Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

"Yet another failure by SquareEnix. Nothing like the first Tactics."

Let me just start out by saying that this game is NOTHING compared to the original PS version. It is far inferior in every way.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has many flaws that makes this portable game not worth the money. Your better off with another game. One of its major flaws is a lack of a strong story line. It has other flaws as well, such as low replay value, poor sound quality for a GameBoy Advance game, and lacks the free-will that the PS version had. These flaws alone make this game just another generic RPG slapped with a famous name to help sales.

After the first five minutes of this game I was wanting to put it down, in hopes that my two favorite companies I have always stood by to impress me with something, but to no avail it just went on with its predictable gameplay and I was not impressed after I completed the game, I only had regret of wasting my time. I even started the game over to see if it had a drop of replay value, and it had none at all. SquareEnix has failed at this game. It had so much potential but it was all wasted. Now its only worthy of my trash compactor. If you have any sense of how a game should be, then you wont waste 12 or more hours on this game. Even on the go this game brings little enjoyment.

Gameplay: 2/10
For those of you that don't know what an RPG is, I'll give a brief explanation. In nearly every RPG, you have characters with numerical statistics. As you play and ''Level Up'' those numbers increase, and your characters get stronger. RPG's are played for the rich story and is also played for the character development that presents an accomplishment to the player. Unfortunately Final Fantasy Tactics Advance lacks in both categories. The game starts with a simple tutorial in which you are given a small introduction into the battle system. Then like a fairy tale the game instantly changes. Once it changes, you wont see as much story line as you did the whole game. The start is as much as you will ever see the whole game.

The game features much of the same battle aspects as the original except it is now riddled with more bugs. Character pathing and attack calculation errors are just as more rampant than the first one. An example is you have a unit that uses a bow. You are down a steep mountain and when you choose to attack the panel under your enemies feet light up to signify you can attack it. When you choose to attack you are given a percentage as to how successful your attack will be and the amount of damage that you can do. Now since you are under a mountain your attack wont be able to hit since your attack has to travel in a straight line. The percentage shows that you have a chance to land it, but in reality the arrow will always hit the side of the mountain. The previous tactics game was void of this problem. I could list every bug in this game such as the similar dupe method found in the first game or the glitch that allows you to break laws without penalty, but you can look at the score I gave in gameplay to decide for yourself.

Unlike its earlier version, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance drags on doing very similar quests which are nearly void in storyline. The game stays the exact same even to the very end. The way you get new quests to do is by going into a place in the game called the pub. The pub has a list of quests you can do for experience, items, funds, and sometimes a new party member. Only one of the pub quests you do actually advances the story line. The rest are there for you to just get a few of the games extra ''Quest Items'' Unfortunately these party members are pre-set. You cant change their name and if they are a race you don't like, you cant change it. All you can do is strip these people of all their stuff and remove them from the clan.

This time around, there is a ''Law'' system that will make the battles slightly different. In some areas you aren't allowed to use swords, in another you cant cast certain spells. Not only does this complicate the game more than it needs to, it also ruins replay value by alot. No more single job challenges or an elite team of ninja monks. Its as if this game forces you to play the way it wants you to. During the battle a ''Judge'' character is in the battle to make sure you and the computer obey the current laws. Besides just standing in the battle, he also tends to get in the way of you and the enemy. This causes frustration as it can ruin a perfect strategy you have. Its also exploitable to break a ''Yellow'', or minor rule to call him in the way. This makes certain missions much easier than they ever should be. Another thing the Judge does to affect gameplay is when there are corpses in the battle he will remove them after a small amount of time. No crystals or chests this time around. This affects strategies such as monster capturing. Its not too much of a problem, but since the judge doesn't do this right away, you are allowed to revive it, kill it, and repeat for infinite amounts of JP. JP allows you to do combos, and getting 99 near the start of the game is what I like to call an exploit.

Another thing the programmers at SquareEnix forgot to do was to program attack tile indicators for spells. They automatically
assume everyone who is playing the game knows that the spells have a five tile range. This along with no tutorial system is what leads to only fans of the series liking the game. Not everyone has access to the internet to look things about a video game up. The instruction manual also fails to state the above, which leads me to believe this game isn't all it could have been.

If you like boring, repetitive, long drawn out battles with little story line and straight-forward gameplay, then this is the game for you.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are cartoonish and do not portrait a serious game, but are detailed and colored very well. Nearly all the units look like small children (Even the adults do) and the camera is locked in a fixed position thru out the whole game (Not the world map). Units walk in place giving the game a more role playing feel than if they just stood still. Each job class has a different look to the type of character that uses it. The monsters are somewhat clones of each other with different colors (But name an RPG that doesn't do this). The overall landscapes look impressive as well as text boxes. The pubs and item shops seem recycled but they are much better than any other GameBoy Advance game to date.

There are over several hundred sprite images. The main character resembles that of Ramza from the PS Final Fantasy Tactics game. The attack animations have been improved but are somewhat glitchy. Say you are two height above an enemy and you attack with a sword. You do a horizontal slice and in the game it doesn't touch the enemy but they get hurt. I guess SquareEnix only had time to program one type of animation? The spells, summons, effects, and combos look fantastic for a hand held, but after you see them every battle its like looking at the wall in your room, repetitive.

Sound: 3/10
The sound is terrible for a game produced by SquareEnix. The sound quality is very bad for a hand held and has a short repeating tune in every part of the game. The attacks and spell sound effects sound very outdated like some form of B movie. The text scrolling sounds and the menu sounds are all recycled from the original PS game.

The music brings no form of feeling to the game, just a background ''Elevator'' tune to drown out the silence. Its as if you are playing a game where drama, action, suspense, and other feelings have to be felt thru text, and not boosted by the music. SquareEnix has always been known for producing great music and sound effects with their video games. Unfortunately they have failed on this game.

Replay Value: 0/10
This game lacks in this department greatly. After the first five minutes you are going to want to put this game down and play something else. The story doesn't hold you, either does the battles. This game likes to control how you play, and control isn't a good thing for replay value. Even for the hardcore gamers. Once they beat this game, they will be through with it. You cant max your stats in this game like you can nearly every other Final Fantasy game. (Level down, source morphing, Sphere board editing, etc...).

Besides the fact that you cant power level you cant buy and create your own soldiers either. You are stuck with what the game gives you. Out of everyone who enjoyed the PS version and replayed it, they all found it more fun creating their own squad of people to go thru the game with. Even if they allowed you to do that, you are now stuck with the law system. Say you wanted to try to go the whole game with a team of white mage's? Well if you get into an area that has laws against that class, you wont be able to complete your goal without getting sent to prison.

This game also lacks any rewarding side quests or secrets. Sure there are alot of missions you can take that don't involve the story, but there's not much of a sense of accomplishment as there was doing the Deep Dungeon from the PS version. Besides containing side quests and secrets this game is also as easy as games can get. You don't even have to invest time leveling up to beat any of the stages. You can also use your preset group the whole game with ease. If you simply obey the ''Laws'' in each stage and prepare accordingly, this game is a breeze.

Easy games aren't very fun to play over and over again. A challenging game is what brings out the replay value, and this game has none at all.

Overall: 2/10
This was an overly hyped game. SquareEnix didn't invest any blood and sweat into this at all. They simply released the game
too early and had a bad plan on it from the start. This was an awful excuse for a hand held game. I hope that they learn to put at least more than 10% of their effort into their next hand held game.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 09/09/03, Updated 09/10/03