Well it has been quite sometime since I last wrote a review on video games. And what has taken their place? Poetry, not a usual substitute, but for someone who actively tries not to be part of the crowd, not all the much of a surprise. Now the reason for the lack of video game reviews is that I haven't been playing them, not good ones at least. My brother gave me Medal Of Honor the Pacific Theater and True Crime Streets of LA. They both sucked. MoH is just another in a long line of bad games in that series. They always have stupid objectives that consume time and have no purpose. True Crime is another of those Driver rip offs(like GTA3). Yes it might add some features(like GTA3 did), but the controls still suck. I also played 13 and Deus Ex Invisible War. They were both good games, but they both were repetitive and eventually boring. None of these games gave me enough emotional response to actually bother writing a review. Was something wrong with me? Did I outgrow video games? The one thing that has remained true since my childhood, my one true friend, had it left me or I it? Nope, still like them, they just have to be good. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced brought my love back to me.

OK enough of my tragic loss of faith in the video game industry. I happen to be a big fan of strategy RPGs. I say strategy on purpose, tactical RPGs are a compromise I can deal with. Tactical ones, like FFTA, are on a smaller scale and have to do mainly with groups of people rather than armies. Brigandine would be an example of a strategy RPG. Why do I prefer strategy to tactical? There are more to them and they tend to make more sense. Tactical games tend to have stupid rules that they never explain and you just have to deal with. I also like the idea of leading an army.

Anyway, FFTA, has its strength and its weaknesses lets delve into them shall we? The combat system is good, but it gets repetitive. You tend to fight on the same maps over and over and each fight is pretty much the same. The clan system is cool, but it doesn't serve as a plot. Before I go into the plot and forget about the clan system I'll tell you about it. The clans are groups of people who fight each other for power. Kind of like gangs, some are good and some are bad. You can get your clan bigger, but it doesn't really help. You are limited to 6 people per fight. I never liked that RPGs limited the amount of characters in battle. It makes no sense, why do you have them if you can't use them? Especially in tactical games, you should be able to fight with all your power. It would help the common problem of having 50 character who suck, and you never use, and/or forget you have. Than you have your 3-6 characters you actually use who are gods in comparison. Than one of your god characters gets taken from you due to a twist in the plot. Now you have to take one of your weaklings and put them into the party. I have always hated that! If you are going to have 50 characters(and be limited to 6 characters in the party) you should be able to make multiple parties to do things at the same time. That is something Brigandine allows you to do, and one of the reasons I like it so much!

Random paragraph break, it was getting too long and I was ranting. Anyway, the plot. In short there is none. The main character, I think I named mine God or something, comes from the "real" world with cars and stuff. Him and his friends read a spell book and get transported into the world of Final Fantasy. Very compelling huh? You get separated from your friends and you have find them and get back to the "real world". The real story though is your guild quests. You buy quests from the local pub and complete them. It's kind of fun, but it doesn't make up for the lack of plot.

The combat system is decent. Much like the previous FFT and the Tactics Ogre series. The maps are grid based. I don't like that you can still run around and attack people in the back. It's a small point, but it's just stupid. The fight turn into people running around each other hitting each other in the back. I haven't seen many fights, but the few I have didn't look anything like that. The AI is pretty dumb and don't work very well together. I've only had one tough fight and that was when I was trying to use some of my weak characters. Anyway, there is a good selection of weapons and magic to use. The only problem is they don't really tell you what they do. There is a little info box that gives you a small description. The manual(and the game) don't list the items and spells so if you want one you have to print it off the net or buy the hint book. I'm sorry that used to be part of the manual, when did the game companies get so cheap?

The spells are nothing new, fire, ice and lightning just like every FF. I like that since it shows its roots. The problem is that unless the name, and description, really gives you a good idea what the spell does you have no idea if it is worth bothering with. The skills and spells all come from your items. Once you master the skill the character can keep it. I liked the original FF as far as the skills went better. I liked it coming from the job, rather than a weapon that the job allowed. They also make it a pain to tell which item is better(more powerful) than the others. Since I am lazy this means I don't always equip the best item, since I don't know which is better.

At the heart of this game is the job system. One of the better points of the game. There is a good selection of races and jobs. They all are unique and interesting. The only problem is they don't tell you what to do to get knew ones, you have to figure it out by trail and error. There soldiers, paladins, all sorts of mages, thieves, ninjas, archers and a bunch of other stuff. Some share skills with each other, but they all have their own skills for the most part. If you don't have a list of the skills it can be tough to figure out which job would fit the characters. If you have played some of the older FFs, or FFT, you will know what to do though. You can be sure that there are some skills that suck and you wonder why they bothered, and some that are just mean.

Graphics are comparable to any tactical RPG I have ever seen. That is a good thing considering that it is on the GBA and not the PS2. So the graphics are pretty good. I do wish you could rotate the maps. Sometimes the elevation changes can block parts of the map. I don't really think it would stress the abilities of the system. But maybe the refresh rate of the screen couldn't handle it without it taking forever, not really sure. Sound is as good as you can expect I guess. I tend to turn the sound off. It has the usual annoying beeps and bad repetitive music. That is one good thing about the newer FFs they do have good music, that's about it besides graphics but it is something.

Like the GBA the game is marketed to kids. Not horribly, but it certainly is "kiddy". I think they use this as an excuse not to push the envelope on anything. It's basically a watered down FFT. But that is kind of what I was expecting. For some reason the GBA means the games don't have to be as good. It is more powerful than the Super Nintendo(and the Genesis) but the quality isn't there yet. If you are looking for the best RPG(that I've played) on the GBA this is it. It is marginally better than Tactics Ogre Knight of Lodis. Though Tactics Ogre had a much better story. I like the job system on FFTA much better. Atlus needs to stop making stupid GBA games and make Brigandine Advanced! OK I'll stop complaining about Brigandine. Anyway, $35 is a little steep in my opinion, but that is the going price. If you have a GBA and want to play an RPG you are kind of stuck. You will definitely get some play out of it. Whether or not you will be compelled to finish it is another story.

One last point I forgot to raise before. This is not a GBC game. It will only work for GBA. Epinions titled the game incorrectly. So be warned don't buy it for the GBC, it won't work. And the game store probably won't give you full credit for it since you opened the box. Just wanted to throw that in there.

Recommended: Yes