Review: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
Recently I’ve been spending my hours grinding through the first instance of Ivalice for a second time with the PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, entitled Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.
The new edition is essentially a port of the original PSone title with a few new embellishments like a new widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9 as opposed to the previous 4:3 ratio. Immediately the most significant improvement the player will notice is the presentation of the full motion video CGI cutscenes. They employ a cel-shading CGI technique, which makes the cinemas look hand drawn with a parchment-like texture. The effect of the cel-shading is breathtaking and really pushes the technique forward as an expressive medium, where previously the technique was known for the removal of texture for flat color.
Wireless two player co-op and verses modes have been added. Players who have played the original can look forward to unlocking two new character classes; the Onion Knight, which appeared in Final Fantasy III, and the Dark Knight, which was only unlockable with Gafgarion.
The game takes place in Ivalice after the land has been war-torn during the Fifty Years’ War, which involved the neighboring kingdom of Ordalia. The king of Ivalice passed away leaving behind an infant heir, so a regent is needed to rule in place of the prince. Thus begins the War of the Lions where two generals of the Fifty Years’ War, Duke Goltanna of the Black Lion and Duke Larg of the White Lion battle for the throne. This sets the stage for the drama of the main character, apprentice knight Ramza Beoulve and his most trusted friend Delita Heiral. The church of the kingdom covers up the tale of Ramza, but his role in the war is significant and is the centerpiece of the narrative set against a tumultuous backdrop.
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is as the name suggests, a tactical battle RPG. Similar to traditional Japanese RPGs, the battles are turn-based, but the strategy involves moving your characters around a grid-based world to engage the enemy. Taking traditional turn-based battles into the third dimension is akin to playing chess as an RPG. Battles are allowed more depth because positioning and timing becomes key to survival. A headstrong, scattered group will become devoured in a matter of rounds. Newbies to Final Fantasy Tactics may find the title difficult to get into. It has an unforgiving and steep learning curve, but once the battle and job systems make sense, the only thing you have to contend with is patience and perseverance.
Strategically, sticking in a close pack and moving as a whole unit will aid in the player’s survival. Only bring characters out of the pack who are powerful and have strong movement abilities, like a thief or archer. The Knights should take the brunt of the abuse and stick close to the spellcasters. After a few rounds of failing the same mission, the mechanics will begin to stick, and war becomes a lot easier.
Just like in battle, the Job system requires patience. This is where all of the micromanagement comes into play. Each character has an assigned job. When they successfully complete an action in battle, they earn job points. The points are spent towards the character’s current job to buy abilities. The abilities augment the character in different ways such as; unlocking battle abilities, or upgrading character traits. The battle abilities are inherent to the job, so if you change jobs, you can assign a second job, which doesn’t earn job points, but the characters can still use the battle abilities of that job.
Each job also has a level. Experience points gained will raise the level of the character and the job he or she is assigned. In the beginning, the characters can change job after about three job level advances, to a higher job. It is similar to a technology tree of a real time strategy, but used to build up your units and not your buildings. The job system is quite flexible and showcases the most depth of design in the game. It is very approachable, and after a few job switches, it becomes second nature. Then the hunt begins to unlock all of the character classes by meeting the requirements for each job.
One of the most devious rules of the battle system, is how they treat death. Since the first Final Fantasy, when a character died, you may at any time use a Phoenix Feather to revive the character. In Final Fantasy Tactics, you have three rounds of actions for your whole party to revive the character. If the timer goes past 0, the character is dead. No coming back, just gone. All of the hours poured into leveling up your Orator, Arithmetician, Mime or Dancer can be flushed, never to return. It forces the player to make every move count. Losing one member of your party forever, will make you restart a battle, and play it until everyone finishes alive.
The battle system is robust, featuring some of the deepest RPG gameplay available on the PSP. Visually, the game looks solid, with impeccable cutscenes and sprites that come alive when battle commences. It’s roots show during the town sequences where they didn’t redraw the still art of the tavern, or shop. There is the same slowdown that plagued the original PSone title, which is a shame that the developers didn’t iron that out before deployment.
Overall the game packs a sprawling huge adventure of well over 30 hours that has become a classic in it’s own right. It’s a testament to the fact that solid design transcends consoles and time.
Toots
Posted to Hot Stuff, Reviews, Video Games on 26 October 2007
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: final fantasy tactics, psp, square-enix, war of the lions
30 hours? Pffft. If you aim to clean out the Deep Dungeon and do all the side quests, get all the secret characters, hidden super weapons, etc., expect to spend more than 30 hours. A LOT more. The hours meter in the PSOne version stopped at 99 hours; I wonder if they increased it for the PSP version. I probably put in 120+ the last time I played the PSOne version.
A great game.
I'd love to hear the skills and descriptions of the new jobs (Onion Knight, et al.). Don't have a PSP so probably won't be playing the remake.
one of the best games, period.
Please note: When one of your soldiers dies permanently sometimes they leave behind a crystal which another character can absorb certain abilities that were built up from all that previous experience. Downside: the ability is kinda chosen at random.
I dont know if they changed it up from the origional, but in the origional a soldier left for 3 turns would either crystalize or turn into a treasure chest with something they were wearing. I dont know if they fixed the glitch (probably) but if you chose the ability on the very bottom of the list, you got all of them.
definitly sounds like it is worth it for fans of the game.....eventually when I get a psp (in love with my DS for now) this may very well be the first game I get.
Uhh, what "slowdown that plagued the original PSone title"? I maybe remember some minor slowdown on the giant ass summons, but it wasn't out of character for those spots. I've heard that there's somewhat more slowdown in the PSP version.
I've heard some good things about the PSP game, but I'm kinda wary of the retranslation. I'm sure that as actual translation goes, it's almost infinitely more intelligible, but I've heard from some friends who have it that there's a highly suspicious pattern of tweaking the religion-related dialogue in the game to try and distance it a bit further from Christianity. I dunno how I feel about that, and them making the names of some stuff kinda stupid. (Not that "Wiznaibus" wasn't stupid... heh.)
Also, to BrotherSharkbait, this is a little pedantic, but that's not a glitch, regardless of which ability you "choose" from the list of abilities from a crystal, you get all of them. The UI on that is a little silly, but if you look carefully at the text in the original, it's get abilities, plural.
There is slowdown plaguing most actions taken on the PSP version. It's not as bad as the original JP PSP release, but it is still present.
I'll not be buying the game for myself until the price comes down below $30.
a good reason to buy a psp