SoP:FFO is a really cool game on paper, a cheesy final fantasy-infused action game having you punch, slash and blast your way through some semblance of the story of Final Fantasy 1 with just enough going slightly differently to really catch your attention. With a neat class system and the ability to customize your combos, special skills and gear, it could’ve been a slam dunk. That being said, I was eventually ground down by the difficulty, the overabundance of gear and the absence of ways, for me, to overcome the challenges the game placed in my way.
Jack is a great JRPG protagonist, he’s a no-nonsense guy that just shows up to defeat Chaos, with a single track mind and a few allies, he goes for it. The story is a bit light, but it does go places, through the main quest cutscenes or tidbits of lore you get here and there - in chests or loading screens - and it was really refreshing to have a character just be like that. The maps of the game are recreation of iconic locales from other Final Fantasy titles, the music is great and the whole package really tugs at my nostalgia in a good way. They really imagined what it would mean to fight these enemies in full 3D.
The fighting itself works by pressing X and Y to chain out normal attacks and special moves, building up MP so you can use special powers, even stronger attacks, or magic spells, depending on your class and what you have equipped, damaging enemies reduces their ‘break gauge’ and health, and when either is down to zero, they are defeated. On the defensive side, you can dodge roll, guard (which will still inflict some damage to you), or ‘soul guard’ which drains a meter but allows you to gain charges of certain moves that you can then throw back at the enemies. That was already too much for me. I barely could dodge roll away from attacks consistantly and almost never guarded, soul guard was just out of the question.
You have 8 equipment slots for a weapon, shield, and various pieces of stylish armor and the game doles it out like candy on halloween day. You’ll constantly find gear, of all rarities and styles, with a smothering of stats, you’ll need to decide if “+2.8% poison resistance” is better or worse than “+5.6% damage with ice skills when health is above 90%” a million times over. This is absolutely too much, it becomes a meaningless loop of hitting ‘AUTO-OPTIMIZE’ and then salvaging everything leftover.
The job system feels the same way, I love myself a good skill tree and I’m a huge fan of job systems. You get experience for your current jobs (you can equip two) and use that to unlock nodes on a skill tree, some give new skills, new moves for your combos, stat bonuses or even unlock new jobs, which is really dope, but it becomes a slurry of numbers anyways, there is no real choice, no real strategy, you’ll just go through and unlock everything and not feel a difference.
And that’s my final issue with the game, you really need to be good at the sometimes unforgiving, punishing combat, the layer of RPG on top of it almost feels like a checkbox that needed to be filled for the game, no matter the gear you find, no matter how much you ‘grind’ for job experience, no matter the skills you equip, you just can’t get ahead of the curve and catch some breathing room on that side of things. I wish I could’ve leveled a class that made me take significantly less damage from a really difficult boss, I wish that this optional map gave a sword that really felt better than the other swords. It’s a shame, because at heart SoP:FFO is really, really neat. Turning it to “casual” difficulty didn’t feel good either.
Ultimately, if you’re good at this kind of game and enjoy being sent back to the bonfire for the Nth time because that Tonberry King two-shots you, join Jack and pals to defeat Chaos because it’s a grand ol’ time. For me, I really can’t stomach seeing a level 60 amulet that gives +4.8% magic resistance next to a level 80 amulet that does the exact same thing, sorry!
