When nine and nine meet nine, the depths of reason shall stir. When the seal of creation is broken, a voice like thunder shall sound, and thou shalt know — we have arrived.
Beaten: 2015 (twice)
Version played: Xbox One (HD)
Oh man, Type-0. I have such conflicting feelings about this game.
First and foremost, I wrote an essay on this game soon after finishing it in 2015, which has much more coherent and topical thoughts on it than my rambling here. Sometimes I go back and reread it just to remember what Type-0 was even like.
More than anything, what Type-0 succeeds on is its setting. It uses the same crystal mythos as FFXIII, but interprets it in a wholly different way. It's a story about war, and like FFVIII it's about child soldiers, but this time with a twist: they can't remember anyone who's died. (This does not make much more sense in context, but it's treated seriously.) It makes for a pretty bleak game, and it only goes from bad to worse.
Unfortunately, despite having a large cast, the least interesting character takes the forefront and fails to be compelling. What's more, the actual twist is hidden in a second playthrough that changes some aspects of the story. Even then the denouement makes very little sense.
And yet: it was ridiculously fun to play. Despite most of the cast being stock tropes with little more to them, I became quite fond of several of the characters. So even though the story left me wanting, I did at least enjoy it enough to play it twice and complete everything.
I haven't touched the game in years, so I've no idea what I'd think about playing it through again. Perhaps I'll try it sometime.
Seven! What can I say, she had the coolest weapon. Her whipblade was the most fun to play as, and I spent the entire game flinging it around. Highly recommended.
Type-0's combat is in a three-man party, and my other two go-tos were Trey and Queen, who use a bow and a longsword respectively. They made for a very balanced party that could take on all comers. I was also fond of Sice and her scythe. I did try out all of the characters, but Seven/Trey/Queen is what I used for most of the game.
If you're wondering why I'm talking about their weapons and not their personalities... it's because they barely have any. There are NPCs with more development than the playable characters. Do not go into this game expecting a deep, well-rounded cast.
As a longtime fan of Takeharu Ishimoto's work, I was expecting to like Type-0's soundtrack, and I was pleased to find I do. It's a lot of very solemn pieces that serve as great backdrop for the tense warfront of the game.
I also listened to the two vocal themes for like a month on repeat, so.
Favorite tracks:
Oh man, I definitely don't have one for this game. Which is weird, because it has a whole explorable world map just like the pre-FFX games. It's just that none of the locations resonated with me. I couldn't tell you what any of them looked like or what they were called.
So this game is basically what you get if you take Crisis Core and turn it into a game with a party, and it... works? It pretty much works. Because it was originally on the PSP, the camera sucks, but it works decently enough to get through the game.
Each of the playable characters (of which there are 14) have their own fighting style and skills. It's really a matter of taste who you use, since they all handle differently. For me, I used Seven as my primary character, Queen as my magic user, and Trey as my backup damage dealer, which worked out quite well. I have vague memories of a RTS aspect that I used Trey for, as well.
And really, it is quite fun to play. If I go back to it, it'll wholly be for the gameplay over the story. I still don't love that you have to play it twice to get the whole story.