Final Fantasy Tactics Retro Review, I had a good feeling!

By BatRastered — July 17, 2012
Tags: ios psn review

A slow month of games leads to a FFT re-play on the PSN. How great was this game?

I remember playing through Final Fantasy Tactics back on the PS one, flipping my machine upside down to keep the disk from skipping... LOL HACKS! Back then, I got stuck on fighting Weigraf one-on-one. It probably took me 20 tries before I changed myself to a chemist (for the long ranged gun attacks as well as the healing items) with the squire's "guts" ability as my secondary so I could "yell" myself to speed up until I eventually got 5 turns for every 1 Weigraf got.

FFT is a turn-based strategy game played on a grid like maps, your units can only move a certain amount of squares in any direction on any one turn, and unless you have some special attacks, you can only attack what is right next to you. Positioning is very important as you have a better chance for success if you attack from the side or rear of an enemy.

There are 20 job classes to choose from, and you can turn any of your party into whatever job you want, though you have to level up certain classes before others become available. For instance, you need to be a level 2 archer before you can become a thief. Each class has useful abilities, so you'll probably want to spend a little time as almost all of them. Even if you don't like the thief class, you'll definitely want it's move+2 ability that lets you move 2 extra squares per turn!

You get to use the powers from the class you are currently in, plus one more as a secondary ability. You also get to choose a counter ability (you can counter attack, or automatically drink a health potion when you're attacked, or maybe you like the ninja's "sunken state" turning you invisible when you get attacked), and a passive ability (usually giving you another characteristic of the class it's from, like the black mage's "magic attack up" which lets you deal more damage with your magic attacks). Finally, there's a movement ability, like the aforementioned "move+2" or the always fun "ignore height" that lets you leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Each class can equip varying types of weapons, shields, headgear, armor, and accessories to increase your hit points, magic points, speed, and power. Female warriors are super lucky as they get to wear ribbons (which prevent all negative status effects) as headgear and the super-rare perfumes as accessories. The perfume I have on Agrias, my most powerful female knight, gives her health regen and automatic re-raise if she dies. She's basically immortal, and the ribbon in her hair prevents any ailments that would otherwise disable her like petrify, don't move, confuse, charm, and many more. She's a little unfair. Unfortunately, you can't choose the sex of your main character, you're stuck with a dude... I named him "Jimmy" of course. Jimmy has the ninja's "two swords" ability allowing him to equip a sword in each hand and deal two blows per turn. He's currently a squire with the samurai's "draw out" ability as a back up. Oh, and the Move+3 ability of the bard class. This lets him move far, attack hard twice or use an area of affect samurai skill, and if he can't quite reach an enemy on the first turn, he can use "scream" to give himself speed +1, power+1, magic+1, and brave+10 in one go.

I had so much fun leveling up my characters and buying/finding new gear for them. It was a bit sad when the game was over, but there is always the deep dungeon to explore. Seriously, this is one of those games where it's more fun to level up and try new stuff than it is to play through the story missions. I only wish there were more human enemies in the random battles as fighting the monsters isn't quite as fun (and makes some of your skills like "weapon break" useless).

I played the version on PSN on my PS3, which is the same version from the PS1 days. There is also the enhanced "war of the lions" version which was originally for PSP, but is now available for iPhone. The gameplay's the same, you'll just get a better translation (though the "engrish" in the original is part of its charm IMHO) and some animated cut scenes instead of the in-engine dialog for some of the story. I'd recommend either version, but since the PSN one is only $10 versus the $15 they want for the iPhone version (and I like playing on the big-screen), I'd go for the PSN one first if you've got a PS3.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Final Fantasy Tactics Retro Review, I had a good feeling!

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