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Platform: PSP, PlayStation

Genre: Tactical RPG

Number of Players: 1 or 2

The concept of tactical role-playing games started way back in 1983 with Ultima III: Exodus and the genre has evolved since then. Out of all of the tactical RPG’s to come along however, there has been one that for many is the crowning achievement that others have imitated and drawn from. Final Fantasy Tactics was a change away from the usual series, but it has become one of the more memorable games in the franchise.

When Tactics was first released however, there were those who were loyal to the Final Fantasy name that weren’t sure how to take the changes, and even I wasn’t hugely drawn to the game, not until after it was out of print for a brief time and I ended up paying around $100 just for a used copy. FFT went back into print just a few months after my purchase; it has spawned a sequel on the Nintendo DS and now, the original Final Fantasy Tactics returns, this time to the PSP as The War of the Lions.

Set in the world of Ivalice, a realm is one of the few to make its way to other games such as Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII and its sequel, Revenant Wings. The story centers on just two main characters, Ramza Beoulve and Delita Hyral, as opposed to the usual collection of six or more, though once again, we find that this is a coming of age story. It is the end of the Fifty Years War and the land has been torn apart by the events, and has now given way to the Lion War. The overall story of Tactics grows more and more complex as the game moves forward as we find corruption, good and evil colliding, betrayal, and political intrigue.

Tactics, for those unfamiliar, plays much different from the other Final Fantasy games in a number of different ways. Instead of the usual active combat that is so often seen, you have turn-based action. Each battlefield is comprised of a grid where the player moves each member of the party in order to participate in combat. Fighting though depends on what class your character currently is and Tactics draws from the job class system that was introduced in Final Fantasy V and was carried over not just to this game, but Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as well as Final Fantasy XI.

Initially you characters have a certain number of jobs they can access, and these can be changed in between stages. The jobs start out very basic with things such as squires (fighters) or chemists who can utilize different items, but as you can more job points and levels, more jobs will begin to open up. Knights, thieves, monks, mages (black, white and time) as well as the newly added Dark and Onion Knight are all available once you’ve achieved the requirements. The new classes require mastery while others require you to have gained certain levels in multiple classes. The benefit of the job class however is that you can mix and match skills, so a knight may have the benefit of using white magic or a mage might also steal items, so it all comes down to however you’d like to customize your characters.

The objectives in each stage can differ. In some, it’s simply to survive, in others you may need to protect someone while others; it’s a matter of saving someone. The general random encounters are just a matter of you managing to kill your enemies before they kill you. Successfully attacking, using a spell or even a potion will give you experience points as well as job class points. Characters that have “died” will need to be raised. You will see a counter above their bodies and once it hits zero, they will go on to a better place.

Aside from the combat stages there are also towns that you can visit. There are shops to buy supplies, your usual armor, weapons, and items, but there is much more than just this one stop. If you stop at the bar, you can gain information concerning side quests that can be taken and the solider office will allow you to recruit new characters for your ranks. Later, a fur shop will become available and by poaching from monsters, you can turn things over for a handsome profit. While the town screens usually have the same look, the combat fields do offer a variety of different locations, so in one battle you may be fighting on the plains while the next, you are in the mountains and forcing your characters to climb steep peaks in order to reach their enemy.

Final Fantasy Tactics, like the other games in the FF series, is a lengthy game, even longer should you decide to do everything possible meaning every side quest and obtaining every possible character. In addition to new classes, the developers have also added in two “new” characters. Cloud Strife, from Squares popular Final Fantasy VII (and I still say it’s one of the worst of the series) and Balthier, the Han Solo influenced pirate seen in Final Fantasy XII have both been added. The character that you might not know, not unless you can read Japanese and are up to paying steep import prices, is Luso who you will find in the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics A2. There are new cutscenes as well, now done as cel-shaded graphics which really suit the game quite well. Final Fantasy Tactics also has a mutliplayer mode added so you can either challenge a friend in the coliseum or work together in co-op mode.

The game looks identical to what was seen on the original PlayStation a decade ago. There is also a new translation it seems which is more authentic to what the Japanese version had, not the Americanized version that was found here in the past. The music is close to the original, but it’s not perfect. There are some tracks that lack the orchestral majesty was heard on the PlayStation, but the UMD’s only have so much space and there has to be some lack somewhere when a game it ported over. Even so, the music in FFT is probably one of the best soundtracks heard in the Final Fantasy series.

Maybe you’ve played Final Fantasy Tactics before, maybe you haven’t, but no matter which side you may be on, this is still one of the greatest tactical RPG’s that has been created. Square hasn’t even managed to recapture the magic with their new Tactics games, at least not yet, and hopefully it won’t be just the DS that’s seeing these games but a new PSP version or, better yet, a Tactics for the PlayStation 3. Until that happens though, you can have the tactical advantage right in the palm of your hand . . . just make sure to keep those batteries charged.
 

-mike-