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Final Fantasy Type-0 Hands-on Preview – TGS
By Janelle | September 20, 2014 at 12:24 pm
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Type-0 for the PSP was never released in the west, so Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One represents a second chance for western fans of the series to get their hands on this game.
Being an HD remake of a PSP game, the there are some noticable differences in how the game looks and feels. The characters are larger, and the field of view a bit smaller. The largest difference is the camera, which can now be controlled with the right analog stick, a huge quality-of-life improvement for the game. Unfortunately for the demo, the camera was sensitive, and loved to swing around cinematically during combat, making it jerky and difficult to handle. The camera also made very large jumps during lock-on mode that were jarring on a big screen. The menus are a nice improvement, with clear and easy to read text and an improved color scheme. Most of the menu options were disabled for the demo.
Type-0‘s core gameplay remains unchanged. Players take three characters at a time, each with a special weapon, into real-time action combat, where they can use weapon skills and customized spells to mow down enemies. When locked on to enemies, a special trigger will appear when that enemy is especially vulnerable, and striking the foe during that window can lead to major damage or even an instant kill. Fallen foes can be absorbed, gaining the character some MP and crystal pieces for magic customization, and creating an explosion that damages nearby enemies. Corpses can be chained together and absorbed all at once for increased effect.
The demo started players in a somewhat tricky mission, and locked players into using only three of the many cast members available–Rem, Seven and Ace for short-, mid-, and long-range attacks. The mission, which had enemies firing on players from the top of unscalable high walls, would have benefited from a more accurate long-range attack like Trey’s bow or King’s pistols. Items were inaccessible and magic couldn’t be customized beforehand, though characters were rigged with Reraise for the demo, which was helpful because it can be easy to die in Type-0.
Visually, the HD upgrade is nice, but not next-generation nice. The textures and colors are clear and ground textures seem especially improved, but character models have some jagged edges.
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD will be released in Japan in March 19, 2015.
Topics: Final Fantasy Type-0, Previews, Tokyo Game Show, Tokyo Game Show 2014