Final Fantasy Tactics

"A deep and brilliant game"

Final Fantasy Tactics seems to be forgotten when people are discussing their favorite Final Fantasy games, or even RPG's in general. But it ranks right up there with the best in the series in not only gameplay, but in story as well.

Gameplay: 9.9

The story involves Ramza Beoulve, the youngest brother of the Noble family of Beoulve. And another very important character, and good friend to Ramza, named Delita Hyral. The game starts just after the famous ''50 Year War''. Conflict grows between two families: Gallione and Zeltennia. This war would later be known as ''The Lion War''. But darker dealings await under what seems like just an ordinary war.

''Now the true story can be told...''

The battles in this game take place on a 3D fighting terrain, with all kinds of locations like castles, forests and deserts. The order each character executes their turn is determined by a Charge Time (CT); similar to the ATB found in most later Final Fantasies. Once the CT fills up, you can execute the move for that character. Depending on what that character has equipped, he or she can move at least four squares in any direction. You have to be right next to an enemy to do a physical attack, but Magic attacks and other special abilities can be done from farther away. Once a character runs out of HP (Hit Points), he will faint and you won't be able to use that character for that battle unless you revive them with a Phoenix Down.

The character that faints will be around for two or three turns and then he will turn into a crystal, which can be used by other living characters to restore all HP/MP or Inherit a new ability. Once that character turns into a crystal, he or she is impossible to get back. So you have to try and revive your characters before they disappear. The battle types are: Defeat all enemies, save a certain character, or defeat a certain character. When you are in a save a certain character battle, once that character dies, the battle will end right away, so you must keep them alive until you defeat all of the enemies. When fighting in a defeat a certain character battle, once that character is slain, it will end in success no matter how many other enemies are left standing.

The Job System, previously used in Final Fantasy V, is brought back for this game. Except it's about twenty times deeper and fifty times more fun. There's 18 different jobs to choose from. Ranging from a basic Squire, to a more complex job like Ninja or Lancer. Each character has a slot for a basic & secondary ability, along with the reaction, defend, and move abilities. The basic ability depends on which class that character has set. The only way to change it is to change classes. Example: If you have the Lancer Job set to that character, he can use the Jump ability. The secondary ability is always customizable. Example: Say you're a Knight. Then you switch to a Monk and learn Wave Fist. You then switch back to Knight as your first ability, but you want to use your Monk ability that you just learned while being a Knight. So you input your Monk Class into the second ability slot. This is the main ingredient of the Job System. It's so you can basically have two characters in one. In this case, it's a Knight that can use not only his Knight abilities, but the Monk abilities too.

For each class, there's a basic, reaction, defend, and move ability. Say you're a Knight but you want the Hamedo reaction ability from the Monk class. So you switch to Monk, learn it by fighting in battles and earning Job Points, and then switch back to Knight and input Hamedo into the reaction ability slot. This is just one example of combining two classes to make an effective character. You can customize your character any way you want. Each class has different stat growth and can equip only certain items. The Knight has high HP, for example. And can equip basically any sword or shield in the game, but can’t equip other certain items. There's plenty of Gil earned in the battles through out the game, but if you want a different way to get rich or obtain special items, there's plenty of Bar Propositions in the game. You send three generic characters on a quest. These range from Slaying a beast for someone, or finding a lost child. Certain characters equipped with certain jobs will fare better, so try and figure who’s best for what job as best as you can. The reward will be better. Job points are also gained during these jobs for the characters sent to do the errand. If you're looking for more to do once you are done with the main part of the game, you can unlock four bonus characters and even tackle a massive bonus dungeon.

Anytime you feel lost, the very helpful, interactive manual is just a few button clicks away. It’s in depth and really helps you out. It not only explains the gameplay, but it keeps track of each important event in the game, and you can press the triangle button to replay that scene. Once I was done with the game, I went through and replayed all of them in order. There’s a lot of names thrown around in the game, which makes it confusing at times, but with this feature and a record feature that gives you a detailed description of each character in the game, it makes it much easier to understand. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if all RPG’s with deeps stories had this. I’d definitely welcome it.

Despite all of my praise for the game, there are some minor annoyances: like a lack of variety when it comes to character sprites. At one point, a certain character is talking to another character that looks exactly the same. It’s a very minor annoyance, though, and won’t take away much from the game. Also, the translation is less than perfect. Again, very minor annoyance. The typos aren’t so bad that you can’t make them out, so it’s okay. It's just that it would have been better to see a perfect translation to a game where one messed up word might make the difference in understanding something. Thankfully, it’s acceptable, though.

Graphics: 9

When you look at these graphics today, you think, wow, these aren’t very good. And you’re right, from a technical stand point. But those that like the old school charm of the 2D-ish look, you will love them. The levels and characters are very artistic and medieval looking. Perfect design for the atmosphere of the game. The magical spells and summons are just great looking, too.

Sound: 9.5

Probably the second or third best soundtrack in the whole series. Final Fantasy VI and VII might be a little better, but Tactics is right up there with those two. Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata are credited with the musical score for this one. Not done by the long time composer of the past, Nobuo Uematsu, but this soundtrack ranks right up there with his masterful work.

Replay Value: 9.5

I give it a 9.5 based on how deep and addictive the game is. From game play to story. You will want to come back at the very least a second time (I can see myself playing the game countless times). There’s not much here as far as extras go, but that’s not all replay value is about. It’s like the great role playing games: there’s no bonuses to make you want to come back, but the game itself will.

Overall: 10

This game offers an intriguing and involving story, very good characters, addictive, deep and challenging game play, and 45+ hours of gaming, at the least. As far as strategy games go, this is the best there is. To me, no game out there is perfect, but this is just about as close as you’re going to get.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/04