Being an anthology series,Final Fantasycontains within it a lot of variety.Each game aims to be different from the last, and, although that doesn’t always translate to direct improvement, it has led to some bold creative decisions over the years. That said, occasionally, aFinal Fantasygame will fall flat on its face, usually because it tries too hard to be different, and in doing so winds up feeling nothing like aFinal Fantasygame. That’s the case withFinal Fantasy Type-0, a PSP-originalFinal Fantasyspinoff experimentyou’ll never hear remake rumors about.
Admittedly,FF Type-0wasn’t all bad; it had some interesting ideas, even if it didn’t execute them all perfectly. After all, it technically got two sequels, although they are relegated toSquare Enix’s floundering mobile games arm. Ultimately,it fails to deliver what many fans (myself included) want from aFinal Fantasygame, becoming a bit of a black sheep even among the series' motley assortment of spinoffs. But what exactly went wrong, and why didType-0fail so spectacularly?
Final Fantasy Type-0 Is The Worst FF Spinoff
What Went Wrong?
There are lots of half-decentFinal Fantasyspinoffs, butType-0just isn’t one of them. To begin with,it doesn’t tell a particularly good story. It has a suitable foundation: you play as a set of 14 students at a military academy, defending their kingdom from an encroaching militant empire. Now, I typically don’t like stories set amid classes of elite students at a special school (though I make an exception forFF8). But I do appreciateType-0’s willingness to wade into darker territory, directly portraying the brutality of the war you’re waging.
The problem is thatthe characters are underdeveloped, and I think I know why. I’ve always admired theFinal Fantasyseries for keeping its playable parties relatively small, and not going down the “100+ characters to recruit!” route ofgames likeSuikoden. Keeping their main casts small ensures thatFFgames can devote sufficient time to developing each and every character, both in story and in gameplay. A prime example of this isFF7: every party member, even the secret, optional ones, has a backstory and a reason to fight against Sephiroth.
ButFF Type-0has too many playable charactersto give everyone sufficient screen time. For what it’s worth, it does a good job at making each of the 14 Class Zero members feel mechanically distinct; they all have unique abilities and fighting styles that make it fel meaningfully different to play one character over another. But, in personality at least, most of the characters are one-note, and pretty boring overall. It all culminates in a literaldeus ex machinatwist that seems to come out of nowhere, and doesn’t serve the story particularly well.
The date and time system may be partly to blame:Type-0uses an almostPersona-style calendar system. It’s an interesting idea thatFFhas yet to return to, but it can be frustrating, in no small part because traveling from place to place uses up a ton of time. There’s no way to avoid it, so you’re more or less forced to playType-0multiple times over if you want to experience everything it has to offer. And with its clunky combat mechanics, which are carried over even into the PC/PS4 remaster, you probably won’t want to.
Why FF Type-0 Isn’t A Good Final Fantasy Game
The Failure Of Fabula Nova Crystallis
Lackluster character development and unsatisfactory combat mechanics might be forgiven in another series, but this isFinal Fantasy.The series has a reputation for narrative depth and combat innovation, so when an entry in the series fails to deliver on these fronts, it stands out.
Type-0was part of a bigger experiment in theFinal Fantasyfranchise: the attempt to give several games a shared mythos, in the form ofa subseries calledFabula Nova Crystallis. It shares story elements withFF13and15, even though it’s set in its own universe. Unfortunately,Fabula Nova Crystalliswas an ill-fated effort: while I admittedly liked a lot of things aboutFF13and15, I can acknowledge that they’re not among the series' best.
I think the biggest issue withFabula Nova Crystallisis thatFinal Fantasygames are at their best when they’re not beholden to any kind of continuity, and can go in their own direction entirely. The need to fit in with a shared body of lore puts an unnecessary constraint on these games, and prevents them from going in unique directions. Thankfully,Fabula Nova Crystallisended for good withFF15.
Type-0did go on to get two sequels: the now-shuttered mobile gamesFinal Fantasy AgitoandFinal Fantasy Awakening(which is technically set in a parallel universe, although it’s very similar). Even those never really caught on, though, at least not in the West, andType-0is more or less dead as a subseries today. Still, it should be taken with a grain of salt: while it wasn’t a good game, it did try something new, and brought some interesting ideas to theFinal Fantasyseries for the first (and possibly last) time. Even Square Enix seems to thinkFinal Fantasy:Type-0is better off buried, and I can’t really blame them - though I wouldn’t hold it against them to try something so bold again.
