World of Final Fantasy has been announced exclusively for PlayStation 4 & PlayStation Vita in 2016 as an all-new JRPG Final Fantasy spin-off with a chibi art-style.
Check out the debut trailer for World of Final Fantasy.
World of Final Fantasy was dismissed by many who saw it due to it’s very kiddy graphical style. They assumed it must be a free-to-play title that takes after mobile games, or a game made exclusively for kids.
“While my games are dark, I’m trying to make World of Final Fantasy a lighthearted, fun type of game, but with the heavy stories Final Fantasy is known for to keep the FF feel.” – World of Final Fantasy Director Hiroki Chiba
However World of Final Fantasy is a full-blown Final Fantasy title that will have a deep storyline by Hiroki Chiba, whose previous works include Final Fantasy: Type-0, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, so World of Final Fantasy is definitely in good hands.
Chiba says that a deep storyline is the aim of World of Final Fantasy, with a plot that involves two twins who get sucked into a world called “Gimoire”, where the monsters, locations, characters & stories that fans know & love from the Final Fantasy universe, exist.
“I personally worked on Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, and Final Fantasy 8, so I’m trying to aim for that volume of a story that was in those titles with World of Final Fantasy,” Hiroki Chiba told Kotaku.
While a full-on Final Fantasy experience is the aim, the goal of World of Final Fantasy is to appeal to both young & old alike, and to reach younger gamers who did not grow up with past Final Fantasy games and to whom all these characters, worlds & monsters are new.
To that end, World of Final Fantasy not only offers a new kid-friendly art-style, but it also will feature a Pokemon-style Monster Catching & Raising element.
Check out the actual announcement of World of Final Fantasy at Sony’s E3 2015 Press Conference in this video.
And as the trailer reveals, you will interact with locations, characters & monsters from throughout the Final Fantasy pantheon, as you can see with Chibi-Cloud from the trailer. These characters will have their own sidequests and plots to unravel as you play (one of the locations you’ll visit is Corneria Castle from Final Fantasy I).
The game will be turn-based, with the ATB (Active Time Battle) Mechanic from old Final Fantasy games making a return. Characters will be able to switch between small & big forms; which changes both how you battle and how you can explore the world. The ATB element has been upgraded to make it more modern, and Monsters you capture can be ridden, including Behemoth & Iron Giant, during Battle, which opens up new elements of strategy & tactics.
“I actually had a direct order from Final Fantasy brand manager Shinji Hashimoto in regards to how to approach World of Final Fantasy. While my games are dark, I’m trying to make this more into a lighthearted, fun type of game. But at the same time, Final Fantasy games are known for their very heavy stories, so I’m trying to keep that in there to keep that Final Fantasy feel in the game,” spoke director Hiroki Chiba.
I always love to see new interpretations of a universe that I adore, so I’m very excited about World of Final Fantasy and seeing where they take the game and how it compares to other titles.
Since we are getting all of the Final Fantasy games we desire, such as Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy XVI (Agni’s Philosophy?) or whatever it is that Square Enix is working on next.
So with all of this, I can definitely give Square Enix a lot of slack and leeway to explore something new.
Personally I’m looking forward to World of Final Fantasy! Especially given the comments of Chiba above!
Do you think World of Final Fantasy will be a fun new title?
Here’s the World of Final Fantasy image gallery.
Click on any of these image thumbnails to see the full-size photos:
