HammerOfJustice
Since: Apr, 2013
09/07/2018 00:00:00
You realize \"shooting the moon\" is a positive term, right? The title heavily implies that while they were aiming for minor glory (the stars, bright and numerous), they hit it big-time (the Moon, far brighter than the brightest star could ever hope to be).
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Shot For The Stars, Crashed Into The Moon
You can tell Type-0's developers tried to create something great, but they fall short.
The gameplay is like Crisis Core, with the tighter restriction of each character only being able to equip two attacking abilities and one defensive/curative ability each. The characters each play very differently so any player can find a few they like. The game has a "Kill Sight" feature, where landing a blow just as an enemy is about to attack or finishes attack lands an automatic critical hit of sorts. It helps stop the game from being a button masher by encouraging you to watch your enemy's attack patterns, and a lot of bosses are invincible until Kill Sight renders them vulnerable so you have to learn how to do this. The game is intensely stingy with Phoenix Downs, they toss Elixirs at you all the time but Phoenix Downs are rare treasures. This means when someone dies on a mission they're gone, but you can call in someone else to fill in. This does mean you have to level grind all 14 characters, but there are sidequests to do between missions that help alleviate the tedium of it.
The story is... eh. It goes pretty fast, characters come and go without us ever really getting to know them and the plot is straightforward with few surprises. But there are still some some good moments, and a lot of callbacks to previous games, especially VI and IX. Many areas on the world map are cut off until you do NG+ and are at a level to brave them. Along with the bare-bones story it feels like the developers over-designed this world, forced to scale back their ambitions to fit them onto the PSP and what they had to trim was retooled as side content. Maybe the remaster can give this world the attention it obviously wanted.
Then... the final chapter. It feels like this is the point when Toriyama began sitting in on meetings because it stinks of his hack trolling. Concepts and characters are introduced at the last minute without explanation of what they are, the gameplay becomes boring and repetitive, and there is no emotional connection to the story because you don't understand what's happening. You thought FF8 took a downward turn after Disc 2? You will wish this game's eighth chapter was as good as FF8 disc three.
Final verdict, not a masterpiece, but it's got its moments. Not a must-have, but if you're a diehard fan of the series I'd say give it a shot.