Final Fantasy Tactics

FFTA tells the tale of Marche and a handful of schoolmates that end up in another world set in the game's version of the final fantasy universe.

FFTA tells the tale of Marche and a handful of schoolmates that end up in another world set in the game's version of the final fantasy universe. The game world, according to the storyline, is the creation of a boy who unexpectedly uses a book of magic and a long-standing fantasy about his favourite game (Final Fantasy) to create a living-breathing world. Marche ends up in the world, where he joins a group of adventurers (a Clan) and begins a series of adventures across the lands of Invalice - which eventually leads him to the secret to unlocking a way back to the real world. The very friends that he played with and grew close to in school don't want to leave the world and Marche finds himself seriously at odds with them as they attempt to stop his plans.

The game itself is a tactical strategy game that follows the same guidelines as Final Fantasy Tactics, though it adds a few different rules and gameplay mechanics into the mix, and the animations are scaled down to work on the Game Boy Advance architecture. It is important to note again that FFTA is in no way a sequel to the PlayStation game, and only shares the concepts of the game, and not its lengthy and epic storyline.

Where FFTA differs considerably from the original game is that equipping items like swords and armour learns skills. Skills are attached to items. Once players have mastered the skills they can switch to any items they like and continue to use those skills while learning even more new skills. In the original game, players grew skills by gaining Job points, while in FFTA players earn AP points. Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, it is the skill that opens up the path for new classes in the game and there are a number of them from the Fighter, White Mage and Blue Mage, to the Dragoon, Summoner and Paladin - and all stops in between. Each class uses a number of new and varied skills to choose from and players can use both a secondary and primary class at the same time. Players will spend a lot of time deciding which classes they find most effective.

Much of the gameplay revolves around questing, taking on engagements and battling other clans for control of key areas on the map. As players complete more and more missions, the game gives those objects (locations) that they can place on the map. By arranging towns and other areas in a certain ways, players can unlock treasure. Some of the rarest items in the game are only available by treasure hunts.

When players aren't arranging the map to find hidden treasure, micro-managing their troops, taking on missions and unfurling the storyline, they can battle clans for turf. Clans seek out treasure missions and territory just like the player. As players grow their clans and gain levels, the game opens up new missions to take on and higher-level characters willing to join. Beyond that, the clan battles offer random encounters that are really important for building up skills and levelling classes. FFTA would be a lot less exciting without them.

The final interesting gameplay mechanic added to FFTA is "laws". Laws are random (at least most of the time) rules put in place during battles that exclude certain activities. Breaking a law once will get a character a yellow card, while doing it twice will get that same character a red card and an instant jail sentence. Ignoring the laws of FFTA takes your character out of action and costs you money to free them from jail. Later in the game, players can gain access to special cards that can negate or even add new rules to the battlefield

Players that are smart enough to survey the battlefield and check out their opponents combat skills can use these cards to negate their attacks. For example, if a majority of the folks you are fighting use swords, playing a sword card will take those characters out of the battle because they can't do anything useful in terms of combat. For every law there is an anti-law card to take care of it. Players can trade cards to get new and useful cards later on in the game.