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Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

It didn’t have the multi-million dollar ad campaign that supported the release of Final Fantasy VII, but for many turn-based RPG purists, the creative high point of Square’s tenure on PSone was a modest little title called Final Fantasy Tactics.

Taking a more strategic approach to battles than normal Final Fantasy titles, battles took place on a grid, the game boasted an elaborate job system, and FFT took place in a traditional sword-and-sorcery, straight-on fantasy world setting … unlike the cyberpunk-influenced FFVII. Plus, it was hard – sometimes DAMN hard – to master.

In fact, the only real complaint about FFT was that the game’s random battles (necessary to level up to conquer storyline battles) were sometimes way overbalanced in favor of the enemies. Plus, the battles were LONG. About an average of an hour per battle was not uncommon; and imagine the frustration of putting an hour into a carefully thought out, strategic battle plan, only to lose and have to start all over again!

For the hardcore gamer, it was heaven; for the more casual fan, it was an endless well of frustration … and ultimately, a supreme sense of accomplishment, once mastered.

But FFT came out in the winter of 1998, nearly half a year after FFVII. Since then, three new Final Fantasy titles have made their way to PSone and PS2 platforms, but there has been no true sequel to FFT.

Oh, sure, there were similar titles. Tactics Ogre from Atlus, ported to PSone from SNES, was the spiritual forebear of FFT. Working Designs released a number of strategy RPGs, the best of which was Vanguard Bandits on PSone. And shortly after the launch of GameBoy Advance, Quest released Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis on GBA, a pleasant re-visit that lacked the usual length, as well as the Squaresoft panache.

But now, five and a half years later, the wait is finally over. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has been released and not only is it a worthy sequel to FFT, but it also marks the first time Square has released a title on a Nintendo platform in around seven years.

The game takes us back to the same kingdom the first took place in, Ivalice; but this time, there’s a framing story that helps draw in the novice gamer who may not remember or own the first FFT title.

You begin the game as the new kid in the town of St. Ivalice, about to take part in a snowball fight. It’s a clever story hook and introduces you to the battle system. With a small group of friends, you gather together and talk about life and, at one point, even talk about videogames. On a whimsical note, it is wished that if one could make any videogame “real,” it would be – ha ha – Final Fantasy. They all have a good laugh and go their separate ways.

But something magic is in the air and when you wake up – ta da – St. Ivalice has become Ivalice and – voila – it is Final Fantasy come to life, just as wished. While the story elements lighten up a bit from there, barely touching on the shock the change must be for your character and others, or the “freak outs” a normal kid might go through to suddenly, actually be handling a sword and battling monsters than once existed only in imagination, the story does move along at an acceptable pace.

The gameplay revolves around missions. Some of them are solo “send offs,” which gives some of your extra recruits a way to advance independently of the group. Others are for the entire group. And there are even some hybrid-style missions to complete. The variety keeps the game from ever really slowing down, but it can’t be breezed through, either, as there is always a need to think strategically.

For example, if you have two archers, do you send the less-experienced one off on a solo mission so you have the stronger one available for group missions? Or do you send the stronger one off, because the weaker one needs the experience with the group? Your decisions WILL have consequences.

The job system returns, just as robust as ever but streamlined so that you don’t have to stare at so many text screens on your small GBA. But then, the advancement through job levels is so streamlined that it’s kinda hard to tell what you’ve mastered and what you haven’t, and there’s a bit less personal control over what skills you acquire and when. But all that does is keep the emphasis a bit more on “engagements” rather than micromanaging your characters skills.

On GBA, some of the battles are as long as they were on the original FFT, but the battle system has been streamlined and made quick enough that instead of an hour, many of the battles can take place in about half that time. This is not through shortcuts or changes that shortchange the gamer, but simply by speeding up response time between turns and other efficiencies. That cuts down on the disappointment factor when you fail a mission and need to start over.

About failures: FFTA is a bit more balanced and failures are a bit less frequent in the early going. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of challenge left as the game picks up the pace and you’ll still have losses to suffer through; just not as frequent.

The random battles/leveling up factor has been solved, too. Now, there are no completely random battles traveling from map node to map node. Enemy clans will appear and you will see them coming. Sometimes you can avoid them, or you can rush to meet them on a node at your own choosing. This minor change allows you more awareness of when you’re about to battle, certainly a welcome upgrade.

Recruitment is handled more naturally, too; rather than needing to “buy” level one characters at the Inn, recruits come to you after key successful battles and offer to join up with your clan. You can accept for reject their services at your own discretion, based on the needs of the group; often it can allow you access to advanced “job” characters sooner than you could develop your characters up to them.

There are also some changes to the franchise that bear the “Nintendo” imprint. For one, the war theme of the first FFT is absent here, as is much of the religious content. Second, characters don’t die, per se. If they reach “0,” they basically pass out. They can be woke up by the familiar Phoenix Down, but in most cases, after the battle’s over, characters are healed and not lost.

To “explain” this, the “engagements” are contests in this version of Ivalice, not war battles. Engagements are regarded more like “extreme sports” than battles. And a “judge” oversees the battles to enforce the rules. Rules, you see, govern each battle. In the early going, each battle only has one rule to obey; later battles will have more and more.

For example, one entertaining engagement had a rule that outlawed the command “Fight” but allowed “Color magic” as the recommended alternative. So your archer could “Aim” to disable movement or whatever, and your white mage could cast healing spells, but most of the kills had to be left to your black mage. Violate the rules of engagement and you get tossed in jail. How much it costs to extricate the offending character from jail depends on the severity of the violation. It’s an extreme challenge to win a battle without being able to select “Fight!” But it promotes creativity in strategies; your regular fighters may not be able to wipe the map up with the enemy, but they can form a protective ring around the black mage, to keep him healthy. Just beware of the enemy team’s magic; if your protective ring is too tight, you’re all sitting ducks.

Despite the tinny limitations to the GBA sound system, Square took the time to actually push the system to full advantage and turns in one of the most memorable, listenable soundtracks ever to appear on GBA. This is one game you won’t often turn down the sound on.

While the wait was five and a half years between original and sequel, Square made the wait almost worth it. With 300 missions and a promised 200-300 hours of gameplay, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is absolutely the longest, most intricate game ever to appear on GameBoy Advance. It also happens to be pretty much the best GBA game ever.

Let’s just hope it’s not another five and a half years before the next sequel comes out; as long as FFTA is, it will be over all too soon.

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Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 20th, 2003 and is filed under GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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