Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for PSP Reviews by Gamers

A REMAKE would have been nice, but instead Square Enix chose to give us yet another rerelease. It's business, they know what they're doing. There are plenty of rabid Tactics nutsos out there who would buy the game just because of the title. Money in the bank.

Cynicism aside, this is not a BAD rerelease. The entire script has been overhauled, but while the dialogue certainly makes more sense now, I find the attempt at Shakespearian Olde' English more distracting than riveting.

The FMVs are an unwelcome addition. I always thought of Tactics as the bastardchild of the Final Fantasy series, partially because of the lack of flashy videos and fancy graphics. But now that idea is somewhat ruined with the FMVs.

This wouldn't be so bad if the videos worked, but they don't. The artistic style of Tactics has always been odd, but seeing the noseless faces in full motion action is just creepy. They look like manequins come to life in some unholy marriage between Final Fantasy and the Chucky movies.

But worse than any of that is the slowdown. In tactics it was almost unnoticable, and it actually appeared intentional since the slowdown would only occur at intense spots. But now the slowdown is such that oftentimes the sound of the attack will come a second or two before the graphic. Not only is this annoying and distracting, it is simply unforgivable. Why add in cheesy, creepy doll-faced FMVs to supposedly add to the graphic appeal when the game itself doesn't even run smoothly in the first place?

On the plus side, they've added two new classes, but I can't comment on them, because I haven't gotten that far. I simply refuse to play a game I loved ten years ago when it is so lazily translated to the PSP.

The game is still 'good,' but that's only because the original was 'fantastic.' If you've played FFT before, pass this up. If you haven't, I guess this is worth checking out. But really, Jeanne D'Arc overshadows this game in every aspect.