Final Fantasy Tactics

"Do not get too addicted now!"

Well, while I am not into the glorious Final Fantasy series, I was ''accidently'' given this great title. My hopes for a sequel for this game had vanished long ago when I realized Final Fantasy Tactics was made by companies that would never work again. Who knows? Perhaps other producers will finally realize just how fantastic the battle system was and remake it for themselves. Then again, Squaresoft is only into money...

Story: As I mention in all my reviews, I create an extra section named the ''Story'' section. Final Fantasy Tactics has an elaborate plot. Ramza Beoulve, the son of the famous Balbanes from the Great War that lasted for fifty years, becomes a mercenary in Ivalice, the region where the Beoulve family is known best. Delita Hyrule, his friend, joins with Ramza's enemies only because of their supposedly strong ideals. Not only the Death Corps are terrorizing Ivalice, but a new war is about to erupt. Goltana and Larg, two princes who seek the Zodiac Stones, oppose each other and eventually go into full scale war. From there, Ramza finds out the true intention of what they want, and realizes he must save the continent from dark oppression. Story notes? The story, as mentioned earlier, is quite impressive. I don’t want to give away the rest of the story not because I’m lazy, but because it’s one of the best plots for a game I have ever seen. Let me tell you how many fanfics for a sequel I have attempted. I want a sequel that badly mostly because of the remarkable story.

Story: 10

Graphics: Not bad. Really, for a Playstation game, not bad. These days this game would like absolute crap, but hey, this is an old game as of this review. The character profiles and backgrounds are somewhat nice, but improvement is especially needed regarding the weapon and other equipment pictorials. The spells aren’t that hot looking at all in this game. The summons are semi-decent, but the other spells might make you puke. Squaresoft didn’t seem to put forth enough effort with the visuals of this game. I must say though that once you get addicted to the Gameplay of this game, none of the visuals will disturb you, and that’s a promise. I hadn’t realized just how bad the visuals were for even a Playstation game until I played this title months later. Final verdict? Still doesn’t deserve even the silver. Sorry Squaresoft, but I would like to see Ramza slash a Bahamut with a Sword, and not a Stick of some sort. Sure, the visuals are nice concerning the drawings, but some things just simply have to be fixed. Again, that’s alright though, because once you are addicted, not even the Stick will prevent you from playing Final Fantasy Tactics. No other comments here.

Graphics: 5

Music/Sound: I’ll go ahead and admit right now that I have downloaded all of the Final Fantasy Tactics songs off Napster and assembled two C.D.’s out of them. It’s obvious enough that I love the music for this game. The music for each battlefield sets the mood perfectly. If someone is trying to be saved, suspenseful music arises. If a Zodiac Monster is assaulting, a special and really unique music starts. The random battlefields also have nice music. Squaresoft almost earns the Platinum here, if it weren’t for the incredible tracks of Vagrant Story. Note that Squaresoft made both of these games, and also note that the music for both are outstanding in my opinion. You didn’t even have to read here if you know Squaresoft. You can almost always depend on them to distribute awesome music! Now, for the sound effects, I would have to chuckle here. Since when did slashing someone sounded like ripping silk? Since when did blocking with a rod sounded like steel against steel, eh? Not to sound anal in any way, but even I could have thought about that if I had produced the game. The spell sound effects are exceptional, and the same goes for the summons. Thus, the sound effects are barely exceptional. Mix that with the zesty music and what do you get? A nasty 8.5!

Music/Sound: 8.5

Gameplay: This is the only reason I continued playing this one. Gameplay. Where shall I start? Should I discuss just how wonderful the battle system is, the interesting Job Class system, or should I just talk about the cool subquests and secrets? Let’s start with the battle system. Each character in this game has their own skills. They have Reaction, Support, and Movement skills as well. For example, one of the starting classes you can choose from is the Squire. The Squire has skills that you can learn, such as dashing, throwing a stone, healing, or accumulating. These all cost something called J.P.’s (or Job Points). The better or more effective the skill, the higher the J.P. is. The Squire also has a Reaction skill called “Counter Tackle,” which means that they would immediately dash at the target that attacked them without using up a turn for that character. Some classes have very interesting skills, such as the Geomancer’s “Lava Walk” and the Ninja’s “Sunken State” just to name a few of the many. There are even skills that enable a character to equip a certain type of weapon no matter what the weapon proficiencies are for that character. There are more than twenty generic classes and nearly countless special classes. The most fun part is experimenting what skill works effectively with what other skill. It’s like mixing chemicals. If I put in this one with that one, then that one makes that thing do that (confusing, but addicting once you get the gist), etc. Now as of the battle system, it’s turned based. Each character eventually gets their two cents on the battlefield (unless they are petrified or something). The most challenging battles are almost always the most fun. It’s just not fun in my opinion to duke out an easy fight, it just ruins the meaning of this game. The fun is in determining what skills should be used in what places and in what conditions. It’s quite mind-boggling at first, but believe me, you will sit in front of the T.V. wondering if you should go to school or work that day. Well, hopefully not that, but rather you will think about what formation and what skills to place on each character while at school or work. Anyway, after you are a Squire for a while, you will eventually be able to become one of the two new classes that are offered, which are Knight and Archer. You probably know the rest. Knight branches out to other classes related to Knight while Archer branches out to more crafty type classes, like Thief. You have a maximum occupancy of sixteen characters, and use the slots wisely, because there are more than sixteen job classes you could choose from! Every single class is balanced to each other. A Summoner has strong magical attack power while lacking any defense. Meanwhile the Knight is full of physical strength while lacking any unique abilities. Nothing is unfair for any class, it’s just simply a battle of intelligence. Almost like chess I would say. The king is Ramza, if he dies, it’s over. Oh, and did I forget to mention the subquests and all the secrets you could tend to once you’ve done it all? I guess not. Later in the game, subquests, whether I’m referring to a proposition at a bar or the Deep Dungeon, can be done. If you want all the treasure, you might one to do those. There are definately many pieces of gold to be found within all the subquests in Final Fantasy Tactics. Go figure...

Gameplay: 10

Replay Value: On my memory card, I have five files, and most of them show that I’ve played for about sixty or seventy hours each. I wasn’t just bored either, I wanted to play this over and over again, just because I knew I was missing something. I eventually got all the secrets, and then decided on which combination of skills was the most effective. That one sequence took me weeks to figure out. The problem is, I realize, is that there are so many skills to combine, and no combination is the best! There are many propositions to do, secret weapon to obtain, special items to be stolen, and even weird but potent creatures to recruit! There are also special documents you can read about the story, which some take a very long time to view. I would ramble on, but I think this is convincingly enough, wouldn’t you think?

Replay Value: 10

Story: 10
Graphics: 5
Music/Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 10
Replay Value: 10
Overall (not an average): 9.5 (leans more towards 9 according to the above score)

Bottom Line: So what if you don’t happen to like turn based games or the Final Fantasy Series? If you like Role Playing Games or Strategy Games, you better get this game or you are insane!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/01, Updated 03/18/01