Final Fantasy Tactics

"Remember when games used to change your life?"

I have been holding off on writing reviews on Final Fantasy games, until today. Since Final Fantasy VII I have grown extremely disappointed with the way the series has been progressing. Squaresoft seems to just be going through the motions and creating Final Fantasy games that are pretty to look at, but have very little substance. Final Fantasy Tactics was made during Squaresoft's golden era of RPG's, but at the time of its release wasn't acknowledged as a great game. I believe the reason for this is because it was released alongside, questionably the greatest game ever made, Final Fantasy VII. Everyone was into FF7 and for the most part FFT went unnoticed, until years later people began searching for the game and playing it, realizing how good it is. Final Fantasy Tactics is an incredible game, and an easy shoe in for the top 10 video games ever made.

Story – 30/30
FFT has an incredible story. Watching it develop is like following the story of a book. It is that good, and has that much depth to it. The story is this: Many years ago war plagued the land of Ivalice. It lasted for 50 years and finally ended when both sides became to tired and too depleted of strength and resources to continue. Both sides agreed to put their arms down and try to work it out peacefully. However, the war left people tired, poor, and weak. The situation in Ivalice slowly became worse. A Year has passed, and things aren't going too smoothly. 2 families the Gallione (ruled by Prince Larg, and symbolized by a White Lion) and Zeltennia (ruled by Prince Goltana, whose symbol was a Black Lion) began fighting and eventually broke out into a full-fledged war. This war would later be referred to as The Lion War. Not helping this was the fact that the King of Ivalice has just passed away. The problem becomes who will become the successor of the vacant throne? A war breaks out and according to history a young warrior named Delita quieted the Lion War and became regarded as hero for the rest of history. However, “in reality as in dreams, nothing is quite as it seems”. A new version of this story has surfaced. This new version describes how a certain unnamed hero Ramza, whose story was not told in history books, plays an important role in the outcome of Ivalice. You play as Ramza and you live this new story. The story here is not for the weak at heart. It is very dark. There are numerous back-stabbings, deceitful murders, and broken friendships. FFT contains so many unexpected plot twists you will eventually stop trying to guess the outcome of the story and just follow it. The characters are very deep and their personalities change throughout the game numerous times. The story here is incredible and one of the most in depth stories on a video game of all time.

Gameplay – 20/20
When you fight, the area you are fighting in is thought of as a board with X number of spaces. Each character takes up 1 space. Each character gets his/her turn to do as they please. They can move anywhere on the multi-dimensional and multi-leveled board. Then they can attack, defend, use magic, summon monsters, etc. There are different kinds of characters. Think of the job class in Final Fantasy 5. Well it has returned. Each character can assume any of the 20 + character classes that range from knights, mages, monks, lancers, ninjas, dancers, etc. Each class has specific strengths and weaknesses. Examples of this are with archers. They do better on terrain that is elevated from their target. They will usually hop from housetop to housetop flawlessly shooting arrows at their foes on ground level, then retreating into safety. But naturally archers have weak defense so on ground level if they go head to head with a close combat fighter, say a knight they will get their asses handed to them every time. Each character has weakness and strengths that you will have to exploit in order to be victorious. A lot of planning will go into most of the battles. You cannot just waltz into the battle and walk away with a win. You will have to plan your strategy or you will lose.

Each character can equip certain items depending on their job class. These items can be stolen off of opponents, received after battle, or bought from the store. Also, each character class learns specific abilities. White Mages learn different types of healing magic, while Black Mages learn different types of attacking magic, and so on. There is a lot of depth in this element to and you will be able to customize characters all you please. Overall the gameplay in this game could not of been more perfect.

Funfactor – 15/15
FFT is very fun. You will spend countless hours fighting just to get your certain character a certain ability or to reach a certain job class. The amount of customization here is so great you will spend many hours just leveling your guys to you see fit, not because you have to, but because you want to. I had a lot of fun while playing this game.

Graphics – 8/15
Graphics are lacking. I think that since the game only spans across 1 disc and the game is so naturally long and in depth, that creating excellent graphics would of token up to much space, thus preventing the entire game from fitting on 1 disc. The graphics are not so bad that they will turn you away from the game, but good enough that you can easily tell what you are doing.

Music/Sound – 12/15
Nothing great but good nevertheless. The music fits into the theme of what is happening. A mysterious scene will be accompanied by mysterious music. In a battle with a lot of hatred and emotion will be accompanied with a theme that fits its mood. FFT is a very moody game, and the music helps this game convey those moods very well.

Controls – 5/5
Controls are very basic. There is a limited amount of button input required to play the game and it is very easy and very painless. Controls are everything that they should be.

Replayability/Lastability (Bonus) – 5/5
This game is so long I would guess I spent about 70 hours on it. Half of that was from progressing through the story, the other from fighting because after I played this game once I came back to it about 1 month later to play it through again just because it is that good and that fun. I will bet $$$ most people will play this game more than once. I've played it through about 3 times.

Conclusion – 95/100

Pros
- A story so deep and enthralling it will leave you saying, “WOW”
- Very fun
- Very long
- Lots of replayability

Cons
- Only 1 I can think of is that Squaresoft never decided to produce mass sequels for this series

I am really stingy when it comes to giving a game a perfect score. However Final Fantasy Tactics is well deserving of it. This is an amazing game with an amazing story and should not be passed up by anyone who enjoys RPG's. This is probably the 3rd best game I have ever played. What 2 are better than it? That is a secret, but you can probably guess them!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/08/04, Updated 06/05/04