Square Enix is on a bit of a roll as 2016 is ending. "Final Fantasy 15" is about to come out later this month, their mobile property "Mobius Final Fantasy" has a stable player base, and now they have "World of Final Fantasy." It seems as though half of the "Final Fantasy" related output of the company revolves around milking players' nostalgia as much as possible. But is it a good strategy?
"World of Final Fantasy," a PlayStation exclusive appearing in the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita, is a chibi-themed look back at the long series. The game is set in the chibi world of Grimoire, following the journey of two protagonists, Lann and Reyn as they search for their true identities. Lazygamer points out this trope and calls out "World of Final Fantasy" overuse of many JRPG tropes that the series even helped establish.
Despite the old setting and premise, "World of Final Fantasy" proves itself to be increasingly complex and compelling as players go on. The story becomes better, and the sightings of different familiar "Final Fantasy" characters become more and more welcome as they pop up. The gameplay is also definitely more nuanced than the usual mobile Square Enix "Final Fantasy" release, and that's a good thing going for it.
Perhaps the fact that "World of Final Fantasy" managed to play like a real, genuine "Final Fantasy" experience will set the table for Square Enix's next releases. It still remains to be seen whether "Final Fantasy 15," with its revolutionary redesign to the JRPG formula, will even feel like a true "Final Fantasy" game.
In any case, it does seem like Square Enix is trying. "Kingdom Hearts"' Sora will also be appearing in a "World of Final Fantasy" downloadable update, reports Polygon, as an attempt to hype the next release, "Kingdom Hearts 2.8." It seems as though the series is coming back in a big way.