Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

"The Complete REVIEW of a complete game!"

Introduction
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance caters to fans of all ages while keeping a traditional in-depth concept of character creation, and development. The last time an actual Final Fantasy game graced a Nintendo console was in the age of 16-bit cartridges.
Though the new Square title scheduled to land on Gamecube is still a ways off, this is one title Nintendo is more than happy to have in its portable game library.

Gameplay: 9.8
Now to fans of the old Final Fantasy Tactics you will find yourself playing this one with ease. If you’re new to the game, or the genre it won’t take you long to become familiar with most of the game fundamentals. Although the idea of your party being a ‘clan’ is somewhat awkward at first, I found this to be a really fresh and new spin on the whole recruiting process. Your clan ranks against other clans roaming around the world. As you and your clan become more popular and deadly people begin to flock to your clan begging to join. Based on your clan stats which improve as you complete more missions and advance through the storyline, it becomes easier to find rare items. Some of the missions you need to unlock require a clan stat to be a certain number or higher, this also adds emphasize to the idea of how well your party is doing as a whole.

All though the basic concepts of building a characters class base and levels are as it always was. On a sad note I must say, the class system is based solely on race rather than sex and race. Yes the female only classes such as a dancer are completely done away with. Only a human can become a ninja, only a moogle can become a ‘moogle gunner’, etc. The class development aspect to this game has also changed a bit. No longer do you get ‘job points’ for attacking or killing a foe. Instead each battle or mission you complete grants you ‘action points. Do you recall the ‘AP system’ in Final Fantasy 9? If so, you’re in good standing. The Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced skill system is identical to the prior Play Station release, only you learn skills by equipping an item that teaches your character a skill after you get so many AP’s. When you fight a battle you move your characters like chess pieces, each class moves farther and slightly different than the next. A new concept to the game is the ‘gang up’ attack’. This new skill lets multiple characters attack one enemie if they have the right gang skill equipped for each battle circumstance. In Example: the monk has more range movement, and evasion vs. a black mage who has limited movement, and almost no evasion against an incoming attack.

But completely new to the battle process is the ‘law system’. When you begin the battle you will need to check what laws are in place. One that I really hated was ‘swords’, this meant a ban against any character using a sword in battle. If you had a law card to grant swords you could simply remove it from the ban list. Otherwise you would need to scan over your enemies and try using a ban card against what they seemed to use most. Though there are some lawless areas through out the game, or certain instances were the following doesn’t apply. But for the most part you will see these laws being enforced throughout the game, which change at the whim of the Queen!

Keep in mind, no longer can you create and name your characters. After completing a difficult mission a random character may ask to join your party. To be more specific the mission system grants you prizes after completing tasks. Some of these missions require a special item to be completed, in order to finish these missions you’ll need to find out which item you need and obtain that first. The incentives to push you into wrapping up all of the missions or at least some are secrete characters, money, rare items, law cards and the like.

Graphics: 8.0
Even though the tone of this game is a childish one almost throughout the entire plot, it still has a teen/adult theme. A few of these teen/adult suggestive actions are the player going to a ‘pub’ for information, and the player killing foes. The character portraits look really flashy in an anime fashion, and capture a youthful look for each respective character. The landscapes look pretty much the equivalent to that of the prior release. That might not say much for a ‘sequel’ but for a Game Boy Advanced title it says a mouthful, and I do have to say this game doesn’t try to follow up as a sequel in any way. To make the game even more enjoyable, if you connect your game to your TV via the Nintendo Gamecube a graphic option of ‘TV screen’ rather than LCA1, or LCA2 is available. All this to make playing your game look that much better!

Overall there is nothing graphically that will really ‘wow’ you, but when you cast and Eldelon you will see some fruitful eye candy. I won’t dive to deep into this, as it should be experienced by each player without being spoiled. But it’s the basic idea of a ‘summon’ that each race can call after defeating certain bosses. These attacks are the most insane and overly done (for the better) attack animations I’ve ever seen!

Sound: 7.5
The sound and music are about as common as ever. There was nothing at all memorable about the music score, or even the battle sounds for that matter. I wouldn’t say that the music/sound department was a disappointment, because everything sounded appropriate and well tuned. But I’m use to playing a Final Fantasy game and by the time I finish, I walk around humming and whistling a new tune stuck in my head. That didn’t happen this time around. The orchestrated heart pumping musical tone isn’t lost. It just doesn’t sound nearly the same emulating from your Game Boy. It’s safe to say you could enjoy this game just as much without any sound what so ever and it would play the exact same.

Replay: 9.6
With over 300 missions and a chance to rank your clan among the elite, not to mention secrete characters that can join your clan. It’s like every other Final Fantasy game in this aspect. That is, be ready to play this game for a lengthy period of time. I wouldn’t expect anyone to start over fresh except for the most hardcore fanatics, but in order to get every single thing done in this title you will be playing for a few months easily.
A new game plus feature would have been welcomed for people who went through the game once already, but as it stands this is a strategy game that brings everything to the table including new ideas, recycled concepts, solid game play, and great story telling.

Closing Statements (Overall: 8.7)
Square doesn’t know how to produce a bad game; it’s not even feasible to the well renowned franchise. Once again a great game has been dropped on us, though you must keep in your mind that it is not a sequel to the previous release. The only thing this game shares with the PSx game is similar name. I say buy it for what it’s for, or leave it for the same.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/18/03