World of Final Fantasy

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 398 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 288 out of 398
  2. Mixed: 45 out of 398
  3. Negative: 65 out of 398
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  1. GrumpyReviewer
    May 4, 2017
    7
    I am a HUGE Final Fantasy nerd and I was crazy in love with the concept of this game. It just oozed fan service. But... the moment I played the beta/demo I felt something was wrong. It felt kinda boring, to be honest.

    But I kept my hopes high and got the game day one. And it's not that I am/was disappointed. I am/was not. The game can be a lot of fun, the story has some interesting    I am a HUGE Final Fantasy nerd and I was crazy in love with the concept of this game. It just oozed fan service. But... the moment I played the beta/demo I felt something was wrong. It felt kinda boring, to be honest.

    But I kept my hopes high and got the game day one. And it's not that I am/was disappointed. I am/was not. The game can be a lot of fun, the story has some interesting moments, the turn based mechanics (although very simple) are old school in the best way possible, the heroes are ok, the graphics are pure eye candy; I mean, the game is filled with nice things and, indeed, as a concept, it's an interesting game.

    But the thing is... it is still kind of boring, I am not going to lie. I enjoyed it, I liked the story, and got a bit hooked by the whole "gotta catch em all" thing. I honestly don't know what is missing (maybe they shouldn't have complicated the catch mechanics so much), I don't know. I was losing interest half way, to be honest.

    But it is a true (ish) Final Fantasy game that all fans should play. This is a product of love, don't get me wrong. It's just not the great game I thought It was going to be.    … Expand
  2. Luigibros
    Dec 9, 2016
    7
    The main characters are so mind numbingly stupid that I got a concoction from all the face Palms I did to myself, but if your a final fantasy fan I guess it would be worth it
  3. Alokosy
    Dec 4, 2016
    6
    World of Final Fantasy suffers from a bad case of No Mans Sky syndrome; A neat idea that could've been executed so much better. While the game is a fun way to pass the time, visually great and has a story that can somewhat stand up on it's own two legs, I have major complaints with it. If a sequel was to be made, they'd need to nut out a few of these.

    1 - The lack of difficulty scaling:    World of Final Fantasy suffers from a bad case of No Mans Sky syndrome; A neat idea that could've been executed so much better. While the game is a fun way to pass the time, visually great and has a story that can somewhat stand up on it's own two legs, I have major complaints with it. If a sequel was to be made, they'd need to nut out a few of these.

    1 - The lack of difficulty scaling: The difficulty does not scale to your level. At all. What was just a little bit of grinding, ended up putting me so far ahead of the difficulty curve, I was able to speed through the rest of the game repeating the basic attack command (which is actually what I am doing while writing this review), with the exception of bosses and unwinnable conditions.

    2 - The amount of times the game just gives you the middle finger: People over at Square must have serious control issues. There were numerous occasions were - at no fault of the player - the game would launch you into fights where you have 0% chance of winning unless you've grinded to the EXTREME. These are serious mood killers, and don't generally accelerate both the story and the XP bar. Seriously, most of them are due to silly mistakes which are either caused through the main characters stupidity or everyone elses stupidity. [This is where the Cinema Sins 'ding' sound is played].

    3 - Lack of 'Repels' - This game is basically what would happen if Pokemon had an affair with Final Fantasy and made a baby. There is pretty much no where in the wild that you cannot jump into a battle. Which annoys the hell out of me. Seriously, the amount of times I was one step away from a chest, a door or a save point and I fell into battle (which basically did nothing to me due to how over-levelled I was) seriously grinded my gears.

    4 - Those frustrating imprisimtunity conditions: Jesus, this has to be the worst part in what could've been a great game. While I'm all for attempting to what would've been repetitive and boring after a while fun, they did it poorly at best. A lot of the time, in my attempt to be ready for spontaneous boss battles (yeah, those are a thing), I would equip only my highest level mirages. As such, I didn't always have the opportunity to capture other mirages, forcing me into a repetitive cycle in which I want to add a mirage to my team, but can't so I just stick with the team that's annihilating the competition, which only makes that team stronger, thus making it difficult to catch new mirages since I can't even wittle them down any more. Just give me Pokemon's way of doing it - damage + status affect + random chance = catch rate, so I can actually have a chance of catching them all. Not to mention a few occasions when I simply didn't have a mirage capable of even creating an imprismetunity, causing me to need to back-track. Boo to you game for pointlessly extending your 100% time.

    5 - "GIMME GIMME": There is a mechanic in the game in which a sentient block will prevent you from advancing unless you bring a certain item which can only be found in a chest held within the dungeon. This is an extremely poor attempt to drive players to fully explore areas. They did it better when they explained the mechanic of secret areas with special exclusive mirages, but they kept those gimme gimme blocks, so I'm going to complain.

    6 - Bad writing: Look, the story in itself isn't that bad, if you squint your eyes. When looking at it the writing is extremely lazy. Many MANY times, the best explanation they could come up with is "just coz," which is the absolute worst when it comes to writing. Especially when it's the answer to questions THEY [characters in game] ask. If it's not "just coz" it's because a god-like figure which refuses to stop holding our hands (even after saying they would) chose to make things easier for us. That, and one of the main protagonists, speaks in a weird way. Every so often they add "the-" to random words to that their the-conversations can sound like the-this. Which is the-annoying and makes want to the-tear my the-ears off. To add to that, the main antagonist's intentions are about as clear as who the main antagonist even is. And if you could figure that out, you're sherlock holmes. As for the main protagonist, they're clueless idiots who literally obey almost every command they are given, meaning that their growth is attributed to levels and their motivations are driven by other characters, not an internal desire. REALLY lowballing it, considering how great FF's and Kingdom Heart's stories were.

    TL;DR It's a bad game if you don't plan on just having it run in the background while you do other stuff. Otherwise, it's decent at best.    … Expand
  4. slushiaddict
    Nov 3, 2016
    7
    This game has a lot going for it. Finally giving long time fans turn-based combat once more, and with a neat new pokemon-like system of collecting and combining monsters or in this case "mirages". But World of Final Fantasy's greatest strength lies in its feelings of nostalgia. Chibi style or no i found myself smiling with delight every time i saw i character or creature i've enjoyed inThis game has a lot going for it. Finally giving long time fans turn-based combat once more, and with a neat new pokemon-like system of collecting and combining monsters or in this case "mirages". But World of Final Fantasy's greatest strength lies in its feelings of nostalgia. Chibi style or no i found myself smiling with delight every time i saw i character or creature i've enjoyed in the series make its cute debut in the game. However, for all of its strengths its the downsides that end up becoming more of a factor as you progress further and further into the campaign. Collecting and stacking mirages is quite fun, at first. But with well over a hundred and only being able to change them out at save points or the main hub it gets to be a pain of trying to make sure the ones you rely on are properly leveled and the ones you ones you may need also get added time. You can find yourself suddenly facing an enemy and having to go into your collection for one particular creature you've never used and know need to spend time leveling just it up all so you can unlock one particular ability it has that you need to win. I love strategy, but here you must plan and prepare for anything and that's a little hard to do with such a variety of creatures. This gets even more of a pain when in areas of the game there are puzzle switches which require the right combination of mirages to open or treasure areas you cant reach unless you have a mirage with you that has the ability that area requires you to cross. This means anytime you come to one of this points on each map you must hike it all the way back to the start to access your collection and then go all the way back keeping in mind to still try to keep the ones you need in combat. this isn't too bad at first but with longer more enemy ridden areas later in the game it gets extremely frustrating. As for the areas its "rinse and repeat" at its most boring. With 20 chapters in the games main campaign each one begins with discovering a new hallway like area and a classic final fantasy character to go with it. you run down the hallway setup collecting along the way until you reach the random boss at the end then repeat on the next chapter and so on. The story itself is rather bland and if there something more to it its hard to find due the forced corny nonsense jokes the game tries to make literally every dialogue encounter. there is usually one or two lines to push the story along followed by 6 or 8 lines where your main characters take something the other said and somehow force a joke out of it even if it doesn't make a shred of sense. To me, its not the cute aspect that makes this game for children. its the dialogue. not to mention your companion through this game, a cute white fox-like creature named Tama constantly talks to your party but uses the word "the-" in random places that comes off less cute and more annoying because it distracts for any substance she might be talking about. Example: instead of saying "OW! that really hurt me!" Tama will say "The-OW! that really hurt the-me!" See how awkward that is to read? its even harder to hear and focus on the lines and she says it every time she speaks. This game can be a lot of fun at the beginning but i find it becomes more of an annoying bore the more i play it. If you want classic final fantasy this just isn't that unfortunately. Classic characters and turn-based combat are as far as it goes… Expand
  5. perpetualjoe
    Nov 30, 2016
    7
    A fun, but grindy and repetitive experience. It feels like that there just aren't enough callbacks to the FF universe, odd as that sounds. The parts where you are re-exploring classic places and meeting the old characters are the best, but unfortunately they're too spaced apart by grindy, generic dungeons.
  6. DoublePesto
    Nov 12, 2016
    6
    Cute and charming, but devoid of any exciting gameplay. Expect to hold down the "speed up" button a lot while auto battle is on because you will very rarely need to do anything else.
  7. Fyil99
    Oct 31, 2016
    5
    I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy's series, but this game has a very uninteresting story you'll for sure pass and the combat wasn't balanced enough. The combat gets old very quickly and the feeling of progress simple does not exist after about 10h of gameplay. I really believe I won't be able to finish this game, I'm feeling really bored. I've played it for 20h
  8. DCOTE
    Oct 26, 2016
    5
    World Of Final Fantasy presents itself at first as a classic Final Fantasy experience, but when you look beneath the surface, it is anything but. The astonishing level of linearity is the first glaring disappointment that the player will notice, even the earliest Final Fantasies on the Nintendo Famicom had a larger focus on exploration. The world if Grimoire seems like a very lively andWorld Of Final Fantasy presents itself at first as a classic Final Fantasy experience, but when you look beneath the surface, it is anything but. The astonishing level of linearity is the first glaring disappointment that the player will notice, even the earliest Final Fantasies on the Nintendo Famicom had a larger focus on exploration. The world if Grimoire seems like a very lively and fantastic place, but you will hardly ever get a chance to experience that first hand, even the game's towns and over-world areas are just as narrow as the game's disappointingly mediocre dungeons.

    The majority of the gameplay is a rush from point a to point b, fighting monsters in random encounters along a predetermined path to complete objective x or objective y and the game rarely deviates from this structure aside from a handful of lack luster side quests that provide only a brief distraction from the main campaign. The battle system is a watered down version of the ATB system from past games aimed more towards younger players. You can fight with monsters called mirages pokemon style by stacking them, or having them fight on the ground along side you. While interesting at first, the lack of depth that was promised to be available to more experienced players means that most long time fans will find themselves burning through most battles which soon after becomes a tedious task at best.

    The biggest disappointment is not that World Of Final Fantasy isn't the classic Final Fantasy game many fans hoped for, its the fact that it tried to pretend that it was. Final Fantasy XV, square's other major release which will follow in exactly one month, is openly different from the rest of the flock and doesn't try to convince you otherwise. It retains many of the series' best qualities while trying something new at the same time.

    As much as I wanted to be able to, I can not recommend World Of Final Fantasy to long time fans of the series or JRPG fans in general. At best this is a good entry level RPG for beginners and kids, but certainly not the classic experience that was promised, calling up memories of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, known in Japan as Final Fantasy USA.    … Expand
  9. SylvieD
    Oct 25, 2016
    5
    this game is not as expected, the dialogue is boring and leading me to press the FF button (points for that feature) and to skip through most. the game play is... well wait for that ATB meter - fix a coffee, send out a tweet and pick your nose. the selection of buttons through the fighting has all been changed around, why? for no reason. i'll give it a few more hours of play to see ifthis game is not as expected, the dialogue is boring and leading me to press the FF button (points for that feature) and to skip through most. the game play is... well wait for that ATB meter - fix a coffee, send out a tweet and pick your nose. the selection of buttons through the fighting has all been changed around, why? for no reason. i'll give it a few more hours of play to see if i'm wrong but so far, this game is very unimpressive and will probably end up with my collection of disappointing games which have but the purpose in life to collect dust on that shelf...

    The positive reviews are in my impression the nostalgia as opposed to reviews of the actual game's potential.    … Expand
  10. Serenityinaz12
    Oct 25, 2016
    5
    Disappointing to say the least. I'm not a fan of the art style, but I was willing to put that aside and just deal with it, so I'm not factoring the art into my score. Overall the game is just super slow, has an awful story, terrible dialogue and just isn't very fun to me. I'm also not a fan of the Pokémon style of this game. Big disappointment.
  11. awdrifter
    Nov 15, 2016
    6
    The first 35 or so hours of this game is fantastic. If the game would've ended there, it would be an 8/10 game. The character designs are very cute (if you like Chibi style), and the voice acting (Japanese) is very good. But then they started to artificially lengthen the dungeons by basically copy and pasting the same thing over and over (Exnine Castle dungeon has 10 nearly identical mapsThe first 35 or so hours of this game is fantastic. If the game would've ended there, it would be an 8/10 game. The character designs are very cute (if you like Chibi style), and the voice acting (Japanese) is very good. But then they started to artificially lengthen the dungeons by basically copy and pasting the same thing over and over (Exnine Castle dungeon has 10 nearly identical maps you have to go through) and the final boss's difficulty spike is ridiculous. It took me 4-5 hours of walking in circles in Icicle Ridge to grind enough levels to finally beat it. This director also did Final Fantasy 13, so I can clearly see where the bad designs are coming from, I wish he would've learned from his previous game's shortcomings, but I guess not.… Expand
  12. Slytherin
    Aug 18, 2017
    6
    The dialogue in this game is horrible along with the art style. The gameplay is good but the random encounters are terrible and outdated and can be very annoying. Tama is the definition of a horrendous character along with Lann. The story is also very dumb. Though I will say the graphics and the music is nice
  13. OwtDaft
    May 10, 2018
    7
    + The last part of the story is amazing. Why wasn't the whole of the story this interesting.
    + The music is very good and has new versions of classic songs though I prefer the orignals.
    - There needs to be more game between doing dungeons. More event moments. - The story though most of it isn't interesting though it is pretty funny. - You spend way too much time doing dungeons and some    + The last part of the story is amazing. Why wasn't the whole of the story this interesting.
    + The music is very good and has new versions of classic songs though I prefer the orignals.
    - There needs to be more game between doing dungeons. More event moments.
    - The story though most of it isn't interesting though it is pretty funny.
    - You spend way too much time doing dungeons and some are extremely long and tedious.
    - Becomes too easy later one. Makes later dungeons boring and those are the longer ones.
    - Towns are pointless besides been places to get bad fetch quests. Only the Hub town is needed.
    - The towns would be better if they looked more like the towns they are based on.
    - The small "lilikin" characters didn't appeals to me at all. Only in the game for easy animation.    … Expand
  14. Kai82
    Oct 31, 2020
    7
    A charming and enjoyable homage to Final Fantasy. It has an interesting game mechanic and the Pokemon get them all bonus. However the story gets really dark later on and after one twist I despise the main characters with passion and want them to pay for their actions (I will give you the choice to read a comparative example at the end). This seems strange when you played the first hoursA charming and enjoyable homage to Final Fantasy. It has an interesting game mechanic and the Pokemon get them all bonus. However the story gets really dark later on and after one twist I despise the main characters with passion and want them to pay for their actions (I will give you the choice to read a comparative example at the end). This seems strange when you played the first hours and I agree. But lets start at the beginning: It is a turn based RPG where you play as the siblings Lann and Reynn as they want to find out more about their (forgotten) past and the strange state of the world. They travel trough the world of Grymore which is a world made out of Final Fantasy games, themes, characters and stories mixed together. This is a great experience for all Final Fantasy fans as it is enjoyable and nostalgic. The two protagonist are relatable, enjoyable and enhance the story (until the twist). They could have been my favorite protagonists or in the top 10 at least for Square-Enix games. The world is familiar and fresh at the same time. It is a bonus to meet Final Fantasy characters, discovered themes and feel nostalgia. I am not sure if it is an equal experience for people that have not played previous games. Gameplay-wise it has elements from Pokemon. You are catching monsters and use them in battle. There is however an innovation. You can and should build towers with your characters and two monsters (1 tower per character). These towers have the combined stats and abilities of all involved characters. Monsters come in 3 sizes small, medium and large. Your main characters can switch from normal form (medium size) to chibi or small form. Bottom must be a large monster, the middle a medium sized one and the top of the tower a small one. There are many combinations to be tested and it is an immense pleasure to experiment and acquire new monsters. There are also some with combo attacks if used together (For example the two hand like monsters). Be warned if you get hit enough and lose balance the tower collapses and your characters are in a weakened state. The monster design is good and has staples and new ones. The various monster princesses are quite effective if you can beat them ;-). The graphics are beautiful and for the soundtrack they chose countless tracks from previous games. Must I even say that the music is excellent in Final Fantasy? There are countless orchestral performances out there and some are available on YouTube. Everything looks good and the music from Final Fantasy enhances the experience. There are however negatives. Like already mentioned the twist ruined the main characters for me. Then some battles get boring. Not because of difficulty reasons. It is that the enemies have to much health while they are not strong enough to wipe me out or come close to kill my characters. Especially the additional ending requires a lot of these fights. Remark: Because of the Pokemon nature I had already a higher level because I want to capture all monsters. It is maybe a bit too long at the end. Overall this was a refreshing and enjoyable experience. I want to see a sequel. However the negative drag it down a bit. Maybe a 9/10 without the twist and boring parts at the end. Comparative example for the plot twist (Warning: No spoiler for me, more of a warning. May be a spoiler for some or borderline to a spoiler for others). I know about Godwin’s law regarding Hitler. But here it is a fitting example and that is really the core of the problem. Think that your characters have enabled Hitlers rise to power as sole force for his success (to be fair with noble intentions). While they could not know the ramifications they were warned clearly as they later ignored all warnings and stopped the person that wanted to prevent them from this madness with violence.… Expand
  15. tomvs123
    Jul 24, 2018
    5
    As a Final Fantasy veteran (been playing since the original), I was wondering who this game was for. 95% of the game is a reference to older Final Fantasy games, but the story, mechanics, and combat are all quite simple. It's a great game for kids/teens ages 9-17, since it teaches them the basics of JRPGs and turn-based combat without being difficult, but they won't get the references. SoAs a Final Fantasy veteran (been playing since the original), I was wondering who this game was for. 95% of the game is a reference to older Final Fantasy games, but the story, mechanics, and combat are all quite simple. It's a great game for kids/teens ages 9-17, since it teaches them the basics of JRPGs and turn-based combat without being difficult, but they won't get the references. So I feel that this game would work best for kids while their Final Fantasy fan parents watch. Parents could interject now and then and explain who is who and why they are important.

    As far as playing it as a Final Fantasy Fan parent, it's quite average and not very interesting, unless you love monster collecting or pokemon-type games.

    The story is average. You're two bobble-headed kids who have monster-capturing powers and have lost your memories. You spend most of the game catching monsters to recover your memory. While doing so, you find that the world is being taken over by an evil ruler, and of course, your paths intersect. Near the end of the game, you recover your memories and learn the truth of everything. The ending sequences provide a great lesson for children and teens, but the average adult might find it lacking or juvenile.

    The combat is basic, along the lines of the First Final fantasy (but much easier). The active time battle system is included, but that always seemed more like an unnecessary gimmick to me than actually adding something useful or fun. Thankfully, you can put it on wait mode (it waits while you input commands), if you want to try to interject strategy into the combat. But unfortunately, it's not really necessary since the game is easy and you can auto-attack through every non-boss encounter, (until the post-game) as long as you set up your party wisely.

    I was hoping for turn-based combat that requires more strategy (like the Atelier series of games), but didn't find it here. Well, at least it is serviceable with no flaws. Note to Square Enix: When people say they want turn-based games, they don't mean they want the bare basics of a turn-based game. You must add variety and enough challenge to require strategizing. If you can auto-attack your way though the game, then something is wrong.

    The most unique part of the game is the monster leveling-up and stacking system. You can have up to 6 party members/monsters or 2 stacks (of 3 party members each) participate in battle. For the most part, having your party unstacked puts you at a disadvantage, so you'll rarely want to be unstacked. The monster leveling is quite addictive. They each have mini level-up grids that unlock stats and abilities, some of which can be used in the monster's other forms. Each monster has several paths they can take and no level-up points are wasted: You can switch your monster to another of it's forms or to a completely different monster tree at no cost and at any save point.

    The only downside to monster leveling is that by the end of the game, you might have only completed a few monster trees. I wanted to level them up even more (even though there were no real challenges left), so I did a bit of the post-game content. But those dungeons were so much harder and didn't give adequate experience, so it was more efficient to farm prior dungeons. At that point, I realized I was just grinding for the sake of it and I lost all interest in the game.

    I did get the Japanese voices, so listened to them only. The dialogue is full of jokes and puns, so they did a lot of changes to the English script. So you basically get dub-titles. There's no serious issues with it and the changes are mostly limited to those jokes and puns. Though here's hoping that future games have real subtitles.

    To summarize, it's a great monster-collecting/upgrading game for kids (or for people who like kids games - nothing wrong with that). It's quite simple though, so won't hold much interest for some adults or people who want strategy or challenge in their JRPGs.    … Expand
  16. Empyrea
    Jul 11, 2021
    6
    I didn't plan to play this game. First of all because I don't like this trend of big-head characters but you get used to it soon, but I also played this game because I ran out of games. Let's start saying that although it's not a bad a game it's far from being great. I don't think this game deserves more than a 7. Graphics are ok, nothing impressive. The plot is quite meh... Also, the lastI didn't plan to play this game. First of all because I don't like this trend of big-head characters but you get used to it soon, but I also played this game because I ran out of games. Let's start saying that although it's not a bad a game it's far from being great. I don't think this game deserves more than a 7. Graphics are ok, nothing impressive. The plot is quite meh... Also, the last labyrinths became tedious. And some enemies of the secret ending had too much life (you can beat them without grinding but it will be a long battle). Another thing is that there's no auto safe but you can only save over the last saved game so it really don't have any sense. About the rewards, is there any reason why you have to claim the reward when you finish a mission? This is so outdated! One last thing would be that, although voices are good they don't match with the lips (at least in English). It took me 40 hours to beat the game and 12 more to reach the final end. To sum up, play this game only when you have already beaten your good games and if you like turn based RPGs.… Expand
  17. SQLGamer
    Jul 27, 2018
    7
    This game might blow a charming wind in your face at first glance. However if your gonna be staying on this game's trail you need to be dedicated. once the cuteness wears off you're in for a long game that most people couldn't finish. it's a little boring. srry
  18. DarkwingSchmuck
    Mar 3, 2022
    7
    World of Final Fantasy is a rather solid Pokémon clone. Due to a lighter, slightly more shallow story which leans heavily on Final Fantasy fanservice, this kid-friendly spin-off might really only cater to existing fans; however, there is plenty of charm to be had to endear itself to those fans. It's the sort of game where I wouldn't mind a sequel.

Awards & Rankings

61
#61 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2016
43
#43 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 78 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 78
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 78
  3. Negative: 0 out of 78
  1. Video Chums
    Jan 17, 2017
    82
    A great JRPG that any fan of the series should pick up. It may get a little boring from time to time but with such a variety of content to master, how could you pass up exploring this colourful, lively, and fantastical world?
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Jan 13, 2017
    75
    A sort of “best of Final Fantasy” compilation that takes you on a nostalgic journey. [01/2017, p.41]
  3. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Jan 8, 2017
    70
    There are many little bits to love in WOFF, but there’s far less cohesion than there should have been when it’s all thrown in together. [January 2016, p72]
See all critic reviews »