Final Fantasy Tactics

Released for the PSX in 1997

     At the time of Final Fantasy Tactics release, the game was given little scorn and lots of praise, it was considered a good game. Four years later, the game is considered a classic, it made Electronic Gaming Monthly top 100 games of all time list, and is well know for its expensive reply value and confusing translation. 

     Final Fantasy Tactic is a masterpiece of the Strategy Rpg genre because of its deep gameplay.  In the game fight takes place on a field were party members take turn move around the battle map, to fight, cast magic, or get in to a more defensive position.  What separates Frantic gameplay from other Rpg is the "job system" first introduced in Final Fantasy 3, and then to greater effect in Final Fantasy 5, the job system has you assign classes or "jobs" to members of your party.  At first you will only have two jobs to choose from, Squire and Chemist.   Then once your character gains levels in those jobs new ones open up, soon Knights and Bards will be available to you, there are over a dozen job to choose from.

     To go along with the various jobs in the game there our a number of weapons, armors and item that can be equipped or used in battle.  Also present are dozen's of different magic's for use in destroying your opponent, each dazzlingly displayed with colorful spell animations.  The summoning spells, which consist of huge mythological beings, are particularly exciting (taking into account the time period).

    The story is deep, the main character is Ramza, the son of a famous general.  Early in the game his father dies and Ramza's older brother vie for power, in time Ramza became a mercenary who wishes to stop his brother and the evil that is plaguing the land.  That is a extremely simple synopsis, the story take more twists than a twister.  One unfortunately blight in the translation, it seem Square decide to call upon first year English students to do this one, because there are numerous spell and grammatical errors.  The in game tutorial is properly bad, with nonsense lines like "items being used are Items consumed during the battle". 

     In the end though despite some poor English, Final Fantasy Tactics is the premier strategy rpg, all rpg fans should definitely pick this classic up.

Grapics-8.5                                                 

Music-8                                     

Gameplay-10

Story-9

Overall: 9.5