It started out so addicting...then something went horribly wrong...
User Rating: 7.1 | Final Fantasy Tactics Advance GBA
First of all, let me say that I had never played Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1 before in my life, and though I intend to do so sometime next year when my friend brings it to college with his PS2, if I'd played it before this one, I'm sure I would have given this game a much, much lower score. This 7.4 is based on the fact that this was one of my first forays into this genre. And let me tell you, for the first 20 or so hours of the game, you will be hooked. You can't put it down. But then, slowly but surely, the game begins to get on your nerves until it's downright unplayable. ***Graphics: 8/10*** I don't own many GBA games, but this one is a very good-looking one from what I've seen. The environments somehow remind me of those from Super Mario RPG (don't ask why). The characters on screen are well-drawn, and some of the spells look really cool. One beef I have is the face design. What is it with Japanese artists and non-anime face design? Can they make one single face look good? Obviously not, since all the people in the game look like five-year-old kids, which they might very well be, but considering Japan's track record with face design, my thought is they are not, though they are obviously kids. And it's just like the Japanese artists to not be able to make a character with a discernible gender. Narshe, the main character, looks as much like a guy as Michael Jackson. Yeah, it's that bad. And another thing: WHEN did they change the design of a moogle? WHEN did a moogle look anything like Montblanc (your moogle ally) does? Maybe he's a disfigured moogle. Overall, the graphics are well-done with a few nuances. ***Sound/Music: 8/10, 7/10*** The sound effects are OK. You have your basic sound effect for sword slashing. You have the basic sound effect for arrows being shot. You know, the basics. They all come out clear and crisp. Nothing outstanding, but nothing that will get on your nerves. Sorry, unless it's voice-acting I'm not great at judging sound effects. The music is average, as well. It's nothing that's going to make your ears bleed and send you reaching for the volume dial, but you won't be humming any of the songs walking down the street. Most of the battle themes sound like they'd go well with marches or something. They aren't usually tense enough for a battle, but then again, battles aren't too fast-paced in this game. ***Story: 6/10*** Now this is a strange excuse for a story if I ever heard one. You see, the game opens up with Marshe, a wimpy little kid in town, being picked on by some kids in a snowball fight. Then, he and his friends find a magic book that transports them into a strange fantasy world. But Marshe finds out he really wants to be back home. It's strange how this helpless, whiny little kid becomes a warrior in the fantasy realm, but that aside, the story really meant nothing to me the whole time. In fact, almost all the missions you're sent on have nothing to do with the story. Only once every twenty battles or so will you encounter a critical story-moving battle. The story is merely there as a motive for the battling. I'd give this section a lower score if it was actually a focus of the game, but obviously, considering how Square-Enix is incredible at making stories for their games, they obviously didn't care enough about the story in this game, seeing as how it's not the focus. ***Gameplay: 7/10*** I have mixed feelings about the gameplay in this game. First, the good stuff. Basically, the game falls in the same vein as its predecessor, Final Fantasy Tactics. You play battles on a grid landscape with up to six fighters on screen against all the enemies. Your character has a higher chance to hit the enemy when attacking from behind, the side, or from higher elevation. Your character also can be changed to certain classes, allowing him or her to learn different moves and unlock different classes. The game is absolutely engrossing while you're developing your army, fighting more battles, leveling up, and changing classes. You learn moves just like you do in Final Fantasy IX: by equipping certain weapons, armor, and accessories. You keep the item equipped until you've earned enough Ability Points, at which point the move is permanently attributed to your character and you can move on to the next piece of equipment. Some people hate this about this game and FF9, but personally I really like it. And changing classes is something that FF9 didn't really have, making this game a step up from FF9 in that department. You fight battles either by meeting rival armies on the world map (you assemble your own world map by placing towns in available slots on the map, which is pretty cool) or by going to the local tavern and signing up for missions. You either have Attack Missions or Dispatch Missions. Attack missions are activated when you go to the specified town or area, and you are thrown into a battle. When winning this battle, you win money, sometimes equippables, and sometimes strange critical mission objects. Dispatch Missions, however, are another strange quirk. You send your character off for a certain number of "days" (steps on the world map, literally), and for that time they are unavailable for battling. When they get back, though, you earn some of the aforementioned prizes. But what I really didn't like about some of the missions in this game is that they often have absolutely nothing to do with the story. Most of the Attack Missions are along the lines of "We have monsters in our village and we need you to get rid of them!" Pretty much, you're just running around doing favors for people. Dispatch Missions, on the other hand, are just pathetic. They are often "Little Billy needs someone to do his homework because he's got down syndrome!" or something like that, and you can't do that mission without the pencil, which you earn by doing the "I need someone to milk my cows!" mission, which you can't do without the milking machine, which you get from the "Help I've fallen and can't get up!" mission...yawn... But another annoyance is recruiting. You only recruit when you get recruitment requests from people, at which time you can either accept them or deny them. If you accept them, they are in your party until you decide they suck too much, at which time you can get rid of them. If you deny them, they will walk away crying. Yes, crying. I'm sorry, but if you cry over not making it into my elite group of warriors, then maybe you're just not cut out to be a soldier. The main problem is, you don't want to have to keep leveling up your millions of warriors you recruit. Since you can only have six people in battle at once, you have to decide who you want to level up, or who is most crucial for the battle. And the problem is, you NEED to have a high number of people in your army since you'll be sending a few off for Dispatch Missions. And they can't be too low of level on the Dispatch Missions or the mission will be a failure. So you can't just recruit wimpy little useless people and not use them in battle or you won't be able to use them for Dispatch Missions. And you NEVER get recruits you want. I was waiting for the whole twenty hours for a lizard (sorry can't remember what they're called) with high MP. In the meantime, I was ready to kill someone the next time I got a request from another lousy moogle thief. But now to the biggest problem with the game: the law system. Square-Enix figured they had to do something new. But sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Too bad they tweaked the wrong screw too much, and the whole thing fell apart. You see, Ivalice (the fantasy realm) is run by judges who run around in battles, enforcing the "laws of the day". Yep, you heard it right. Every day, the laws change. For example, one day you might get penalized (a "yellow card") for using swords, but get a reward (a "Judge Point" used towards special moves) for using bows. It's a completely asinine system that, in my opinion, dragged the game down horribly. To make matters even worse, as the game progresses and your army becomes even more notorious with the local government, more laws per day will be added, and different laws will be added to the mix. Of course, you could buy antilaw cards from the local dealer, but they are often useless and never cancel out the laws you want. By about the twentieth hour or so of the game, you'll have about four laws per day to contend with. And frankly, I was so sick and tired with these d*** laws that I honestly just put the game down and haven't picked it back up since. Example of insanity: I hadn't saved the game in at least an hour (my dumb mistake), and I got myself into a mission that I couldn't escape from. And guess what one of the laws was? "Cannot attack the enemy". That's right. If you attacked the enemy, you were given a yellow card. And if you killed an enemy, you got a red card and were taken out of battle. And if Marshe gets a red card, it's game over, buddy. So what was I to do? I was completely helpless, unable to escape, only able to watch in frustration as the enemies, apparently having diplomatic immunity or something since the laws dont apply to them, mercilessly beat up on my hapless army. It's safe to say that this would drive any gamer to set the game down for a long time. Okay, time to take a deep breath. Sorry for ranting so long there. Well, anyways, overall, you'll love the gameplay for a long time. Just don't say I didn't warn you when you have to contend with all those ridiculous laws. ***Difficulty: Average*** The game isn't TOO hard. It's a little tough, mostly because you'll often find yourself being forced to level up your bad characters, and especially since sometimes the laws will bind your characters from doing the moves you intended them to do. But the battles shouldn't give you too much trouble. The toughest ones are mandatory story-moving missions, and those really aren't that bad if you are properly equipped and the laws aren't holding you back too much. ***Total Play Time: 20 to 100 hours*** It all depends on whether you can put up with the law system. Personally, I quit after 20 hours because the laws ruined the game for me. But other people I know have put in over 100 hours into it. You'll just have to try it out for yourself. 20 hours of fun is still a good time, but I still haven't "finished" the game, per se, since I haven't completed the story. Heck, I've gotten hardly anywhere in the story. ***Good Points*** +Interesting grid-style strategy RPG system +Learn moves much like in FF9 +Graphics are pretty nice +Class-chaging system is a nice addition ***Bad Points*** -The law system -Music isn't too memorable -The law system -Marshe honestly looks like a girl -The story is pretty bland -The freaking law system -Recruiting is a pain in the neck -Did I mention the law system? ***The Final Word*** Make your own judgment. If you've played FFT, imagine it in a FF9 setting with FF9 skill-learning system and you've pretty much got this game...with a lot more wrong with it. Square-Enix killed this game by adding in that law system, but for the first 20 hours it's completely bearable. It doesn't really drag the game down much until after that. Battling is a joy, but after a while, you will probably get bored of battling, you will get sick of waiting for the right person to want to join your army, you will get fed up with the bad story, and the law system will just be the coup de grace. I reccommend giving this one a try if you haven't tried FFT and you are interested in trying out the genre. But if you've already played FFT, you'll probably be sorely disappointed. Read the review if you wish and go from there. Just don't say I didn't warn you... 
