Final Fantasy Tactics

"Great Gameplay and Music, but the terrible Storyline hurts it."

Final Fantasy Tactics is the FF series's first attempt at the S-RPG genre. It was a extremely popular game upon release and still is to this day. Not much of a surprise it is really though. The game is pretty good and a lot of fun to play. Anyways, onto the review of the game.

Graphics:7/10:The Graphics are okay simply put. The 2D sprite based Graphics in Final Fantasy Tactics won't really impress you. Area designs and character sprites are decent at best and the skill animations while cool aren't that Graphically impressive for the PS1. So, the Graphics get a 7/10 for Final Fantasy Tactics. Let's move onto the Gameplay section.

Gameplay:9/10:Final Fantasy Tactics is a extremely fun S-RPG. A S-RPG is a Strategy RPG. It's turn based, but not exactly purely turn based. By this I mean it's turn based, but you battle on a grid of sorts. In this grid you can move a certain amount of spaces per turn and use skills that can affect up to a certain amount of squares. Kind of imagine it like chess. Except, it has fare more depth to it. Now, that I've covered the very basics of Final Fantasy Tactics allow me to talk about the Job System.

The Job System is great in Final Fantasy Tactics and a lot of fun to use. The problem is though, that the classes are just unbalanced. Some classes are just flat out worse then a lot of other classes and are rather gimmicky. A example of a overpowered class is the Ninja. While not overpowered itself with the right abilities/equipment you can turn one into a absolute killing machine. A killing machine capable of just about killing any unit in one turn, being able to move the most panels of of any class and getting the most speed. Now, if that isn't overpowered please tell me what is. However, there is just one slight disadvantage. The Ninja class has low HP and DEF so my killing machine Ninja got killed rather easily if I was not careful. Overall the Job System despite being unbalanced is a ton of fun which should be anything in Gameplay's main priority purpose. Let me tell you about what really shines for Final Fantasy Tactics in terms of customization.

What really makes Final Fantasy Tactics have a lot of customization are the abilities. As you gain JP from performing actions in battles you can allocate them into skills. With these skills you can equip them onto any class which is a fantastic and fun way to experiment around with skills and classes. Want a Knight who can cast White Magic or maybe use Summons? Of course, but the Knight still has rather low MP. So, you have to plan out what skills to use with what classes carefully in order to make the best characters possible. While I've gone over mostly positives Final Fantasy Tactics has one major flaw in it's Gameplay.

Occasionally, during major battles you'll be asked to save before a major boss fight. If you save, and can't beat that boss...Well I have thrilling news then! You basically have to start the whole game over! Due to the fact you saved before the boss and the only way to proceed is to kill the boss your stuck at. You can't leave the area either so your basically forced into fighting the boss and losing repeatedly or starting the game over. While this can be easily avoided with a guide nowadays, this is a Gameplay flaw and as such I must address and criticize it. Now, how is the Gameplay overall in Final Fantasy Tactics?

The Gameplay in Final Fantasy Tactics is great. The game is a lot of fun. Of course, it's Job System is a lot of fun too, but it is unbalanced which is a problem. Plus, a major flaw with the Gameplay are the points of no return occasionally found throughout the game. So, overall Final Fantasy Tactics gets a 9/10 for Gameplay. With Gameplay covered let's move onto the most disappointing aspect of the game. The Storyline.

Storyline:5/10:The Storyline is really just a epic disappointment and I will never understand why it's considered good. Basically, a war occurred and a princess is wanted. So, several sides are fighting to take her away and use her as a hostage for various resources and so fourth. There is a lot of betrayals found throughout the game, but the game ultimately fails at it's goal of trying to seem like a very dark mature political Storyline. Why does it ultimately fail at this? Well, it's due to the poor dialogue and characters.

If I had one word to describe the characters personalities in this game it would be:Sandpaper. Yes, just about every character has the personality of sandpaper due to the terrible writing and dialogue. Don't worry though sandpaper can be really interesting! No, really it can! Every character is boring and you'll never really care for any of the characters throughout the Storyline. Another major problem as mentioned twice in this paragraph now, is the dialogue. The dialogue hurts the characters even more and it really hurts the major scenes of the game. So, let me address the major Storyline flaw during major scenes.

During the course of a major Storyline event the dialogue is usually recycled. Like say you managed to reach a antagonist at some point of the game. He simply says some pathetic thing like "Hmm... You followed me here. Well, let's settle this. I'll kill you!" Now, that's just really poor writing right there for a major Storyline event. I'm not saying every major Storyline event uses this, but several do and unfortunately this terrible dialogue is often recycled. Well, that's really it for the Storyline complaints. I can't really go more in depth about the Storyline because really that's it's only problem and unfortunately it's a terrible problem. So, overall the Storyline receives a 5/10. It has poorly developed characters with boring personalities, terrible recycled dialogue and poor scene direction. To me, it seems like you shove a lot of betrayal into a game that takes place during a war taking place in the medieval centuries and no matter how bad the dialogue is or how much of a lack of character development there is, everyone will love the Storyline.With Storyline rated, onto the last category Music.

Music:10/10:The Music is absolutely fantastic in Final Fantasy Tactics. You'll often find yourself hoping a certain song you really like from the game will play during a battle. I know I sure was. The sound effects while nothing amazing get the job done. I do love the sound effects when a human character is killed however. It is very amusing to listen to and yes I know that's rather sickening, but really it is amusing. So, overall the Music gets a 10/10 for a wonderful soundtrack with a okay gets the job done sound effects, but there do exist some amusing soundtracks.

Overall:8/10:Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite S-RPG's if not my favorite, despite it's flaws. The Gameplay is a lot of fun, but the Job System is unbalanced and there are sometimes no points of return. Where if you mess up and saved at a certain battle your basically stuck unless you beat that battle or start a new game all over again. The Graphics aren't so good, but hey they don't really matter. Storyline in the game is terrible to be quite honest and fails at what it tries to accomplish. The characters are boring and the dialogue is terrible and recycled. On a more positive note, the Music is by far a outstanding category. Several wonderful songs from this game and some amusing Sound effects. ;) So, overall Final Fantasy Tactics earns a 8/10 in Lord_Kefka's opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/08, Updated 04/27/09

Game Release: Final Fantasy Tactics (US, 01/28/98)