Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

"An All-around Regression, but Still a Good Game"

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

So after years upon years of waiting we finally have another Final Fantasy Tactics game. I personally consider the first Tactics to be a masterpiece of storytelling and gameplay. Now this Tactics is on GBA and is thankfully a whole new game instead of simply porting the PSX version. Now let’s see how it did:

1. Story (10/10)

This game, I think, has an excellent story. Plenty of emotion to keep it going and everything. It is not a videogame version of “War and Peace” like the PSX Tactics was, nor does it need to be to have an effective, good story.

You start out as this new kid in town named Marche. And then a magic book causes the world to be transformed into the realm of Final Fantasy with moogles, summons, and cheap-ass spells and techniques. That’s pretty much the start of the story and I’ll leave you to see the rest. I’ll end this category by saying this is one game where you might find yourself questioning the main character’s motivations (though I didn’t).

2. Graphics (10/10)

I’m gonna start off by saying that anyone who lowers the graphics score on this game by comparing it to the PSX Tactics is a moron. It doesn’t matter how good the GBA gets, it isn’t going to match the Playstation. That said, I consider this game to have excellent graphics for what it has going on. Detailed environments and characters are done well. Also the special effects in the game are nice to look at too. Square can still do an impressive summon, even on the equivalent of a handheld SNES.

3. Music / Sound (5/10)

The music and sounds in this game were pretty average. Of course this is the GBA after all. I spend my gaming time listening to other music. I give my music a score of 10. The game’s music gets an average score of 5.

4. Control (10/10)

Control is very tight and I personally had no problems with it at all. You point, you press the button, the character moves and all is well with the world. The game is almost entirely menu driven so there never much of a chance of control problems developing.

5. Gameplay (4/10)

Now this is the category where the game takes a major, major hit. Gameplay in this Tactics has suffered a terrible regression from the original. Now, mind you, I didn’t expect this game to be a clone of the PSX Tactics down to every last detail. It is more like some things could have been implemented differently and most definitely better.

The biggest problem is the cut down on customization. Back on the PSX you could buy soldiers, name them, and pretty much do anything with them. Hell, you could turn the Packers into a squad of ninjas and take them up against the king’s army if it damn well pleased you. Not so here. You can’t hire recruits, they join you randomly. They come pre-named too so no customization there. The biggest cut comes in the Jobs themselves. You see, there are 5 races in this game and each race can only get certain jobs. Wanna make a summoning ninja? Well you can’t because only humans can become ninjas and only vieras (bunny chicks) can become summoners. A tragedy to be sure.

This is a major gameplay set-back for the previously super-customizable Tactics series. Now the thing that pissed me off was the Ability learning system. Unlike PSX Tactics where you had all abilities available at the beginning and you learned them at your discretion, in this game you learn abilities off of weapons. Unfortunately, instead of having all weapons and armor available in shops, you have to do like a hundred goofy ass dispatch missions to get a simple ability like Two Swords. All I wanted was Two Swords. I waited for most of the game and they only throw out the weapon for it in a dispatch mission now that I’m 4/5 of the way through this thing. And the stores are still selling the same equipment they were selling right after I beat the first boss. Truly a sad state of affairs and almost enough to turn someone off from the game.

Then you got the laws. These jokers are out there to tell you certain moves or ability types that can’t be used in the current battle. These laws change every day. Traveling from one point to a point connected to it takes up a day so if you don’t like the current laws you can walk around till you find a set you like and then jump on the opposition. These “laws” were supposed to vary up gameplay, but they are more of a hindrance than anything else because they force YOU to play a certain way. This is another, slightly more subtle cut down on customization in your game. The laws also have the problem of being more than slightly vague at times. For instance, one law forbids the use of “Katanas”. So I make my Ninja do a move and they get in trouble. Correct me if I’m wrong, but last time I checked Ninjas used “Knives”, not “Katanas.” Oh well, the laws also specify between “Broadswords” and “Greatswords”. I just didn’t use swords that battle…(note: the select button in a shop menu or party menu reveals a weapon’s identity and heaven help you should you forget a weapon’s exact classification.)

So as you can see, Square should’ve gotten some competent play testers or some programmers who didn’t take the local hospital up on that brains-rat dropping transplant special (MST3K reference for all you fans out there).

6. Innovation (6/10)

I try to throw an average score here when a game varies itself from its predecessor in the series even a little. This game barely did that except in the case of the laws and some of the races. I don’t recall seeing the N’Mou, Viera, or Bangaa races before in a Final Fantasy so I’ll give them that. The laws themselves are also a new, albeit annoying feature. The ability system is not innovative. It is the exact same deal as Final Fantasy IX. There were also some new jobs and abilities thrown in this game…but most of them were merely race-specific knights or mages (seriously, how is a Mog Knight not just a Knight?). Also a lot of abilities had the same graphics in their execution as other abilities with different names. How about just giving those abilities one name instead of pretending to have hundreds of different ones?

Cons (or “Don’t Buy the Game if You Can’t Live with These”):
-Not a graphical novel like its predecessor.
-PSX graphics can’t happen on a GBA. Deal with it.
-Races have unique Jobs so Skill and Ability customization takes a major hit.
-Ability learning system is highly restrictive and prejudiced against Ninjas
-Laws get in the way of progress and annoy you with their vague descriptions.

A247 Recommends:
I say buy it. Despite the flaws this is still just as much fun as the PSX Tactics for the most part. If one of the cons makes you really unsure, however, then rent it or something.

Final Score (7/10 or 75%)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/03