Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2003   Published by: Nintendo of America   Developed by: Square-Enix   Buy It Now

Official Website

Platform: GameBoy Advance

Genre: RPG

Number of Players: 1 - 2

Peripherals: Link Cable

It's been quite a few years now since Square-Enix, formerly Squaresoft, turned it's back on Nintendo to head for greener pastures. It wasn't necessarily a problem with the company so much as it was with their choice of media. For those that don't know what happened, Square once was the might RPG cash cow for Nintendo, but when the company decided to forgo a CD format for the N64 and instead when with cartridges, Square saw the PlayStation as a more viable means to produce their games. It's been a while, but Square is finally back with Nintendo, although in a much smaller form, with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

FFTA places you in the role of Marche, a young boy who has recently moved to the rural town of Ivalice, and seems to be having a slightly difficult time really fitting in. But, when one of his few friends, Mewt, comes to visit with a rare book, things are about to change. Mewt reads aloud a magical script, and when Marche awakens the next morning, he finds his modern world replaced by one of monsters and magic. It seems though that this world is designed by Mewt's dreams, and while Marche has discovered that destroying the worlds various crystals may bring him home, Mewt has no desire to return, and is doing everything in his power to stop him.

There are really only two schools of thought when it comes to the original Final Fantasy Tactics, and it has always been one of love or hate. Some didn't care for the heavily detailed, and lengthy, turn based battles that allow the players to control each and every character individually through the course of battle. Others however loved the change as well as some of the games many varied aspects. FFTA returns back to that original design in grand form.

In case you've never played the original, battles take place on a grid-like playing field. At the start of each battle, you can choose which character you'd like to participate and place them within the allowed area. From there, as each characters turn comes up, you can move them within their given range, attack, or perform a whole host of different abilities. Each character has a specific job, just like with the original, but there are some vast differences.

FFTA introduces new races, and each race has jobs that are specific to them. Humans for instance can start as a solider, thief, archer, or white or black mage. Battle will award you with job points, and as you master your class, new jobs will become available to you. Other races in the world of FFTA include the Nu Mou, a race of floppy eared rabbit type creatures that excel in using magic, the Viera, an all female race that also happen to have the appearance of rabbits, but with upright ears, the reptilian Bangaa, and of course, Moogles. Your group is called a clan and will consist of each of these types of creatures, but through the course of your journey more will come to you clan offering their skills, but it's your decision as to if they will be allowed to join or not.

Some jobs are very familiar, having appeared in the previous game, but others are all new.

Paladins have the ability to not only fight, but also to heal as well, and with plenty of abilities drawn from holy spheres, they are excellent on the battlefield.

The Illusionist is very much like another class that appeared in the original FFT, the dancer, but with some improvements. The illusionist works a lot with elemental forces, but the major drawback is their incredibly vulnerability.

Warriors are exclusive to the Bangaa, but are very much like the human version of a solider. The real difference is the Banga's fighting power. The same is true to the Defender, the Bangaa equivalent of the Paladin as well as the Gladiator, the White Monk, the Bishop, a class that is the Bangaa's only source of magic use, and the Templar.

The blue mage, a class that appeared originally back in FF5, has the power to learn the skills of the worlds various monsters, but only after having been attacked by them. However, becoming a blue mage is far from an easy task. The sage on the other hand is a Nu Mou only class with some devastating magical abilities.

The Beastmaster is much like Rydia's control ability from FF6, and is an excellent class to have if you want to teach your blue mage more skills.

Hunters are more evolved archers with the unique skill to capture monsters. Once captured, you will transfer them to the Monster Bank, and is needed if you have a Morpher, a class that can shapeshift into other monsters.

The elementalist has the ability to inflict not only elemental damage on foes, but also combines it with status effects.

And this is just the start as FFTA has over 30 different classes that are available. Just like with the first game, you can also take abilities learned from one class and attribute it to your new job, making a very unique character each and every time. The new twist however is that its items that are equipped that hold the news skills, and while you'll earn AP, or ability points, during battles, it still is a challenge on what to learn and what to ignore.

Your clan is much like the standard FF group, but clans take missions found at the worlds various pubs. Some involve hunting down or defeating monsters or even rival clans; others however require you to dispatch clan members. Sometime it will be for a few days, other times a mission will take a member away for a certain number of battles, and still others require them to defeat a certain amount of enemies. However, before sending characters out on a dispatch mission, there are a few things to pay attention to. Some quests will require a certain job class to perform them while others need items, and you'll pick those up on various other missions. Assuming that you have those, the next thing to pay attention to is each clan member's reaction. Kneeling clan members will fail the mission, walking means they might pass, and the ones that are jumping will almost certainly succeed.  Completion of a mission will give you anything from AP for your characters, gold, weapons, and even some key items that will be used later in the game. In fact, there are some missions that do require items in order to undertake them, others a certain level must be met either within your clan skills or for the character themselves. However, the game does have 300 different missions, and not all of them are going to be accessible the first time around, giving you a fairly good reason to play through Final Fantasy Tactics a second, or even third time.

Just like its predecessor, FFTA has skills that are distinctive to each class, all learned by equipping weapons, swords, and other items. Once you've selected your gear, you'll have access to the skills so long as the items remain a part of your equipment. Once you've gained enough AP during battle or missions, you will know these skills permanently. Each class has a set of skill that are used in combat, a combo, reaction skills, and others. So, you can have a fighter that casts black magic spells, a thief that can heal, and just about any other combination that you can think of. Of course, setting the skills up properly can result in some very dangerous characters, capable to killing foes in but a single hit.

The combat structure is the same as well. This is not the Final Fantasy that most are used to, so please keep this in mind. FFTA is set up in a turn based strategy format, meaning that each character will have a separate turn that consists of being able to move within their allotted space, attack, cast spells, or use whatever skills they have available to them. There won't be treasure chests that will appear like the original, but there is one slight change. This world is set up with laws, and each battle has a judge that oversees the combat. Laws can be anything from having a certain weapon type disallowed to having magic banned. Breaking a law will result in a penalty, either a yellow or red card. Yellow cards will get you a fine at the end of combat whereas red cards send the offender straight to jail, and if Marche is the guilty party, it's game over. However, there are a few zones you will find where the laws don't apply, something which is both a help as well as a curse.

FFTA is also set up with an overhead map, just like the first Tactics was, but there are some differences though. You can see enemy clans moving around and also check who, or what, might be in various locations, thus allowing you to choose if you want to fight or not. You also will get different icons to place on the map, and depending on where these are placed, you will gain different items that can be used. Missions will also let you free different areas, making it part of your clans turf, but be warned, enemy clans will try and muscle in on your territory, meaning that you'll have to defend it from time to time.

One new feature though is that with the GBA, you can link together with a friend, assuming you both own copies of the game. This will let you trade units or trade items, once you have that option open in the game of course, with no real limitations at all. You also will have a few bonus missions that you can participate in, both players choosing simply two characters, and these will give you some other rewards. With trades however, once you trade an item or unit away, it's gone for good, but there also may be a way to cheat and bypass this.

Graphically the game isn't too bad. It has the same look and feel of the original, but with a younger audience in mind, but that really isn't a bad thing at all. The game looks great either on the GBA or on the GameBoy Player, so there's no problem there at all. There does tend to be a bit of repetitiveness with the monsters, but that's really been the same with many of the Final Fantasy titles, are here we're talking about a cartridge instead of a CD or DVD, so it's a little more understandable. There are a few things that I don't like about the game however. The soundtrack is very lacking, bringing back memories of the glory days of the Super Nintendo, and there also isn't quite the variety of music that you would expect, nor is it as memorable as the first Tactics was. The combat screens definitely could use an option to rotate, especially when a character is located behind a higher plain of sight where you can't quite see them properly.

It still is a little strange seeing Final Fantasy Tactics taken down to such a small scale, and while it may not be quite as impressive as the original, but it still is a very good game, and just as addictive as the first one, if not more so in a few different ways. Fans of the original will take to the game play immediately while there is enough explained to those that have never even touched the game that it makes sense and is very easy to play. This is probably one of the best strategy games out for the GBA and ranks up there with other games of the same nature, such as Ogre Battle. This is one that's going to keep you busy, not for hours, but more like days, and for any RPG fan, that's the magic words they like to hear.

 -mike-