I never thought I'd have to post a bad review of a game in the Final Fantasy franchise, but here goes.

I don't know what the game designers were thinking with this. The "plot" is virtually non-existant. The game is basically a series of battles. There are no puzzles, nothing in particular to unlock except new battles, and very little sense of progress. There's virtually nil NPC interaction and nothing to figure out. If I wanted a game that was nothing but combat, I wouldn't be playing FF, i'd break out my old copy of the PC dos-based Dungeon Hack (which is exactly what it sounds like).

The laws are arbitrary. Restrictions on what kind of combat you're allowed to engage in SHOULD make a game interesting (they at least keep you from overspecializing in, say, warriors or wizards). But when the game arbitrarily and randomly decides "you can't use weapons in this battle" or "you can't use magic in this battle" with no real rationale, you just start to get annoyed with it. A MUCH better way of preventing over specialization is to throw the player up against a wider variety of monsters so that they MUST have multiple classes to be able to play to all the enemy's strengths and weaknesses.

I also really dislike the idea of gaining skills by equiping certain items (instead of, oh, you know, USING the skills in question?). The result is that you end up equipping really weak and generally useless items for longer than you conceivably would in any other game, or you end up lacking very basic skills. Both are artificially limiting.

Overall, I think the game just lacks a lot of what makes the Final Fantasy franchise such a popular one, and that's a shame, especially consider how good the original Tactics is supposed to be. This is the first time I've ever NOT finished an FF game that I bought. Not because it was difficult, but because it was mind-numbing.

This was the first final fantasy game I'd ever played on my own. What a surprise! It's wonderful, and I've played it for three years, and I'm still surprised. Just when I thought that the game was over, I discovered that my assumption was incorrect. I never get bored or frustrated by it, and the 'tactics' really are what counts the most. I definitely recommend this to anyone, anyone at all. It's my favorite of all the games that I own.

This game is fun until you realize you don't care about a very thin plot line and the battles get very tiresome. It's cool to change jobs and get new skills, but that will only keep you occupied for so long. It is also frustrating to pick up a new guy and have to level him up to be as useful as your current guys. Basically, the only things that carried over from the PS version are the characters and the laws.
There are some plus's to this game. First off, I bought it through Amazon for a decent price in good shape, so you could get a hold of it for about 20 to 30 bucks. It is fun to find/buy new weapons and equipment to give your guys new skills. Also, when you actually have to fight a challenging batlle. I found this game to be incredibly easy for the first half of it.
If you play any other turn based strategy game on GBAdvanced, do not be deceived. They all have very similar mechanics and gameplay. I understand that this is on a Game Boy Advance, and should be played with that in mind. I guess I was sold on the name, and was hoping to be impressed.
I am writing this review to let people know that this game is not half as good as the original, and should only be purchased after proccessing that in your brain.

Was told this was a hard to find item, even used..... Got a good price and was shipped quick. They boys tell me I scored on finding this one. Guess that says it all!

Gameplay

FFTA is a "tactical RPG." The "tactical" part comes from the way it arranges its battles: Characters are arranged on a 3 dimensional grid and take turns moving and taking action. Movement and positioning is particularly important - attacking from the side or rear are more likely to succeed. Elevated positions increase the range of ranged attacks. The focus on maneuver is what sets tactical rpg battles apart from traditional rpg ones (where the focus is primarily on timing.)

The "RPG" part comes from the ability to grow your characters over time. Like its predecessor, FFTA allows you to change the character's job. Reflecting this, you are rewarded with two types of experience: one that affects your base stats and one that affects your job stats.

Tactical elements

FFTA introduces several new tactical elements that set it apart from its predecessor. It simplifies some aspects: Gone is the delay between executing a particular attack and having that attack complete (like casting a spell or having your dragoon jump). Instead, attacks are completed when they are executed. No more wasting an attack because your target has moved out of the way. However, the game also rachets up the difficulty by introducing laws - rules imposed on the battlefield that prohibit you from using certain weapons, or taking certain actions. You can chose to disobey these rules, but doing so may remove the offending character from battle.

Strategic Elements

On the strategic side, FFTA deepens the role of equipment. In the original game, equipping your characters involved merely purchasing the most powerful sword you could afford. Here, the game initially ties job abilities to the weapons and armor. Certain weapons and certain armor unlocks certain job abilities. Until these abilities are "mastered", the character must use that weapon to access that ability. Abilities are mastered after a character accumulates enough job experience points which are awarded to all characters at the same rate after a battle. It's reminiscent of the Final Fantasy VI's magic learning system that required characters to equip certain Espers and then to accumulate a certain number of ability points (awarded after every battle) before being able to use certain spells.

The game also deepens the role of random battles. In both the original game and this one the world is represented as a series of linked areas, like dots on a graph. In the original game, wilderness areas randomly spawned battles and these were used primarily to grind your characters up to the next level. Here, the random battles take the form of fights between your group of characters - your Clan - and a competing Clan. The effect of these fights not only levels up your characters, but also increases your Clan's influence on the immediate area. This, in turn, affects the money you need to pay to engage in story missions.

Yes, I did say "pay" to engage in missions. You need to cough up gil in order to chase after a mission. Most missions give you items and money. Others will advance the storyline. I'm not sure this really adds to the strategic gameplay. The only thing it does, aside from preventing you from purchasing all the latest and greatest gear (at least in the early game), is to provide some impetus to taking on rival clans.

The final notable strategic element is managing the laws themselves - Movement between points on the world map takes a single day. Each new day changes the laws in effect. The order of the changing of the laws is accessible in one of the screens, so once you take on a mission or go after a rival clan, you can time it so as to avoid the more restrictive laws.

Presentation

FFTA stands in contrast to its more moody predecessor. While both present cute character designs, the original game featured a darker, more complicated story. Themes were more adult, colors were darker and the music was more somber and urgent. FFTA is all about kids tromping through a fantasy world. The bright colors and light hearted music reflect that. All of the battlefields are well presented and the screens between battles are nicely drawn and I think the crisp graphics rival those on the PS1.

The characters are likeable and I found them believable after the intro. They certainly aren't annoying like the whiny COs of Advance Wars: Dual Strike (ugh.. stop it with the hip-slang already!!) I have to wonder why it was presented this way - especially with a gameplay system as deep and complicated as this one. How many kids are drawn to these types of games, anyway?

Is it fun?

The tactical side is just as much fun as the original game. There is much satisfaction in coming up with a plan to attack the enemy's weaknesses, maximize terrain advantages and maximize the strength of your forces. The enemy AI is fairly easy at the lower levels - several times it has failed to gang up on one of my weakened characters or has sent a its thinly armored spell caster right into a group of my soldiers. The difficulty ramps up, though.

Removing casting times is very welcome. In the original game, the casting times just nerfed high level abilities. What good is that high level Bolt when the entire enemy squad gets to move before you can cast it?

Landing hits has become more difficult. In the original game, a side or back attack almost always landed. Here, those attacks aren't guaranteed. Forward attacks are even less successful. I did notice that the enemy seemed to land more low-chance hits than I did. Grrr...

The inclusion of laws is, ultimately, a good thing. It forces you to come up with creative alternatives and prevents you from stocking your clan with too many of a one class. In the original game, a monk with the Ninja's dual-swords ability and a Counter reaction could land 4 triple digit hits in one turn. A squad of them could bulldoze a random encounter. The laws, here, forces you to build up alternative characters and think of new battlefield tactics.

On the strategic side, the introduction of Clan fights gives random battles much more meaning. It also gives you a bit of empire management as you have to chose between chasing off rival clans or finishing off missions.

Linking abilities with weapons is not an unwelcome innovation. It certainly gives more strategic significance to equipment selection. But I think it is hindered by a clumsy menuing system. When you're browsing a particular weapon at the shop, the game doesn't tell you which of your characters is already equipped with it, or which are eligible to use it or, more importantly, whether a particular character already has the ability that the equipment unlocks. You can access a list of jobs that can use a weapon, but even this involves hitting the select button, going through a few dialog screens and then hitting the select button again at the final dialog screen. If you miss that final screen, you gotta go through the process all over again. This problem could have been remedied by linking the shop screens with your character information screens. They did this pretty well in the original game. I don't know why they dropped it here.

Bottom line:

Aside from a menuing system that's clumsy at times and a presentation that seems to appeal mostly to kids, FFTA improves on the gameplay presented by its predecessor and is a fine game for strategy fans.