Alkaiser's Full Review: Final Fantasy Tactics for PlayStation 1
This is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. While it was kinda slow at points, and the odd way the random fights scale to your characters, but the bosses don't, is worrisome the game is still pretty well done...now if only your character didn't look like a girl. (Although no noses looks cooler than no mouths like in FF7.)
Tactics is a great turn-based game. RPGs are normally turn-based, but the new "active time battle" system that Square is messing with seems to be the emerging trend, and they tend to lack the strategic elements that Tactics posesses. The story of Tactics revolves around Ramza (you.) and Delita as they get caught up in a war for the Crown. The Northern and Southern Knights are embroiled in a battle for the throne, and there is some backstabbing going on, even within Ramza's own family. (Oh, the humanity!)
If you ever feel lost, and don't understand what's going on in the game, go to the local pub, and ask the bartender for any "Rumors" he might have heard. Or, go into your menu and check out the "Brave Story" sub menu. I know, a lot of the text is jacked there...but it's not the testers' fault! We had it all fixed...it's just that things happen sometimes...
FFT uses a "job-based" system of levelling. Your character can be any of a number of different jobs, each with their own set of abilitites. For example, the Thief can "Steal Hearts", the Chemist can use Potions, and Calculator just going around whupping people down, based upon certain mathematic formulas. As you level, you master certain jobs, and if you become a master of all of them, you can become a Mimic...which isn't nearly as cool as all the work it takes. Cid is in the game as "T.G. Cid" (Thunder God Cid, if you're wondering.) and so are Cloud and Aeris.
You can also send your guys on side quests, where they pick up little relics, which aren't really that important to the game, but they're neat to get, and they gain your characters some experience. In addition they say cool stuff like, "This is the way!" and "I got a good feeling!" (Which makes an especially funny screenshot if a female character's saying it, and if you're twisted like that.) In the Japanese version, there is a book you can pick up, which is sort of like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel, but was sadly not included in the English version.
Also another cool facet of the game is all the random people you run into the random fights. Some of them are testers for the game (myself, and nearly every other tester.), some are other Squaresoft workers (Akintunde, etc.), some athletes (Indurain and Hampsten), and others are leaders of cool bands (Flansburgh, *TMBG Rules!*). This is definitely one game that you'll want to pick up, and will enjoy playing for the following weeks. If you play this before Vandal Hearts, as I did, VH looks like utter garbage compared to this. The graphics in VH were so much lower in quality, and the story didn't interest me at all. This is the best turn based RPG on the market.
The one big problem I had with the game was that at the beginning of battle, when you're supposed to set up your party...you have no idea what the terrain looks like, so you might as well just plunk them down anywhere, you're not going to get any idea of whether it was a good idea or not until you're in the heat of battle. (While we're at it, what's with everyone walking in place when they're not moving...can't they just stand still?!)
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.