World of Final Fantasy

The individual parts are all solid: they just don't all play nice when mixed up. [Christmas 2016, p.82]

Solid (if somewhat easy later on) combat mechanics also make up for shortcomings elsewhere, with the stack system presenting some interesting tactical possibilities.

World of Final Fantasy certainly is an inconsistent, yet intriguing experience. There’s a touching tale set against wonderful locations and characters drawn from Final Fantasy’s rich history, but its best parts are short-lived. The visuals nail the storybook vibe, and they’re accompanied by a solid soundtrack featuring original compositions and beautiful new arrangements of classic pieces. Yes, the combat system is obviously heavily influenced by a certain popular Nintendo franchise, but Square Enix has put a unique spin on the formula with the stacking mechanic.

World of Final Fantasy could be an ongoing offshoot of the FF franchise, and has all the baggage to prove it.

It'll be a grind, but I'm still eager to do it. There are just so many recognizable monsters that hold special places in my heart, it seems like it would be a disservice to neglect them. Plus, there are the post-game bonus dungeons that aren't going to conquer themselves.

World of Final Fantasy is a beautiful game full of nostalgia, but it tries to do several things at once, making it evident that its creators had no idea how to make it appealing to the audience.

It's Fan Service with capitals F and S, offering a lot of content and unique visual style to lure gamers in. However, the graphics are mediocre at best and the overlong tutorials bored us to tears. 

World of Final Fantasy is an incredibly charming and love-filled traditional RPG that will give fans of the series a fuzzy feeling inside until the next big entry in the franchise arrives.

I don’t know exactly how the idea to create World of Final Fantasy came about in the halls of Square Enix, but it’s a game that could have been so much better had it been given different focus. As it is, it’s a relatively enjoyable RPG that offers up some legitimately enjoyable moments while simultaneously causing you to sit in bewilderment at what you’re experiencing.

The lack of challenge and the poor level design are a little bit disappointing, but it's a game with plenty of good ideas and full of fan service. If you can forgive some irregular bits, it's definitely a recommended game.

World of Final Fantasy is a humorous adventure that is just too cute for words, but its combat and exploration aren’t diverse enough to support a campaign nearly as long as this one. However, I did enjoy it for a long time - more than 30 hours - before it wore out its welcome.

The fan service is off the scale, in terms of the number of returning characters and references, but importantly this is also a fun and unique role-player in its own right.

World of Final Fantasy wants to be fan service for everybody, an almost impossible task in such a long-running, varied franchise. In that regard, the game may look like lighthearted filler on the surface. But those shimmers of something greater and World of Final Fantasy’s more original, modern elements are worthwhile, even if they don't quite make up for the hours of annoyances that pay lip service to nostalgia.

Fans of Final Fantasy will undoubtedly find themselves happy with World of Final Fantasy, despite its shortcomings in combat and scope.

World of Final Fantasy is a great-looking game with charm to spare and quite a few cool ideas under its belt, but it never quite nails the pacing and the excellent localization can’t save it from a pedestrian storyline jaunt through linear dungeons. It’s a reasonable option for anyone hankering for some Final Fantasy nostalgia or anyone who wants to overdose on cute and the colorful, but for everyone else it’s merely a decent JRPG with a few too many irritating lows.

The end result isn't the most brilliant Final Fantasy title, and yet it still manages to have those addictive qualities. World of Final Fantasy is hardly perfect. But, especially for anyone who loves all things Pokemon, it is plenty of fun.

World of Final Fantasy seems to be a little forced and it's hard to shake the feeling it's been made as a distraction fueled by nostalgia, part of a marketing plan before Final Fantasy 15. Combat and exploration quickly becomes boring, and there's not much in terms of story and character development.

Unfortunately, you have to put up with a fair amount of frustration and filler before you get to enjoy the best of what World of Final Fantasy has to offer, namely charming writing and Final Fantasy fan service. If you’re willing to put up with some of the game’s mundane sequences, you’ll get some enjoyment out of it, but if you’re not a Final Fantasy fanatic, the magic in these moments may be lost altogether.

World of Final Fantasy isn’t a bad game, just a frustrating one. There are some interesting ideas here and it’s undeniably charming but with just a few tweaks to the gameplay, a more imaginative story and greater variety to the dungeons, this could have been something truly great.

At the very least I hoped that World of Final Fantasy could have re-invoked the best qualities of its kin: open-world exploration, interesting characters, and epic stories. It lacks all of these elements and suffers for it.

World of Final Fantasy offers up a great tribute to the history of the franchise, but as its own game it has little to nothing of substance to say.

World of Final Fantasy's opening hours show a lot of promise for fans and newcomers alike, but the longer you spend with it, the more its lack of depth becomes apparent.