Topic: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

[Dracula]

After the RPG drought on GBA lately I pre ordered Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, because I heard alot of good things about it. Since I had not played a good GBA RPG since I finished BOF2 in May/June 2002. And that game doesnt even count, as it was a re relase, and I had played the SNES version almost ten years ago anyway.

What about Golden Sun: Tha lost age? Well to be honest it was a huge dissapointment, becuase of the annoying lack of bosses in the game. You could go to a dungeon/mountain or whatever, climb all the way to the top/get to the end of the dungeon, and then get the object you came to get, before you had to use exit or whatever that psy energy was called to get to the beginning of the dungeon/mountain again, and then just leave.

How boring and repititive is that? I was looking forward to fighting bosses after I spent almost a couple of hours climbing a mountain, and what do I get as a reward? I have to use exit (the psy energy was probably called something else, but I dont remember it, as the game was stolen, when someone broke the window of my car and took it and my GBA), and just get on with the next dungeon/mountain.

One of the high points of a turnbased RPG are the boss fights, and if the fight forces you to use strategy and goes on for almost half an hour, then it just cant get any better. But when a RPG misses out of that, then for me it just isnt a good RPG, especially when the stroy is as weak as it was in The Lost age.

And this wasnt after a couple of hours play, I put in a good 30+ hours in it, before it was eventually stolen, and I just cant be bothered to buy it again.

But back to FFTA and Tactics Ogre. I pre ordered Tactics Ogre as I really wasnt that keen on FFTA, because of what seemed like a weak story line. But since Tactics Ogre is a rare game (so it seems), I wouldnt recieve it in a couple of weeks, and therefore I decided to buy FFTA to kill the time, while waiting for the real RPG that was Tactics Ogre to arrive.

But now that I have spent over 30+ hours in the game, I must say that I am as little dissapointed, and this dissapointment  eventually lead me to cancelling the pre order of Tactics Ogre.  The reason why FFTA has been a dissapointment for me is obviously the very weak and paper thin story line, that is one of THE most weak story lines ever, annoying is it as well.

But its not all bad though, I've eventually discovered that I actullay enjoy the strategic battles, and the option to build an army, make them learn the different abilities, and upgrade their weapons are definitley the strong points of the game. And therefore I am thinking of ordering Tactics Ogre again. Cause it promises a great story line, and almost all the feautres that FFTA hold.

So all in all, I have to say that I'd give FFTA a 7/10, if it had a better story line, it would definitley compete with the likes of Golden Sun and BOF2 for the best RPG of GBA, but as it is now, its IMO only barely better then the likes of BOF and Golden Sun:The Lost age. I've got higher hopes for Tactics Ogre though.

[InSaNe_Skillz]

I just got this game today and played for about an hour and a half. It seems pretty fun so far and the system to the game seems really deep. I thought the snowball sequence was cool for a very basic training run-through. I enjoy games when they don't tell you how to do every little thing, because then, some skill is still involved in mastering a game and not just press the right buttons (Not refferring to FFTA there)

Gameplay - So far its great. I have beat about 3 or 4 missions, but a couple things are confusing me. Like how you build the world by placing things on the map. I'm not too crazy about that. I like games where you jump into an already built world with people and lives and everything Placing everything where I want is kind of dumb, but really no big deal. The turn-based battles are great. Alot of strategy in moving and everything. I like the rules system although it's a bit frusturating. Right now I am on this mission where you have to beat bandits but you cant use swords. Which is what my 4 soldiers use So this is a bit of a challenge for me. It's been really great so far.

Graphics - The graphics in the game are really, really good They impressed me. I like the way they create the illusion of lights, I noticed this when they showed a car's headlights slowly going down the street. And the way they do the shadowing in one of the rooms make it looks like it's running on a real - time rendering engine. The graphics really seem to fit the style of the game. A complaint though is that on the battlefields everything is really blocky. I know this is because it's suppose to be like a game-board, but they could atleast try and make things look organic. Hills are just blocks with textures on them

Story Everybody says the story is not that great in this game and they just can't stand it, but I really like it. It feels like I can relate to these kids in the story and the things they do. And I actually felt sorry for poor Mewt in the beginning I haven't got far in the game though so I can't say much. But it seems like the story doesn't really progress. What does happen? the story moves ahead whenever you beat a certain mission or something? Or is there basically no more story or cutscenes after the beginning of the game?

Random The music in the game is great but extremely repetive. They play the same tune almost every time for everything. The same music for the pub, the same music for the battles, everything. Sound is good I suppose, nothing really special, nothing really bad, just good. Overall, I'm thorougly enjoying this game but wishing for a couple more things

Joe's Score: *** : Three of five stars

[Koopa Troopa]

Well, I put in about twenty hours so far... So I guess I'll give my thoughts.

Gameplay

My only gripe so far is the judge/law system. I may not be far enough into the game to truly understand its significance, but so far it has been an annoyance, and little more. I don't like waiting for the Judge to do his thing, and I don't see the reasoning in having them at all (I'm the good guy!). Aside from that it has been very fun. Oh, and I don't like having to buy items to get skills.

All in all I'll give Gameplay 8.7/10 (The original being a ten)


Story

So far I've found the storyline to be good, not quite as interesting as the first, and it definitely starts out slowly. I guess I don't like the "random" feel of the missions, it doesn't feel like I'm building up to anything (yet). Whereas in the original each mission had some sort of purpose/impact on the story.

Story gets a 7.8/10

Graphics: 8/10

Sound: 8/10

Bottom line: I'm having fun  

[vudu]

the only major gripe i have about the law system is the computer doesn't follow it.  i remember one battle in particular where color magic was illegal (hence, no white mage abilities).  computer white mage didn't really care though and kept using "life" to bring back enemies i killed.  at first i didn't mind.  having played soccer all through school i figured two yellow cards equaled a red card and he would be ejected from the fight--silly me.  he managed to rack up 11 yellow cards before i was able to dispose of him.  needless to say, it really pissed me off.

[Syl]

It's been about a week or so since i 100% all the 300+ (Yes, 300+ do them all and get a surprise!) missions, and I'm going to start over again to try some classes I missed and to just generally get a better team.  It was a fun game, and it lasted me a very long time (120 hours exact) which makes me think that it wasn't a waste.  The story just gets WORSE the farther in the game you go, and the ending is absolutely ****, but that didn't really matter once I was so involved into making my team perfect and completing all the missions.
around an 8.5-9/10 i definately enjoyed it.

[Terranigma Freak]

Well check out the new review by Jonathan Metts on PGC. His review is dead on, it's like he read my mind. That or maybe he also understands what makes a good strategy RPG is... strategy.

[TrekGeekMid]

Well, I thought that the game deserved a better score, but then all of you seem to be viewing this game coming from a strong background of Final Fantasy RPG's...this is only the second FF game I have played in depth, the first being FF7 (for about 20 hours, till I got bored with it).

Personally, I think it is a great game. The story is a refreshing change of pace from all the "the world is going to end because of people/monsters/evil forces disturbing the natural order" that seem to be so prevalent in a lot of RPGs.

[Jonnyboy117]

I agree that the story is a nice change of pace, but it's poorly set up and then poorly (and very, very slowly) developed.

[Terranigma Freak]

TrekGeekMid I'm not a FF fan. I'm a strategy RPG fan. The point I'm trying to make is the game's a bad STRATEGY RPG. Strategy RPG rquires real thought and planning but FFTA does not deliver. 90% of the battles does not require any indepth strategy to beat. The laws are sometimes really pointless, rarely(yes they sometimes do make you think but there aren't many of those) do they add any strategy to the gameplay. The story is a nice change of pace, but it's badly told.

[ActorJ]

i have never played a strategy rpg before, so I picked up FFT blind. I have to say I am a little disapointed. Sure it has a great graphics, great music (not enough of cariety, but whats there is top notch), and even the story is good in my book.

However, the game is really really repetetive. I mean, it the same thing over and over and over and over again.

I guess I juust really prefer the classic puzzle solving travelling from town to town RPG. Actyally it would be great to combine a strategy RPG battle system with the Gameplay of say, FF6.

[benomoth]

I love this game. I really enjoyed the original for Playstation and this one might even top that. I've so far played 35 hours and beaten about 150 missions so I'll give a quick review

graphics-very nice, colorful, good battle animations  9.5

sound-music is crisp and clear, not much variety, gets annoying at times 8.5

gameplay-very fun and addicting, easy once learned  9

replay-wow 300 missions, unlimited character building, very long  9.5

overall-great game, especially if your a fan of this genre  9

[vudu]

to anyone who's beat this game, can you please let me know how far into the game i am, and how much more playtime i can expect.  i just got the fifth and final totema, and i'm about 50 hours into the game.  at first i was doing lots of the clan battles, but i've been avoiding them more often than not these days as i want to get ready for fire emblem and mario & luigi.  anyone know how much more time i can expect to put into this game?  thanks.