World of Final Fantasy's opening hours show a lot of promise for fans and newcomers alike, but the longer you spend with it, the more its lack of depth becomes apparent.

Stacking monsters provides a unique twist on classic turn-based combat; Feels like a Saturday morning cartoon with all your favorite Final Fantasy characters

Combat loses all steam 15 hours in; Too much padding in late-game

Concept: Return to a traditional RPG format while revisiting your favorite parts of Final Fantasy history Graphics: The toy-like visual style looks great, and it captures the essence of the familiar monsters Sound: I was happy to hear the returning characters' voice actors reprise their roles.

When I first saw the reveal trailer for World of Final Fantasy I honestly didn't think much of it, in fact I was slightly worried for it. I mean, a cutesy spin-off Final Fantasy title among other E3 2015 news – like the Final Fantasy VII remake – didn't really harbour my attention for too long.

Cuteness Overload; Tons of nostalgia; Accessible and easy to jump into; Humorous/Breaks the fourth wall; Beautiful visuals; Fully voiced in both English and Japanese

Lack of movement in battles; Battles slow at times

Since 1997 I have been playing Final Fantasy . I have never missed a major release no matter the circumstances, earning great admiration for the franchise along the way. Although more recently my enthusiasm for the series has been tested, I owe it tremendous praise for delivering some of the most...

Well executed strategy gameplay; Mirage collection is entertaining; Colorful world with a wonderful soundtrack

Poor nostalgic execution; Tags

Chibi and cheerful?

Stacking system is a decent idea; More personality than recent FF games

Some terrible obfuscation; Plodding battle pace

is a humorous adventure that is just too cute for words, but its combat and exploration aren't diverse enough to support a campaign nearly as long as this one. However, I did enjoy it for a long time - more than 30 hours - before it wore out its welcome.

The fan service is off the scale, in terms of the number of returning characters and references, but importantly this is also a fun and unique role-player in its own right.

Fun mish-mash of favourite Final Fantasy characters; monsters; and locations; with an interesting; if somewhat bizarre; take on ATB battles

Terrible storytelling; Battles do eventually lose their allure and challenge, and yet you'll probably be nowhere near finished the game when they do

If FFXV is Square Enix's answer to what Final Fantasy would look like in the real world, then World of Final Fantasy is its saccharine, saucer-eyed cousin, an exercise in pure, unadulterated fan service to make you coo with delight ahead of the main event next month.

Square Enix has attempted quite a few "love letters" to Final Fantasy fans with their FF spin-offs. They've brought all of the characters together to duke it out in Final Fantasy Dissidia . They chibi-fied them and made them move to the beat in Final Fantasy Theatrhythm .

Puns; Unique combat system; Pokemon crossed with Final Fantasy; Creative story to unite all of the Final Fantasy worlds and characters; Numerous innovative ways to use a stacking mechanic

Side questing is rather forced

"World of Final Fantasy almost feels like a kid's movie that makes frequent winks and nods to the adults in the audience, except that it does so without an understanding of how to fully appeal to either demographic." ? 2016 Square Enix. All rights reserved.

Wonderful soundtrack; bright and colorful environments; addictive monster collecting elements; legitimately hilarious writing in the bestiary

Juvenile story with an ambiguous target audience; shallow fanservice; fairly simplistic combat; OMG I cannot stand the chibi characters please get them away from me