Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

The original Final Fantasy Tactics is a game that took a while for me to really get into, but just as it was finishing up I realized what a great game it truly was. With its simple controls and lack of full motion cut-scenes (a departure from other Final Fantasy games at the time) it seemed like the transition from the PlayStation to the Game Boy Advance for the game's sequel would be an easy one, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case. And this wasn't really the GBA's fault. Square just messed with the winning formula too much, trying to make Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance a very different game, when it really shouldn't have. Here's a quick rundown of the noteworthy changes, all of which felt like downgrades of some level:

 

Plot- The original Final Fantasy Tactics may have the greatest plot of any Final Fantasy game, full of intricately connected and warring factions and all sorts of interesting things happening behind the scenes. Tactics Advance replaced this huge story with a small one where a few friends get lost in a dream-world and argue over whether to return to the real world. It just feels like such a low-effort follow up and none of the characters made any sort of impression on me.

 

Classes/Job Trees- I may be remembering this wrong, but I believe the original Final Fantasy Tactics gave you characters as a blank slate, allowing you the choice of 2 jobs, and the further you leveled up in either job, the more jobs you could take on. Tactics Advance replaced this with five races or classes or whatever, each with a seemingly randomly selected number of jobs you could take, and new jobs seemed to unlock with no pattern. Gone was the simple and elegant job tree which applied to everyone, replaced with 5 nonsense job webs. And while I'm mentioning the job tree here, I should note that abilities are much more of a pain in the ass to master in Tactics Advance. Basically the point of switching jobs in these games is because of the abilities you can unlock to apply to your character in the future even after you've switched jobs- you can eventually make a character who hits hard like a soldier, heals like a white mage, travel about with ease like a thief, and get various counter-attack or passive abilities. In the original Tactics, this is as simple as fighting battles while assigned to a job to earn job points, which can be spent on abilities. Now in Tactics Advance you're forced to equip items in addition to gain these abilities. In the first game you would constantly change jobs to keep upgrading your character, but now you stick with a job because there's little reason to test out alternatives.

 

Laws/Judges- In another move that seems like "change for the sake of change", Tactics Advance introduced a rotating system of laws into the game to keep the player from relying on one style of game-play too much. The problem is, it felt like none of it was thought through. First off it's frustrating just needing to check the laws before each battle when it really should have been delivered as a prompt automatically before the battle. Second, the laws were typically poorly-worded. For instance, sometimes a law might simply be "forbidden: holy." Naturally I assumed this meant I couldn't use the spell called Holy, a mainstay of the Final Fantasy series. Nope! For some reason this applies to all white magic, which is referred to as white magic everywhere else in the game, so I'd attempt to heal my party and then my healer would get kicked out of the battle. Why not say "white magic is forbidden"? Why not maybe color in commands that were against the law in red as if to say "only use this as a last resort!" or something? This all led to me to game the system and wander around the map before entering into battle- the laws change each time your party moves in the over-world, so I'd just move back and forth until the laws lined up right with my style of play. When players have to cheat the system like this, it's usually bad game design! Finally I tried to game it even further- say I was constantly dying on a tough boss who did major damage with a sword attack. It would seem to make sense to try to get the laws to line up correctly so he wouldn't be allowed to legally use his sword, right? Wrong! Laws don't apply to bosses! Who cares if it doesn't make sense? We've got a game to rush out! Ugh. Also enforcing these laws on the battle screens are judges who are mostly pointless but take up a spot on the battle screen, which means they might randomly keep you from getting close to an enemy. What was the point of this? How does it improve gameplay? It's like tripping in Brawl- sure, it affect everyone equally, but really only exists to frustrate, not challenge.

 

Item Purchasing- Next to those previous three this is only a minor nitpick but a frustrating one all the same. In any Final Fantasy, or really any RPG where you switch equipment you'll have a screen that tells you the stats of what you're currently wearing and you can compare it to what else you can purchase- say, an expensive new piece of armor seems worth it if it doubles your defense stat. But Final Fantasy Tactics Advance doesn't have that, forcing you to remember your own stats and compare them to what they would be with new items. This wouldn't be so bad if it was just affecting one stat, but stronger armor often comes with a tradeoff of affecting other stats like luck or evasiveness, so it's hard to keep track of it all for spur of the moment purchases. Again it's just a level of polish that's missing from the game that could have been fixed easily.

 

Despite all this I wouldn't say Tactics Advance was a bad game, just one that couldn't come anywhere close to it's fantastic predecessor. Still though this game's sequel Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift sounds like it's better, and I see no reason why it can't be- 3 of the 4 mistakes I highlighted above can be very easily fixed. I don't have Tactics A2 yet, but I'll get it eventually.