Flowerlark Studios

Gaming rant, since I haven’t done one in a while!

Square Enix has recently come out with spin-offs in my two favourite franchises of theirs, Dragon Quest Builders and World of Final Fantasy. Both are adorable. DQ Builders is blatantly inspired by Minecraft, but unlike Minecraft, it has a solid, overarching plot and a cast of characters. I found it really engaging for the first two of the four chapters, but it started getting repetitive by chapter three. There’s also a free-play area that you unlock after finishing chapter one, where you can build with materials and recipes from the chapters you’ve completed. Unlike Creative Mode in Minecraft, though, you still have to gather the materials yourself, which I like better. I rarely touched Creative Mode in Minecraft because there was no challenge in it, and to me that meant there was no point to it.

I have actually played more Final Fantasy spin-offs than I have the main numbered entries, so when I saw the trailers and screenshots of this mash-up of chibi-fied characters from all the different games, I didn’t expect there to be a solid plot. Plot doesn’t usually feature that much in my favourites: Theatrythm and Chocobo Tales. But WoFF does have an actual story, all about the fraternal twins Reynn and Lann as they explore the world of Grymoire. The graphics have a very similar aesthetic to Kingdom Hearts, and they are gorgeous. You also get to catch all the different monsters Pokémon style, and add them to your team. Monster-collection is always a huge plus for me in games. 😀

While I started losing enthusiasm for DQ Builders about halfway through, I’m finding World of Final Fantasy to be very engaging, and am surprised at how polished and complete it feels for a side-entry, and I am eager to see how the plot unfolds.