First it giveth, then it taketh away...
GAMEPLAY ~
It's a tactical game, like Tactics Ogre before it, it runs the same. You choose a unit of how many is allowed on the 3D grid battle field, than you control each individual unit in choosing different physical and magical abilities depending on class and character.
Every class is divided up depending on human / demi-human. Human classes have the basic run of Fighters / Knights to regular white and black mages, plus the useless Archer class. Than you have Bangaa (lizard guys) who have mainly physical classes like Monks and Warriors to choose from. Moogle’s make their first large appearance in a FF game (since Mog in FF6) and they come with a range similar to the human class. With Viera class (Bunny girls, the only recognizable female other than humans) you get a bunch of distant attack classes as well as some specialty magic classes. Than finally, the No Mou (elephant dog creatures) that are primarily magical beings. Overall, it gets confusing on why the human classes can't master every class, but than I guess that wouldn't be fair to the lesser demi-humans.
During game progression, you'll be undertaking several "missions" to pass the time and to gain some extra items and money. When actually, for 2 hours I didn't garner any new story progression, all I got was mission after mission, and each one was more boring than the last, but jobs need to be done, and since you decided to join a clan (mine was Zeromus) you might as well undertake some of the local pub missions... which will feel like the whole game... cause it was basically the whole game concept.
After certain missions are completed you gain access to newer areas to explore. Once these become available you have the choice to place them wherever you feel like putting them. If placed correctly, it opens up a "special" treasure. Which means you get a position or something. This part of the game was brought to you by Legend of Mana for the PSX, making things possible one unaffiliated game after another!
My real gripe with this game comes in the form of the newest addition, The Judge System, or "Laws".
This was added to give the game more distance to the already spectacular original, FFT for the PSX. But in turn, this new addition makes the game feel more like a "game" than a medieval battle between two brave units fighting for a cause. The "laws" are set before battles and are only used in battles. The invincible chocobo riding knight appears at the beginning of each battle and "observes" every warrior's action making sure they don't "break the rules." Laws are normally hindrances in where a specific item, spell, or weapon is outlawed, an if used you are sent to jail, or some other nasty consequences.
These "laws" addition sucks outright. It's a battlefield people, there aren't any "laws" on a battlefield, you either win or lose. Just because some overweight chicken riding den mother tells you what you can and can't do doesn’t make this part original, no sir, it makes it annoying and blasphemous in the face of what FFT originally paved for "advanced" to actually make waves.
Advanced Tactics... Ha! I think not!
But for what it's worth, it offers up a huge assortment of menus and various other time consuming actions that will likely keep the non-ADD kids of today fulfilled and wanting more. Patience is a virtue, lets hope you have enough to truly enjoy where this game is coming from.
STORY ~ 4 / 10
This is the first time Square has decided to "pat itself on the back" and use it's company name inside an actual video game. An why is that? Because you play a game, inside of a game! Wow! So smart! From what I gathered... the story was bland and really didn't make much headway until a bit later into the actual game. So, 4 / 10 seems right for story. Could have used some robots.
GRAPHICS ~
The overall look of the game was nice and really played up on what all tactical games are about, battlefield graphics! Thought unlike the other Tactical games out there for the GBA, this one had a few additional scenes inside special places, like pubs and ranches, all that good stuff.
When undertaking several missions inside the same place, there will be a new battlefield accompanying the new mission, which makes each environment new to the cause. from snow piled on hills to dredging swamp lands, this game shined in the environments department. The sprite movement is as well fluid and attacks are pulled over brilliantly. But due to the class system being broken up, you won't be seeing any human dragoon classes in this game, singularity stinks! Summon spells are huge and are delicious eye candy to boot !
The real let down is the new sprite designs and character portrait.
First off, what the hell is the No Mou character suppose to be? At first I thought it was an elephant, than it looks like a dog, overall, I say it is the worst design I've ever seen and a worthless addition at that. Ryoma Itoh (who is credited as character design, so I’ll single him / her out) should take a few lessons in hand drawing from Akihiko Yoshida (FFT) because all of Ryoma designs look overly deformed and don't bring the feel of the sprites overall look into the limelight.
Could be better, could be worse...
SOUND ~
Hitoshi Sakimoto (FFT) returns to put his touch on things, but the thing to mention most is the FF music-man himself Nobuo Uematsu coming aboard to do a few song fillers here an there. Yet sadly, it all goes to waste, because I can't remember a single track from this game. Not saying they weren't outstanding, because they probably were... but this game (like all GBA games) was portable so I didn't really play it much at home so I can enjoy the full music that it offered, no instead it was muted because I play at work, but I know the tracks had to be slamming if those two creative geniuses worked on it!
From what I did hear, the SFX weren't too bad either, so maybe the GBA does have some music worth getting fired for... maybe not...
REPLAYABILITY ~
Lets mention first the save option. Like Tactics Ogre before it, this game lets you save during battles just in case you need to be on the move, thought I hardly invoked my saving power, it was respectful enough to add it. Thanks Square! Now lets move onto the meat of this game, character recruitment and mission objectives. FFTA offers over 200 missions to undertake each rewarding you with large amounts of pay-dirt and a few high priced items to boot. An once all the missions are complete you have the choice to recruit the good old Judge Master himself Cid.
Thought character recruitment is nearly as big as FFT, it does offer a few extras special characters as well as semi-special characters that might join you at random depending if you use an event item during mission selection. But I would advise you to just create your own team and go at it from there, because if you rely on a random acceptance you might be missing out on some powerful non-special characters. Once the game is over, there is a few more quest to undertake to obtain the true ending. I sadly never made it that far, because I got bored, but it sure sounds exciting!
OVERALL ~
If it wasn’t for the lousy Judge System and the slow game progression I could possibly be playing it today. But I sold this cartridge and moved onto other gaming experiences. If you like the Tactics series, but find FFTA a bit to meandering to play on your first go, give Tactics Ogre or the “not so tactical” Onimusha Tactics a go before you delve headfirst into this game, it might build up some patience for this monstrous undertaking.
Or maybe just stick with the straight forward Tactical guns of Tactics Ogre Advanced, it’s your choice, I choose the latter.