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GBA | RPG | Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Boxart for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 15 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 4.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.8
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.6
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Review by STARDINGO | 09/02/2003 | 17:02:41 PM PST

Moogle outlaws populate one of the best strategy/RPGs out there.

For all its portable goodness, Tactics' most impressive achievement is finding a smart way to tell an imaginative story within its nonlinear game structure: This modified Never Ending Story is much more interesting than your usual boring "Soap Opera of Kingdoms X and Y" strategy/RPG plot line.

Moogle in My Pocket
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance tells the tale of a young boy from Earth who's whisked away to a fantasy world modeled after his favorite video game (Final Fantasy, of course). There, he joins a band of warriors to take on mercenary missions while trying to figure out what exactly happened to reality and all his friends. Some missions are purely for profit and items; others get you key objects that you need to take on other missions; and others still lead to story events that move along the game's startlingly compelling plot.

If you're familiar with the original PlayStation version of Tactics, this game plays the same (i.e. not at all like the "normal" Final Fantasy games)?it's a turn-based, grid-based six-on-six "fantasy chess" tournament where strategy is paramount. The character design, however, is more whimsical?most of your teammates are moogles, lizardmen, or women with bunny ears. While the original's job-switching system has been slightly reworked to include a number of race-specific classes (like Mog Knight), the coolest change to the usual strategy/RPG rules is the addition of "laws," which can land a character in jail if disobeyed. It's a cool twist that can be especially mind-bending when you're suddenly not forbidden from using the "Fight" command.

As in most other "tactics" games, the battle pacing is a bit slow, and a single turn takes a few more steps than you'd probably like. Level-ups and cool new skills, however, come at a very satisfying pace, and there's a bounty of possible routes for a single character to take.

Beware of Wall
If you're into strategy/RPGs, Final Fantasy Tactics is among the finest?obsessively engrossing and perfectly portable. Hopefully you've got medical insurance: You're about to run into a lot more street poles, walls, and parked cars than you used to.


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