Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia (Mobile Phones) Review

Well, here we are, at a point I never thought we'd reach...a review for a mobile phone game on my site.  If it was just some ordinary game, we wouldn't be here.  But here we are.

Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia is not the first mobile game I've played.  I've played a few.  However, it is the first I've felt compelled to write a review for, simply because I really enjoyed it.  Before we get too far, I should make fun of the name.  The Dissidia portion is a reference to the fighting game, which mixes heroes and villains from various Final Fantasy games together in a barely coherent story.  The Opera Omnia part...I'm not sure.  It's silly, but follows the current trend of weird subtitles for JRPGs that has been going on for the past decade or so.  Maybe even longer.

Unlike its fighting game brethren, Opera Omnia is a turn based RPG.  The turn order is based off a character's speed, and reminds me a lot of the system in Final Fantasy X (another good game).  When your turn comes up, you have the option of doing a Brave attack, HP attack, or using one of your skills.  To tie into the Dissidia games, this one also uses a similar system for damage.  A character's brave value is the damage they will do with an HP attack.  So, you want to use your brave attacks to drain an opponent's value while adding to your own.  When it is sufficiently high, you can use your HP attack to do actual damage.

It might sound strange at first, but I like it.  The system provides more strategy that you would think.  If you take brave damage that exceeds your current value, you become broken (no, not like Matt Hardy).  This shifts your turn back a space or more, while giving the entire opposing side a several-hundred point increase.  Plus, you can't do HP damage until you get enough brave back.  I should also mention that using an HP attack sends your brave to zero.  While you need to do damage, you should be careful when you do that damage.  If an enemy is targeting you right after that character's turn, you might not want to use the HP attack, unless it will finish them off.  Otherwise, you may empower your opponents when they strike back.

It's a pretty fun system once you get down a rhythm.  To mix it up a bit, each character has one or two special skills.  They can be heals, buffs, high brave attacks, multi-target attacks, or my favorite, the brave then HP attack ones.  They have limited uses per battle, so you have to decide when it's worth it.  For shorter fights, it's easy to blow the skills as necessary, while you want to be more discerning in their use during multi-wave boss fights.  While I was dismissive of the buffs at first (as I am wont to do), some of them are incredibly useful.  HP/brave attacks may be my favorite, but some of the others are almost as good, and might be more useful in the long run.

As post-battle rewards, you will occasionally gain colored crystals.  These can be used to further enhance the stats for characters, and get them additional passive skills.  Each character needs a specific crystal color, and only that one.  Maxing out their crystal levels makes them a powerhouse, but it does take a lot of crystals to do so.  Just make sure to set those passives.  Plenty of times I have forgotten to do so.  I tried to find at least one good character per crystal type, since I like to do the daily levels for each color (I could take or leave the money one).  They are great levels for the experience, but once you hit 50, they are still great for the sheer amount of crystals you can get from them.

One last way to make your characters stronger is with their equipment.  Weapons and armor have a rank, from 1 to 5 stars, with more stars equaling stronger equipment.  To level those up, you have to merge them with other weapons or special weapon/armor orbs.  If you merge it with another of the same type, it will "limit break" them, increasing their maximum level.  Hey, it's Final Fantasy, you have to have "limit break" in there somewhere.  Each piece of equipment has extra CP, allowing the equipped character to have more passive skills on.  This limit increases when the limit breaks.  Rank 4 and 5 equipment will also give bonus skills to certain characters.  If you fully max out it out (limit break it three times and hit the level cap), that skill is then unlocked for that character, so they can get it without equipping the associated piece.  It's a pretty cool system, but does take some luck, rare resources, or a chunk of money to max out the 5 star weapons and armor.  It can be worth it though!

The game's story is probably the weakest part.  It very much follows the "take all these characters and shove them into a strange world" trope that seems popular with mash-ups like this.  The story scenes aren't bad, they just don't add much.  The characters in them are usually appropriate, but you will unlock a lot as you go through the game, and they cycle in and out who appears in a scene.  There are a few funny scenes, and the characters act appropriately, but it's just not that memorable.  To make it better, you aren't limited in doing most stages.  There is a "stamina" system for a few levels, and the daily stages are limited, but the story stages are not.  If you want to blow through a chapter or two in one sitting, the game doesn't stop you!  I'm glad that a chunk of the game isn't the "play three stages, wait two hours" nonsense that other games have.  Also, only a very few select and rare stages limit who you can bring.  If you want to constantly use Cecil because he's awesome, you are free to do so.  I'm glad the characters don't have silly cooldown timers.

However, another massive plus Opera Omnia has over similar mobile games?  You get all the characters in the story or special events.  There's no random chance to get your favorite characters (and Lightning), just their weapons.  All in all, I like that.  It means you don't have to throw money at the game to get your favorite characters, just wait until they are available, or get to the part of the story where they are unlocked.  Plus, previous event characters eventually come back with permanent events, so if you miss someone great, just wait a couple of months and you can get them (and their 5* armor) at your leisure.

I do have a few other minor problems with the game.  One, the boss fights can be a slog.  Not only do many of them have a lot of HP (it is a JRPG, after all), but they tend to be the fourth or fifth wave of their levels.  I could deal with one or the other, but both together make them longer and less fun than they could be.  They also hit hard, which I would expect, but bosses seem to get a disproportionately large amount of brave for doing their moves.  One last quibble is how some of the female characters are treated.  I can only remember two so far, but Ashe (FF XII) and Celes (VI) have stumbling in some of their attack animations.  You might be able to get away with Ashe, since she is a princess, but they why does "she" choose to use a big, two-handed sword?  Celes is less forgivable.  She's a powerful general, and swordswoman, and mage, and opera singer.  If she just launched a ground wave at the opponent, she wouldn't stumble to follow that up because she's a girl.  I have yet to see a guy treated like this, and I'm frankly disappointed Squeenix did this.  It's not unexpected for Japan, though.

While it's not a phrase I would have thought I would say, I really like this mobile game.  Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia is a lot of fun, and a solid RPG.  I like playing it, making my characters stronger, participating in the daily events, and getting characters I like from the various games.  I would definitely encourage turn-based RPG and Final Fantasy fans to try it out for a few days.  I have yet to spend any money on the game, but have plenty of strong characters, weapons, and armor.  I actually want to spend money on the game because I enjoy it so much.  It's...a weird feeling.


The Good:
Mobile game with lots of Final Fantasy characters, and not many of the limiting traps of free-to-play games.

The Bad:
Boss fights can be a slot, and of course the curse of RNG.

The SaHD:
I like to refer to Cecil's "darkness" skill as "hitting them with the no parents"...thanks Lego Movie

(Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia was downloaded for free on the Android store)

World of Final Fantasy (PS Vita) Review

When World of Final Fantasy was first shown at E3 a year or so ago, I was intrigued.  Who where the twins?  Why is there a more "normal" style and a chibi style?  What are battles like?  When the game was released, I got a taste of it by using the shareplay function on the PS4, but I have recently finished up the Vita version and decided to review it.

World of Final Fantasy's battle system looks and sounds more complicated than it is.  Each character has their own skills and can fight on their own, although their HP is low and can be killed quickly.  To combat this, you can stack up to three party members, one of each size (S, M, and L) to add their stats together.  This makes them much stronger and harder to kill, but each stack only gets one turn, as opposed to each member getting their own turn.  Still, I went through the whole game stacked, and it usually went fine.  Some attacks will weaken the stack, and eventually knock it over.  This stuns everyone in the stack, making them vulnerable to a focused assault.  If the stack loses all of its HP, all three members will be dead.  Enemies can also be stacked, so knowing how they function not only protects you, but gives you knowledge to fight enemies.

Each member of the stack has their own abilities.  Depending on how they combine, you may get stronger abilities too.  This is the way to get stronger spells.  If two people have the water spell, then your stack also has access to watera, the next strongest tier of water spells.  It's actually a well thought out system that isn't too hard to figure out, and is rewarding when you use it.

In battles, there are two ways to give commands, the new style and the classic style.  New has each character's skill list as a separate button, or direction or something...and I hated it.  Classic puts it all in one list, so it is easy to see what you have available.  My only gripe with it is that you can't customize the order or sort it.  Also the game features the Active Time Battle that was a staple of Final Fantasy games for years, but you can also make it turn based by turning off the ATB.  While I did love that system back in the day, I have it set to turn based, so I have time to think about my moves, find the right skill, plan out my actions, or just knowing I won't get blown up if I have to deal with some child's emergency during battle.

To capture monsters, you need their prismarium (or elder box for the robots) and to fulfill specific conditions to make them capture-able.  These are listed in their info if you scan them, and range from doing damage, using a certain element/ailment, or even things like hitting them with a counter attack.  Some requirements can be met up to three times to increase the capture percent.  Thankfully, you only use up the prismarium or elder box if you actually capture the creature, so you can try multiple times until it is successful.  They also supply you with a prismarium (but not elder box) for each creature the first time you fight it.  In terms of monster catching, this is a great way to do it, and probably the best I've used.

Monsters that you take with you gain experience and level up.  When gaining a level, their stats improve and they gain a CP, which can be used on their mirage board to gain stats, abilities, and skills.  They very much remind me of the sphere grids from Final Fantasy X.  Many monsters can transfigure into other monsters that have connected boards, which share stats and some skills.  Some can turn into other monsters that have their own connected boards, which do not share stats or skills, but have the appropriate CP for their level.  Buying skills on monster's boards will up their sync percent, which gives bonus stats at certain intervals, and awards a skill at max.  This take in to account all boards, so those small stat boosts are shared, but the mastery skill isn't, so you can pick different ones.  However, the twins do not have mirage boards and instead gain skills depending on what mirajewels you equip them with.  There are numerous to find and earn, and you can freely switch them out of battle.

As you make your way through the story, you will come to many dungeons, each with a boss at the end.  There are also secret areas to find.  The dungeons can get pretty long, but the encounter rate feels appropriate so it isn't a slog.  However, a few of the dungeons have bad designs that are pretty much run forward in a (near) straight line.  I did enjoy the story, too, but some scenes had a bit too much unnecessary dialogue, which I've come to get tired of quickly in my older age.  It would be fine if you could advance it quicker, but the dialogue is voiced and I couldn't find that as an option.  But good news!  You can pause the cut scenes!  Thank you...this should really be a standard for games.

Though at one point in the story, it feels like it comes to a screeching halt.  To help the champions against a new threat you must...take part in some minigames.  These come out of nowhere, and are pretty terrible (at best).  You can't really skip them either, but some let you advance after losing.  I really hate this part of the game, simply because they lock off the actual game until you complete some stupid and terrible minigames.  It's annoying when games do that, and doubly so when it's a game I'm really enjoying.  Several of the games are pure luck based, so you can't even get good at them, just lucky.  You also unlock the ability to play them whenever you want, as if that is some sort of reward.  Instead of the minigames, they should have just made them all non-gimmicky fights.

On to better news, the game takes around 50 hours to get the first ending.  It took me more, but I was doing some grinding and other extra stuff that drove up my playtime.  The only time I felt I had to grind was before the final boss of each ending, but only because it's a fast little jerkwad.  To get the second, true ending, it takes maybe about 10 more, depending on how strong you and your monsters are.  When I finally finished everything but the post-game dungeons, I had put over 70 hours into the game.

World of Final Fantasy is definitely a love letter to fans of Final Fantasy, and an easy recommendation to JRPG fans.  It's still accessible to new fans, but you will get more out of it the more of the franchise you have played.  Even the secret boss...well, I don't want to ruin it, but I was super excited to see it.  I played the entire game on the Vita, and the only problem was the longer load times.  It's not terrible, but it is noticeable.  The game has a lot of playtime, monsters to catch and ways to customize your battle party.  It is easily worth the price for either the PS4 or the Vita.


The Good:
Battles, game length, customization, references...

The Bad:
When the story grinds to a halt because of mandatory minigames.

The SaHD:
Aw, man, that secret boss hits me right in the nostalgia.

(World of Final Fantasy was purchased by the reviewer)

PAX Prime 2015 - Day 2

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
I played this with two other guys.  The goal of the demo was to figure out how to get through the puzzles and fight the boss.  Strangely, it worked and, all things considered, it was kind of fun.  I doubt I'd want to do the whole thing with three people, but at least trying it was ok.  I did like the different costumes Link can get and wear, and they each have a specialty, for better or worse.  I picked the samurai one because it looked cool, but was no extra help in our dungeon.  The dungeon we did required bombs and arrows, and it wasn't too hard to figure out what to do.  Actually doing it, on the other hand, wasn't quite as smooth.  Trying to get the order right of who picks up who with strangers can be a challenge.  Communication and listening are key for this game.  Oh, and patience, too.

Chasm
Who doesn't love Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?  (If you don't, just skip to the next one)  I do, so when I happened upon Chasm in the Indie Megabooth, I stopped and checked it out.  It is a 16-bit side scrolling action adventure/ metroidvania.  The guy at the booth explained that there are a few different map types, and that it is set once the opening cut scene starts.  So the map isn't random, but there are a few variations to give some replay value.  The game was pretty fun, but a bit clunky in movement and attacking.  It, like many other games, isn't very forgiving.  It's all well and good, since I do like the genre, so I will try my best to play the game when it releases next year.

Final Fantasy Explorers
When first shown, the game seemed like the Final Fantasy version of Monster Hunter.  While that is somewhat true, the game resembles the previous Square Enix release Lord of Arcana.  Combat was easy to understand, but I did have to be careful.  I wasn't treating it like a Monster Hunter game, and did die to the boss.  It was fun though.  At the start there were multiple jobs to choose from, so I choose the monk, one of my favorites.  I do want to try the finished game later this year (or next, whenever it comes out).  My only complaint was that the C-stick didn't operate the camera.  Hopefully it is a menu option or defaults to that in the full release.  To operate the camera, it was like Phantasy Star Online, where a button will center it.  No touch screen d-pad or anything, and I don't recall if the actual d-pad did it (which would be uncomfortable anyway).

Cuphead
When Cuphead was first unveiled, I really liked the look of it.  Once they later showed gameplay, I knew I had to try it.  And... well, both of those held up.  The look of the game is very much like the old 1930s animation and it works.  The demo at PAX had only a tutorial that showed the controls and boss fights, so I tried three of them.

The first was in a plane against a giant bird.  It was very much like a shmup, a genre I enjoy, but it's not quite as smooth.  It's workable, but not quite as good as a dedicated shmup system.  Almost beat that boss, but didn't.  Second was against a giant potato and then a giant carrot, which I did manage to win.  Third was against a pirate on a boat that would attack with shots, a hanging chest and a shark/octopus from different parts of the screen.  That one I didn't win.

It was a pretty fun game, although very unforgiving.  Enemy shots were small, and your graphic not so much, so dodging was, well... dodgy.  You only get three hearts, so three hits and you are out.  No continuing in the demo, as it just put you on the map/menu and you had to do it again.  Two player might be fun, so I'm still looking forward to trying the full game when it releases.

Xenoblade Chronicles X
First off, I didn't play Xenoblade Chronicles X, since they were only having gameplay demonstrations with a dude I used to work near (there is 0% chance he remembers me, though).  Anyway, I watched several of the demos and went to the panel about the art, where they showed off the special edition coming this winter.

They showed off getting quests, skills and even mid-air battles in the mechs, which I didn't know was a thing in the game.  The guy also ran around various parts of the map, enemies and talked about weather effects.  Xenoblade Chronicles X looks like it has a ton of content and I am looking forward to it.

The special edition also got me excited.  The lithograph is ok, and the art book looks really nice (and big!), but the USB drive is what I really like.  It looks like a zohar!  It also has 10 tracks of the soundtrack on there.  Sure, it could, and should, have the whole thing on it, but I'll just get the other tracks through some other means.  I'm glad it was still able to be pre-ordered when I got home, since I couldn't do it while at the show.

Bravely Default Demo Impressions

The demo for anticipated RPG Bravely Default hit the 3DS e-shop recently.  The graphics are very similar to Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light, and it's supposed to be.  The characters are super-deformed 3D models, and they look pretty good.  The 3D effect in the game is what you would expect.  It works fine, but not amazing.  The music, however, is good.  I especially like the boss music, but it's all good and fits the areas well.

The battle system takes normal, turned-based RPG combat, but adds a twist.  The 'default' function is basically the guard, as you will take less damage, however, it also will save the point you get that turn for use in a later turn, so in effect, you can stack your turns by defending.  The 'brave' function will use those turns to unleash several actions in one turn.  Now you know where the title comes from.  Also, you can use brave without using default beforehand, but you will put off your turn until your points equal zero (you get 1 point per turn).  It adds some strategy to the mix, since you can try to save your turns until the enemy is open, or send yourself into the negative to end things early.

Borrowing from the best Final Fantasy games, the job system is also in place in Bravely Default.  You pick one class to be, and you can choose the action abilities (magic, etc.) from one other unlocked class.  You can also equip a few passive abilities that you have learned.  Each passive costs a certain amount of points, and your characters have a max of 4 points.  There are some really good ones, like 'multitask', which sometimes allows you a second attack if you choose 'attack' that turn.  This was amazing on the ninja job, since it can dual wield without penalty, and each hand attacks separately.  So, you could have four attacks in one turn, just by picking attack.  Combining it with brave... well, that is some good damage.  Another useful skill was 'buff up', which increases your attack and defense by 5% per turn, and it stacks up to 50%.  This was really useful for boss encounters, since those last enough turns to make the skill worth it.

The demo is basically a series of quests that are taken one at a time.  I found that after each one, I needed to grind for a bit to raise my level and afford some better equipment before being able to tackle the next.  It reminded me of old-school RPGs, for better or worse.  At first, I didn't like that I could only take one quest at a time, but there's less than 10 in the demo, so I understand why.  However, the fairy on the menu screen (I didn't catch her name if she gave it) would tell you what the quest is, so you don't have to look it up on a sub menu if you forget.  You could complete all of the quests in about 7-8 hours, and I put 9 into it to max out the level (20) and all the job classes for all the characters.  That's really substantial for a demo.

The final thing thrown into the demo is a sample of the town building aspect.  You get a villager, and they can clear away debris for space to build facilities in your town or build/upgrade a facility.  It takes time (during play or sleep mode) to clear it and build the shops, and each villager shortens the time needed.  To get more villagers, you have to use street pass.  I was able to clear it all and fully upgrade each shop without any other villagers, it just took a few days of sleep mode.  I'd much prefer to actually get some more villagers, since they will directly carry over to the full game when it releases.

Bravely Default was a really good demo that let you play the game, but not actually a part from the full version.  It lets you experience the town building, battles, quests and some of the job classes.  You can put several hours into it, which is great for a demo, and certain milestones (bosses defeated) will unlock items for the full version.  If you like job classes in RPGs, or old-school turn based RPGs at all, give the demo a try and have some fun!