I\'ve spent around 6 hours with the game so I\'m ready to give my impressions.
I briefly played FFT for the PSX a few years ago, the time I spent with it was okay just not my type of game. For whatever reason I felt that I NEEDED to buy this GBA game, so I ordered the Final Fantasy Tactics bundle off of Nintendo.com. You get the game, strategy guide, 10$ off GBA SP purchase, head phones for the GBA, and a one year subscription to Nintendo power...all that for 60$. Excellent deal.
Anyway, from what I can remember the play mechanics are the same. You are given missions from local pubs, you must pay for the information then set out for battle. Once you\'ve completed a battle, more missions open up. Some advance the story and others are considered sub-quests where you can gain experience and items.
Set on battlefields with varying terrain, you are allowed a set number of players in your party per battle (it\'s usually 6 but sometimes varies on special missions). Scope out the competition and build your party accordingly. You can have 24 members in your clan, only up to 6 on a battle.
There are 5 races, and 34 jobs total ranging from a soldier to an alchemist. Not every race can do every job, but each race does have a few options. However, you must learn certain abilites on a given job before you can upgrade or move on to the next job for that race. You learn abilites from armor, weapons, and accessories after you build enough experience. Once you\'ve mastered the ability, it\'s yours. You can have up to 5 abilities equipped at one time.
Before the battle starts you can look at what the competition has going on then change your characters jobs and/or abilites. (You don\'t want a bunch of soldiers going against fencers. The fencers have a HIGH evade rate so you\'ll be at a disadvantage. Instead, choose a black mage or two for your party, the fencers can\'t dodge magic.
) Make sure you have some appropriate abilites equipped as well. I love how strategic it gets, and the battle hasn\'t even started.
In battle there are several factors to consider besides the jobs and abilities. One is which way your character is facing, if someone attacks you from behind then you\'ll get more damage than if you were facing your opponent. Also, your chance of evasion is much higher if you happen to face your opponent.
Another is the terrain. Move yourself into a spot where you have the upper hand. It affects your damage rate and percentage chance of a successful hit.
A new tactic they\'ve added is the law system. Each battle is given a certain restriction such as a "no item" law. No potions, phoenix downs, etc. To make sure you abide by the law, there is a judge watching every move. Break the law and you are penalized. He hands out yellow cards which are penalties, after several penalties you given a red card and taken to jail. You lose a few days in jail so this can be costly when you have timed missions at hand. (I\'ve already read there are ways around this, kinda like get out of jail free cards, or anti-law cards. Haven\'t come across any yet.)
I\'m not sure if the Clan system is in the original PSX version so I\'ll just mention it here. A clan is a group of members that roam the land, they try to take over turf (cities, land, routes, etc.). If they manage to take over a town then all the prices at that town\'s shop will go up, however if you free the town from the clan then the prices will go down. There are always clans popping up trying to take over, just intercept them and deal with it before it becomes a problem.
I\'m sure I\'ve forgotten something obvious to mention, so just ask if you\'re curious about something.
Graphics:
Really nice:) Think FFIII but with vibrant colors and way more detail. It\'s a good looking game. The characters could have been a bit bigger in my opinion as the races/jobs aren\'t always so obvious but it\'s not a big problem.
My only complaint for the game is buying/switching out items such as weapons, armor, and accessories. The game doesn\'t indicate what effects the change will make on your character. You have to switch it out and see for yourself...how did this happen? A nearly perfect game and an asset so obvious is overlooked, maybe purposefuly not included? I can\'t imagine why it was done but whoever made that final decision needs a swift kick to the ass.
The battle system is awesome, the graphics are awesome, I haven\'t encountered much story but I hear it\'s great. I recommend the game to RPG players who love turn based combat and lots of it...the battles range anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour!!
More later...
