Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

"When reality meets fantasy"

When you see the words “Final Fantasy Tactics” on this game's cover, you may think it is a remake from the Playstation version, but it's nothing near it and I don't mean that in a bad way. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a whole lot to offer in such a small package.

Gameplay: 10/10
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a lot of things to do and accomplish that it will keep you busy for quite a while. The game is pure strategy. It's kind of like chess, but with Final Fantasy characters. Battles make up a huge portion of the game and that's where you will spend most of your time. You move your units around and make them attack enemy units. How far you can move and how high you jump up in elevations depends on your job. Jobs like Ninja and Assassin have high move and jump ratings while jobs like Black Mage and Gunner have poor move and jump ratings. Your evasion is also determined by your current job.

Attacking enemy units from the sides or from behind have a better chance of striking than attacking from the front. How far you can attack depends on your weapon and the ability you're using. Some abilities can affect multiple targets while others may affect the whole field. Status ailments and benefits can affect your units. Some are harmful like Blind (Lowers accuracy and evasion) and Poison (Lose HP per turn). Other status effects can help you like Regen (Recover some HP per turn) and Haste (Boosts your speed).

There are many options to chose from when it comes to attacking enemies. Like using magic? Then jobs like the Black Mage and Alchemist are perfect for you. Want more beef in your physical attacks? Use jobs like Gladiator and Fighter to quickly defeat your foes. Speaking of jobs, there are more than 30 jobs in the game. Each job determines how your stats grow when you level up, what equipment you use, and what abilities you can use and learn. At first, you can only use basic jobs like Soldier and Thief. As you master A-abilities, you can move on to expert jobs like Summoner and Bishop. The game has 5 different races which are Human, Bangaa, Nu Mou, Viera, and Moogle. Some jobs can only be used by each race and even if 2 races use the same job, one will usually be better than the other in stats.

Learning new abilities is really simple. Just equip something that can teach your units new abilities. Some equipment don't have any abilities to learn at all. When you equip something that you can learn, you can use the ability you're learning. But if you take that item off, you can't use it. When you win battles, you gain Ability Points (AP). When you gain enough for an ability, you can use it at any time without having to use the item it came from. Abilities are divided into 5 categories. They are Action (You can have 2. One from your current job and the 2nd from another job you learned abilities from), Reaction, Support, and Combo. Action is what your abilities are such as Blizzaga or Shiva. Reaction occurs when the unit is attacked such as Counter or Return Magic. Support aids your units like Half MP. Combo lets your units and other units with combo abilities (Who have to be in range) to use a chained combo attack. If a units starts a combo and other units (who have combo abilities set) are in range, they can all join in for a devastating attack. The range for the other units depends on their combo abilities. Some are ranged while others have to be next to the target to join in.

Totema are like ultimate beings. Each totema is connect to a race and only that race can summon them in battle (For example, bangaas can only summon their totema and not others). Totemas attacks all enemies and they always hit. Totemas do either HP or MP damage.

Units stats are as follows: HP, MP, JP, Level, and Experience. HP is your health and you are KO'd when it hits 0. MP is used for magic and other abilities. You won't be able to use them without it. Luckily, each unit will recover 5MP per turn. JP is judge points. You gain one point for knocking out a unit and if you perform an action that the law recommends (I'll explain laws in a bit). JP is used for combos (combos do more damage if you have more JP) and Totema (Which you acquire later in the game). You gain EXP each time you do an action other than Move and Wait. It can be anything like healing or attacking. When you get 100 EXP, you gain a level and your EXP goes back to 0. How much EXP you gain depends on the target's level when you perform an action on them. The higher the level, the more EXP you get, but the lower the level, the less EXP you get.

Laws are another big piece of the game. Laws are like rules set for battles. You and the enemy units (except for a few like bosses) have to follow the laws. Laws change everyday and the set changes as you move on in the story. Laws range from forbidding use of Broadswords to forbidding actions that heal HP. While there are laws that forbid actions, there are some actions that the law will reward you JP for. Breaking the law will get you a yellow card as a warning, but breaking the law again or doing a forbidden action that instantly knocks out the target will get you a red card and will be sent to prison. Receiving either card will get you a fine at the end of the battle such as loss of gil or having one of your stats drop. The more cards the unit has on record, the worse the future penalties get. If you give them a pardon, their record can be erased, but they will be out of the clan for a couple of battles.

The game even allows linking with a friend. You can either trade, do co-op missions, or compete. When it comes to trading, you can trade equipment, mission items, or members of the clan. This can be great if you need someone with a certain job you can't get or a weapon you don't have yet. There are missions that can only be done through linking, but they are not a part of the main game. Co-op missions teams up you and your friend against a bunch of enemies, Work together and support each other to succeed and open up more missions. In completion, you and your friend compete to see who can defeat the most monsters. Another benefit when you link up is that shops will carry random items each time you link up. Sometimes, that is the only way to acquire certain items. The item itself is a mystery and you won't know what it is until you buy it. The only downside to the whole link option is that both players must pay a 5000 gil fee for each link.

You mostly progress in the game through missions and there are 300 in all. Some missions may fail if you don't get to it in time while others may not allow cancellations of it. Most missions require certain mission items. Without them, you cannot do those missions. You gain mission items by completing other missions. Some items have some effects like boosting ice power, or boosting attack and defense for that mission. Missions are divided into 4 types: Battle, Clan Encounter, Dispatch, and Liberation. Battle is what it sounds like. Beat the enemies there to accomplish the mission. Clan Encounter forces you to find the opposing clan on the map and sometimes you can negotiate your way out of fight with them. Dispatch missions sends one of your units to complete the mission alone for a bit. Liberation is like dispatch, but it frees areas not in your control. With more areas under your belt, you can get cheaper prices for missions and goods in shops.

Story: 7/10
Unlike other Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is more lighthearted and it's not the usual love story or save the world. The story is about these 3 kids, Marche, Mewt, and Ritz, who just met each other and they're somewhat social outcasts because they get picked on by other kids. Mewt finds an ancient book and he nor his friends can read it. Overnight, their snowy town transforms into the huge world of Ivalice, the same Ivalice from the kids' Final Fantasy game. Marche is surprised to see where he is and after meeting a moogle named Montblanc, he tries to find a way home and his friends who could be in the same world. But are his friends willing to go back? Only time will tell.

Graphics/Music & Sound: 9/10
For a Game Boy Advance game, it has very nice graphics and music pieces. Each environment looks great and the animations from magic and other special attacks are simply amazing. Sound effects like the Blizzaga spell to a Viera who yelps after getting knocked out are just as great. The music in this game are great as well. Some music pieces truly sound like epic battles and struggles.

Length: 9/10
With 300 missions to explore, it's a wonder how the programmers managed to cram so much in a tiny cartridge. From watching the dialogue scenes to hunting for unfinished missions, this game will keep you busy for a very long time. It took me about 50 hours just to finish the game's main story. That is a good amount of time to kill, especially on the Game Boy Advance. If that wasn't enough, you will spend more time linking up with friends to finish link missions and trading items that you need. It's amazing how much time you will spend on a GBA game.

Overall: 9/10
Like I said before, if you're expecting this game to be just like the Playstation version, it isn't. But that doesn't mean that you should pass this up. The game is pretty different from the previous one, but I guarantee you will like the game if you play for a while. This is a purely strategic game and requires a lot of planning, so it may not be for everyone. While the game may appear to be slow paced, it'll pick up once you get into the game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/05