Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

My Status: 20+ Hours Played
Difficulty: Medium

Square Enix has done it again. Another excellent strategy game. This odd game has the hero trapped in a book. He is trying to get out but meets his friends and family along the way that has adopted to their new roles in a new world. Story is quasi-interesting but that isn't really the focus of this game. The game is all about Tactics as the name suggests.

The game does have plenty of tactics. 4 races and numerous classes. Not only does each race have its own advantages and disadvantage but so does each class. You need to balance magic, speed and power for each fight. Each class than will have its own set of moves that you will have to learn which you can than unleash on the battlefield.

The battles are fought on a standard grid based system. You will want to flank the enemey much as possible while you avoid being flanked. You will want to keep your magicians and archers out of harms way while they whittle down hit points of opposing enemies. The game fights are fun to play through as are the story missions.

Outside of battle you will buying items and looking for missions to go on. There is a lot to do an the game the boast 150 missions. Of course a lot them are just sending a character and he comes back to tell you how he did but even these assignment have a leve of strategy behind it.

The game is a great for any strategy fan. However if you ever played the original Final Fantasy Tactics this game just doesn't add up to par. It isn't because the original tactics was on a superior machine that allowed for better graphics or better sound it just that the original had a simple class system that made each class fun to play yet very unique. With the addition of races, there is a level of complexity to each class and oddly they don't feel as unique. In fact a lot of class skills overlap which was never the case in the original.

On its own merit this is a great game but it isn't as good as the original.