Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

"Excellently Done, Only a Few Flaws"

When I first got FFTA, I started playing immediately. I spent a lot of hours playing it, but I didn't spend too much, 5 hours straight, kidding me. Anyway, when I first play this game, it was amazing. All these brand new things open to my eyes. I think it might even be better than FFT, but I'm not sure. Well, this is my review, MY opinion.

Gameplay - 8/10

It's just the same old Final Fantasy style. You just choose from a list of attacks or magic spells. It was just as I had expected, as it is from Final Fantasy. But in this game, they made some changes. They put in Combos and Totema. I was really amaze by Totema, but it needed 10 JP. That's easy to get, though.

The flaw in the gameplay was the stupid laws. Why do they have to put in this dumb thing? I hate laws, they are so random. Good thing there are law cards, but you don't keep a lot of them. Seriously, the laws were really, really stupid. You're in a battle, you forgot about the laws, and BOOM! The judge whistle and have this exclamation point above their head, move next to you, and either gives you a yellow card, or a red card, putting you to jail. It sucks to have either one. If you get a yellow card, bad things will randomly be selected to happen to you. Like taking away five law cards, or voluntering, which means you don't get any experience in the battle you just fought. However, the stupidest thing is the jail. You're practically stuck in there, doing nothing, wasting away. If I ever get a card or sent to jail, my Game Boy Advance is shut off and restarted.

Story - 7/10

I gotta admit, it wasn't as I expected. I just thought it was like the FFT, where you're already in a fantasy world. But this started from the real world, and then a book magically teleport you into the world of fantasy. I wish that happened to me. Anyway, it was an okay storyline. Nothing much interested me. The ending pretty suck too, and the final boss was easy. Super easy. Also, the romance sucked! I thought Ritz and Marche was actually going to say they like each other, but they didn't. I'm still playing the game, even though I already beat it. They have some extras after the end of the game. I mean, there are romance in every Final Fantasy game, good romance, but this sucks here.

This is the one of the most disappointed thing for me in FFTA. Highy disappointing.

Graphics - 8/10

I hate it. The magic spells and the Phantasm Skills graphics suck. It's boring to watch them. The only graphical thing that I like was the Gladiator's Fire Sword, Bolt Sword, and Ice Sword.

This is also one of the most disappointing thing in FFTA.

Characters - 9/10

They killed the main character. If you look at the character's face, they looked terrible, but if you look at them in the battlefield, they looked cool. But, they killed Marche. What kind of hairstyle have a pointy hair at the top? And he looks like a girl too. At first, I thought he was a girl, but then, the other characters referred to him as a "he". Anyway, that was the only flaw in the characters. All the other ones looked cool.

Sound - 10/10

The sound effects were simply cool. Terrific. The funny thing about the sound effects was when you killed a person or other kind. It goes "Aahh.." in a funny way. I gotta love that. The music was excellent, the magic spells, skills, techniques were wonderful. Overall, the sound was spectacular. Very good. Some of the music got stuck in my head and now, I can't get it off. But why bother? I liked the music. I would have recorded the sound effects and the music, but then I got lazy..

Replay - 10/10

YES! You should definitely replay this! This is a long and fun game. It continues on forever, I think. There were a lot of challenges in this game, and the skills were great. I don't think I would ever replay it, because I am still continuing playing the game, after I had beaten it. It goes on for a long time, so I don't know when I will ever finish it, but it is a truly good game in the Final Fantasy series.

Map - 8/10

There were some minor flaws in the map, and some good features too. The map offered a lot of places, which is a good addition to the game. You can even train, without doing a quest, because there will be clans appearing for you to fight. The thing that I hate about it, is when you do quests. You have to move like crazy to get to the place to do the quest. Another thing, the when you're trying to get to the Pub, Shop, or whatever, sometimes, a clan randomly appear and then you bump into them and have to finish the battle to continue on. Man, I hate that so much! Anyway, that's it for the flaws.

The map wasn't like other Final Fantasy maps, this one was much more different. And that's good too, at least you don't have to see the same boring map again. Well, actually, it was kind of like FFT's map, but it's still kinda different. Overally, nicely done.

Jobs - 9/10

Some jobs were cool, some were not. I love Nu Mou's jobs that include white mage, black mage, and some other spellcasters. There are some jobs where I only like some of the skills. I think, the job I like most is....Fighter or hmm...I forgot that Bangaa who can jump... I like Gladiator too, with its Fire Sword, Bolt Sword, and Ice Sword. A few of the jobs were similar to other jobs from FFT, but what do you expect? It is FFT's brother, as some of you may call it.

Extras - 9/10

There was a large amount of extras, which I very much like. The quests, for example, was a lot. It wasted so much time to finish a lot of them, but it was worth it. It was fun and entertaining, and a good way to level up and get AP. But what sucks was some of the quests. It was so boring. Dispatch: 2 battles. And I hate battling too. That's it for quests. Next thing, how you can still play after you finish the game. Amazing. I never knew you could do that. Very cool. Last thing, secret and semi-secret characters. I also thought you couldn't get the characters in the game, but after taking a visit to GameFAQs, I have 6 brand new, powerful characters. I didn't get all of them, but still trying. I love the characters I have now, but it is very hard to choose who to use when I'm battling.

That's it for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I love almost everything about this game. I thank the creators for making it, thank you!

Score

Gameplay ---------- 8/10
Story --------------- 7/10
Graphics ----------- 8/10
Characters --------- 9/10
Sound -------------- 10/10
Replay -------------- 10/10
Map ----------------- 8/10
Jobs ----------------- 9/10
Extras --------------- 9/10

Final Score --------- 9/10

If you don't have this game yet, I suggest you buy it. It is an awesome game, and you will past hours playing it. I read some of the other reviews myself, and some of them say this is not a very good game. Well, I have my opinions, they have theirs. I just want to say that this is a good game, and that the people who say it is not, have a bad opinion. But, that is my opinion too. AHH! Too much opinions! Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this game, and good luck on it! That's all I can say.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/06