I wrote this blog because in my other blog located here My Top 10 RPGS of All TimeI left out FFT because it was so different from the other games on the list. FFT is awesome.
Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the most enjoyable games ever made.
For anyone who doesn't know, Final Fantasy Tactics is a turn based strategy RPG. The story begins in a war between successors for the throne. The main character Ramza, is a mercenary who is of royal blood. What ensues is one of the most dark, gritty, confusing, and epic story lines ever to come across a video game.
The storyline is fantastic, but the real meat of the game is the game play. FFT differentiates from other common RPGs by having all battles take place on a 3D isometric field.
Units move one at a time on this 3D battlefield, and perform skills/attacking/magic to gain job points and EXP. Most battles have the goal of eliminating the opponents.
At the beginning of the game, you start out in a party full of squires and chemists, the two most basic character classes in the game. Squires are your basic fighters. They do hand to hand combat, and have very basic skills. Chemists are support users that use items. Each unit gains EXP and Job EXP through performing skills and magic in battle. EXP levels up the character on a scale of 1-99 and raises personal attributes. Job EXP levels up the users class, like you can become a level 4 squire that is level 7 overall.
Once you reach a certain job level, you can change your character class. For instance, a level 2 squire can then change to a level 1 knight or a level 1 archer. The knight or archer then can learn new abilities, and won't be able to learn anymore squire abilities unless he changes back. Once you gain more and more job levels, you can begin changing to very high level classes like ninjas and summoners.
Yes, you can even become a calculator
When a character dies in FFT, there is a 3 turn timer. If the character is not resurrected, or the battle is not over, the character turns into a crystal or a treasure chest. THE CHARACTER IS GONE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME! This adds a huge level of difficulty, because you can grow attached to a certain character, and you don't want to advance in the story if they die because you like the character, and you will lose all of their skills. If Ramza turns into a crystal or treasure chest, it's game over.
In addition, you can recruit monsters to come fight on your side. There are also lots of side quests and hidden characters that come join your party with unique skill sets that generic characters are unable to unlock.
I'm looking at you Orlandu, you bad ass mofo
Finally each character has 5 different skill sets. They get a primary skill set (the class they are currently in), a secondary skill set, a support ability, a counter ability, and a move ability. Each character can mix and match skills from the different classes he has learned to create extremely powerful combination.
This adds to an extreme replay factor. Many people have created challenges to beating the game with certain requirements like using only one class. For example, one user tried a straight calculator character challenge, where the calculators weren't allowed to learn magic. Basically the calculators had to fight everyone using pointy rods. The guy ended up taking 2 YEARS to beat it. Talk about perseverance.
In the last couple of years, a community dedicated to modifying Final Fantasy Tactics has arisen at FFT Hacktics
Their flagship mod, FFT 1.3
FFT 1.3 Greatly increases the difficulty of vanilla FFT, where the game was in certain places very unbalanced, and easy once certain mechanics are learned. It also adds in a new class, and redistributes skills to balance classes and battles. Amazing mod!
I guess I will keep on waiting for a direct sequel to FFT to come out on one of the major consoles. FFT Advance just didn't do it justice.
Here are some AI tournaments that the people at FFT Hacktics are put together.
If you would like to relive some of the nostalgia, here is a guy commentating on his play through of every battle of 1.3
I hope that if you haven't heard of FFT, you will be excited enough to try it out, and if you have tried it, take a look at 1.3. I'm always amazed at what great communities can do!
both this and the gba version were amazing! i played this on my playstation forever, and came close to maxing out the speed, attack, defense and hp one of my male characters.
also, yell/scream were such cheap, cheap moves ^_^
yes, this game was so awesome. i wish there could be a way to make it multiplayer but a bit faster paced. i always thought those jumpers were so cool, plus dual sword plus move-hp boots haha and calculator + white magic + ragnarok sword was too imba tbh. i always wished they made knights more viable in late game, ie that they had something useful to learn that you could use late game... for the life of me i can't remember anything they had that was good. same with archers. and of course, accumulate? (or was it yell?) = best move in the game
On April 19 2010 06:38 d_so wrote: yes, this game was so awesome. i wish there could be a way to make it multiplayer but a bit faster paced. i always thought those jumpers were so cool, plus dual sword plus move-hp boots haha and calculator + white magic + ragnarok sword was too imba tbh. i always wished they made knights more viable in late game, ie that they had something useful to learn that you could use late game... for the life of me i can't remember anything they had that was good. same with archers. and of course, accumulate? (or was it yell?) = best move in the game
In 1.3 they address all of those issues. Knights now gain Ruins. A ranged skill that lowers the enemies physical attack or magic attack, and other attributes I believe. Archers are much improved (I think charge time is decreased), and yell is instead haste. There are countless other changes that make 1.3 just an amazing game. The closest thing there is to multiplayer is the AI tournaments that I posted a link to. You would really enjoy 1.3
Love FFT! Aside from bugs(you can avoid) and translations errors (actually made it more charming in some cases) this game as as good as it gets.
I was kind of disappointed in the FFTA's. Not that they were super bad, but they just went into a totally different direction(imo worse) and didnt build on the things that made FFT great. I'd like to see them make a true successor to FFT.
Ugh, I've owned FFT since it came out forever ago. I didn't like it then and I still don't like it now. I've tried several times to get myself into it again, but it's all in vain because I just do not like the game. I went through it once forever ago just because I hate to start a game and not finish it unless it is just horrid.
I played FFTA for a while, but it got annoying pretty quickly since your towns get attacked practically every other turn on the world map. I finally got pissed off enough that I quit playing and started on Fire Emblem. -_- From what you've described, the original sounds a lot better. I guess I'll give it a try sometime.
Gameplay is fun and interesting. Downside is the story/writing is atrociously bad. It's also a little lackluster at times because many of the jobs are just vastly inferior so you get tight-casted, so to speak, into fewer rolls despite there being a decent # to choose from and unlock.
On April 19 2010 06:38 d_so wrote: yes, this game was so awesome. i wish there could be a way to make it multiplayer but a bit faster paced. i always thought those jumpers were so cool, plus dual sword plus move-hp boots haha and calculator + white magic + ragnarok sword was too imba tbh. i always wished they made knights more viable in late game, ie that they had something useful to learn that you could use late game... for the life of me i can't remember anything they had that was good. same with archers. and of course, accumulate? (or was it yell?) = best move in the game
In 1.3 they address all of those issues. Knights now gain Ruins. A ranged skill that lowers the enemies physical attack or magic attack, and other attributes I believe. Archers are much improved (I think charge time is decreased), and yell is instead haste. There are countless other changes that make 1.3 just an amazing game. The closest thing there is to multiplayer is the AI tournaments that I posted a link to. You would really enjoy 1.3
this mod sounds really interesting, do archers have skills other than crappy ones like Charge +20? (seriously, this thing doesnt go off until the end of the battle). also, does scream cost mp?
also, what emulator should i be using to run it? ePSXe is the only one i know of, but i dont know anything about the plugins i should use or anything -_-"
On April 19 2010 06:38 d_so wrote: yes, this game was so awesome. i wish there could be a way to make it multiplayer but a bit faster paced. i always thought those jumpers were so cool, plus dual sword plus move-hp boots haha and calculator + white magic + ragnarok sword was too imba tbh. i always wished they made knights more viable in late game, ie that they had something useful to learn that you could use late game... for the life of me i can't remember anything they had that was good. same with archers. and of course, accumulate? (or was it yell?) = best move in the game
In 1.3 they address all of those issues. Knights now gain Ruins. A ranged skill that lowers the enemies physical attack or magic attack, and other attributes I believe. Archers are much improved (I think charge time is decreased), and yell is instead haste. There are countless other changes that make 1.3 just an amazing game. The closest thing there is to multiplayer is the AI tournaments that I posted a link to. You would really enjoy 1.3
this mod sounds really interesting, do archers have skills other than crappy ones like Charge +20? (seriously, this thing doesnt go off until the end of the battle). also, does scream cost mp?
also, what emulator should i be using to run it? ePSXe is the only one i know of, but i dont know anything about the plugins i should use or anything -_-"
I use ePSXe, not sure about the plugins though. You should be able to find plenty of tutorial videos on youtube.
I think bows got buffed quite a bit, and the charge times got reduced. Here is a list for all the changes to FFT 1.3 FFT 1.3 FAQ + Changes
For example, Yell now casts hastes, Scream (targets self only) casts haste, berserk and innocent. There are so many changes I can't list them here even in a spoiler, you just have to check out the link.
On April 19 2010 06:38 d_so wrote: yes, this game was so awesome. i wish there could be a way to make it multiplayer but a bit faster paced. i always thought those jumpers were so cool, plus dual sword plus move-hp boots haha and calculator + white magic + ragnarok sword was too imba tbh. i always wished they made knights more viable in late game, ie that they had something useful to learn that you could use late game... for the life of me i can't remember anything they had that was good. same with archers. and of course, accumulate? (or was it yell?) = best move in the game
In 1.3 they address all of those issues. Knights now gain Ruins. A ranged skill that lowers the enemies physical attack or magic attack, and other attributes I believe. Archers are much improved (I think charge time is decreased), and yell is instead haste. There are countless other changes that make 1.3 just an amazing game. The closest thing there is to multiplayer is the AI tournaments that I posted a link to. You would really enjoy 1.3
this mod sounds really interesting, do archers have skills other than crappy ones like Charge +20? (seriously, this thing doesnt go off until the end of the battle). also, does scream cost mp?
also, what emulator should i be using to run it? ePSXe is the only one i know of, but i dont know anything about the plugins i should use or anything -_-"
I use ePSXe, not sure about the plugins though. You should be able to find plenty of tutorial videos on youtube.
I think bows got buffed quite a bit, and the charge times got reduced. Here is a list for all the changes to FFT 1.3 FFT 1.3 FAQ + Changes
For example, Yell now casts hastes, Scream (targets self only) casts haste, berserk and innocent. There are so many changes I can't list them here even in a spoiler, you just have to check out the link.
nooo my jp scroll glitch
this version looks a lot harder, especially with all the ??? enemies o.o''
I tried the DS version. A bit too complicated for my liking. I RPGs, I have a perfectionist complex. I have to have to make all my guys the best they can possibly be without hacking. In that sense, tactics, especially or DS, is too complicated.
For me FFT is ok. I love Fire Emblem series. I've been playing FE ages before they started to release it in English. But I cant really get into FFT, but still a great game for sure.
On April 19 2010 06:38 d_so wrote: yes, this game was so awesome. i wish there could be a way to make it multiplayer but a bit faster paced. i always thought those jumpers were so cool, plus dual sword plus move-hp boots haha and calculator + white magic + ragnarok sword was too imba tbh. i always wished they made knights more viable in late game, ie that they had something useful to learn that you could use late game... for the life of me i can't remember anything they had that was good. same with archers. and of course, accumulate? (or was it yell?) = best move in the game
In 1.3 they address all of those issues. Knights now gain Ruins. A ranged skill that lowers the enemies physical attack or magic attack, and other attributes I believe. Archers are much improved (I think charge time is decreased), and yell is instead haste. There are countless other changes that make 1.3 just an amazing game. The closest thing there is to multiplayer is the AI tournaments that I posted a link to. You would really enjoy 1.3
this mod sounds really interesting, do archers have skills other than crappy ones like Charge +20? (seriously, this thing doesnt go off until the end of the battle). also, does scream cost mp?
also, what emulator should i be using to run it? ePSXe is the only one i know of, but i dont know anything about the plugins i should use or anything -_-"
I use ePSXe, not sure about the plugins though. You should be able to find plenty of tutorial videos on youtube.
I think bows got buffed quite a bit, and the charge times got reduced. Here is a list for all the changes to FFT 1.3 FFT 1.3 FAQ + Changes
For example, Yell now casts hastes, Scream (targets self only) casts haste, berserk and innocent. There are so many changes I can't list them here even in a spoiler, you just have to check out the link.
nooo my jp scroll glitch
this version looks a lot harder, especially with all the ??? enemies o.o''
"???" enemies are the least of your worries, the game is a lot harder all around.
MY FAVORITE FF GAME OF ALL TIME!! I played every version but the original is still the best, the DS versions seem different to me. I should get the PS1 emulator and start playing again, though I recall the PSP version was broken.
On April 20 2010 03:43 CynanMachae wrote: Trying the patch now, it seems really a good thing. Harder and balancer FFT was really something I wished for :p
And I'm also setting up an AI tourney with some friends.
Thanks for showing me about this 1.3 stuff!
No problem :p. 1.3 really requires a great understanding of game mechanics. Also, lots of abilities/EQ's are switched around and balanced. Very difficult on a first playthrough if you haven't played vanilla, but if you keep trying, you should be able to beat it.
Warning: Enemies level up with you! So, be careful about any leveling that you do, or some of the battles will become EXTREMELY difficult. Good luck!
I've seen soem vids where an archer does a double shot. I couldn't find anything about that in the changelog for version 1.3, is it a new feature of archer or the items?
Tactics Ogre is indeed awesome too I'll take a look at that
On April 20 2010 06:40 zerglingsfolife wrote: I think crossbow offers a 25% to do a multiple shot. A FAQ of 1.3 can be found here, as well as the humongous changelog. FFT 1.3 FAQ/Changelog
Yea that was the one I was looking at but I didn't find anything. Maybe I missed it
I played FFTA to death. Never played the original for playstation. I would pick it up, but these games seriously take like a good 50+ hours of your life to beat.
I loved FFT, hated the abomination that was FFTA though. Its cool they patched a few things but all I ever did in FFT was get full monk team and in no time I would be wave fisting and earthslashing for 999.
On April 20 2010 07:47 Athos wrote: I played FFTA to death. Never played the original for playstation. I would pick it up, but these games seriously take like a good 50+ hours of your life to beat.
Ahh omg. This game is the greatest. Great post zlingsfolife. You are my hero. hahahahaha I remember this one level I was on and I lost my favorite character so I unplugged my ps and tried again. It took me a billion tries and a few days but I finally managed not to lose my hero.
FFT is great, one of the fav games of all time. Not only plot, strategy and attention to details in interface, but sound effects, music and art directions were great as well. Rare game i had absolutely nothing to complain about. I just have to try the patched version to see if it's actually perfect now.
i'll have to try the patched version the first version was so imba, just clone excalibur for everyone and orlandu wtf rapes everyone on the screen regardless
All you guys saying the game becomes easy when you get so and so or get such a weapon.....the game's difficulty is determined on how much time you spend buffing up your characters or who you use. Unlike other final fantasy games, there are strategies and methods to beat every fight without ever having to waste time leveling up. And yes I'm including that 1v1 fight at the end of Chapter 3. And if you don't want to make it easy, don't use Orlandu....
On April 13 2011 11:23 Ender wrote: All you guys saying the game becomes easy when you get so and so or get such a weapon.....the game's difficulty is determined on how much time you spend buffing up your characters or who you use. Unlike other final fantasy games, there are strategies and methods to beat every fight without ever having to waste time leveling up. And yes I'm including that 1v1 fight at the end of Chapter 3. And if you don't want to make it easy, don't use Orlandu....
Well, you can not use orlandu.
Or you can play 1.3 which is far better than the original version. There's even an easy type if you don't like the increased difficulty, but still want the new content.
Playing FFT Vanilla is just.... awful since they started patching it years ago.
I remember putting in like 224 hours onto the Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced for the gameboy. And then I saved over it...lol. I don't know about the original, but if you're looking for a good handheld game, get FFTA. It is fucking amazing, especially considering the quality of other hand held games.
It is great to see this game recognized...and it is another reason on why I should get playstation.
On April 13 2011 11:51 Whole wrote: I remember putting in like 224 hours onto the Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced for the gameboy. And then I saved over it...lol. I don't know about the original, but if you're looking for a good handheld game, get FFTA. It is fucking amazing, especially considering the quality of other hand held games.
It is great to see this game recognized...and it is another reason on why I should get playstation.
FFT pretty much trumps FFTA in every department.
Story, characters, gameplay, challenges (deep dungeon), yeah... pretty much everything.
If you loved FFTA please play the original, you can get an emulator for free (epsxe) and just torrent the original ISO.
I do have have problems with the difficulty level though. I always thought that the hardest part of the game is chapter 1, just because you're stuck on using the shitty classes at the start. The game gets ridiculously easy once you unlock OP skills combinations/classes/characters (orlandu).
I remember that one time I was leveling the shitty jobs on my characters and didn't save for the past few hours. Then I ran over Grog Hill and ran into the random enemy encounter with the 20 monks. I was pretty much fucked because I had all my character in their off/random classes but luckily I brought Orlandu along. He pretty much single handedly won me the battle.... which made me realize how OP he was.
I'm playing the FFT for DS right now. only like an hour into it though since I only play on the train.
yeah i was thinking about playing fft 1.3 years ago because i spent 300 hours on the original... never got around to it though.... kind of bad if i pick it up now ill just have to wait for summer time
fft seemed like a really good game at start but as the game went on there was less and less stuff... which indicates not enough time was available on development the possibilities
Maybe I missed a post in here somewhere, but I'm surprised the remake War of the Lions was mentioned only once or twice. The game is so amazing, and the cutscenes I felt added a lot to the story. Plus, the Shakespearean accents created the best voice acting I have ever heard in a game. I can honestly say that War of the Lions is in my top 5 games in terms of plot, maybe even the number 1 game I have ever played plot wise, and the voice acting in the remake had a fairly big role to play in that. Just the fact that they created original dialogue that fit the Shakespearean tone so well is amazing.
These two were the best cutscenes with voice acting, (although the non voice acted ones from the oiginal are pretty amazing as well):
This first scene has just so much anger and passion in Delita's voice. It is mesmerizing for that, but the next scene is truly the crowning achievement.
There are a lot of comments complaining about the loud piano music on YouTube, but it is actually fairly brilliant. The loud music underscores the tension in the scene and then stops for one of the most tragic lines of the whole game: + Show Spoiler +
"To save her life I would gladly give me own." Tragic because of how she misunderstands him at the end and mortally wounds him, forcing him to kill her in return.
Having both of them bathed in light at the end is also a nice way to underscore their heroic roles. Ramza dashes into the light, the noble hero doing his best to do what is right and save the world. Delita meanwhile walks slowly from the darkness into the light, the tragic hero, the flawed man working against a flawed world, changing things for the better and being misunderstood by those most dear to him.
I find it near impossible to top Delita in terms of complicated characters. He is the best.
OMG I was just playing this game for 3 days straight, ironic to see a blog on it on TL >.<, i'm on chapter 4 lol, on my next playthrough i should try some challenges
Anyway, I just tested patching the original FFT iso with 1.3 and converting it to PSP and it works fine. There is also a 1.3 patch for the War of the Lions (PSP version). So grab this patch and have an even better FFT experience!
FFT is so fucking good, it never gets enough recognition but it's still my favorite FF game by quite a bit. The soundtrack is amazing as well, everyone should check it out.
I got this game when i was 11. it took me a long time to beat it, i had to take breaks at the difficult parts (velius) but the game does get way too easy when you get orlandu, and there's other annoyances like having to level up cloud from lv.1 and the classes needed tweaks in general. I'll have to try that version 1.3 some time soon.
FFT does stand on its own compared to the dozens and dozens of JRPGs i played as a kid. it's a real shame that squaresoft started sucking hard into the 2000s.
I haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1, but i have played the ones for both GBAdvance and DS and they are both damn awesome. I got a PS1 emulator so i might try out it out sometime
Though i wish they'd make another Final Fantasy Tactics game that isnt as restricted and one dimensional as the other ones, i don't want all characters to look the same and have wierd ass randomized names t_t
Everyone that's played the GBA/DS games, I cannot emphasize how much better the original is. If you liked those, you'll love this. Definitely check out FFT 1.3 if you want a challenge, although be warned they're not kidding when they say they ramped up the difficulty. If you're not too familiar with the game itself, it's gonna kick your ass over and over again. Power leveling will not save you (it will actually make your life harder); you actually have to think about your strategy and tactics. There's also a FFT1.3 Easytype (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=3952.0) to kind of get your feet wet to the 1.3 experience, it's more or less classified as a medium difficulty compared to the regular Ninja Gaiden-esque difficulty of normal 1.3.
i'm a huge fft fan, and i saw it mentioned once in this thread,
but i wanted to give a quick shoutout to the new tactics ogre game for psp (remake). if you do some research it turns out that this game is actually made by the creators of fft (where ffta was not)
its basically an awesome version of FFT that plays and feels so much like the original FFT but fixes alot of the issues.
if you have access to a psp, you should definitely play this. i almost have no time for these games anymore, but definitely foudn time to dust off the old psp.
On April 16 2011 05:50 jimmyjingle wrote: it's kinda funny in retrospect, i can draw so many similarities between the warcraft franchise and square games. concept art styles being a big one.
On April 16 2011 05:50 jimmyjingle wrote: it's kinda funny in retrospect, i can draw so many similarities between the warcraft franchise and square games. concept art styles being a big one.
i dont recall warcraft concept art missing noses
:D as far as pastels and simliar cartoony lines and anatomy
For those wondering you can play 1.3 on the PSP on both the FFT PSX iso and the war of the lions iso/cso. Unfortunately its like ridiculously hard LOL. I thought I was good at FFT but I am getting my ass kicked by v1.3. Like getting game over screens during random encounters and shit. I think I will patch my PSX version though because the war of the lions has his annoying slow down everytime you cast a spell and its a port problem there is nothing you can do to fix it. I tried changing from cso(compressed) to iso and there is no difference. Even loading from the UMD it still lags when you cast a spell. I do love the widescreen and the cool cut scenes but they changed some stuff between the games and it feels weird. LOL Like some job classes and such.
On April 22 2011 07:05 TRod wrote: For those wondering you can play 1.3 on the PSP on both the FFT PSX iso and the war of the lions iso/cso. Unfortunately its like ridiculously hard LOL. I thought I was good at FFT but I am getting my ass kicked by v1.3. Like getting game over screens during random encounters and shit. I think I will patch my PSX version though because the war of the lions has his annoying slow down everytime you cast a spell and its a port problem there is nothing you can do to fix it. I tried changing from cso(compressed) to iso and there is no difference. Even loading from the UMD it still lags when you cast a spell. I do love the widescreen and the cool cut scenes but they changed some stuff between the games and it feels weird. LOL Like some job classes and such.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened with me. Patched WotL and just couldn't stand the slowdown so I just ended up using the original.
On April 22 2011 07:05 TRod wrote: For those wondering you can play 1.3 on the PSP on both the FFT PSX iso and the war of the lions iso/cso. Unfortunately its like ridiculously hard LOL. I thought I was good at FFT but I am getting my ass kicked by v1.3. Like getting game over screens during random encounters and shit. I think I will patch my PSX version though because the war of the lions has his annoying slow down everytime you cast a spell and its a port problem there is nothing you can do to fix it. I tried changing from cso(compressed) to iso and there is no difference. Even loading from the UMD it still lags when you cast a spell. I do love the widescreen and the cool cut scenes but they changed some stuff between the games and it feels weird. LOL Like some job classes and such.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened with me. Patched WotL and just couldn't stand the slowdown so I just ended up using the original.
Yep just wanted to make it clear that War of the lions is the problem not 1.3. WotL does this no matter if its patched or not. Very lazy port its like they didn't even bother playing it and just went "well that's good enough to make us money". Unfortunate to not give such an epic game a decent port.
EPT![[image loading]](http://pspmedia.ign.com/psp/image/article/824/824274/final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions-20071001062312444_640w.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.gamelemon.com/media/articles/top_crpgs/Final%20Fantasy%20Tactics%202.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/psx/fft/pictures/orlandu.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.finalfantasycosplay.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Sephiroth_ff7.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/costumes/1235/32093/Medivh%20Ref%201.jpg)
