Final Fantasy Tactics

"Terrific"

Introduction: Final Fantasy Tactics has to be my favorite Final Fantasy game of all time. It is on Sony Playstation and is around $10-$20 new and is around $5-$15 used. The ironic part is that there probably isnt going to be a "final" fantasy game for some time. I find it to be the most interesting and unusual of the Final Fantasy series so far. The battle system is totally different from any other Final Fantasy, and the storyline is great. Unlike its predecessors, this is the only Final Fantasy without a number in its name. Instead they changed just about every regular aspect of a regular Final Fantasy game and revamped some old aspects. Thats one thing that so many people like about this game. Now on with the review.

Difficulty - 8/10 This game is pretty tough if you don't know what you're doing. Around the beginning of the game the battles are quite easy, but around halfway through the game, the battles start to get steadily more difficult. Some battles will knock you hard while other battles are a breeze. It all depends on the circumstances. Many boss battles on this game are pretty hard if your not prepared. You can only have a maximum of 5 people on the battlefield (excluding some guests) and sometimes it can seem very unfair while in a battle. It could be 5 of your guys versus about 10 enemies! Every time you move to a green dot on the map, there is a 50% chance that you will encounter some foes. It can be 3 foes to about 15! In Final Fantasy Tactics, you level up as well as job level up. After each action in battle, you receive JP (Job Points) to distribute to the current job you have. The more JP you spend on a skill/spell, the better the skill or spell will be. When you know every skill in a job you "master" it. The only proven thing that happens when you master a job, is that you get a star above the head of that job on the job select screen. You also level-up the old fashioned way by getting experience. Every time you level up, your stats increase by some and it makes you stronger. When in battle, the enemies you are fighting will always be about your level, unless it is a Main battle which cant be avoided. Those battles have set levels on you enemies that do no change. So the difficultly level for this is medium-hard.

Story - 10/10 This is by far one of the best parts of this game. The story will keep you interested until the very end. Gameplay is about 60-80 hours on a normal game (excluding some sidequests and special missions). The storyline for this game is very complex and may have you baffled at times. It is also very surprising at some unexpected points. You are a young man named Ramza who's on a quest for good and the truth. You are a noble unlike your friend Delita who is a peasant. You two are the best of friends until a certain event happens. As the story continues, you eventually meet a large cast of characters each with their own special look and abilities. And the story unfolds from there.......

Gameplay/Control - 7/10 Some of the controls for this game are very annoying, especially going through many menus to see a certain stat or look at an item. The battle control is pretty easy though except for the camera angle. The camera angle is pretty bad in some cases but you get used to it. Unlike many other Final Fantasies, this game doesnt let your character wonder aimlessly around on some world. You have an overhead map with little dots that indicate places you can go. Green dots are places where random battles can happen, blue dots are cities/towns/castles, and red dots are places you havent been. When starting a battle, you select 5 of your characters that you have in your party and put where they go on a little mini map. Sometimes the little mini-map will change depending on if you came from a north direction or a south direction. The controls are easy but annoying to an extent. On this Final Fantasy, you can change jobs. You can also have a skill from another jobclass at the same time. So you can have a very strong knight who also knows a little bit of Black Magic. Seems cool doesnt it? You can also invite monsters and other enemies to join your party. Monsters are very good allies as they have special skills you cant learn in any job class. They also hatch eggs which will add more monsters to your party. Monsters come in 3 stages..... Stage 1 = Average, Stage 2 = Good, Stage 3 = Best. After a while your monsters will make eggs that have another variety of their species in it. For example, you can have a Chocobo and it will lay an egg and it could be a Black Chocobo, which is stage 2. Then the Black Chocobo wil lay an egg and have a Red Chocobo, which is stage 3. There are many monsters to recruit so look around. When it comes to recruiting men or women, there are two ways to do this.....either invite one to your party, or go to a town and recruit one for some Gil. When you find a soldier to invite in battle, their level with just about match your current level and they will have a variety of items and known skills. However, if you recruit a soldier from a town, he or she will only be at level 1 with a sword, clothes, and a hat. So I would recommend always going for a good soldier on the battlefield as oppossed to getting a crappy level 1 character from a town. So the gameplay is very good.

Graphics - 8/10 This is where the game gets good yet bad. Most of the character models are not that great and the faces arent really distinguishable from each other, aside from hair and eye color. The battle graphics are definately some of the best I have seen in a Final Fantasy game since VII. You have a wide variety of spells and summons, all of which have their own little animation and sound effects. The world map has horrible graphics, as you are just a little stick-like person moving around on little dots. You can barely tell terrains apart from each other, and every town/bar/castle looks almost exactly the same. Sometimes you get a screen with text on it which tells about the story. It usually has a background picture and moves at its own pace. You cannot skip these for some reason. When talking, a box will come up with the characters head beside it and you hear some text-like noises while the characters just stand there or move about somewhat. This can get very annoying at some times.

Music - 9/10 The music in this game is fantastic and should be noted for its quality. There are about 80 some songs on this game, all of which have there own melody and sound to it. There are many battle themes as well as depressing themes, victorious themes, uplifting themes, and chaotic themes. The sound effects in this game are tremendously terrific. If it says lightning, then it sounds like lightning. If it says stabbing, then it sounds like someone getting stabbed. This games seems unmatched in its music and sound.

Overall - 8.4/10 (8/10) This game is one of the best, if not THE best Final Fantasy to date. It has its own style of movement, battling, conversing, and storyline progress. I would recommend this game to anyone that hasn't played it. You will be amazed! Many people do not give this game the credit it deserves because it broke away from the traditional Final Fantasy style. I give this game more credit than any other Final Fantasy for its great Storyline, terrific control and battling system, and it wonderful music.

Rent or Buy? I would recommend renting this game first, and if you like it, buy it. This game isnt for some people because they think it's too hard or too boring or for whatever reason. I think this is a great game to add to your collection and to play for hours and hours.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/05