Final Fantasy Type-0

Final Fantasy Type-0 is a video game for PlayStation Portable which, alongside Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, makes up Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy. Unveiled at E3 '06, the game "[offers] players easy on-the-go access to the Final Fantasy XIII universe." The game was originally announced for mobile phones, but was re-announced for the PlayStation Portable at DKΣ3713 2008.

A downloadable version of Final Fantasy Type-0 was released available on the same day as the Japanese UMD release on October 27th. It has been confirmed that a North America and European release is underway.

Gameplay
The battle system in the game is a new evolution of the "ATB Kai" system created by Takatsugu Nakazawa for Final Fantasy X-2, and later refined in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. Unlike Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, the combat in Final Fantasy Type-0 is party-based. Instead of navigating through menus, actions are mapped directly to the face buttons for quick access. Nakazawa says he wants it to be the fastest version of ATB ever created. It also supports both Ad-hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer for up to three players.

This is manifested not in full-scale multiplayer, but as an emergency backup when the player's party is about to be wiped out. Multiplayer will normally last for three minutes, but time can be increased through the gathering of SP. The players can determine the enemies' weak points with Kill Sight, allowing them to deal a deathblow resulting in an Instant Death. There will be some fighting game style elements like movement canceling for skilled action players.

Also, like Final Fantasy XIII, the game has a Crystarium system, called Alto Crystarium. This system helps to power up the characters' magic using an energy called "Phantoma", drawn from defeated monsters, to restore or fortify magic. When a character absorbs this energy, their magic recovers a bit. The amount of recovery depends on the type of Phantoma, as indicated by the color.

The Phantoma is also used in the Alto Crystarium to power up the characters' magic. Depending on the type of magic, the character can power up their magic in different areas. For example, a character's Fire RF magic can be powered up in strength, MP usage, call time, projectile distance and speed. Increasing the Fire RF magic's strength parameter requires six red Phantomas.

Magic comes in three elemental types: fire, ice and thunder. The various spells also differ in attack pattern and call method. Five varieties in this area are known at the moment:
 * Shotgun (SHG): This type spreads at multiple height levels. It doesn't travel far, but is powerful against close enemies.
 * Rifle (RF): This type shoots out straight in the direction of the target. It travels far but has narrow range.
 * Bomb (BOM): This type is effective in your immediate surroundings. It can be useful against quick enemies and small enemies.
 * Missile (MIS): This type chases after the enemy before releasing its magic. The higher level (that is, the magic with the "ra" and "ga" at the end of their names) will expand to encompass surroundings.
 * Rocket Launcher (ROK): When you begin casting this type, a target will appear. The magic will fire in the direction that you aim. When it strikes, it will explode and damage enemies in the surroundings.

Furthermore, characters and summons can learn their individual abilities by using AP won through leveling. Acquiring new abilities may unveil more advanced abilities that will strengthen each character or summon according to their fighting style.

Like Final Fantasy XII, the player has the option to choose the leader of their party of three and party members can be changed during gameplay manually or when the leading member is KO'ed. In the emergency of loss of nearly all characters, the player is able to call in aid from another player for a duration of three minutes, with bonus time granted through good play. In some case the victory can be decided in other ways, such as defeating the enemy leader, which will trigger the surrender of its minions.

Summons also appear in the game, and play a role in the characters' growth, though they gain EXP and AP separately from the summoner. When summoned, they replace the summoner and the player can't have the summoner again in the party until the mission is finished. However, the summons work as a normal party member, which can be directly controlled by the player or by the AI, much like in Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System.

Another feature from the game is the Trinity Attack system. These are group combination skills that require 3 members to pull-off. In general they are much weaker than Summons, but can used multiple times without needing to sacrifice a character. Currently known ones include Straight Flash, used with Ace; Dead Ensemble, used with Deuce; and Crisis Arrow, used with Trey; Wave Cannon, used with Cater; Grand Slam, used with Cinque; Slash End, used with Sice; Hurricane Whip, used with Seven; Linear Crash, used with Nine; Hornet, used with Queen; Zero Distance Shot, used with King; Sonic Charge, used with Machina; and Cascade, used with Rem.

The game's structure is mission-based. There are also sub-objectives in battle to strive for. The game has a World Map, and the player can ride chocobos or fly an airship and use its weapons in an aerial battle. Battles are initiated by Random Encounters and the monsters roam around the world map.

Final Fantasy Type-0's World Map known as the "Active World Map" features two minigame style elements new to the series, War battles called Skirmishes and Airship Dogfights. Skirmishes involves moving troops around and capturing areas in an RTS styled manner. Different troops have different strong points e.g. specialized against machines. Special missions give you encampments to control and more troops to take charge of. In Airship Combat, the airship you control has machine guns installed on it. This means you can take on mounted dragons controlled by Concordia in dog fights. There are various kinds of dragons, including larger ones used by the Royal Guard. You also fight them on the deck.

There also an Arena that features two types of training available to the players:
 * Simulation Battles – The player can progress through 20 rounds of fighting to level up their characters and get them Phantoma. The player still keeps the experience if they die part way through.
 * Secret Training – A character can be selected to be trained while the player's PlayStation Portable is in sleep mode. Details are unclear.

Tabata also says that Final Fantasy Type-0 is similar to The 3rd Birthday, saying that while they are two different games in terms of content, the core of what the staff can do on the PlayStation Portable in terms of gameplay is similar between the two games.

Setting
Final Fantasy Type-0 takes place in Oriense, which is divided into four nations known as the Suzaku Fiefdom of Rubrum, the Milites Empire, the Lorican Alliance, and the Kingdom of Concordia. Each of the nations is blessed with a crystal that grants them unique powers: Rubrum controls the Suzaku Crystal containing the power of Magic, Milites controls the Byakko Crystal containing the power of Weapons, Lorica controls the Genbu Crystal containing the power of the Shield, and Concordia controls the Sōryū Crystal containing the power of the Dragon.

The four nations coexisted peacefully under the Pax Codex until Cid Aulstyne, High Commander of the Milites Empire, broke the peace treaty and staged an invasion using advanced military technology developed with the power of the Byakko Crystal. With his armada of airships and magitek armor, Cid easily conquered Lorica and Concordia, then moved on to Rubrum where he faced a strong resistance due the nation's magical defenses.

Hoping to force the nation's leaders to surrender, Cid staged an attack on Rubrum's Magic Academy, Peristylium Suzaku. A small group of extremely skilled students belonging to the Peristylium's Class Zero have managed to retain the powers from their pact with the Suzaku Crystal. While Cid attempts to negotiate with Rubrum's president, the students of Class Zero are busy organizing Operation Apostle, a covert mission to recapture the crystal and defeat the Milites forces.

Like previous titles in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy Type-0 draws heavily from Eastern Asian mythology, particularly from the Four Symbols: Suzaku the, Byakko the , Genbu the , and Sōryū (or Seiryū) the. Tabata described Final Fantasy Type-0 as "a major title that's formed from a variety of concepts". These include "Collision of four fantasies (the world view)", "Killing match between magic and weapons (battle)", "The Ordinary and Unordinary (the two sides of reality)".

Playable Characters
Final Fantasy Type-0 features fourteen playable characters, all of whom are students at Peristylium Suzaku, Rubrum's Magic Academy. Each character wields a uniquely identifiable weapon and abilities, giving them a variety of playstyles. Players may also temporarily control a variety of summoned creatures known as War-Gods, including Odin, Ifrit, Shiva, Golem, Bahamut and Diabolos.

Class Zero
The playable characters of Final Fantasy Type-0 are members of Class Zero, a team of students leading the counterattack against the invading army of Milites Byakko. As members of Operation Apostle, each hopes to become the Agito, a savior prophesied in ancient mythology to appear at the time of Finis, an apocalyptic calamity. Each member of Class Zero is named after the Japanese pronunciations of "trumps" (playing cards), and is assigned a corresponding number.


 * No.01 Ace: A blond boy who wields a deck of cards and is said to be the primary protagonist within Class Zero. Despite his youthful appearance, his speech and actions are exceptionally impressive. Though usually calm, he has a reckless side and will sometimes rush off and act out of anger.
 * No.02 Deuce: A brunette girl who wields a flute. She is very loyal to her duties at Class Zero, and she is kindhearted and good-natured, even if she can be a bit stubborn.
 * No.03 Trey: A blond-haired youth armed with a bow and arrow. He's a calm, well-mannered person, but is actually very chatty.
 * No.04 Cater: A female member of Class Zero with short, flared red hair who wields a gun which fires magically charged bullets. She's very confident and direct, but also tends to be competitive.
 * No.05 Cinque: A young lady with brown, braided hair who fights using a mace. Her unusual personality and unpredictable actions tend to cause others to stay away from her.
 * No.06 Sice: A girl who wields a scythe as a weapon, she isn't very good with words but has good judgment.
 * No.07 Seven: A gray-haired girl that carries an extending chain whip. While her expressions are somewhat cold, she is kind and good-natured.
 * No.08 Eight: A young martial artist with short hair who wears a pair of knuckles. His combat style reflects his dislike of weapons, which he believes takes lives away too easily.
 * No.09 Nine: A young man with a scarred face and disheveled uniform who wields a spear. Impulsive and straightforward, he sees the world in black and white and only feels satisfied when things aren't complicated.
 * No.11 Jack: A young man with coiffed blond hair that fights using a katana. He seems to always have a smile and is able to make wise-cracks easily. In dangerous surroundings he encourages his peers to take it easy.
 * No.12 Queen: A young woman with long black hair and trademark glasses who wields a longsword. She's referred to as the team's class president, and her dignified appearance and intelligence suit her name.
 * No.13 King: A young man who looks cold, but is actually kindhearted who wields two guns. His bullets are infinite, but still must be reloaded after a set number of shots.

Class Zero features two additional members that are childhood friends from the same town, and are recent additions to the ranks of Class Zero. It's said that they are important characters and act as outside observers of the game's events.
 * Machina Kunagiri: A young man with dark hair and an elegant red cloak who fights using a pair of screw-shaped rapiers. He is transferred into the legendary Class Zero alongside his childhood friend, Rem, due to his high magic proficiency and steadily advances forward in spite his fear of war. He is also the younger brother of Izana, with the full story of his death driving a wedge between him and the senior members in Class Zero.
 * Rem Tokimiya: A young woman with short brown hair who dual wields daggers. She was transferred into Class Zero along with Machina. She's moral, kind, and honest, and has an outstanding hidden talent for magic.

There are also characters who are temporarily playable.
 * Kurasame: Class Zero's masked instructor. He was previously a student at the academy, once feared on the battlefield as the "Icy Blade of Death". He is frequently shown accompanied by a Tonberry that carries a large knife and wears the Class Zero uniform.

Non-Playable Characters

 * Arecia Al-Rashia: Arecia wears spectacles and is head of Suzaku's magic division and oversees magic development, the previous instructor of Class Zero. No one knows when she came to Suzaku. She's viewed somewhat as a sorceress who will do some unbelievable things at times. Regarded as a genius, her job is to develop and reform magic around Suzaku's peristylium.
 * Tiz: Named No.10 in Class Zero, an enigmatic young woman has a strange connection to them. She is voiced by Hitomi Terakado.
 * Lean Joker: Named No.00 in Class Zero, a man that can be seen wearing a Byakko uniform at times. He is voiced by Kōki Uchiyama.

Suzaku Fiefdom of Rubrum

 * Khalia Chival VI: The 174th Director of the Suzaku Magic Academy and one of the rulers of the nation of Rubrum. Though Khalia is an elderly man with gray hair, he was known as a great wizard in his youth, and has earned the confidence of those around him.
 * Izana Kunagiri: A Suzaku soldier with a scar running across his left temple. He's a fan of chocobos, and, in the Final Fantasy Type-0 premier trailer, was shown trying to heal a wounded chocobo despite his own injuries. He is also the older brother of Machina, who gave Izana's chocobo its name, Chichiri.
 * Zhuyu: A Suzaku l'Cie who has been branded for many years and is slowly losing his memories along with his emotions. He can freely wield fire.
 * Caetuna: A Suzaku Type-B l'Cie. She excels at Summon Magic, and it is said that she can call any God of War as well as control thousands of them at same time. In all of Oriense, she is the most senior l'Cie, and her name even appears in records of a world war two-hundred years past.
 * Aria: A subordinate of Class Zero that sells items. She tends to be quiet and obedient, but sometimes cracks.
 * Emina: A Suzaku officer in command of the cadets, popular between her peers because of her bright and cheerful personality. In her past, she was a classmate of Kazusa and Kurasame.
 * Kazusa: The chief of the weapons research laboratory. He's very well known due to his revolutionary research, and in his youth he was in the same class as Emina and Kurasame. He's still in friendly terms with both of them. He is voiced by Akira Ishida.
 * Cranberry Knights: A group of thirteen moogles who are each assigned to one of the thirteen classes of the Peristylium. One of them, Mog, whose full name is Hattsumikamine Rōtoyōsuna Eripuruchi (Military Operation Organization Guidance/Logistics Expert) is assigned to Class Zero.


 * The other faculty of Suzaku Magic Academy consist of Cadetmaster, the Director of logistics at the Suzaku Peristylium, Commandant, the Director of military affairs at the Suzaku Peristylium, Provost, the Director of academics and magical research and Commissar, the Authority in charge of magic management.
 * Suzaku Peristylium Students
 * Naghi: A cadet from Class Nine who wears a bandana and is a self-proclaimed idol. He has an aloof personality and is a member of the Intelligence Club.
 * Carla: A fiery merchant girl from Class Two with light, blue-green hair, who offers items and information to Class Zero at outrageous prices. Because of her good grades, she is popular among the faculty.
 * Quon: A magic researcher from Class Eleven, he shows absolutely no interest for the common magic studied by everyone else and is constantly looking for the ultimate magic. He is voiced by Ryoutarou Okiayu.
 * Mutsuki: Class Twelve's genius inventor who always carries explosives around with her. She has a rather paranoid personality and is known to be a little trigger happy with her bombs, causing many to avoid her. She is voiced by Marika Matsumoto.
 * Ryid: A member of Class Five. He has a very strong body due to the fact that his mother was a Lorican. He trains hard every day to use is strength to protect others. He is voiced by Masahiro Kobayashi.

Milites Empire

 * Cid Aulstyne: The High Commander of the technologically advanced army of the Milites Empire. Cid's goal is obtain the crystals of the four nations of Oriens, and for that purpose he breaks the Pax Codex and invades his neighboring countries with airship fleets and magitek armor.
 * Qator Bashtar: The Brigadier General of the Milites Empire and a proud, blond-haired soldier who wears a patch over his left eye. He can often be found fighting on the front line, wielding a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, and is also known to be an expert magitek armor pilot.
 * Qun'mi: A recent l'Cie of Byakko. She is a confident woman who draws out the power of weapons in battle and is seen wearing a tie with her helmet and armor, and will face off against the students of Class Zero. She pilots a Magitek Armor called Dainsleif with has a Crystal Jammer equipped.
 * Nimbus: A Byakko Type-A l'Cie who is a silent and enigmatic cyborg. It is said that he has fought many l'Cie in his past. He lives only to fulfill the purpose given to him by the Crystal, and any other purpose or intentions disappeared a hundred years ago. In battle, he uses optic weapons like light rays as his weapon. From the sky, he can fire torrents of light into the ground, and penetrate targets with condensed beams of light. He is voiced by Junichi Suwabe.

Lorican Alliance

 * Gilgamesh: A giant l'Cie who has gained the power of the Genbu crystal, but has forgotten his Focus. Gilgamesh is confirmed to be one of the game's bosses.
 * Enkidu: A Genbu l'Cie who shares a childhood with Gilgamesh, and acts as a mentor that guides him. He is voiced by Hiroshi Shirokuma.

Kingdom of Concordia

 * Andoria - The queen of Concordia who is in touch with the Queen Dragon, a manifestation of the kingdom's Sōryū Crystal.
 * Celestia - An elite knight of the Akatoki, one of five orders of knights that protect the Sōryū Peristylium. She is also a l'Cie and personally leads the attacks on Rubrum after Andoria is murdered, holding Class Zero accountable for it.
 * Concordian King (Sōryū-ou, lit. King of the Azure Dragon) - A masked man who rules opposite Queen Andoria. He has a brash and self-centered personality that is in sharp contrast to the Queen.
 * Yuzuki: Another member of the Akatoki.

Neutral

 * Diva: The women portrayed in the Final Fantasy Type-0 logo, acting in the opening narration to detail the world of Oriense. They are voiced by Maaya Sakamoto.

Development
Originally titled Final Fantasy Agito XIII, the game was initially announced for mobile phones but was re-announced for the PlayStation Portable at DKΣ3713 2008. Developers stated the reason for the move was that they did not want to wait for cell phones to be advanced enough to handle the game. According to the developers, the PlayStation Portable version of the game was planned from the start and was meant to be revealed sometime after progress on the mobile version.

The game seems to be drawing more attention now that it has been announced for the PlayStation Portable, since mobile phone games usually do not make it to North America. The mobile phone version has been discontinued. Along with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Nomura states Final Fantasy Type-0 is undergoing voice acting in Japan.

Tabata said in a Famitsu interview that "it's becoming an intense experience where you do gun shooting with fire." On the subject of multiplayer, he added "Agito XIII will not have the standard multiplayer style of everyone gathering together to play. It will be a multiplayer system unique to this game."

At the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premiere event on January 18, 2011, the game was retitled Final Fantasy Type-0 (ファイナルファンタジー　零式, Fainaru Fantajī Reishiki) because Hajime Tabata did not think it was similar enough to Final Fantasy XIII to warrant the old title. Square Enix had trademarked the title in December 2010, along with Type-1 (壱式, Ichishiki), Type-2 (弐式, Nishiki), and Type-3 (参式, Sanshiki), as they hope the game will be successful enough to eventually be spun off into its own subseries.

Tabata explained in a Famitsu interview the game will ship in two UMDs because he does not want to cut any content. He wanted to keep the cutscenes' visual quality on par with PlayStation 3 titles, so they had to take the game's realtime cutscenes and convert them into movie files so they can be further polished and edited. However, the disk switch will be unusual, making the player have to go from Disk 1 to Disk 2 and then back to Disk 1 again, due to the prologue and final portions of the game being on the first UMD and the rest residing in the second, including the multiplayer mode.

On September 10, 2011 during the Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fan meeting, Producer Yoshinori Kitase was questioned about the development of Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. His answer, “for Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII we are giving 100% to development", thanks to the knowledge and experienced gained from developing Final Fantasy XIII.

Staff

 * Director & Scenario Designer: Hajime Tabata
 * Co-Director & Battle Planner: Takutsugu Nakazawa
 * Scenario Writer: Daisuke Watanabe
 * Art Director: Yusuke Naora
 * Character Designer: Tetsuya Nomura
 * Battle Director: Yuji Kenichirou
 * Lead Player Action Designer: Ooe Taisuke
 * Composer: Takeharu Ishimoto
 * Theme Song "Zero": Bump of Chicken
 * Producer: Yoshinori Kitase
 * Movie Director: Kazuyuki Ikumori

Trivia

 * Pulse from Final Fantasy XIII is mentioned in the game. The armistice in the era of the game was proclaimed by the three major nations of Oriense "in the name of the Gods of Pulse", as noted by Celestia quoting from the Fabula Conventions.
 * The four warring nations in Final Fantasy Type-0 are based on the mythological, constellations appearing in Chinese astrology. The four Crystals that they control were also named after them, and their real world associations also mirror the powers they bestow onto the people.
 * Suzaku (朱雀) in Japanese, Zhu Que being its original Chinese name. The of Chinese Mythology, it represents the Element of Fire; the Direction of South; and the Season of Summer. It is also known as the "Vermilion Bird of the South". As its crystal governs over magic, wielding fire without a physical catalyst is often regarded as esoteric and mystifying throughout witness of such actions.
 * Genbu (玄武) in Japanese, Xuan Wu being its original Chinese name. The of Chinese Mythology, it represents the Element of Water; the Direction of North; and the Season of Winter. It is also known as the "Black Warrior of the North". As its crystal bestows great strength and physical growth, the power of Shield is symbolically represented through the shell of the tortoise, meaning invulnerability and endurance, with the element of water representing nourishment and the amelioration of vitality.
 * Byakko (白虎) in Japanese, Bai Hu being its original Chinese name. The of Chinese Mythology. it represents the Element of Metal; the Direction of West; and the Season of Autumn. It is also known as the "White Tiger of the West". As its crystal governs over the power of weapons, metal is always the common material of innovation and weaponry.
 * Sōryū (蒼竜) in Japanese, Qing Long being its original Chinese name. The of Chinese Mythology, it represents the Element of Wood; the Direction of East; and the Season of Spring. It is also known as the "Azure Dragon of the East". Sōryū is more commonly known as Seiryū (青竜). As its crystal governs over the ability to communicate with monsters and animals, dragons are known to be beings capable of sentience throughout legend and myth as well, with the element of wood representing nature.
 * The Latin term "Peristylium", meaning "courtyard", is a found in ancient Roman homes. This is intended to be an homage to the Gardens in Final Fantasy VIII.
 * The game was originally called Final Fantasy Agito XIII. The Latin word "agito" roughly translates into "I put into action/motion" or "I move/rouse". Even though the title has changed, the term "Agito" still appears within the story. In the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, the term "Finis" refers to destruction, while "Agito" refers to salvation. The line in the Square Enix 1st Production Dept. trailer narration, "The world awaits Agito", can be understood to mean "the world awaits its savior".
 * The twelve senior members of Class Zero refer to the Old French terms used for dice (Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque, Sice) or the trumps from a deck of playing cards (Ace, Seven, Eight, Nine, Jack, Queen, King). Tiz and Lean Joker's names follow a similar naming pattern; Tiz is Hungarian for "ten" and is similar to the French word "Dix" meaning "ten" while Joker references the special trump card of the same name.
 * Rem and Machina's names appear to refer to the Latin expressions Rem acu tango ("touching the matter with a needle") and Deus ex Machina ("God from a machine").
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Player Icons of Ace are still referred to as being from Final Fantasy Agito XIII, even though it was released after the name change to Final Fantasy Type-0. This is due to their appearance as such in Dissidia Final Fantasy, and the fact that the Data Transfer option between the two also transfers Player Icon data demands consistency between the two games. Furthermore, Gilgamesh has a DLC costume based on his appearance in the game.
 * Moogles, for the first time, have voices, rather than the traditional "kupo" sound effect from Kingdom Hearts, as well as Dissidia. This is seen in the opening trailer in the demo for the game. All the moogles however, still resemble the ones seen from Kingdom Hearts.
 * Similar to how Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles reused many monster designs from Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Type-0 reuses many monster designs from previous Final Fantasy titles.
 * The menu Cursor in Final Fantasy Type-0 is the same as the one used in the original Final Fantasy X announcement trailer.
 * Final Fantasy Type-0 is perhaps the game with the largest cast. Unlike previous supporting characters in the past series, supporting characters were given their very own detailed background, story and scene.
 * Type-0 is also the first game to prominently feature bloodshed (it first appeared in Tactics but was not as detailed) and has a more tragic storyline than many others in the series.
 * The game uses a similar enemy HP system to Kingdom Hearts where multiple multicolored bars stacked on top of each other are used to represent HP. The colors and the bar's length are more reminiscent of The 3rd Birthday, however.
 * The game marks the first time that the Cid character is the main antagonist of the game, but not the first game to feature an antagonistic Cid. This tradition started in and has been kept since Final Fantasy XII with Doctor Cid.

Reference
Final Fantasy Type-0 Final Fantasy Type-0