WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY

The game suffers one technical problems but does seem to be worth playing, here is a fix for the main problems at hand here:
Game crashing upon launching:
Go to the local files of the game, then right click WoFF.exe, go in the property tab and check the box to allow the app to be run as administrator
No way to full screen:
Just go in the local files once again and run WoFFconfig.exe manually from there since square enix can't be bothered to make sure that the interaction they're instructing you to proceed with in order to adjust the graphics works perfectly
Honestly this is just sad, making sure that the basic functions of your program works is the very least when it comes to that sort of things, and although I have no doubt I'll enjoy the game this is something that should *NEVER* occur, especially not for a AAA production

Loved this game. Played and 100% it first on PS4, World of Final Fantasy is a really good and well-written game.
I know the Final Fantasy community is really mixed about it (feels like you either love it or hate it), hardcore fans not being okay with the characters coming from every other FF games (not like we got Dissidia before it and nobody said anything *cough*), but imo it's nicely made and the game makes sense. The story is good, brings some fresh air for a FF game, but still making you both laugh and cry. I also like the mirages that you have to collect from the beginning to the end, with many variants and special ones. The superboss fights are also cool, and I really enjoyed the postgame contents.
Solid 200 hours on PS4 and 130 hours on Steam, I highly recommand WoFF for anyone who just want to play a cute but simple and fun Final Fantasy game.
Story: 8/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
OST: 9/10
Content/Playtime: 8.5/10
Final notation: 8.1/10
(Spoiler: the mini-games' gonna make you insane)

Super awesome game. It's a collect-em-all, but also has some depth and a lot of QoL features I haven't seen before all in one place.
The only bad thing is that you can't launch it directly from steam (it will crash). You have to set the two exe files (WOFF and WOFF_config) to Windows 7 compatibility mode and launch the WOFF.exe directly.

For people having crashing problems, all you need to do is go into the game folder, Right click the "WOFF.exe" Properties > Compatibility > Run as Admin.
Game launches without problems.
Played though the entire thing, no crashes. no missing shortcuts, no corruptions.
Once over that hurdle, games pretty fun. does try a bit to hard to be funny at times with all the puns, but that's kinda the point of this one.

An interesting spin on the Creature Collector genre that is only held back by a lackluster narrative and somewhat unrefined combat gimmicks—an overall okay experience that slightly overstays its welcome.

Story and Setting

Players control the amnesiac siblings Reynn and Lann, who awake in an entirely empty city. There, they meet the enigmatic Enna Kros, who explains to them that they are so-called Mirage Keepers, and in order to recover their memories, they will have to embark into the land of Grymoire.

Grymoire, effectively, is a giant amalgam of various Final Fantasy worlds squished into a largely comedic and shounen-esque adventure setting. For instance, the second chapter takes the player into WOFF’s version of Cornelia, from Final Fantasy I, wherein they are introduced to the various races of Grymoire—most notably the Lilikin’s, which are the Chibi-fied versions of the more well-known original Final Fantasy characters—as well as the overarching conflict with the Bahamutian Army.

The writing isn’t ideal and suffers from a variety of issues. Chief among them is that WOFF heavily relies on its references to other Final Fantasy titles. On its very face, someone who is not otherwise aware of the other titles will barely be able to build a connection to the various characters, as each chapter tends to be relatively short and not particularly keen on breaking the constant norm of lighthearted adventure storytelling. While this writing does fit the aesthetic of the game, it does very little to support the gravitas the story is trying to build—especially towards the overly depressing ‘regular’ ending, before heading into the Postscript.


That is to say, WOFF cannot really be recommended for its narrative. And even for people who are aware of its inspirations, it’s a pretty rough sell, as the novelty of seeing your favorite characters play a heavily distilled role of themselves for an hour or two before passing the spotlight to the next character can wear off pretty quickly.

Gameplay

WOFF, fundamentally, is a Creature Collector—with some very unique twists I have not seen in other contemporary titles within the genre. The most unique feature is the Stack-System. In essence, every character, including the twins, is assigned a size category ranging from S to L, and also XL as a special type.

Players now have two stacks to build—with one slot for each size, leading to a full team of six characters. As the name suggests, characters literally stack on top of one another and thereby add their various stats together. Equally, stacks can be undone to be able to control each character individually at the cost of vastly reduced stats against the enemy. This, at first, is pretty janky as it severely limits your team-building options; however, it also works pretty decently as a core combat mechanic.

The second unique aspect of the gameplay is that each Mirage—i.e., capturable character—features a unique skill tree that players can progress through and which partially applies across its various evolutions. I don’t think this is particularly amazingly implemented for a variety of reasons. Each node individually does not feel like it is particularly powerful, unless it features a new active ability; it is also often the case that evolutions are not merely locked behind a level—leading to quite a number of characters being artificially locked halfway through the game for no discernable reason by the player.

Overall, a huge issue with WOFF is that there is little reason to switch between characters by the time you hit the midgame. The team with which I beat the final chapter was exactly the same as the team I used ten chapters ago, and the crux of this is that level-ups and peripheral power systems are simply more impactful than individual skill trees.


New monsters cannot just be caught. Every capturable enemy has a unique prerequisite to become capturable for a time. This may be as simple as dealing regular damage but can also be a bit more difficult and require elaborate setting up, such as the fight needing to only have the enemy and a single character on your team alive. I have no strong feelings about this; occasionally it can be fairly annoying if you find an enemy you really want to capture but are incapable of doing so due to lacking the ability coverage needed to make it capturable—on the other hand, it also introduces some nice reactivity during mundane gameplay and makes you consider your limited team options more strongly.

Finally, dungeon design is also a little mediocre and typically is very linear with simple gimmicks to break up the monotony. They’d be fine if they weren’t excruciatingly long. There are pretty disgusting outliers such as the Big Bridge from FF V, which here is, of course, also just a linear bridge, stretching for multiple screens at a time that almost entirely only consists of pressing forward and tackling the random encounters. The Big Bridge is a very on-the-nose example of this by virtue of its setting alone, but many dungeons do not feel vastly different from being a mostly straight corridor—it isn’t necessarily horrible, and there often is some variation in how to navigate them, but the issue is fundamentally in the sheer length many dungeons stretch out to.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, WOFF is also a very mixed bag. Monster models, as well as the Lilikin, are nicely detailed and remain expressive; however, regular human models often skirt on the uncanny—which is particularly jarring given the presence of Reynn and Lann throughout the story. Environments tend to be pretty gorgeous and excel at showcasing select locations from other Final Fantasy titles.


This presentation was, for me, the most enjoyable experience while playing WOFF—walking into Saronia Docks and hearing a remixed FF V’s Pirates Ahoy was just one of many memorable moments.

One outlier was rare, fully animated cutscenes—somewhat comparable to how Persona would include little anime-esque scenes between chapters. I didn’t find them to be particularly enjoyable, however, in large part due to the included writing, rather than the quality of the animation itself.

Technical Issues and Performance

WOFF ran overall surprisingly well. Looking around at other reviews and the Discussions board, a frequent complaint is that the game crashes on startup. This is true; however, it is also easily fixed by launching the game as an Administrator. Past this, and some graphical limitations, I have not encountered any issues throughout my playthrough.

Final Thoughts

WOFF is a victim of mediocrity—and a victim of being a game for an extremely niche audience. To be able to enjoy its story, players need to be pretty aware of many other FF titles while also being able to stomach its juvenile story and also being into this kind of turn-based RPG—of which it is very innovative itself. But if you are in this niche, and thankfully, I am—then WOFF is an okay experience to go through that simply makes me wish Square Enix took the experience they made with this title and truly made a sequel that worked out the little complaints that currently stain its experience. A smoother power progression, a less intrusive protagonist, a refined Stack-System, and a gentler experience curve; and I would be confident that WOFF could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its genre peers. Sadly, however, it remains only just an okay experience for a handful of highly devoted Final Fantasy fans.

Seen it had Serah Farron and others from FF13-2. Spent hours grinding threw the game, finding Lighting and Snow mar-jewels about 40 hours in, for the remainder of the game stayed in littlekin form to be able to use the champion mar-jewels. Finally after the final boss got Serah Farron's mar-jewel at 90 hours. Proceeded to turn on free AP Cheat for the first time and spam Serah signature Ultima Arrow ability on Reyen and Curaga on Lann for the last 15 hours of postgame and dlc until I seen the secret ending after completing everything getting all achievements and gold staring every mirage.
Things that need changing to make the game perfect. There are 236* unique imprisem-able mirages but you can only hold 200+12. So it is not possible to have a gold star on every mirage you are forced to transform them. There are over 150* unique mar-jewels you can only hold 120. You are forced to discard them to even gold star mirages because without space you can spend SP on mar-jewel dots. Kinda lame, I wish you could keep up to 2 copies of every mar-jewel so both Lann and Reyen can have there own copy. Right now you cant even have 1 of each.
It would also be nice if the gender restriction was removed from the champion mar-jewels. It limits the possible builds. I wish to use both lightning mar-jewel and serah mar-jewel at the same time.
All of these changes could be solved with a mod or 1 quick dirty update, as it is just a matter of increasing a max value in the prismarium-case to 250 or more, and mar-jewel menu to 300*, and removing a equip restriction the champion mar-jewels.
I also wish you could cycle between gold star upgrades instead of it being a final choice. But this is side issue.

As a Final Fantasy fan, with the hours I put into this game, I can say the game has been a fun journey with the collection of mirages, befriending them, and even going through the main storyline. Sometimes I even get sidelined wondering "Where do I get this skill?" for all sorts of situations. Wether it is getting a new mirage, or trying to destroy a boss (Regardless if main story or post game), I'd be hunting for it and leveling or putting said skill on the mirages.
However, I will state there has been an issue shooting the game directly through steam that I'm sure everyone already read b now. If not, if you are interested in playing this game, don't click play on steam as the game will crash when launched. Instead, browse your local files and click on the WOFF.exe file instead. I also do have a minor complaint on how the screen resolution and other settings has to be set up on a separate program on the same folder called WOFF_config (Although when you launch it through stream, you might read some Japanese kanji).
Despite my minor complaint about it, I still think it's a decent game. It's not the best Final Fantasy game, and the multiplayer side of this is kind of slept on as I want to see what others build with their mirages. But regardless of that, I think it is great. You get to meet mirages and befriend them, learn of the various Final Fantasy cast in one world, learn about Grymoire as you explore, and even end up having to adapt to stacking and unstacking to deal with enemies (Although you'll probably be like me and just regain balance 90% of time to avoid getting stunned when knocked off balance or not risk a one shot to strong enemies).
If you're looking for something different than your usual pokemon rpg, I'd say give this game a try. I had fun and I still want to find how to defeat some of the post game bosses. Are you going? And are you going? Grymoire is waiting for you!