Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games other than the Bemani Series (see My Interests).
The game is about the history of a war called the Lion War. This war is about two princes, Larg and Goltana, who are fighting for power and to be the new King. The story goes on as how the war actually happened, and who is the real hero. The main character is Ramza Beoulve who comes from a background of powerful and heroic soldiers. The game progresses by you controlling Ramza and fighting others such as monsters, other soldiers, nobles, or even family members.
After a short while, you begin to collect Zodiac Stones. The story with these stones is that they used to be part of a legend about St. Ajora, who was an important person in the church history. The stones also have a story of being used to defeat a demonic being. As the story goes on, you will see how St. Ajora and the demonic being are related. The second half of the story revolves are these stones and how the title of King will be won by the two princes.
The story can get slightly complicated as time goes on, but it is a good story.
Within the explanation of the game are images of jobs and characters.
(if you hold your mouse over the image, a text should show up to say who or what that certain character(s) is)
The name of the game pretty much states the type of gameplay. You use different strategies and combinations to play the game. To compare it to a real life game, it would be like a twist on Chess. Each character gets a certain area to move and certain things he/she/it can do. Instead of each player going one at a time, the characters move based on their Charge Time (CT). When a character's CT reaches 100, it is that characters turn. If the character happens to be yours, then you control what he/she/it can do. However, that can't be controlled if they are in a state of Confusion, Beserk, Sleep, Petrify or Blood Suck (Vampire). Until the abnormal status is cured, your characters are uncontrollable.
The one of the two reasons why I like this game is because of how deep the customization options are. Each character can be certain jobs. The jobs include Squire, Chemist, Knight, Archer, Monk, Priest, Wizard, Time Mage, Summoner, Thief, Mediator, Oracle, Geomancer, Mime, Lancer, Samurai, Ninja, Calculator, Bard, and Dancer. My Favorite Job is Lancer. This job is open to both male and female. Their special ability is Jump, which involves them to jump in the air, then coming back down between character turns. They also have an awesome look with their armor, cape (if male) and spear.
The game also includes special jobs depending one which special character you get. Your party includes 16 units and the additional guests. If you have 16 units, and a special character is coming to join, you must remove a unit from your party, or the special character can't be put into play. Most of the time, the special characters are extremely useful and powerful. Guests don't count as your units, and they are only put into battles that have some significants to the progression of the story. Occasionally, guests will later become members of your party.
Additionally, if you have a party that has a Mediator, you can invite monsters or other soldiers to your party. This gets useful when you have a party with some weak members and you need to get some up to level characters.
