Final Fantasy Type-0

Unreleased

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 PSP at DKΣ3713 2008.

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, Type-0 ' s combat 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. The players can determine the enemies' weak points with Kill Sight, allowing them to deal a deathblow resulting in an Instant Death.

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 killed. In the emergency of loss of nearly all characters, the player will be 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. When summoned, they will replace the summoner, and 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.

The game's structure is mission-based. There are also supposed to be sub-objectives in battle to strive for. It is shown on the TGS 2010 trailer the game will have a World Map, and the player can ride a chocobo or fly an airship and use its weapons in an aerial battle. There will be Random Encounters and the monsters will roam around the world map, with an energy called "Phantoma" drawn from the defeated monsters to restore or fortify magic.

Tabata also says that 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 PSP in terms of gameplay is similar between the two games.

Setting
The world of Final Fantasy Type-0 is called Oriens, and 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, Type-0 draws heavily from Eastern Asian mythology, particularly from the Four Symbols: Suzaku the Vermilion Bird, Byakko the White Tiger, Genbu the Black Tortoise, and Sōryū (or Seiryū) the Azure Dragon. Tabata described 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 who 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 and Golem.

Class Zero
The twelve other playable characters 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 hangun wielder.


 * No.03 Trey: A handsome, blond-haired youth armed with a bow and arrow. His basic attack is Magic Arrow and his special attack is Arrow Shower.


 * No.05 Cinque: A young lady with brown, braided hair who fights using a mace. Her basic attack is called Crash Mace and her special attack is Earthquake.


 * No.06 Sice: A girl who wields a scythe as a weapon, she isn't very good with words but has good judgement.


 * No.07 Seven: A gray-haired girl that carries an extending chain whip. She was named "Muchi" (ムチ, "Whip") in early footage, after her weapon of choice.


 * No.08 Eight: A young martial artist with short hair who wears a pair of knuckles, due to his hate of weapons.


 * 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. Even though he has a foul mouth and isn't exactly wise, his courage boosts Class Zero's morale on the battlefield.


 * No.11 Jack: A young man with coiffed blond hair that fights using a katana. He was known only as "Katana" in early footage.


 * No.12 Queen: A young woman with long black hair and trademark glasses who wields a saber. 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 kind-hearted who wields two guns. His bullets are infinite, but still must be reloaded after a set number of shots.

The remaining member of Class Zero is a female character wielding a flute.

Narrators
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 an 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.


 * Rem Tokimiya: A young woman with short brown hair that 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.

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.


 * 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's frequently shown accompanied by a Tonberry that carries a large knife and wears the Class Zero uniform.


 * Hattsumikamine Rōtoyōsuna Eripuruchi: A Moogle (Military Operation Organization Guidance/Logistics Expert) assigned to Class Zero. Voiced by Sumire Morohoshi.


 * Izana: A Suzaku soldier with a scar running across his left temple. He's a fan of chocobos, and in the Type-0 premier trailer was shown trying to heal a wounded chocobo despite his own injuries.


 * Arecia Al-Rashia: Arecia wears spectacles and is head of Suzaku's magic division and oversees magic development. 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.

Milites Empire

 * Cid Aulstyne: 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.

Lorican Alliance

 * Gilgamesh: A 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 giant bosses. He is again voiced by Kazuya Nakai.

Development
Originally titled Final Fantasy Agito XIII, the game was initially announced for mobile phones but was re-announced for the PSP at DKS3713 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 PSP 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 PSP, since mobile phone games usually do not make it to North America. The mobile phone version has been discontinued. Along with Versus, Nomura states 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 (pronounced in Japan as "Final Fantasy Rei Shiki") because Hajime Tabata did not think it was similar enough to Final Fantasy XIII to warrant the old title. In December 2010, Square Enix had trademarked the name in Europe along with Type-1, Type-2, and Type-3, 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.

Staff

 * Director & Scenario Designer: Hajime Tabata
 * Co-Director & Battle Planner: Takutsugu Nakazawa
 * Scenario Writer: Daisuke Watanabe
 * Art Director: Yusuke Naora
 * Character Designer: Tetsuya Nomura
 * Composer: Takeharu Ishimoto
 * Producer: Yoshinori Kitase
 * Movie Director: Kazuyuki Ikumori

Trivia

 * The four warring nations in Type-0 are based on the mythological, constellations appearing in Chinese astrology. The four Crystals that they control were also named after them.
 * 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”.
 * 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”.
 * 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“.
 * 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).
 * 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," possibly referencing that the gameplay of Type-0 will be action-oriented, or perhaps referring to the game's mobile nature as a PSP game.
 * Even though the title has changed, the term "Agito" still appears within the story for a predestined hero. 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 main characters' names, except Machina and Rem, are a play on a deck of playing cards.
 * 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 upcoming game.

Reference
Final Fantasy Type-0 Final Fantasy Type-0