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 The 50 year war has come to an end. The death of King Omdoria has made a great power struggle, that errupts into the Lion War. With no true heir that is of age, the people become divided. On one side is the White Lion, and the other the Black Lion. This struggle for power and control breaks out into the war of the Lion.
In the midst of this conflict, a single person will arise. With his friends, he will uncover masses of secrets, lies, assassinations, betrayal, and sinister plots not seen by anyone else.
He will be charged as a Heretic, and hunted to the ends of the world. This is the story of his struggle to reveal the foulness of the world, save his beloved sister, and change forever, the face of Ivalice. His name: Ramza Beoulve.
Final Fantasy Tactics was released in 1998, to mixed, but generally positive reviews. The first title of its type from Squaresoft proved it would indeed become a big hit.
The main beauty of the game is the battlefields, and backdrops of the game. The detail and the rendering are just fantastic for the time. It was almost like a 2-D/3-D combination that should have made people wary, in light of the advancement of 3-D games. But it seemed to add more charm and appeal to the title. It was only 4 years earlier that VI was released as the last 2-D game of the main series from Square.
The game play was criticized a lot, due to the difficulty of the game. There are actually points in the game, where you need to spend literally hours leveling up, before you can continue the main quest. But to the fans, this was a great challenge, rather than a downfall.
Some others criticized the Job system (Not seen since Final fantasy V) that it was too confusing to get a hold of, and that it took even longer to master Jobs, than it did to level up. You cannot just pick a class, and then switch to another if you want. You will have to level your current class up, before other jobs will begin to appear. This actually was not a bad idea, but it was a bit aggravating spending the time to level jobs, thus taking away from the story.
Where this game truly fell short, was the localization of the plotline from the Japanese release. It was filled with grammatical errors, as well as having a very poor translation of the story. This almost made the game not even fun to play.
 The music was very nice, and did add to the game. The music found in the game is truly on the level of great Final Fantasy music. The score was written by veteran Final Fantasy song writers Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata. These two composers later collaborated on the Masterpiece of Final Fantasy XII. Every score fit the mood and presence of the game, in that moment in time. Nothing was too overdone, and you surely did not feel like you were short changed.
Overall, Final Fantasy Tactics was a hit, and it sold an estimated 750,000 units in the USA as of 2004, and 3 million copies world wide. Almost all of the gaming reviewers gave it great scores, with the exception of the above mentioned strikes against it. Since the 1998 release, it has gathered quite a following in the gaming world, and has been cited as being one of the greatest games of all time, landing the 84th spot in Famitsu's top 100, 19th by Gamefaqs, and 38th in IGN's list.
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10-9-2007 |
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5-9-2007 |
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10-5-2007 |
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10-5-2007 |
In the Spring of 2007, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions was released on the Sony PSP. This remake was given the full treatment as far as additions are concerned. Perhaps the greatest update was done to the story itself. It was retranslated from the original Japanese storyline almost perfectly. The grammatical errors were fixed, and there was the addition of great hand drawn cut scenes added to key points in the game.
The graphics seemed to remain unchanged, but the music almost seems like it was given an update in sound, which can be heard through the use of the PSP headphones. It is beautiful, and more full of energy and spirit than thought possible.
There was additions of two new characters in the form of Baltheir (of Final Fantasy XII) and Luso (of tactics A2). You will run across them, as you do with most other recruits, through the main story, and you can then decide to add them to your party.
There is also the addition of PSP link-ups to fight other players in the Melee mode. This two-player ad hoc mode allows people to link up and fight each other, regardless of their level and experience.
With the new additions, as well as the superior translation, War of the Lions was a definite hit for the PSP, and was given better reviews than the original PS1 release. After playing through it to the end for the first time on the PSP, I would say, it might be a bit difficult to get the hang of the game, and there are times where you will have to spend a hour or so leveling up. But this is hands down one of the best games ever released by Squaresoft, and will remain in the highest standings with the fans for a long time to come.
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Compilation of VII
