Final Fantasy Tactics

[Outrider]

Man, I'm skimming through a Let's Play thread for the first Final Fantasy Tactics game.

That was such a good game. I wish there was a version that just gave you an unlimited number of character spots so you could just keep running through battles with different squads.

I wish Final Fantasy XI had just used a crazy mash-up of Final Fantasy Tactic's job system mixed with either the battle system from Final Fantasy VI or Final Fantasy XII. I think that would be the ultimate Final Fantasy MMO for me.

[Palle]

FFT is one of those games which I just played for hours but never completed. For the most part, I had fun.

[Shadowpawn]

Can't say I had the pleasure of playing FFT. I keep hearing about how great the story is, I should pick up a copy one of these days.

[Mixfortune]

Being an old-time fan of SPRGs, Tactics is most certainly up there. I never really do much of the extra stuff, since the main storyline itself is just the right length.

The story is admittedly on the convoluted side, and yet you won't necessarily feel as if a certain plot device or twist is outside of its established world (not counting the Cloud cameo, but that's a side quest).

The biggest issue I could see someone having beef with is the language. Depending on the version you play, you'll either end up with the PSX version's horrible Engrish translations, or the PSP version's "Yoda in medieval times" sentence structure.

FFT on the PSX, as with any SRPG, was one of those games that just screamed for squad vs. squad multiplayer. The PSP version includes this, so if that's your thing, definitely look into that version. The graphics and difficulty and such are all the same in this port/remake, so nothing wonky like in Dawn of Souls.

Also FFT has some genuinely asshole characters that just make you rage, and handles the question of "Who, if anyone, is really right or wrong" quite effectively.

[Zeek123]

I bought the original PSX version secondhand several years back. Never got past the first mission.

Got the remake on PSP. I actually finished that one, but didn't do many of the extra stuff. Game got a little preachy at times, but that's ok.

IMO, I still think Tactics Advance was the better game. Just liked the setup better.

[Mixfortune]

I bought the original PSX version secondhand several years back. Never got past the first mission.

Got the remake on PSP. I actually finished that one, but didn't do many of the extra stuff. Game got a little preachy at times, but that's ok.

IMO, I still think Tactics Advance was the better game. Just liked the setup better.

Now, I never played A2, but I'm curious as to what could be preferred about Advance, as I wasn't really a fan of it. The story seemed acceptable, but the class system felt a little dumbed down as far as custom combinations went. I suppose this does counter the point that FFT's skill building system can feel like you need to grind to build custom characters in a decent amount of time.

The Judge system was a ridiculous idea in execution, which was made both useless and time consuming with the method they could be circumvented. Gameplay wise it just seemed to lack that bit of polish and statistics that the original had to it.

[Outrider]

The only thing I'd say Tactics Advance had over the original was that it had an absurd number of sidequests that (even if they were dumbed-down to just story-less battles) really allowed you to get a ton of hours out of the game.

But yeah, FFT is great. I don't think I even finished it. I've seen my brother play through it a number of times and I've gotten to the fourth chapter, but I remember stopping because I was torn between keeping the story characters or the random recruits I had grown so fond of.

I'm not big on min-maxing or anything, but I do seem to remember that Ramza as a knight using Two-Swords paired up with my monk allowed me to defeat everything.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Hated having to steal super equips from major plot point battles, and still win after such low chances at steal % to keep them. Wasting precious turns only to possibly get OHKO by a dancer turned assassin/Sephiroth vampire Chancellor dood.

FFT:Advance helped in that regard with Thief armlets(Major Improved steal%) and Ribbon/Cacusha stuff coming by rather easily. Zeek's right in the setup/interface changing for the better. You can see where your characters would be on the map. After plotting them out in prepare mode with just a blank background before loading the stage in the original, you may very well end up behind more rocks or even a wall than you expected.

So its load it back and reposition time. Tried to go back to PSP version, couldn't get back into it. No reason not to try later though.

Also Advance version was less grinding by way of every battle netted the same JP for everyone, usually 60-80 so no incentive to stick around and try to grind up, your low lv guys could piggyback the high lv killing machines. Bangaa + meltdown + auto raise Angel Ring = monster not afraid of anything hitting for his own high HP amount in damage, killing most anything.

Not to say I didn't sit around and attack my own doods/Boost Archer stuff a lot back then too.

[Randomness]

I always had fun in Advance with Gunner subbing Mog Knight. 9-space ultima, GO! (Also see: Stopshot)

A2 is nice as well, just for adding more classes/races. And for not making it damned near impossible to do quest chains. In Advance you could easily have the job board fill, and end up with like a 1/100 chance each time something fell off for the one you needed to show up.

[Kard]

Tactics is great. I recently discovered FFHacktics which is pretty much a hacked version with souped-up difficulty. I couldn't make it past chapter 2 my first time on this version. In a way, it forces you to use far more tactics than in the relatively easy original version. There's even PVP tournaments they've been able to put together somehow.

I've never played any of the Advanced games, though screen shots I've seen of them do paint a fun picture.

[Skuda]

http://s3-llnw-screenshots.wegame.com/9-6006633447847195/6006633447847195_l.jpg

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

No nose flavored... baby.

*Pic of the figurines here*


*Pic of the dancer with long ol squid arms here*

I bet you have to make use of the Calculators in that version Kard! (And not equip yourself on the Chemists/Thiefs anymore :( )

[Adriano]

I tried to play FFT, I died on the first fight.
I quit.

[Mysterious-G]

I remember coming as far as fighting against the judge himself and another guy all on my own. Never beat those two.

[Shadowpawn]

I always had fun in Advance with Gunner subbing Mog Knight. 9-space ultima, GO! (Also see: Stopshot)



Gunners in that game were horribly broken, so were the Assassin and Blue Mage classes. Speaking of which I should go find my copy of FFT:A.

[Randomness]

Gunners in that game were horribly broken, so were the Assassin and Blue Mage classes. Speaking of which I should go find my copy of FFT:A.

Yeah. Assassin with Concentrate was basically insta-kill anyone. Add a greatbow for Ultima.

Blue Mages, the only skills that mattered were the dragon ones. Mighty Guard ftw.

[Shadowpawn]

You're forgetting about White Wind (which I don't think was a dragon skill,) as long as you keep the Blue Mage out of danger your party could never die as long as he had MP. It made the final boss fight a joke for me. I think they could learn Bad Breath too, that's also a nasty ability.

[Vanzazikon]

I tried to play FFT, I died on the first fight.
I quit.

noob.

[Adriano]

noob.

>:U..that game is one mod edit away from getting defenestrated.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

First fight was the hardest.

(Try to let Agrias do everything)

No wait, 2nd fight in that one town with the moats and you have low lv guys and no more Agrias. That was hard. Just lots of safe positioning and let them come to you, then surround them. Not a lot of healing to go around either.

[TalHex]

I haven't played the others yet, but I really like A2. It's a nice little time waster. I've spent so many hours just running random missions, trying to complete the various chains, and trying to max out the abilities for all the characters. I kinda hate the story for it, but just the gameplay makes it worthwhile when you have nothing else to do.

I want to get the PSP remake of tactics.

[Retniwreven]

I think I've played all the FF Tactics games. Did pretty much everything in the original, got bored, and played around with a gameshark, resulting in me having team members with Teleport 2, Use Hand, and various other utterly broken abilities.

[Outrider]

I think I've played all the FF Tactics games. Did pretty much everything in the original, got bored, and played around with a gameshark, resulting in me having team members with Teleport 2, Use Hand, and various other utterly broken abilities.

That's funny - my brother bought a Gameshark specifically to do stuff like that.

And then he promptly never removed it from the box.

[Mixfortune]

I tried to play FFT, I died on the first fight.
I quit.

That's how Suikoden ended up for me.
After sitting through the lengthy opening and running through town getting through all the required events to set foot out of town, my group of six was massacred by a single boar in my first random battle.

Later I heard that the boars are a rather rare encounter in the beginning, and aren't supposed to necessarily be taken down by a starting group, but I still thought it was rather dumb and disappointing at the time. Also, when I tried Suikoden, it was part of a group of other RPGs I still had to try out... so I moved on to another from there and ended up enjoying it.

Never went back to Suikoden. Which is probably rather unfortunate since looking back it seems like a series I would've enjoyed greatly.

[Outrider]

The thing is, I'm hoping he's not talking about the very first battle of the game, as you have to actively try to lose the first battle with Agrias and Gafgarion.

If he's talking about the first flashback battle of Chapter 1, I remember watching my brother play the game for the first time and he didn't realize he could add in more characters than just Ramza. As a result, he was wiped out.

Then we actually paid attention the second time around and realized he had an entire party of allies he could bring into the battle as well.

[Retniwreven]

l i t t l e m o n e y
HURRY UP YOU DAMN OPENING TEXT, I WANT TO MAKE FLYING NINJA MONKS BEFORE WE HIT DORTER.

[Adriano]

The thing is, I'm hoping he's not talking about the very first battle of the game, as you have to actively try to lose the first battle with Agrias and Gafgarion.

If he's talking about the first flashback battle of Chapter 1, I remember watching my brother play the game for the first time and he didn't realize he could add in more characters than just Ramza. As a result, he was wiped out.

Then we actually paid attention the second time around and realized he had an entire party of allies he could bring into the battle as well.

All I know is it said Game Over. >:U
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago though...so I don't recall.
I remember some major whoop ass fire spell that pretty much owned me.

That's how Suikoden ended up for me.
After sitting through the lengthy opening and running through town getting through all the required events to set foot out of town, my group of six was massacred by a single boar in my first random battle.

Later I heard that the boars are a rather rare encounter in the beginning, and aren't supposed to necessarily be taken down by a starting group, but I still thought it was rather dumb and disappointing at the time. Also, when I tried Suikoden, it was part of a group of other RPGs I still had to try out... so I moved on to another from there and ended up enjoying it.

Never went back to Suikoden. Which is probably rather unfortunate since looking back it seems like a series I would've enjoyed greatly.

I'm not alone. *v* ♥

[Kard]

l i t t l e m o n e y


Yes, that's pretty much the outstanding moment of FFT's opening...

[Retniwreven]

I'm not alone. *v* ♥

I never played the original. I saw it for sale once, but I didn't pick it up, sadly.
I played the second though, and that was just amazing. Third was decent. Forth was... let's never speak of the fourth again. Fifth felt the most like 2, to me. In a good way.