Final Fantasy Tactics (Sony PlayStation 1, 1998)

This game's story is so epic, that at times, it seems that the story was wasted on a game designed with a focus on battles, although at other times, the format of the game seems to suit the story perfectly, as when the characters speak during mid-battle. The plot of this game has the theme of "exploring history in search of truth," and demonstrates, through allegory, the biases of the societal forces which allow for the recording of history, and the tendency of historians to attribute heroic characteristics to the victors of any scenario, regardless of their true alignment, or intentions. At many points in the plot, unexpected events occur, with the attentive player having received just enough information to speculate on the motivations of the characters involved, and playing through the game, there were many such moments at which I speculated improbably twisted scenarios, only to be shocked when future events actually confirmed my dark suspicions, or clarified the scenario to be even more depraved than I had imagined. This is not an incredibly violent game, nor is it atmospherically dark, in the film noir sense. But it is a deeply philosophical game, which doesn't under-represent the magnitude of human suffering, the tendency of humans to abuse power, or the unreliability one's personal allies in societies conducive to individual scheming. The character of Delita, who comes across as contradictorily skeptical and idealistic, is too much of a master-moralist, in the Nietzschean sense, to qualify as a hero, but is too difficult for a player, sensitive towards his motivations, to villainize. Even the aberrant supernatural elements of this mostly human and political story work well from a literary standpoint, as the relationship between Ajora, the Lucavi, and those who seek the Zodiac stones is represented with style and subtlety, adding Faustian intrigue to the plot. The gameplay of Tactics is reasonably balanced, in the sense that there are not many situations in which one overly powerful and convenient approach to winning battles makes every other possible strategy obsolete. Like other job-system games, the player can create these situations himself, by over committing to the equipment and abilities for a particular job for certain characters, thereby forcing himself to use the same strategy for every battle, or sacrifice the majority of his characters' power, but the game itself offers many different feasible play possibilities. Different sections of the game will present different challenges depending on how the player's party is configured, such as Ramza's one-on-one battle with Gafgarion, the "outnumbered" battle at Golgorand execution site, or the rooftop "save Rafa" battle, and unless the player's party is so ridiculously overpowered as to allow for massively inefficient gameplay, the tactical parameters of each battle require a rethinking of the player's strategy, as elements such as attack strength, attack range, and character mobility must be alternately prioritized. The ability to review story scenes and look up public information about the characters adds to the immersive element of the game, and the player's ability to appreciate the plot. This game is superb because its many innovations are effectively implemented, its visual design effectively portrays compelling, medieval-style fantasy, some characters are incredibly well-developed to fully serve their role within the incredibly literary plot.

I bought Final Fantasy Tactics a long time ago and I hated it more than anything. I had no idea what was going on, it made no sense and it just sat on my shelf… it was the first turn based strategy RPG that I ever played. After a few weeks I decided to try and figure it out and I am so glad that I did.

Final Fantasy is my favorite strategy RPG and I have played them all: Vandal Hearts, Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle, Disgaea, Phantom Brave…you name it. I always buy a new game hoping that it can compare to this game and it never does. For fans of the aforementioned games; stop reading this and buy this game on eBay or Amazon.com right now, you will love it. For those that are still skeptical and have no idea what I am talking about, I will tell you everything about this game.

If you are a Final Fantasy fan and are only interested in this game because of the name like I was I should first tell you it is unlike any other Final Fantasy game (except for the other ones with the word “tactics” in them). You do not walk around towns; you do not explore dungeons. The game consists of hundreds of huge battles that are fought on large grids. The gameplay is often compared to chess although it is only similar in that it is played on a grid. The meat of the game consists of the battles and extremely deep character customization. In Final Fantasy Tactics, you assign your characters to specific jobs which determine their abilities, the equipment they use, and how they perform in battle. For example; a Knight equips swords (and almost any other weapon), and heavy armor and has skills that damage an opponent’s strength, defense, etc; Black Mages equip staffs and light armor and use powerful offensive magic but are very susceptible to damage; you get the point.

When a battle starts you choose the characters you want to use and place them on the board. You then have to strategically defeat the enemy forces or achieve a specific goal. The battles are extremely addicting, mainly because of the huge amount of customization. Unlike other games like Fire Emblem, you can pretty much hand tailor all of your characters, including the main one. Throughout the game you unlock more jobs such as Ninja, Geomancer, Samurai, Dragoon, and many more. You also can acquire characters that have special jobs such as Dark Knight that have very powerful abilities.

As far as the story goes, I have played through this game at least 3 times and I really don’t know what it is about. Something about war and killing and betrayal; it does have its moments, I just can’t really remember the “point” of the game. The music is excellent as should be expected, as are the sound effects. I think the graphics are great although by today’s standards they are pretty bad.

So if you are still unsure of whether or not you will like this game I suggest you find some screen shots of it to get a full understanding of how the game plays.

Pros:
- Great gameplay.
- Deep character customization.
Cons:
- None.

First off I will say that this game is a lot different than most Final Fantasy and traditional style role playing games (RPGs), hence the "Tactics" in it's title. This game has a fantastic story, that is has a great amount of depth and seriousness to it. The story revolves around a boy named Ramza in a time of knights and kingdoms. There is a lot political suspense in the game with betrayal and corruption. The main focus however are the mysterious Zodiac Stones, which hold some kind of power, and people seem to do anything to get their hands on them... but in order to leave out spoilers I will stop there.

The Battle system is the one feature of this game that makes it one of the funnest and greatest games ever made. In this game you have a party of 5 members you can put in battle. Unlike tradition RPGs the battles are overhead on bigger maps with your players usually on one starting point and the enemy on the other. Much like chess. You move on a grid, and each character stands on a square, and can move or attack on a range of sqaures. In this game you choose classes for characters in order to gain abilities for them. A class can be anything from a fighter character like: squire, knight, monk, ninja, samurai, etc. or magic characters like: black mage (offensive), white mage (healing), time mage (offensive/support), etc. There are a wide variety of classes to choose from, but you must explore and level up classes to unlock new classes. Once you have gained abilities from one class, you can pick a subclass ability to compliment your main class. This opens up a wide range of combinations since you can change your class anytime for no cost. You can have let's say, a thief who can normally steal from close range, but turn him into an archer and give him a thief subclass and presto! You can now steal from long distance.

All in all this game is extremely fun to play, has a great story, and very high replay value. It would be a great game for fans of Final Fantasy games, newcomers to RPGs, or even veteran RPG fans who haven't ever played it. I hope this review was insightful, and I hope that anyone who purchases this game enjoys it as much as I have all these years.

Arguably on of the best tactical console game to come out over the past 2 decades, it's easy to see why this franchise has spun off so many iterations; Ivalice being the place, and FFT is where it all started.

The plot is simple: The game is set in a fictional kingdom called Ivalice, which has just ended its war with the neighboring kingdom of Ordalia. The story follows Ramza Beoulve, a young cadet who finds himself thrust into the middle of a conflict, where two noble factions are coveting the throne of the kingdom.[2] While the war was caused by a conflict of succession, Ramza was exposed to a plot that involved the kingdom's dominant religious organization.

Now add in 20 hours of story, and 40-60 hours of replay value with all the different job classes, secret bosses, and leveling up you can do. This is a game that you'll want to work hard at.

Final Fantasy (Henceforth FF) Tactics is one of the best games to ever grace the Play Station console, if not the best. It is a "Tactics" based Role Playing Game (RPG); that is, instead of a turn based RPG like FF7 where you get into a fight and wait for your turn to chose an option you have to maneuver around a battle field and attack units.

The story revolves around a Noble, Ramza, and his best friend, Delita, who is a peasant. Ramza comes from a highly respected family with a lot of power. He gets caught up in plots by his older half-brothers and the Church that leads him on quite the adventure while meeting some vary unique characters... and a cameo appearance of a beloved FF character of "Yore."

What I really like about this game is the depth of the game play. You have to not only have strong characters that can deal and take a lot of damage, but you need to be able to maneuver the battle field effectively, use the terrain to your advantage, utilize your abilities to the max and think ahead. Sure, the story battles can be fairly easy if you "over level" but if you get into a random battle you could be in for one heck of a fight, because the enemy might have better equipment than you and has access to all of the same abilities you do, not to mention some of the nastier monsters out there.

As for mechanics, it does take a little getting used to. I recommend actually going through the tutorial on things you may not be clear on: it's boring as watching the static on your television, but highly useful knowledge wise. I can't link you to the "Final Fantasy Tactics battle mechanics guide" but a quick Yahoo or Google search should take care of that for you.

The story is good, from the little intro I wrote you get the idea of the story line, but the writers did a good job of making you care enough about the characters that when one dies you might actually care that they did so (then again, I am a softy when it comes to that stuff). There are a few twists to keep you guessing who really is the good guys and if your really fighting on the right side or being used yourself.

Overall, if your going to go get a PS game, this is one I would highly recommend. Heck, if your going to get a game at all, this is one I would highly recommend. What this game lacks in terms of up to date graphics it more than makes up with game play depth and story; therefore, it is hard to go wrong with this title.