Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

"Is it really worth buying this version?"

FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
As you probably know, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a remake of the original Final Fantasy Tactics game for PS1. The original game was almost perfect as it was, so some are questioning whether this remake is even worth playing through or not. I think it is worth playing through. And I'm here to tell you why.

BATTLE
The battle system is exactly the same as the original game's battle system. There's really only a few differences in this version. They've added two new jobs. Onion Knight and Dark Knight. Onion Knight in my opinion, wasn't even worth adding because its pretty terrible. It can use any equipment, but it can't learn any abilities and you can't assign it any abilities. So if I want my Onion Knight to use items, counter attack or add treasure hunter I can't. Now even though it can use any equipment, Onion Knight still has the lowest hp, lowest attack power, low movement even if you give it the best equipment. Basically it was worthless for Square Enix to add this job. The Dark Knight job I haven't actually been able to use, because it's hard to attain this job. However, I've heard this is a very good job, and since it's difficult to get, it most likely is a very good job. They have also balanced out the jobs just a tad bit. In the original game, you could master Dragoon very quickly because the AP you needed for each ability was not that high. However, in this version, they have changed some of the AP values. So now, it takes a long time to be able to "jump the entire map" with Dragoon. You should also take note that almost every ability name has had a re translation.

They also added two new characters. Balthier from Final Fantasy XII is now a playable character. And Luso, who will be featured as the main character of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2. Both of these characters are great additions to the party roster. Especially Balthier, as he comes with a gun that can actually inflict 180 damage per hit. And they even have cool CG cutscenes when you first see them.

STORY
Now the story is the reason you should play this remake. I had no idea, but the original game translated almost everything incorrectly. In the original, the characters spoke in modern day dialect. Now, they speak in an older form of English. (Like Final Fantasy XII) Using words like mayhap, and phrases like, "It was all for naught." Some may be thinking that speaking like that is kind of a bad thing. But it's not. Because of the way it was translated before, the dialogue limited the character's personalities and led to some things not making sense because the translators obviously couldn't make a ton of sense of what it was about as it is.

On top of better translation, they have added a number of CG cutscenes. These are quite interesting actually. They're kind of like hand drawn 3D graphics/cel shaded.... Hard to explain, you would have to see it for yourself. They feature voice acting, that is very good, and further help to tell the story in this game. Also, many new cutscenes were added as well. Especially the Delita. His story is told much better this time around. They have even added a few new battle sequences as well. But I can't really say anything because I do not want to spoil.

MY COMMENTS
Even though this game is such a great game, and 10 years later it's still a very good game I have just a few complaints, as I do with most every game. The CG cutscenes are a great addition to the game. However, they should have either, made every scene like this, or they should have at least added more of them. I call them, CG. But, they're really not insanely good graphics. I'm sure that the PSP could handle a lot more of them. Seeing as how they keep the same graphics as the original. Even though, I actually find the original graphics to be entertaining, it would be better to tell the story with the CG cutscenes. My other complaint is that you can't use enough people in battle. Now, in the beginning of the game, using 5 characters is a fine number for the way the battles are set up. However, near the end of the game, you get so many good characters to use, but you can only use 5 out of the 12 characters you would like to use. Back in the day, using 5 characters in any RPG was pretty remarkable, but SRPGs have come a way in this department. And I do realize that even at the end of the game, using more than 5 characters would in a sense be bad because of the way the battles are set up, and they probably would not want to spend all that time justifying the battles so that you can use more characters, but the factor still makes the game just a little bit worse.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is worth playing over again especially with the revamped translation. But also, for those extra scenes and characters. However, if you played through the original game and hated it, you're still not going to be convinced with this version either, because it's not that much different. Only the fact that the story in the original can be very misleading because of terrible translation. If they translated everything correctly in the original, this would not be a worth remaking.

If you would like to know how I rated this game, you can find out here:
First, it starts off as a 10/10 then,
-.5 points for not enough CG cutscenes
-.5 points for only allowing you to use 5 characters in battle
that leaves us with a 9.0 for a rating.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/07

Game Release: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (US, 10/09/07)