Final Fantasy Tactics

"Hey, wait, where the hell did my nose go?"

Even if one of the Final Fantasy series’ trademarks is the fact that each installment has an independent plot, set in a different world each time around, and some gameplay elements change, it has retained the same feel, the same basic gameplay and a certain quality that makes these games easy to identify as belonging to the series. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes of playing Final Fantasy Tactics, a game released between the acclaimed Final Fantasy VII and VIII, to realize it obviously escapes from this constancy, owing its feel and gameplay style more to other strategy RPGs that came before it than to any Final Fantasy title. Basically, Final Fantasy Tactics isn’t exactly a ‘Final Fantasy strategy game’, but more of a fantasy strategy game developed by Square. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

In this game, you play as Ramza Beoulve, the youngest son of a noble hero (a bastard son, however). The game begins in true strategy RPG fashion, in the middle of a war, in which Ramza is working as a mercenary, and after the first battle, we play the first chapter of the game (there are four in all), which is a flashback that explains what has happened to our young hero and how he got separated from his best friend Delita, who is now opposing him. If it seems complicated, just wait until you see the amount of characters, places to visit, dynasties, regions and history lessons there are in this game. Sometimes it’s just too much to follow and many players will quickly get lost in the plot. In the end, however, it all just returns to the old story of reviving an old demon and that sort of thing, only the ‘war’ part of the plot is somewhat hard to follow. Unfortunately, it’s also the only interesting aspect of this game’s story.

The characters themselves are mildly interesting. While Ramza is as inexpressive as it gets (going against the Final Fantasy tradition of interesting main characters), some of the side characters get their chance of being developed (like Delita and the Princess, for example). However, we’ll never know what the developers truly intended with them, because of one single problem: translation. Final Fantasy Tactics presents us with one of the most confusing translations ever featured in a game, even if it’s not desperately bad (like in Final Fantasy II for the SNES). Sometimes it’s actually pretty funny to read the nonsensical lines the characters give us and the in-game tutorial (which includes some hilarious stuff) is more confusing than really informative.

In terms of gameplay, Final Fantasy tactics borrows the basic elements of strategy RPGs, while adding a few ‘new’ elements (none of them are really new, only taken from other Final Fantasy games) to make it a worthy experience. Like in any strategy game, battles are the core of gameplay and Square definitely spent quite a lot of time developing the well-rounded battle system featured in this game. As usual in the genre, battles are fought on a kind of board, on which you move and control your characters. Instead of turn based combat, the order of actions depend on the characters’ speed, they have a ‘time bar’ that must be filled in order to take actions, just like in Final Fantasy’s Active Time Battle system, only here you can take your time to decide their actions. Each character will have actions available according to their current and previous classes, provided you have ‘bought’ the abilities by spending the AP you earn while fighting enemies.

The ability and class systems are also an excellent aspect of Final Fantasy Tactics, even if it’s pretty much a copy of what we’ve seen in Final Fantasy V. Experience and AP are earned with each action your characters take and the APs are spent buying abilities of different types. While each character can always use the abilities he bought of his current class, he can equip one action ability of other classes he had used. Each class has a different kind of action ability (Black mages have Black magic, Ninjas have Throw, Monks have Martial arts and so on). Characters can also equip one support ability, one counter ability and one move ability, among those he has bought previously. To use some classes, character will have to meet specifications, like being at a certain level in some previously available classes. With the big amount of classes available, the different kinds of troops you can try out here is immense. Also, unique classes are available for some special characters, adding even more to the diversity.

All of these gameplay elements are pretty well balanced throughout the game and that’s what makes playing Final Fantasy Tactics an incredibly addictive experience. Not only for the fact that most players will spend hours and hours earning AP to buy abilities for their characters in lots of different classes, but also for the excellent battle system which results in long (but not too long) and fun battles. Also, plenty of secrets and hidden treasures are available to be found in this game, which includes a very surprising secret character. As a complement, the game offers ‘jobs’, in which you send some characters go out for treasure hunting in return for money and some extra AP. This ‘job’ idea, however, turns out to be pretty useless and wasn’t developed in a satisfying manner in the game.

Another great thing about this game is that, while it isn’t a really hard game, it does require more strategy and planning than most of the so-called ‘strategy’ RPGs out there. While most battles tend to be easy, it is essential that players spend their AP wisely and create a well rounded party, or their chances of survival will be severely reduced, specially in some parts of the game. Dead characters have three rounds for being revived until they are gone forever. Even white and support magic (like cure, revive etc.) has a chance of failing, so items (that always work) also play a fundamental role in this game. Minor details such as these increase the strategy factor of Final Fantasy Tactics, which is a great thing. Obviously, like in any RPG, players can still spend hours and hours leveling up in random battles (the random battle enemies level up according to your characters’ levels, the story battle enemies have fixed levels) so they’ll have no trouble beating the story battles (the ones that are required to beat the game), but in general this game requires more strategy than most games in the genre, adding a lot to the overall fun.

In terms of graphics, Final Fantasy Tactics fares pretty well. It uses 2D graphics for characters and objects and 3D graphics for the backgrounds and spell effects, with wonderful results. While the backgrounds are solid but not specially impressive, the spells are pretty beautiful in this game. Only the summons (which are done in 2D) are a bit disappointing. The greatest thing, however, are the character designs. These weren’t done by master Yoshitaka Amano, who has worked in all of the ‘traditional’ Final Fantasies, but the results don’t let down even the most demanding Amano fan. All of the classes have interesting designs (male and female) and the ‘unique’ characters all have memorable looks. Character portraits, while a bit strange at first (all characters are missing their nose), are excellent, avoiding the traditional anime-like drawings with a brilliant result. NPCs and Monsters also look great and the overall feeling is that Final Fantasy Tactics has one hell of a visual design.

The sound department is just as good. Music in this game is just what it should be: grandiose, epic, majestic. Better yet, it is really good. Replacing renowned Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu are a couple of composers, who did one great job in finding the right atmosphere for an epic ‘war game’, pretty different than other games in the series and almost as charming, and they come up with one very strong offering. There are all kinds of tunes, lighthearted, epic, adventurous and so on. Also remarkable is the fact that the battle tunes, while repeated to exhaustion, are so good they don’t get on nerves at all. The sound quality is also pretty excellent, even better than in the ‘normal’ Final Fantasy games for the Playstation (well, certainly better than in Final Fantasy VII), so you can really hear the diversity of ‘instruments’ (actually samples) and arrangements used by the developers to turn this music into reality. All in all, one of the most impressive music offerings for the Playstation.

In the end, Final Fantasy Tactics may not be a very ‘traditional’ Final Fantasy game. Actually, it has very little to do with the series itself (c’mon, the presence of Bahamut and Chocobos doesn’t make a Final Fantasy game), which doesn’t mean it is bad. Actually, it’s one of the best Final Fantasy titles ever, better than most games in the ‘normal’ series and certainly one of the best Square games ever. The well done gameplay (which isn’t exactly innovating, but really strong anyway) paired with excellent technical quality (wonderful graphical and music design) result in an excellent game which, if didn’t come to be a huge hit like its ‘cousins’, and despite its minor flaws (like the terrible yet funny translation), will remain forever as a 'cult' classic and a gem in the strategy RPG sub-genre.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/03