Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Final Fantasy, game review, HRL, Square Enix, Steam, World of Final Fantasy

Review: World Of Final Fantasy On Steam Is Just As Cute, But A Little Less Functional

Published Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:20:33 -0600

Let's start this one off with something obvious. I'm pretty much the textbook definition of a target audience for World of Final Fantasy — so much so that this is the second platform I'm playing the game on. And the Steam port of the game is still adorable and still has the same fantastic story, but is a bit disappointing in terms of what PC gamers want out of their games.

As Kotaku points out in their review of the Steam version of the game, it starts off as a windowed screen for some unfathomable reason. And you can't change that within the game itself. Instead, you have to enter a configuration tool through your Steam library, which gives you four display settings to toggle. Each setting has only a few options. So if you were hoping to play around with the frame rate or modify any of the rendering, well, you will be sorely disappointed.

PC players, despite having to wait over a year for the game to come to Steam, are naturally very unhappy that the game is locked in at 30 FPS. After all, frame rate is the current go-to modification for PC gamers. Though as someone who grew up on consoles, feels most comfortable on console, and scoffs at people who insist they can tell the difference between 120 and 180 FPS, I'm not too bothered by the frame-rate lock. Also, that's exactly how the game was played on PS4 and Vita, so I'm really not surprised by that.

Despite the lack of customization options, I wasn't too bothered by the game, except for a personal case of severe lag when it comes to the character's voiceovers. My game's visuals were a good two seconds slower than the audio feed, which meant that things were oddly disconnected.

But don't get too discouraged, as the PC version does come with a couple of pretty OP cheats built right into the game. You don't need to unlock them; they come pre-built, though you will have to turn them on. If you've already played through World of Final Fantasy, then you may want to pop those on and go have a ball flailing your way through the game at ridiculous speed. If you haven't played through it already, I'd suggest not doing so.

In fact, some players have gone to the game's Steam discussion board to request that the cheats be taken out of the game entirely.

All the technicalities aside, World of Final Fantasy plays pretty darn well on Steam. The game looks great, plays well both with traditional keyboard controls and with a gamepad connected if you prefer that style of play. Since the game's Active Time Battle system is pretty much a turn-based combat engine, there isn't much of an advantage on keyboard over gamepad. Plus, this is a strictly single-player experience, so there's no competitive PVP to worry about.

The game's story is much like that of any Final Fantasy game, as it should be. You control Lann, who, alongside his sister Raynn, is a legendary Mirage Keeper who has managed to lose all of his memories. On the day the game picks up, Lann and Raynn become aware of the fact that the world around them is empty. And that then kicks off the action. Lann and Raynn venture into the Grymoire to go collect powerful mirages. And you encounter famous characters from Final Fantasy games past along the way.

And yes, that does mean you get to play with Cloud. Of course you do.

So in the end, the game is still pretty fun — and absolutely adorable. That's really the benchmark, because that was the entire point of World of Final Fantasy. It's an all-ages type game (specifically the ESRB has rated it E 10+) that takes all of the various Final Fantasy characters and stories and collects them into one game, while being ridiculously cute on top of it.

In fact, it might be the cutest thing I've ever seen. That is, except for the Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition.

So if you're willing to put up with a more restrictive setup with a locked-in 30FPS speed and a ton of cuteness, it's worth it. If not, well, best pass this one on by.

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