As a series, Final Fantasy has never been one for simple, uncluttered storytelling. The histories, religions and cultures of the various worlds within its over-arching, often disparate universe are de

Excellent combat; Decent story; Lots of characters

So much exposition; Plodding pace; Awful RTS sections

Final Fantasy Type-0 originally released in Japan in 2011 for the PSP, and it was never localized for the West. Due to fan outcry, Square Enix acquiesced for the game to cross the s Pacific in an HD remake for the PlayStation 4.

Refreshing for a FF game to go back to the action-RPG combat; a wide variety of characters and fighting techniques; plenty of FF callbacks and references to keep fans happy; and a twisting and intriguing story that will keep fans on their toes and curious to learn more

It should have stayed with the handheld format; the graphics were a slight disappointment for a new generation of consoles; and the grinding and exploration was far too forced when it really didn't have to be

The once-triumphant Final Fantasy brand has been in an awfully confused state for a good decade now. Two of the last four mainline entries have been MMOs, and Square-Enix spent two whole side projects trying, unsuccessfully, to dig themselves out of the hole that they fell into with Final Fantasy...

It's quite appropriate that Final Fantasy Type-0 HD takes place within a military Akademia, following the exploits of 14 extraordinarily gifted cadets. The game is as punishing and uncompromising as the continental war that it chronicles, and it will school you.

While not the next-generation Final Fantasy game fans are anxiously waiting for, Type-0 is a fun action/adventure with a lot of compelling ideas. There's enough variety in the gameplay to keep the combat fresh for dozens of hours, and the story is surprisingly emotional for a political thriller.

Get the fact that the camera is jarring out of the way first. You do learn to work well with it in battle but out of battle it is still makes me get a little ill. The battle is fast paced yet requires you to look for openings and dodge attacks instead of just blindly mashing away.

Forget JRPGs, 'Final Fantasy' games alone are enough to form hard lines between various fans. 'Type-0' plays like it's meant to be enjoyed in bite sizes and in marathon sessions, and the story is so much more palatable and enjoyable than what one might expect from the past 15 years.

"The inclusion of Steam Cloud saving and a number of PC-specific options shows that this clearly wasn't a slapdash effort, but the obtuse way some of those options are implemented and the weak mouse/keyboard control choices make it a case of "better, but still not perfect.

Lengthy adventure that breaks the FF mold; many options make it an improvement on previous Square Enix PC ports

Strange implementation of those new options; keyboard and mouse controls almost unusable; even high settings can't fully mask that this is a port of a port of a PSP game

25 years ago, the "Summer of Final Fantasy" captured my imagination. I didn't really know what Final Fantasy was at the time, nor did I particularly care that said "summer" was just a marketing invention being peddled by Nintendo Power to drum up interest in role-playing games among American players...

When it comes to Final Fantasy, everybody has a favorite era. Some people love the simplicity of the 8-bit games, while others prefer the polygonal look of those early PlayStation sequels. Often lost in this discussion is the PSP era, which I would argue was Square Enix at their most experimental.