There's definitely something to be said for a character who knows how evil they are, and doesn't try to hide it. His rants of "don't you want freedom from life!?" felt more like attempts at trying to break the team's spirit to make his job easier, talking them into giving up, rather than actually caring if they agreed with him (he seemed to have no problems going "ok, if you won't kill yourselves, I'll happily do it for you!" after all.)
Using an odd parallel, part of what makes Frieza in DBZ of all people such a popular villain in the franchise is that he's so un-repentantly evil and enjoys every second of it. There's no smokescreening this; he's evil to the core, and will be the first to admit it. Well, ok, he MIGHT respond "Awww, I just want immortality and to rule over the entire galaxy with an iron fist for all eternity, is that really so bad!?" but you can tell he's being as facetious as possible there, and just doing that to see the other person get angry. Again, not saying there's no room for sympathetic villains (again,one of my favorites is Fou-lu!), just saying sometimes it's better to stay in the "Pure Evil and proud of it!" camp rather than force some sympathy (which Seymour vs. Mithos demonstrates.)
...on a different note...
World of Final Fantasy: Got the FRUE ENDING!!! Final Boss chain is annoying because it's 5 fights and the last fight is way harder than everything else and you have to start from the beginning each time. The first fight I kept swearing at because WHY IS DOOM A RANDOM STATUS IN A DUEL!? but I learned eventually "oh, Remedy+'s can cure Doom, I guess that's not so bad" so I can forgive that fight. Final Boss? Dark Revels, MT Dark elemental damage with some topple power that inflicts Poison, Oblivion (aka Silence) and Confusion. This is a game where status resistance is not easy to get since things are based off of what kind of Mirages you're using, and if you equip any resistance Seeds/Mirajewels...which are not something you can simply buy. Also the boss is basically twice the speed of your characters, so he's double turning you. The MT damage is not high...unless he's toppled you (which can very much happen), in which case, that Stack gets OHKOed unless they have high Dark resistance. Poisons annoying but not a huge deal, and Oblivion is manage-able since items exist, but Confusion is a dick move and puts you at the mercy of RNG...
This was pissing me off a lot because of the boss chain and all that, then decided to go "you know what, maybe there's an intervention I haven't done yet." Sure enough, Snow had one, I did it, saw the amazingness that is Shivalry (...yes, that is basically what you think it is...even if you don't know what you're thinking...), and in doing so, it unlocked the Arma Coin shop...which had a Confuse Resistance Seed as an item...I think it's clear what I bought! So in a sense, yes, Snow saved me!
And wouldn't you know it, giving that to one of Lann's Mirages made the whole stack immune, and Reynn's stack had 50% resistance as is, so between that, I was able to win a battle of attrition (helped Megalixirs are also status healing.) Annoying fight though, especially since they turn off your Champion Medals, the first time they've done this. This is akin to saying "No Limit Breaks!!!" only in a setting where Limits are even MORE restricted. Ugh.
Anyway, overall game is solid. It does get a bit monotonous after a point as outside of the dick move mentioned above, the game's idea of getting harder is mostly "just give them more HP!" See, the fight with
Terra and Maduin was appropriate in a difficulty increase because it felt better than things before it, but not in a huge spike kind of way and was a little different since it was a 2 enemy fight. Segwarides/Pellinore team up fight in the Bad Ending route was similarly fine since extension from that; 2 enemies, better than what you've fought. Just going "fuck you here's 100% MT game ending status" is not fun in a game where you're not generally prepped for that.
The ending of the game...well...
The ending credits are basically exactly what they should be for this game.As far as FF Cameos!! Well time to cover each since I've seen all the meaningful content with them.
Chocolina: Reading the reason why she goes by "Chocolatte" is hilarious since it's existential crisis of not being with those who named her, so put on glasses and change her name, I'M A DIFFERENT PERSON YAY!!! Sure, you do that...just continue being the primary shop in the game and we're all good.
Sarah: Is a typical Princess, only one who at least attempts competency at ruling...and as usual, is a princess who apparentyl doesn't have a live parent begging the question "Why is she not Queen Sarah?"
WoL: A parody of the early Disney Princes, I'll leave it at that. Also your champion summon, it's generic...which is perfect for him really!
Yuna: So apparently she's the expert, experienced summoner in the game...sure I'll go with that. She's basically what you expect of Yuna only no pilgrimage is involved, so there's no subtle hint of "I have no future" with her, so she's a tad more cheerful. In fact, they actually do play to that as in one scene, Yuna meets someone who is the "Chosen sacrifice" and has resigned themselves to her fate, and Yuna's response is naturally associating with it and going "no, there's always another way!" and talking them out of it. See, FF10-2,
that's how you handle a follow up to that. Not with a "You sucks!" and her whining about "NO CHOICE!" Just address the problem directly, not beat around the bush with some bullshit philosophical nonsense.
Her summon is...well...basically just her doing a Sending...nothing special but it's in-character at least.
Sherlotta: Don't know, don't care, it's Crystal Chronicles. Ok, to be fair, her Undead Princess scenes were funny.
Refia: ...this would require her to have a character for me to actually analyze something. I'll give props to her summon in attempting to create something from nothing by having her animation be a reference to FF3DS' FMV opening, with the riding chocobo in grass fields, which is about as good as you'll get for a healing summon.
Faris: Is just kind of there. I honestly don't know why they bothered. You'd think she'd be a summon, especially with Syldra making for perfect fun animation bait, but ultimately shows up because "hey, pirate ship!" then does nothing in plot and her interventions are utterly forgettable outside of "Underdog Day." The Leviathan one was alright, but only because Leviathan herself (yes, Leviathan is female in this for some reason) was actually funny.
Quistis: So we have a whole organization based around FF Protagonists being awesome and such, but you need a leader, how do you handle this without showing favoritism? ...pick a character who is clearly NOT a protagonist, make them a pure NPC, and one that fits based off personality, credentials, etc. Quistis works for that reason; being an HQ style leader ala Minfillia (...only actually capable of avoiding trouble...) and working as the "brain" of the team, especially since Balamb Garden is the base of operations (really, it's probably about as good a "Hero Home Base" as you'll get), and hey, IT'S MORE THAN SHE DOES IN FF, right?
Snow: His intro is completely random, and all he does is exist to beat up a flan...which is a cute reference to FF13-2 to be fair. His personality is spot on, and his Summon is fantastic because, well, it's just so very him.
Tifa: Another "why are you in this game?" character though i guess she plays something resembling a role during the Cogna scenario? And she's a summon at least; I felt they wanted her to be this funny comical character like they did with Snow, but the problem is Tifa just isn't that kind of character, so it came off as more generic "energetic tough girl!" stereotype than anything else. Her summon is...well...Chibi Final Heaven...in Arizona...
Rydia: Of the 3 Summoners in this game, she felt like she was there because "we needed 4" (that 4 value will make sense in the end.) See, with Yuna they establish she's the experienced one who is awesome at her job, and Eiko as we'll see later is established as the most talented and with the greatest potential thanks to her horn (also knows more than you'd expect thanks to talking to Espers), Rydia is...uhh...that 3rd summoner who looks up to Yuna? And is afraid of fire? I got nothing...I'm surprised she's not a Champion Summon though simply because FF4 doesn't have any summons and it'd be very easy to justify it after Crystal Tower.
Rikku: Of all the "Why are you in this game!?" characters, Rikku is the biggest offender. She serves absolutely no purpose in the plot, shows up out of nowhere just because "...", and unlike Faris doesn't even thematically fit in with where she shows up (You're on an adamantoise and suddenly BAM! Rikku out of nowhere!), and as I ranted about in the past, they fell for the old "oh RIkku's a hyper ditz!" Obsessed with getting treasures, running around the world getting profit, extremely immature, younger than most of the characters...
...wait a minute...this isn't Rikku...IT'S YUFFIE. Why the hell didn't they just use Yuffie here? Oh, right, because Yuffie can't breathe underwater but Rikku kind of can since FF10 character...they could have just made a funny joke about Underwater Materia or something granted. That said, the "Trejjie Wejjie~" song made me want to smack something. You shouldn't have a character be put into a situation where-in Bartz is the intelligent one of the duo...
Lightning: First off, props to the guys for NOT forcing her into the center of attention, nor making her look like the next coming of Final Fantasy jesus...basically, Toriyama had nothing to do with this game, is what I'm saying. That said, despite being her LR self in design, she's thankfully closer to her FF13 self. Not much to say, she's basically what you expect. Her summon is...kind of generic and bland. Yeah, the intro is cool, standing on the pinnacle and lightning strikes the sword...but then the rest is just generic slashes, since it used LR Army of One's animation. At least it had Blinded by Light playing.
Edgar: Pretty much spot on. The Voice is exactly what you expect, and they gave him a completely convoluted plan that when it all comes together, you're like "...well, that's Edgar for you!" Just having Figaro's Theme playing in such a heroic manner when the castle flies out of the sand is great, and filling in for Zidane to be the "Male figure Vivi looks up to" just WORKED.
Squall: If there's one character who improved in Kingdom Hearts relative to his original self, it's Squall, and I've always concluded "because Rinoa isn't there for him to obsess over!" WoFF only further solidifies that, as this is clearly late Disc 2 Squall and without Rinoa, we can focus on the GOOD aspects of his development! He does have the whole "I don't have dreams of the future, I just kind of exist" thing, but gotta have a character flaw somewhere to resolve in a single intervention. His summon is basic, but eh, it's about what you expect from a Chibi-Squall using Lionheart.
Shelke: Ok, her being from DoC sucks, luckily, she's used better here because they just kind of pretend DoC isn't a thing, and use her as the pure emotionless girl who speaks on pure logic. THIS IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT AND I'LL TAKE WHAT I CAN GET CONSIDERING THE SOURCE MATERIAL OK!? Her Summon is...probably the worst animation in the game? ok, you have this girl with dual lightsabers, and you make her animation...just posing and a healer one wait what?
Vivi: It's Vivi, and that's all you need to know. I guess he doesn't have as much of an existential crisis as before, and is more just LEADING THE ARMY OF BLACK MAGES being the only one who can talk, and such, but hey, he got recruited by Edgar and the two are best buds now, and really, isn't that all what half of you wanted?
Eiko: First off, Djinn is required to say farewell to people by saying "Don't go causing the Apocalypse!" That said, she's the fun, energetic summoner of the three, and there's no Zidane so the whole child-hood crush factor is gone. She doesn't do much else, but at the same time she didn't feel shoved in there like Rydia. I do also question why she wasn't a champion summon like Rydia because FF9 has no one and she'd be an obvious fit considering.
Bartz: Like Snow, he comes in out of nowhere, doesn't really do much, and mostly exists to justify Gilgamesh silliness...which is why his Champion Summon is amazing. Honestly though, Bartz should have played a role in the Cogna arc. All the other protagonists appear there (even WoL!), but Bartz is absent.
Cloud: As I said before, Cloud was actually handled in a way that didn't make him emo, and the closest he's been to his FF7 self since...ever. One example? During the Opera scenario with Celes, after Celes is obviously disappointed at the outcome, Cloud does actually do something nice and simply compliment Celes' voice, and does so unironically! Like, they remembered that Cloud can also be a nice guy, and he's not just mopey and angsty.
His Summon is...well...they actually hit a nice balance of "bad ass" and "adorable" I didn't think was possible. It's cute, but at the same time your reaction is still "That was pretty awesome!" It's what I think they were aiming for with Lightning and Squall but didn't quite hit. My one gripe is the Buster Sword coming out of the sky the way it did, since all I could think of was FF8's opening with the Revolver doing that and going "Why didn't Squall's start this way?"
Celes: Her role is mostly a comedic one, since she's there to basically insure Cid doesn't go Berserk...in the most violent way possible. It's silly and fits the game. They of course incorporated an Opera reference but the game seems aware that the opera was NOT a serious sequence, and played it for laughs, what with it being interrupted by Ultros while Celes is rehearsing (and Cloud not even bothering to rehearse because he didn't agree to it...), and then Celes actually upset that it got ruined...see, THAT'S how you homage the Opera.
Her summon though is honestly one of the worst in the game. It's basically Sword Rain ALpha into generic Ice Attack. It doesn't have any real identity, they try to toss in the "spinnning sword!" intro to add style but it just doesn't work. It contrasts, say, Snow, who also has the Ice aesthetic but it's handled so much better since "Snow smashing into a large concentration of Ice, ending with a cheesy one liner!" works so much better than "She slashes sword, and Ice appears!" and that's it. It doesn't help that the song, Battle to the Death, just doesn't work for a "Theme Song Power Up" the way the other songs used do. It feels too boss-centric if that makes sense, and they didn't really adapt the style to fit "HEROIC BEAT DOWN!" so the whole thing just feels awkward and off.
Shantotto: She's...exactly what you expect from her. Psychotic, speaks in rhymes, dicks you over in order to help you, and completely amoral but somehow still on your side. Making her an unwinnable boss fight is...well...exactly the best way to use her as well! Her summon is basically perfect, since it's her just laughing and blowing stuff up. While the Shadow Lord's theme has the same problem as Battle to the Death mentioned above for Celes, the difference is it actually works for Shantotto, since she's a lot more ironically menacing than Celes, thereby making it work in an odd way.
Tidus: This game reminds us that Tidus is actually a very positive and upbeat figure when he doesn't have his father to worry about (unlike the Rinoa shit with Squall, though, Tidus' character shift when Jecht is actually part of what makes his character work though, so I don't mind when it's there), and they also didn't make him an idiot, which is a nice bullet they dodged there. Them redoing some scenes from FF10 in chibi-form, like the Whistling scene, was a nice little thing, because yeah, establishing "Tidus and Yuna haven't met in this world yet, but they have faint memories of their REAL selves, so the natural soulmate attachment is still there!" His summon opens with an homage to the first scene in Besaid, and then it's basically Blitz Ace by a chibi...with a weird rendition of the Blitz Ball Theme spliced with To Zanarkand...I can't say it doesn't fit!
Terra: So this is a character you really need to read the bios on to get context, since she literally appears out of nowhere with Magitek Armor, and there's no real explanation for what happens next, then Segwarides is all "Oh well, TIME TO KIDNAP HER!" Remember how I said "4 summoners" despite mentioning there's 3? Yeah, they use Terra to supplement, basically saying "She's not a Summoner, but she's capable of the same things, and to an even better degree!" They make up for her "gets kidnapped like the other Summoners" thing by having her basically save all of Figaro single-handedly, being the person to smack sense into Cloud with the "You are suppose to help Lightning, not chase your rival...screw it, I'm going to help her!" Her summon is basically turning FF6's Opening into an attack, using Decisive Battle as the theme which, unlike Atma Weapon's theme, actually works for a "Theme Song Power Up!" melody. Also my most used summon but not just because fanboy reasons, but because my team was definitely Pro-Mage the entire game (Magic definitely felt way better than physicals for a number of reasons), and she had an Non-Elemental 1* Cost, so really just useful in all circumstances.
I'll also note that Natalie Lander did a better job in this game than Dissidia, as Terra definitely had more of a backbone in her voice; I think it's more the direction involved, since based off what James Arnold Taylor said, their direction in Dissidia was "emulate the Japanese voices!" Most obvious comparison is compare Terra's Ex-burst voice clips in Dissidia to her Champion Summon in WoFF.
Other things to note that are more important than FF fanservice? Well, Reynn and Lann honestly need to be better protagonists in the grand scheme of things. Lann's gimmick of "too stupid to tie his shoes" just gets old, and Reynn's kind of stupid for someone whose suppose to be intelligent. They have their moments, but when the Cute High Pitched Pet character who speaks with an annoying gimmick is probably the most like-able of the three, that's telling! I get the dynamic they were aiming for, but they beat the joke into the ground, and they didn't even have the decency to lend us the token role reversal moment where "Lann figures something out that Reynn didn't!" In fact, they even had an easy set up since they make it clear that Reynn does overthink things, so having a moment where Reynn is busy over thinking it and Lann just goes "Or we could just do that" would have worked well!
I do appreciate that the game constantly reminds us that Lann and Reynn are colossal fuck ups after a point. There's a hint to it at Crystal Tower when the boss there is warning them and they go "nope, we gotta go forward", beat said boss, and the villain is like "well, that was unexpected, but not altogether unpleasant! This makes my life easier!" It reaches the point where Lann and Reynn's decision at the end of the game actually makes sense, like "You know, them making that decision is probably the first legitimately responsible thing they're doing" (and even the FF characters reflect on that!)
And the OST is great. A few good original tracks + a lot of good remixes of classic themes. What more could you ask for?
Overall, game's probably a 7/10.
