Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply superb., 4 April 2005
By A Customer
I was a massive fan of the Final Fantasy tactics game on the Playstation, although I never owned it, I used to play it at my friend's house a lot. I immediately bought this when I heard about it and immediately got hooked.The basic premise is that your character, called Marche by default moves to the country town of Ivalice, where you make two new friends, Ritz and Mewt. You will then have your first engagement (battle) in the form of a Snowball fight. After that Marche and co go back to his house where they read a magical book that Mewt brought round, after that Mewt says "I wish the world of Final Fantasy was real" when Marche goes to sleep at night the world changes... He wakes up in the town of Cyril in the country of Ivalice, he sees a lizard man, known as a Bangaa, and in his shock he calls it a "Lizard" the Bangaa is offended and starts a fight, luckily a Moogle by the name of Montblanc steps in to help you and you begin your battle, with that, your adventure inn Ivalice begins... FFTA is a strategy-RPG spin-off to the Final Fantasy series by Squaresoft (or Square-Enix as they're now known) the battle system in the game is excellent. Basically, you deploy units and then begin the battle, first you must move with a character (if you wish) a character can move a certain amount of tiles to make it more strategic, once you have moved you can perform an "Action" such as Fight or use an Item or ability. Abilities are different between each race and class, Human, Bangaa, Veira and Moogles. You learn abilites by becoming a certain class, such as a Soldier with a human and equipping various items to learn abilities, you can also progress through the classes by learning different abilities and eventually you will have a team of elite Dragoons and Ninjas, and that my friends, is a great feeling. The biggest innovation by far is also annoying later in the game, basically, each engagement has a Judge who is there to enforce laws, laws can disable the use of Swords or Magic for example, along with many other things. This can be annoying when you aren't paying attention and get an elite sent to prison because you attacked or something stupid, it would be better off without them. The aim of the game, plot aside, is to build up your clan and become as powerful as possible by levelling up, levelling is a slow process in this game as each character needs 100 exp each time but you only get exp in small portions. If you are a fan of RTS games or RPGs, you must buy this game, it's a gem, it will rack up hours of game time. It's compulsively addictive, you just won't stop playing until you get to Lv 50 (maximum level) even then you will recruit more characters and train them up, or just start a new game like I have done many times. Buy it now.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A big game on a little console, 8 Sep 2004
I am a big Final Fantasy Fan and a lover of Strategy RPG's. Long have I bemoaned the fact the original FF tactics never made it over to England. So when I impulse bought my GBA SP the first thing I got was FF tactics advance.
This is a smashing game!
I was surprised by the quality of the graphics on a handheld unit. They are very crisp with good special effects and animations; the isometric landscapes are fun and varied and contain nice environmental touches. All the old FF favourites are present and correct (Firaga, Cure, Ifrit et al) and a huge number of new attacks and spells to fit in with the strategy elements of the game. It's all very colourful and in keeping with the Final Fantasy feel.
The sound is nicely done with some great tunes that never seem to become repetitive or annoying (Use headphones for the best effect though) and the sound effects, although not spectacular, are solid and fit well with the action.
The game play is fluid and easy to manage. Each character has a range of movement and can deliver either long or short-range attacks (sometimes both). Attacks from the side or behind increase the chances of a successful hit (though not the damage inflicted) so good placement of your characters is a key strategic element. Fighters can dish out and soak up more physical damage but are weak against magic and do less magical damage and magic users are the opposite.
Skills are learnt by equipping weapons and accessories and the skill is permanently learned after a certain number of AP is earned (these are given at the end of battle). Skills are specific to the Job you give your character and as you learn more skills more jobs become available. Thieves, Illusionists, Archers and Jugglers (yes Jugglers) are some of the jobs on offer.
You can have up to 24 members in your clan and you can choose up to 6 to participate in a battle. The population of Invalice (where the action takes place) comprises 5 different species and each have some jobs in common but also have some that are species specific.
A Judge oversees each battle and there are rules of engagement that have to be obeyed and this again has an impact of strategy. If swords are outlawed in a battle there is no point in choosing a soldier for that fight, similarly is colour magic is forbidden white, black, red and blue mages are pretty much redundant. Breaking the rules will lead to punishment and maybe even prison.
The story isn't as epic or vast as other FF games but it sits well with this game and moves the action along nicely. The action is mission based and there are 300 missions on offer, some move the plot along some are purely optional.
Outside of battle the menu system is a little clumsy as SquareEnix has crammed a huge amount into the game and there are only so many buttons to assign the menus to, but this is only a minor niggle.
Other problems;
1) Some less patient gamers may find this a little repetitive
2) The casual gamer will never get the full enjoyment out of this game because discovering everything will take some time and commitment
3) The judge system can be a little annoying sometimes
4) As with virtually all RPG's it is not a hugely difficult game
5) Die hard RPGers may find it a little dumbed down
6) Although the characters are charming and quite well developed it is a far more juvenile storyline than PS1/2 FF fans are used to.
The main story will probably last about 40 hours but I have been playing for over 80 now and have only just gained all the 34 available jobs and have only completed 200 of the 300 missions on offer.
As with all FF titles this is a huge game with tons to discover for the committed player, big reply value, huge charm, technical excellence and a lot of fun. Some tiny issues but all the same an essential purchase for any RPGer and a great place to start for an RPG newbie.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
it's final fantsy jim, but not as we know it., 10 Nov 2003
i love final fantasy plain and simple, i love the whole caboodle the beautiful graphics, the engaging storylines, trollying around the land putting the smackdown on some innocent monster who only came out to scoff a few bunnies, great!
when i opened tactics advance and put it in my sp i saw lovley graphics, cute charaters and gasp! what is this? no random battles?!! no cutaway screens?!! fights reduced to techno chess?!! at this point i fainted.
when i came to and gave the game a bash i realised that this was final fantsy with a new twist, which only made it better-like lemon flavoured coke.
the standard fodder of the games is present,the graphics have pushed the advance engine to its limit creating beautiful worlds and characters with thrilling little extras such as being able to hear the murmur of voices and birdsong in towns. the storyline is engaging and damn confusing at the beginning just as it should be.
after a few false starts at the game you learn to adapt your battle techniques finding higher vantage points to inflict more damage points and teaching your characters as many different abilities as their tiny minds can hold. basically once you begin to get into the game you slowly loose all track of time and any semblance of a social life as you desperatley try to complete another mission between, meetings, stops on the bus,starter and main course or finishing work and starting again-delete as appropriate.
the basic storyline is a group of friends are transported to another world similar to a computer game. in order for them to get home the crystals which sustain the world must be destroyed however not all of the friends want to return home so quite often the lead character finds himself forming an uneasy truce to help defeat an enemy.
the "parties" are organised into clans which you can name-pay attention to what you call them you cant change it and my clan is now called nutsy raven doh!- each clan is warring over turf and will try to take yours continually. characters stats and party funds are improved my undertaking missions, some of which are vital to the story line, while others provide side quests and bonus items.
there are five main races and each character has the option to change jobs meaning that potentially every team member has some kick ass magic going on, new abilities are learned via weapons and armour as in FF10.
the battles themselves are set in an isometric playing field where players must perform an action and then move if they wish to do so. attacks vary in damage inflicted and sucess rate depending upon the direction it is launched from so for example an attack where you jemmy someone over the head with a stick from behind does more damage and is more likley to suceed than headbutting someone from face on. this adds a depth to the battle and you find each one takes five to ten mins depending on the circumstances.
at first this game feels very strange to play as it is so different from anything the FF team have done in the past but once you begin to get into it you realise its just the same as all the others. this game is confusuing in the beginning but then so are all the FF games, it takes a while to master the battle system but soon you will be stoning some poor moogle from behind as you shout "in your face loser!" and deliberatley going out of your way to kick some passing clans ass. all in all another triumph for the square team as addictive as ever, in fact im off to murder a moogle now.......
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