Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

"A Strategy Game for the Strategy Game Fan Only"

Yeah, this is the much anticipated ''sequel'' to Final Fantasy Tactics, one of the few games able to snag a strategy RPG newbie and drag them into the genre (the other I've found being the Shining Force games, by Sonic Team). Like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy Tactics was a PSX title beloved by many, with it's beautiful graphics, wonderful music, and interesting story.
Like Secret of Mana, it was a Square game that garnered the affections of many RPG players, and came out of nowhere.

Like Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a game executive's decision to cash in on the fandom by releasing what is almost a rehash, with merely a handful of good ideas strung together into a game that may or may not work. Like Legend of Mana, a bunch of these ideas just don't fit the game in question, and some diehard fans may see it as sacriledge to the 'franchise'.

Is it for you? That's entirely your decision. Read on.

Gameplay: 4/10

The meat and potatoes of any game, a game nowdays without good gameplay is little more than a vaguely interactive movie. Luckily, for a hex-based strategy game, FFTA does have some innovation, in the form of Laws. These laws, ''changing on the whim of the queen'', are rules that will be set at the beginning of every match - at the beginning of the game, a single law will be enforced, but later on, more laws will take place in a single battle. However, later on, you will also have access to mystical Law Cards, which will let you remove and add laws as you please. Like the justice system nowdays, there will be a policeman (or, in this game, a Judge) everywhere you go, watching everything you do. If you break one of the laws, you'll get, in most cases, a yellow card, which is like a 'warning', and a slight penalty. And just like the justice system nowdays, you can get an infinite amount of warnings, so long as you don't get another in the same span of time (a battle) or as long as you don't kill anybody, in which case you get sent to a prison where it seems quite easy to buy back your comrades, considering.

These laws vary in magnitude from bans on Knife use to laws that will snag you if you take a single aggressive action against a monster. While innovative at first, though, the laws are a double-edged sword, as it seems the only time you will get the latter law is when you're fighting a battle against only monsters, meaning you have to use one of those law cards to nullify it, or you have to take in someone to control each monster individually and have them kill each other and/or get sent to jail.

Aside from the Law system, everything else, for the most part, is like the original Tactics. There are a few changes, naturally - the old ''Job Points'' system was scrapped for a more FF9-esque AP system, and the job sets are based partially on race, as well. For instance, Moogles get a different set of jobs than Humans, who get a different set of jobs than the bunny-girl Viera race, and so on. Also, the casting times that were maligned in the first FFT are (thankfully?) absent - every skill and action executes immediately.

The one other major new feature - and not a good one, in my opinion - is a Legend of Mana-styled ''world creation'' system. After every plot battle or two, you get a new location - be it a mountain pass, a town, or a field - to place down. When you place these down, depending on your placement of other items, you can get treasure ranging from garbage, to some of the best weapons of the game. However, the conditions for some of the treasure leads one to wonder why Square Enix adopted this system anyways, as it didn't work too well in LoM, either.

Graphics: 8/10

I'll be frank. This game looks very pretty. Everything looks to be taken from the FFT mold, lush, colorful, and with significantly Fischer-Price-looking sprites. The five races are easy enough to distinguish from one another even on the small screen, though some of the jobs aren't - is that a Sniper or an Assassin I'm looking at?

Spells, likewise, are beautiful, vibrant, and... actually quite a bit less impressive than the original. Spells have been reduced, for the most part, to little flashes of light and maybe one color, while summons have been demoted from ''blowing up whatever's in their way'' to ''standing there and making a static column of the element du jour appear in the middle of the screen''. I know, considering this is a handheld system and not a CD-based one, it's minor, but most of the qualms, aside from the job confusion, are nitpicks.

For instance, the main character, Marche, looks to be Ramza's biological clone. Also, the characters have noses in this one.

See? Nothing too majorly wrong here.

Story: 2/10

HERE, on the other hand...

This is the FFT equivalent of Dick and Jane. Those looking to find a story rife with betrayal and religious overtones, like in the original, need not apply.

It looks seriously like this is what fans were afraid Kingdom Hearts was going to be. From the 1-dimensional characterization, to the headstrong-yet-innocent hero character who's only trying to save his friends (albeit going to some bizzare measures), to the ending which I'll decline on commenting on for sake of spoiling. Seriously? I'd only pick up the game for the system, not for a good story.

Not that there's much story, mind you. Much of the game is like a giant FFT Proposition, your characters doing one mission after another. What isn't in missions, is represented in the random battles which obviously are free of any story.

Music: 1/10

Aaaand here, we crumble to nothingness. Far from the powerful and emotional music from the first Final Fantasy Tactics, the music in Tactics Advance has been reduced to the now-handheld-typical ''elevator muzak ditty consisting of three to five notes and a repeat''.

I'm crying inside.

Replay Value/Customization: 4/10

Well, you didn't come for the story, so this must be why you're here. While the loss of buying new units and customizing them down to gender and name is gone, replaced by a rather lackluster ''I'll join you if I feel like it when you're done with a mission'' ethic, this is made up for by the fact that the jobs have strayed away from FFT oddness to an extent and have taken on a much more FF5 flair.

Instead of Calculators and Mediators, we're given Blue Mages (thankfully not looking like the superhero wannabes from FF5) and Gladiators, who are basically just a rename of the Sorceror/Magic Warrior class.

However, the new jobs are fun and all, but classes are much easier to unlock and master with the new AP system - even a low-level rookie can master a skill just by sitting in some battles. He needn't even survive in most cases.

Likewise, the replay value, while good for a console game, is extremely lacking for a handheld. You can master the jobs, sure, and you can try different land configurations, but once you've done all those missions, you're done. There's nothing else to do but level-treadmill.

Overall: 19/50, rounded roughly to 4/10

If you loved the first FFT, consider well before buying. Definitely choose Disgaea over this if you can.

If you're a strategy gamer fresh out of Tactics Ogre and Advance Wars, however, this MAY just work for you.

Anyone who's never played a strategy game in their life? Run far away, and play the original FFT.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/03