless until a class of students comes in and seems unaffected by the jammer. This is class zero and they are ready to make waves at the academy where young people are trained in the ways of fighting and magic. They will go on various missions trying to take back pieces of their country taken by the invading army and then get caught up in an assassination plot before facing the ultimate threat! An ultimate threat that seemingly comes out of nowhere I might add. Just a lot of stuff going on and you do not get explained half of it, and if it was explained it is done so in a manner you miss it. Not sure why Class Zero was immune to the jammer in the end. Not sure how Cid got all that power in the end and I kept hoping to find out more about Class Zero and the mysterious 'mother' figure who watched over them.
The game play is pretty good as I loved the combat. It was fun using each character and seeing their strengths and weaknesses. Very fast paced and if you could get good with a character you could really kick some booty. I loved the character of Seven as her sword whip was amazing. Most of the game is done in missions and this is another problem with the game in that they made such a huge world, yet exploring it really is not an option. To often you run out of time and must proceed to the next mission. The towns have a sameness about them too. Once again, they had something, but just did not have it fully done or something. Like this was going to be a game that took 120 hours and they compressed it to 40 without adjusting things so it would play right. As fun as the combat was, at times it was annoying too in that a lot of the cool boss battles were pretty much impossible to win until a second play through making them almost pointless. The final boss was one you could not lose. You can do summons, but I only did this one time as it killed the member of your party that did it. Which did not hurt me as I made it through most of the game no problem. I loved the fact you could send a character into something called 'secret training' and level them up while one is away. There are still more elements to the game play, but I would go well over the word count trying to cover it all.
So all in all this game had its moments and while not as good as the Final Fantasy games of old, it is better than some of the more recent entries. The game has elements of XIII in that it has a lot of the terminology that one did and borrows elements from its story. However, you will also notice some of the summons look like the ones in IX and X. There is also a bit of part XII in that the whole fighting a military battle is included and then the fact it is at a university type setting reminds one of VIII. You also get the familiar FF tune which was nice. That being said, it still does not quite feel like an FF game. If only they worked on the story some, as there was just too much unexplained and what was was kind of disjointed. Still not sure how two of the characters survived when it clearly looked as if they died. Thankfully this game's fighting was fast paced and furious and the characters were cool as they save this game from being just plain 'meh'.
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