Final Fantasy Tactics also carries on the FinalFantasy tradition of relatively low difficulty: while certainly harder than FinalFantasySeven, say, it's nowhere near TacticsOgre, where every battle can be a struggle against the odds. But also note the NoRandomBattleChallenge. Final Fantasy Tactics is strictly linear: no choices the player makes really alter the order of the battles, much less the ending, though there are a number of optional extras. FinalFantasyTactics' major advantage over TacticsOgre, besides the job system, is the superior polish: TacticsOgre's interface has a lot of rough edges which the designers apparently needed a second version to get right.
FinalFantasyTactics is definitely one of the best recent RPG's, and generally better (in my opinion) than a lot of what SquareSoft has put out recently. -- CurtisVinson
I wouldn't say "recently". Better than anything they put out in the previous wave of games save XenoGears, certainly. But their recent stuff in general is pretty good... though the more I play the more I can see where the "FinalFantasySix was the greatest Square game ever!" crowd is coming from --AndrewSchoonmaker
Also known as FinalFantasyCraptics?, and is the bane of all gamers who like games that are not boring. However, it is not a total loss, as the designers apparently learned from their mistakes, since they put out VagrantStory, a not-boring game.
You'd really think that. According to an interview, they wanted VagrantStory to be ... well, what they wanted it to be, and damn the mass market. Thus the game doesn't even try to appeal to everybody. And apparently (I'm talking out of my ass here--I don't know the specifics) bits of the design team have gotten sacked since the game didn't sell well in Japan. Natch.
Man, I remember the time I calculated Level 3 Holy and then mimed it. Took out the entire enemy team in one move. The job classes were cool, and fun combos were quite feasible. And I'm not one of those pedantic "Draw 100 of everything" or "Breed Chocobos 'til they're coming out of your ears" players.
I know that FFT has not been Square's most popular game, but I enjoyed it very much. The sheer depth of the game is astounding, as is the level of character development that was placed in (Character development is, let's face it, what RPGs are about). Characters stoop for a rock and throw it into a lake when frustrated... Shake hands with the person they've just met... And learn to whistle using a blade of grass... All in some of the most well-done 2D sprites I've ever had the pleasure of watching. The sound is uniformly great, and the music is a truly excellent thing to behold.
(Is this a put-on?)
Including a track called 'Bloody Excrement'. I swear I'm not making this up.
I felt that battles in FFT took too long and weren't interesting enough to warrant the time they took - it took me a half hour per battle, bare minimum. Maybe I'm just a lousy tactician. I got through 3 or 4 story stages before a battle where I just barely squeaked by a win, and the battle after that everyone got wiped out. I didn't bother trying again. I think it sucks that enemy levels are based on Ramza's level, or something like that, because it made it *really* hard to level anyone else up - they kept getting creamed instead. And Delita wound up way behind Ramza and died in every battle he took part in. --SeleneTan
Interesting points: unarmed attacks scale as PA^2 (physical attack), so they are potentially the most damaging physical attack in the game, eventually surpassing even Knight Swords (which only go as PA). About PA = 33, they automatically hit 999 without aid of Martial Arts or Attack Up, assuming 97 Brave. It takes more to guarantee piercing Defense Up, Protect, or Zodiac Compatibility, but eventually you can do that too; to pierce Zodiac worst and both of the other two simultaneously with no positive modifiers requires a PA of 69.
Attack Up affects steal. Mental note to exploit on next run through FFT. Martial Arts affects Steal! Mental note for more abuse (I really have to try that one out). I guess my party is going to consist of a bunch of thieving monks with geomancer levels. Also, I will have to remember to learn Frog, since it stacks with Chickening and Sleeping as a modifier. I, incidentally, am a stealing junkie.
Geomancy scales as MA*PA, which means it shouldn't suck as much as it does. Maybe I've been approaching it wrong; I'll have to try again. Plus, I find the idea of doing max damage with Geomancy amusing.
Truth and Untruth scale as MA^2. I suspect their other attributes will still make them suck, but they have the potential for punch. Faith and Innocent have the same affects on Untruth as they do on other magic attacks, which is bizarre.
Chocobos are apparently immune to Blood Suck.
Other nifty information: teleport chances based on distance, bow height increases in range, and stat growth charts (!). Those growth charts will also be useful.
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