Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions Review

By Rob Fahey Published 4 October, 2007

When two prides go to war - uh!

Version tested: PSP

Wearing my JRPG Nerd Hat (yes, I own a JRPG Nerd Hat - I wove it myself from the hair of the denizens of Eurogamers' JRPG Otaku group, in fact), I'd probably pick out three games as being the Holy Trinity of titles which have been, thus far, denied to us miserable Europeans.

I'd choose Chrono Cross, stunning follow-up to the SNES classic Chrono Trigger. I'd choose the oddly paced but nonetheless magnificant Xenogears. Last, and certainly not least of the three, I would choose Final Fantasy Tactics - arguably the finest spin-off game to a major franchise the industry has ever produced.

Yes, sorry - I don't really feel like I can keep you in suspense over this one, posing the "ah ha, but is Final Fantasy Tactics really any good?" question and dragging it out for the next thousand words. Final Fantasy Tactics was superb ten years ago on the PlayStation, and it's still superb today in its long-awaited PSP remake. No illusions, from the outset; this is a review of a superb game.

The Noise Before Defeat

'Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions' Screenshot 1

We should probably warn you that you'll be seeing scenes like this in your sleep for months.

This superb game is, at its most basic level, a turn based strategy game. You control a band of soldiers, at the beginning of each battle you choose your force from within this band (normally a fairly small group - four to six is typical). You then move your fighters around a rectangular playing area laid out on a grid, complete with hills, valleys, buildings, rivers and so on. Each character - yours and the enemy's - takes a turn which can include both moving and an action, be it attacking, casting a spell or using an item.

That's the 30 second guide to Final Fantasy Tactics. The full version would probably fill a manuscript so thick it would make Tolkien's eyes water. Certainly, FFT's battles take place on the small scale - they are mere skirmishes between a dozen characters, really. However, the sheer level of depth which the game affords to players who engage with its prodigious charms is sufficient that you have to wonder if there are entire new lifeforms living in the trenches at the bottom.

The character progression system is at the heart of this. At the start of the game, you command a party largely made up of Squires, the basic class who can do a bit of fighting and use some somewhat useful abilities, but who aren't really masters of anything. As each of your soldiers progresses, however, you'll find that you can move them around to new jobs which open up. So a Squire can become a Knight after a few levels, say, or perhaps an Archer, while a Chemist (a basic item-using class who can chuck around potions) could decide to focus on magic and become a White Mage, replacing his potions with healing spells.

'Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions' Screenshot 2

Battles take place across a wide variety of locations - and the scripted events manage a surprising range of drama, given that they're acted by small sprites.

Progression between classes isn't the same as levelling up. Instead, the game gives each character an innate level, and a "job level" for each of the jobs available to them. You could, for example, have a character who was level 7, but a Level 3 White Mage, Level 5 Squire and Level 2 Knight. This aspect isn't particularly complex, although it's worth bearing in mind that sometimes the next job along the tree isn't actually better than the one you're doing at the moment - just different.

As you advance in each job class, you'll earn JP - job points - alongside the standard experience points that raise your character level. These points are allocated every time the character performs an action, and are assigned to the job class that action belongs to - and they can be spent on "buying" new abilities within that class, like new spells for the Black Mage or the ability to use more advanced items for the Chemist. To mix things up a little, each character is also capable of expressing job traits from multiple classes.

You may not be interested in strategy...

'Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions' Screenshot 3

Some spell effects are appropriately huge and impressive. There are even summons to be discovered, as you'd expect from Final Fantasy.

This is where things start getting complicated (yes, start!) - and although it's initially somewhat daunting (and the game is pretty awful at holding your hand through early experiments with job classes and abilities), it's also where much of the depth of the game comes through.

So, to pick up another example, you might have a character who has levelled up to some degree both as a Chemist and a White Mage, but is presently set as a Chemist. His first action slot will always be the actions open to him as a Chemist (using items, mostly) and his innate talents will be that of a Chemist. In a second action slot, you could add White Mage abilities, giving him the power to cast healing or protective spells. Even more complexity comes from the ability to add other abilities from the full range of job classes you've picked up - the same character could have the Counter-Tackle ability from the Squire, for example, which counter-attacks automatically in response to physical damage.

If your eyes have glazed over at this point as though you're at a really, really dull lecture, then this may not be the game for you. On the other hand, if you're turning over in your mind the prospects afforded by a game in which each character can be customised with abilities from a wide range of job classes... Well, come on in and let me buy you a beer. We have much to discuss.

Final Fantasy Tactics' flexibility is exactly what you'd hope from such a promising system, and that's a large part of why it has remained such an enduring fan favourite for ten years - at one point, commanding genuinely ludicrous sums on eBay for original copies. The potential of the system is almost limitless; imagine our joy upon discovering that combining the Knight's ability to break pieces of enemy equipment with his attack, when applied to an Archer, allowed us to break people's stuff at long range. Beautiful.

A somewhat bittersweet aspect of all this customisation, however, is that it makes you get very attached to the otherwise faceless members of your miniature army. Once any character is knocked out, a count-down appears over their heads, giving you a certain number of turns in which to resurrect them before they're gone for good. While the key storyline characters in the game can't be allowed to die in this manner during battles, your normal grunts certainly can... But once gone, they're really gone.

More than once we've gone back to an earlier save point to try and complete a battle without allowing a favourite soldier to die. There's a real sense of attachment to them, even though they have no dialogue or storyline involvement - and of course, there's a more pragmatic realisation that you've probably customised them to a degree which will take ages to replicate in a fresh recruit from the Guild. No game encourages such obsessive compulsive behaviour to quite the degree that FFT does.

But strategy is interested in you.

'Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions' Screenshot 4

The full range of job classes on offer is bewildering at first glance, but they're introduced gradually enough to give you a feel for what's going on.

One element that has occasionally been criticised about FFT is that its difficulty curve is somewhat peculiar - to put it charitably. This is at once both a fair and an unfair comment to make, because the way you customise your characters means that the curve will never be quite the same for any two players. We certainly encountered some battles that were ludicrously easy, and a couple (especially early on) so hard that we had to re-equip and fight a few random battles before trying again. Everyone seems to share that experience; but everyone seems to find different battles hard or easy.

We would, however, draw attention again to the fact that the game does a minimum of hand-holding in the early stages. Once it's taught you to move around and hit things, you're on your own - aided only by a tutorial that can be accessed at any point, but doesn't really teach you everything you need to know by any means. Keeping an FAQ close at hand isn't really possible with a portable game, so you'll probably find a lot of trial and error goes into your selections early in the game. Perseverance is the key here; within a couple of hours, you'll be flicking through menus like a grizzled veteran of Ivalice.

Despite being a ten year old game from a console most people have consigned to the attic by now, FFT looks fantastic on the PSP. The team's decision to run with hand-drawn sprites for characters and 3D tiles for the background looking more inspired than ever, since the game is one of the few 90s titles that comes bounding across the years looking as gorgeous as it ever has. A wide variety of animations and combat effects deliver a surprisingly impressive looking game that's perfectly suited to the handheld format.

'Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions' Screenshot 5

The unique art style of the game carries through to its shiny new cutscenes - which display a gorgeous pencil-shaded effect.

Several tweaks have been made to the PSP edition - two new classes have been added, for a start, bringing the total to 22, along with a new hidden character in the form of Balthier from FFXII (which was set in the same world as FFT, and developed by much of the same team). The most notable change is the addition of brand new rendered videos for key plot points. These are utterly beautiful, presented in a flat pencil drawing style which perfectly complements the in-game sprites and artwork. The translation, too, seems to have been fixed significantly from the somewhat dodgy work on the original PlayStation release, which fans will be relieved to hear.

The presentation of the game is secondary to the game itself, to a large extent - but that doesn't do justice to the fantastic narrative and design on display here. The influences that shaped FFXII are clearly at work, with a story which concerns itself with political machinations and the destiny of the nations of Ivalice as much as it does with the individual characters on the stage. Musically, too, it is magnificent; Nobuo Uematsu may be the composer most closely linked with Final Fantasy, but little of his work on the series touches the elegance and beauty of Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata's soundtrack for FFT.

'Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions' Screenshot 6

And if you didn't recognise the sky pirate, perhaps this Square Enix celebrity cameo will ring a few more bells?

Final Fantasy Tactics is the kind of game that hoary old RPG types wax lyrical about to one another for hours, and it justifies every minute. The game may initially be daunting - lacking, perhaps, the sort of finesse that we've come to expect from more modern, user-friendly experiences - but once you're engrossed, it's quite simply one of the most addictive, intriguing experiences you'll ever have.

Gorgeous, complex, well-written and beautifully presented, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions has been polished and refined to make it into the best version of one of the best games of the 1990s. For old fans, it's a welcome return for a beautiful game that's been gone ten years; and for those who didn't import, all those years ago, we can only say we're jealous that you get to experience it all afresh.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Rob Fahey

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (97) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 4 years ago

    Isn't there a DS version of this?

  • Tonka #2 4 years ago

    It would be so much betetr

  • UncleLou #3 4 years ago

    Gah. I am dangerously close to buying a PSP these days. Although I really absolutely don't need one.

  • brainbird #4 4 years ago

    Something for the PSP worth playing. Cool.
    EG, will there be a PSP lite review? You know, like the 360 Elite review?
    Edit: Because, like UncleLou, I'm very close to buying one. Again.
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 14:09

  • Murbal #5 4 years ago

    9! Of course it was going to be a 9!

    \o/

  • JohnnyWashnGo #6 4 years ago

    Crikey, I didn't expect a 9 !

    And Balthier rocks, can't wait to play it now.

  • Murbal #7 4 years ago

    If I hear one more 'something for the PSP worth playing' or 'PSP in good game shocker' I'll fucking explode. It happens every time there's a decent review - which is often. Stop fucking trolling.

    /explodes

  • Killerbee #8 4 years ago

    I really, really didn't get on with FFT Advance on the GBA - battles too samey; far too much menu juggling; wafer thin plot... I'm a sucker for the full Final Fantasy RPGs, but is this actually likely to change my mind about this spin-off series?

  • kangarootoo #9 4 years ago

    Are there actually in lions in this. Its a deal breaker for me*, so I have to know.


    *Kangaroos don't like lions, or being eaten, or being eaten by lions.

  • Nostromo13 #10 4 years ago

    Edge gave it the same score, coincidence?! i think not.

  • dirigiblebill #11 4 years ago

    Killerbee: FFT and FFTA are very much chalk and cheese, as far as I understand it having played only the latter. If you aren't a fan of menu-juggling, perhaps the SRPG genre isn't for you :/
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 14:17

  • dirigiblebill #12 4 years ago

    Are there actually in lions in this. Its a deal breaker for me*, so I have to know.


    *Kangaroos don't like lions, or being eaten, or being eaten by lions.

    Much like Tiggers, then.

    /bouncy bouncy bouncy bounce

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #13 4 years ago

    Nah this isnt coming to DS, but there was suppose to be an all New Final Fantasy Tactics coming to DS soon tho i beleive

  • Physically_Insane #14 4 years ago

    Edge gave it a 9 too didn't they?

  • HiddenAway #15 4 years ago

    The DS version is a sequel to the FFTA series, NOT ye olde FFT!

  • Schiraman #16 4 years ago

    Have this on pre-order, looking forward to playing it.

    Personally I enjoyed both the original version on the PSone and also FFTA on the GBA, I think they both have their pros and cons.

    When FFTA2 comes out on DS that might well be the game that forces me finally crack and buy one...

  • Steroyd #17 4 years ago

    Critical Hit on my wallet, and it's already at 1HP. :(

  • Cyhwuhx #18 4 years ago

    .::: Reality-check: the game suffers from terrible slowdown. It's indeed a more than worthy game, but every move that uses a graphic (pretty much everything besides Attack, Stone or Rush) slows the game down to such an extent that music and animation are out of sync. Horribly.

    So yes the game is great, the new translation fantastic, but the fact that the PSP is struggling in its attempt to display an original PlayStation game, is utterly absurd.
    Great game, excellent tweaks, very bad port. I'd knock a point of the score just for show, as otherwise the game is brilliant.

    Why this isn't mentioned in the review is beyond me. The slowdown is not even subtle.

  • TONYgr #19 4 years ago

    between turns is there a time limit that you ve got to make your moves?or you vegot all the time you want?

  • thedaveeyres #20 4 years ago

    *blows dust off PSP*

    Yay! This came this morning, thank you Royal Mail for your impending strike :)

  • DrDamn #21 4 years ago

    With regards to story line this is a major plus point for me in this game. In my opinion best story in an RPG ever - particularly the end. Very complex in places but the PSOne game had a very useful encyclopaedia which you could reference when you got confused.

    Have heard there are problems with slowdown too, which is a big shame.

  • Drakron #22 4 years ago

    "PSP in good game shocker?!"

    PSP in port shocker, this is a GBA game port ... with means FF:T is a DS game (seeing the DS can play GBA games, if you can find it).

    The changes over the original are Square Enix added FMV for cutscenes (intead of using ingame graphics) and voice overs.

  • itamae #23 4 years ago

    So, one question: can you skip the cut-scenes now, or do you still have to sit through fifteen minutes of painfully slow-moving dialogue before your characters that you just spent the last forty hours customizing get slaughtered by a ridiculously unfair boss?

    No no, I'm not bitter or anything like that.

    /crushes FFT disc under his heel of steel

  • GordonJ@work #24 4 years ago

    Cyhwuhx is right, the slowdown really is drastic. Aside from that it's all good, really enjoying the new translation "wee moppets"

    Disappointing that I can load up the original on my PSP and it's much smoother than this. I dread to think what will happen when I finally get a summoner and cast my first summon.

  • dirigiblebill #25 4 years ago

    PSP in port shocker, this is a GBA game port

    WRONG. Stand in the corner.

    /deducts points from Cyhwuhx for use of terms "absurd" and "reality-check"

    /smacks truncheon against palm threateningly

  • Cyhwuhx #26 4 years ago

    .::: Ri~ght.

    It's a port of a PS1 game. The GBA game is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. (The Advance is there for a reason.) The DS instalment is called Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

    [edit] That was @Drakron, of course.
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 14:35

  • GordonJ@work #27 4 years ago

    @Drakron, sorry you're completely wrong, it's even mentioned in this thread. FFT is a ps1 game, FFTA is the gba game and it's a completely different story to the original FFT.

  • HiddenAway #28 4 years ago

    PSP in port shocker, this is a GBA game port

    /Throws meat
    /Calls behemoth over

  • VMerken #29 4 years ago

    @Cyhwukx
    The slowdown has supposedly been fixed in the PAL release, that's maybe why there's no talk about it.

    However, I'd like to be sure before going to the store tomorrow and ask the reviewer, Robert Fahey, if his PAL review copy showed any signs of slowdown while casting anything more advanced than the most basic spells or actions.

    Thanks!

    PS: I agree to the JRPG trinity except for Chrono Cross - it is a bit too easy for my tastes. As for FFT's difficulty curve, I personally never saw a game over screen until Wiegraf, and TG Cid = God Mode. I kind of hoped they'd make this version harder, so I'm a little disappointed to see the team go the other way. Can't be helped, I guess...

  • Triggerhappytel #30 4 years ago

    UncleLou - "Gah. I am dangerously close to buying a PSP these days. Although I really absolutely don't need one."

    You and me both -- with this and Jeanne D'Arc I'm not sure if I can resist for long...

  • dirigiblebill #31 4 years ago

    Cyhwuhx, what the hell does .::: mean? I need to know, if I'm going to carry on making random, frivolous remarks about your posting style.

    The expression about waiting for a bus comes to mind with regard to the PSP's SRPG releases of late.

  • HiddenAway #32 4 years ago

    @ slowdown

    IGN had similar problems, along with some sound syncing issues.

    [link url=http ://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/824/824273p2.html
    ]http://uk .psp.ign.com/articles/824/82427...[/link]

    As for whether they fixed it for the European release, why didn't they do that for the US release?! We're both getting it within days of each other (us first as well \o/)

  • GordonJ@work #33 4 years ago

    @VMerken

    This is the PAL version that I'm talking about, mine turned up this morning from Gameplay

  • Cyhwuhx #34 4 years ago

    .::: @VMerken: It's not fixed. I bought a European retail-copy last Tuesday here in the Netherlands (which is equal to the the UK version according to the packaging). It has slowdown from the start. Gaffgarion's Shadowblade during the introductory fight is finished in terms of audio before the corresponding animation starts properly.
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 14:45

  • Drakron #35 4 years ago

    Yes, I was wrong ... PSone game.

  • Murbal #36 4 years ago

    Slowdown, eh? I'll learn to live with it.

    Won't I?

  • VMerken #37 4 years ago

    @Cyhwuhx, GordonJ@Work
    Hmm. Something like that should be mentioned in the review, then. Or perhaps that's why it got 9 instead of a 10 =). Any of you chaps played it on a PSP Slim & Lite? Maybe shorter loading times can ease the pain?

  • Cyhwuhx #38 4 years ago

    .::: @VMerken: Mine is a bog-standard European launch-PSP running latest firmware. If the new model would run this more smoothly I'd be seriously considering upgrading. Yes, the game is worth it.

  • VMerken #39 4 years ago

    @Cyhwuhx et al.
    Well, I have a PSP Slim & Lite, and will probably get me a copy tomorrow (don't have the PSOne original, so not much of a choice =). If I get it and there is less slowdown (I'll use Gaffgarion's sword timing as a reference), I'll report it here. Unless someone beats me to it, of course.

    It is stunning that a PSOne game stutters on a system that's comparable to a PS2. One'd think that UMD can read/load data as fast as a CD...

  • drumbaby #40 4 years ago

    Loads of good games for PSP now.

    Plus loads of twats saying that there aren't, as well.

  • Daryoon #41 4 years ago

    Is the story as anally retentive as I remember? I recall it taking itself far, far too seriously, with a massive database of places and names and back stories that put Xenosaga to shame.

  • dirigiblebill #42 4 years ago

    Does anyone know if FFT includes terrain modifiers a la Tactics Ogre?

  • Blerk #43 4 years ago

    FFT good, FFTA not so good. That's all you really need to know.

  • Chtulie #44 4 years ago

    Shouldn't the superb Chrono Trigger get some sort, any sort of a European released before even mentioning the somewhat flowed Chrono Cross as an essential but neglected game?

  • Cyhwuhx #45 4 years ago

    .::: Looking forward to the new model's results.

    The new translation makes it all more coherent. It's not as anally retentive any more.

    There are terrain modifiers. FFT was made by the old Quest-team responsible for the Ogres that Square absorbed beforehand.

  • Shinji #46 4 years ago

    Why this isn't mentioned in the review is beyond me. The slowdown is not even subtle.

    I think there's been a massive misunderstanding about this "slowdown". The game does an effect as part of certain attacks which basically makes the game "judder" in a shaky way, and I can see how that would be mistaken for slowdown. I didn't experience any actual framerate problems though, nor did I see the audio sync problems described here. Possibly some PSPs have slightly dodgy drives that aren't loading in the animations / effects fast enough?

  • Cyhwuhx #47 4 years ago

    .::: I've played the original as well and that didn't feature slowdown on using a potion (!), let alone a thunder attack by a Skeleton.

    [edit] The juddering was/is normal. It was used frequently to effectively add more drama to the static imagery used. But you can visibly see the framerate drop once an effect starts. The out of sync sounds also seem to be derived from this, as they start at the same time but finish differently.

    Take the aforementioned Skeleton at Siedge Wald: it uses Thunder Animus (iirc). You can hear the effect start and see it start as well, but the fizzling after-effect can be heard finishing before you see the after-effect happening. This happens with pretty much every graphic effect and is especially noticeable on the effects that take more than one second to perform.

    The occasional quick-load/wait just before certain attacks is normal as per the PS1 game.
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 15:16

  • dirigiblebill #48 4 years ago

    Cheers Cyhwuhx. Apologies for my previous weirdness- bit under the weather and feeling restless at work.

  • VMerken #49 4 years ago

    @Cyhwuhx
    Thanks for the extra things I can test now =). From Belgium, btw.

    @Dirigiblebill
    What Cyhwuhx said, and I'll just add the word "Calculator" =)

    Oh, and a little hat-tipping to the Quest guys to sign off: Ogre Quest, Ogre Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII. That sure is one nice portfolio to have.




  • retr0gamer #50 4 years ago

    People shouldn't be put off playing FF Tactics because they didn't like Tactics Advance. I found FF Tactics Advance to be one of the most boring games I've ever played with unnecessarily clunky menus but I adore FF Tactics.

    Is the game still as bastard hard as the original and hasn't been toned down? The best thing about the original was how tough it was because it is probably the only SRPG that actually requires strategy.

  • Cyhwuhx #51 4 years ago

    .::: NO! STAY AWAY FROM THE CALCULATOR! IT IS EVIL! (O_o)

    ... in the wrong hands that is...

  • RedPanda #52 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Shrub #53 4 years ago

    In a way I'm glad there's slowdown - that excuses me buying the game again for the third time! :)

  • Artemus #54 4 years ago

    If it wasn't for the postal strike I would have ordered this. Only £17.99 at Shopto (although it's not out until the 26th according to them).

  • VMerken #55 4 years ago

    @Cyhwuhx
    Come on, I know you're dying to give that Calculator Challenge FAQ on gamefaqs a whirl... =)

    @retr0gamer
    While FFT >>> FFTA, FFTA isn't boring, it's just kiddie. I know I and a lot of peeps made wide eyes when seeing the tutorial SNOWBALL FIGHT. Was this coming from guys writing nothng but fun political intrigue until that point?

    But once you get past the kiddie layer, some fun things can be done and there are many abilities to explore. Like maxing out your entire party in the 2nd mission. Power levelling. Placing regions on the world map in the right places to get powerful items. And so on.

    Or building a platoon of 6 Assassine/Archer Vieras. "Hey, look, the first 12 turns are mine, and I can KO any target within 7 squares in one turn with dark power!" Wicked fun.

  • dirigiblebill #56 4 years ago

    I quite enjoyed FFTA. The plot may have been 'kiddie' stuff but the initial Never-Ending Story-ish twist (some kids get sucked into a magic book) and general lack of pretentiousnessingness were big selling points.

  • FabricatedLunatic #57 4 years ago

    That's it, I'm buying a PSP.

    Maybe.

  • Flabio #58 4 years ago

    The reviewer speaks the truth. Everyone needs to play Xenogears :)

  • step #59 4 years ago

    For me, the story makes the game - which is why I loved FFT and hated FFTA. And why I'm probably going to get a PSP now.

  • DaddyR #60 4 years ago

    I never played FFT (or any other FF games) but I adored FFTA on the GBA. I am anticipating my Amazon delivery of this with eagerness. And questioning why I'm such a tightwad and went for the slow but free delivery option. And then shaking my fist at the Royal Mail and saying "hah - I didn't pay for delivery so take as long as you want you scoundrels".

  • samk #61 4 years ago

    Bloody postal strike. Mine hasn't been delivered yet, and now probably won't be for another week. :(

  • Schiraman #62 4 years ago

    Personally I thought the story in FFT was a load of pretentious, over-complicated twaddle. But I suspect the terrible translation didn't help that... hopefully the new version is better.

  • itamae #63 4 years ago

    So then, Rob, cut-scenes: skippable or not skippable?

    You owe me an answer for all the hair you stole from my head!

  • VMerken #64 4 years ago

    @Dabo, Koopatroopa et al.
    Unless someone beats me to it, I'll probably report on the speed of FFT in the Slim & Lite version tomorrow.

  • CitizenGeek #65 4 years ago

    Sweet! :)

  • _Price_ #66 4 years ago

    Anyone know of any shops where this game has been bundled with the Slim & Lite?

    Or would that involve too much common sense from Sony's marketing-men?

  • Bremenacht #67 4 years ago

    This looks great, although I do wonder if a less JPRG-centric reviewer would have been less kind with it.. :o)

    How many hours of a life would this while away then?

    Oh - and are there any Lions in it?
    Edited by 1 at 04/10/07 @ 18:29

  • Cheapshot #68 4 years ago

    I tried 333mhz and the "slowdown" on spells is still there, I don't think there is anything wrong with the framerate and like Shinji said it goes (a little) jerky on purpose so the spells look less static or something... (and I get no sound sync issues) anyway it doesn't bother me and people who feel uneasy about the so-called "slowdown" should forget about it and buy this game! It's absolutely the definitive version.

  • VMerken #69 4 years ago

    No. The version without any slowdown issues on any system would be definitive.

  • smurphs #70 4 years ago

    I'm just about to finish the PS1 version for the first time and this comes out. Doh! I'll have to do a replay in a few months when I have re-gathered the tattered remains of my social life (bah - friends - who needs 'em?).

    If only they'd make a new Battle Tactics Ogre....

  • Barrel_Rider #71 4 years ago

    Chrono CROSS instead of TRIGGER!?

    I think I've lost all faith in Eurogamer.

  • generica #72 4 years ago

    I don't want to buy a PSP, but I want this so badly ;__;

  • dirigiblebill #73 4 years ago

    Buy a PSP already, you pansy girl. The pain is fleeting :D

  • ArtOfLife #74 4 years ago

    Maybe the reviewer just had specifically PS1 RPGs in mind when he named the three, hence Chrono Cross over Trigger.

  • Veracity #75 4 years ago

    New column request: knitting with Mr Fahey. Pattern for JRPG nerd hat forthcoming, I hope, though one assumes they can be made from wool? Nice to see a reviewer go into a bit of the number crunchy detail of the mechanics for once; only reservation is that you could sum up the first page for a lot of people as 'Tactics Ogre with modified FFV jobs bolted on to the class tree', which is a lot quicker to read and communicates most of the same information. Minor quibble, since probably most chaps to whom that means anything already know how FFT works, anyway.

    retr0gamer wrote:
    >The best thing about the original was how tough it was because it is
    > probably the only SRPG that actually requires strategy.
    Eh...really no, and this would be my not so minor quibble. The game's phenomenally easy to break, exaggeratedly so even for JRPG land (so was Tactics Ogre, in many respects). Nor is it as if you need to pursue obscure stuff you won't figure out without a guide or FAQ - a lot of it is pretty glaring to even a casual min-maxing stat whore. You can have Yell and the break speed knight special within minutes of taking control, for a start, and take a practically arbitrary number of turns to a chosen target's one. The slightly unconventional XP/AP acquisition model is also iffy, as it actively incentivizes mindless spamming of indefinitely repeatable skills simply to power up.

    The review touches on this somewhat, I think, referring to the potentially unpredictable difficulty and the class system's flexibility, but I think it's a bit remiss not to note just how many easy exploits there are - it's left largely to the player's discretion how threatening any encounter is allowed to be, more pronouncedly so than merely from the genre-typical ability to 'overlevel'. For better or worse, I think FFT anticipates the Nippon Ichi trademark 'broken by design' style more than it's usually given credit for, right down to the somewhat overly predictable AI. I think it's intentional (the alternative, that the designers were stupid, seems dubious, to say the least) and whether it's desirable is largely a matter of taste, but I don't think it should be glossed over.

  • NegativeZero #76 4 years ago

    This is probably the game that will tip me over the edge into buying a PSP. Always wanted to play FFT, but I never had a modded PS1 so I couldn't play it.

    One thing though... picking Chrono Cross over Chrono Trigger as the third leg of the Awesome-JRPGs-We-Never-Got triumvirate? I always felt that CT was the superior game.

  • mkreku #77 4 years ago

    That review read like a 10. I wonder what brought it "down" to 9?

    Still sounds like a fantastic game, one that I would love to play. But I can't buy a PSP just for one game.. can I? I have a feeling it would harass and attack my girlfriends DS Lite when we sleep..

  • krudster #78 4 years ago

    There is a PSP Slim review coming, don't fret.

    In summary: slimmer and lighter. With TV-out.

  • Shinji #79 4 years ago

    That review read like a 10. I wonder what brought it "down" to 9?

    The fact that they've done absolutely nothing to fix the incredibly unforgiving first two hours of the game, where you're thrown in totally at the deep end and left to work out for yourself what all the complex menus and character options do. I don't think it bothered me much in 1997, but in 2007 it's not really acceptable.

    BTW, this was reviewed on an original (JP launch actually) PSP, not a Slim'n'Lite model. I really want one of those purely for the TV out actually, because I find the PSP genuinely uncomfortable to play on for long periods of time, and would prefer to play on a TV screen. Go figure :/

  • RedPanda #80 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • VMerken #81 4 years ago

    @Shinji:
    Opinions may vary, there. I never played a turnbased tactical JRPG before FFT, and its (pretty huge) tutorial (at least on the PSX version) explained everything I needed to know. And as said earlier, the only place I saw Game Over, once, was Wiegraf. He was (is?) able to kill you before you could even offer a reply.

    Oh yeah, and then you get TG Cid. Broken guy, that.

    @RedPanda:
    So how about the reported "slowdown"? Any better on the Slim & Lite?
    Edited by 2 at 05/10/07 @ 11:38

  • RedPanda #82 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • dirigiblebill #83 4 years ago

    Did you get a chance to try the multiplayer, Shinji? It probably won't be a factor for me as it's Ad Hoc, but you never know when you're going to bump into a fellow supergeek...

  • HiddenAway #84 4 years ago

    @ RedPanda

    Good spot! Now that's a decent bundle!

  • RedPanda #85 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • VMerken #86 4 years ago

    @RedPanda
    Thanks, that does sound better than Cyhwuhx' report on Gaffgarion's sword sound coming 1 second after the animation. I doubt that the loading system will be as forgiving for the summons. Will pick up a copy of the game today and and do a little comparison using my brother's Phat & Heavy.

    It has been a long time. This is going to be a lot of fun =).
    Edited by 1 at 05/10/07 @ 12:19

  • phl0w #87 4 years ago

    I play the game on a 1st gen PSP @333mhz off the stick. Loading times are little or none and although there's still stuttering, I haven't encountered out-of-sync problems.

    Although having played the original on PS1 back in the 90s I can't remember the game being such a grinder. The first harder battle is the one in the slums which is impossible to survive without grinding preceding battle fields at least 2 times, which makes no sense story-wise. Add that there's no option to quit obviously unbalanced battles but to reset the game and you have a game that holds quite a potential to frustrate in its first hour.

    @retr0gamer: Yes, the game is still that hard but as Veracity argued, that's not necessarily a good thing. Of course the game wants you to internalize the job system and learn abilities from the start and doesn't really let you "try out" mechanics in initial sissy battles, like so many of its genre brothers do. Unfortunately that tight engagement with the game's mechanics leads to what Veracity stated, namely that you will soon find out broken ability/ job combinations that in return make the game too easy.

  • Cyhwuhx #88 4 years ago

    .::: Hmm, doesn't sound too hopeful for my own PSP. :(

  • mingster #89 4 years ago

    i can 2nd that running the game from memory card there are no out of sync problems but i havent tried a summon yet loading times are very quick

  • vane101 #90 4 years ago

    It's like regular FF but with a focus on the battles rather than other things like puzzles and exploring.

  • VMerken #91 4 years ago

    Well, I've bought the game yesterday and promised a comparison between a Phat & Heavy and a Slim & Lite.

    Played up to and including the intro mission, and both systems manage the game equally well. No one second sound lag on the animations or anything of the sort - everything is well synced. I did see a slowdown of the sprite animation, but apparently only during knockouts, probably to increase the drama, much like all animations slow down in Street Fighter II during a K.O.

    So all in all, unless the summons do something weird, I think the game is fine, and offers the same experience on both systems.

  • Lov3 #92 4 years ago

    What i'd like to know is why Eurogamer have special reviewers for typically Japanese games, who mark those games favourably. Other people who are not crazy otaku read these reviews too you know, and they have to be accurate.

    I am going to tell you a little story. I quite like the FF series. I have played nearly every game so far, and most of them I enjoyed on some level. After reading the FFX review on this very site, I went to the store and bought FFX myself. The game was bad. Terrible in fact, one of the worst commercial games i've ever played. Had that reviewer had the confidence to point out the terrible dialogue and voice acting, the awful quality of the storytelling, the completely unbelievable setting and the basically tedious and non-challenging combat I would never have bought it.

    Now, I realise that the two reviewers are different, but it seems that Rob Fahey is the guy who does reviews of japanese games at the moment. How can I take this review seriously when I know this game was guaranteed an 8 or higher the moment you read the words Final Fantasy?

  • Cyhwuhx #93 4 years ago

    .::: How can you take someone else seriously once he starts giving Japanese RPG's below average because he has zero interest in them? The only who's biased here is you methinks.

    Must say it's a novel way of saying you disagree with the score. Beats "So it's better than HALO? " hands down.

  • HiddenAway #94 4 years ago

    @ Lov3

    Not all of them :p

    http://ww w.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...

  • VMerken #95 4 years ago

    Lov3, you might want to talk about your bad experience with FFX and the FFX review in a more appropriate place, such as the FFX board or the FFX review thread.

    Now, in the case of FFT, I am going to say that a 9 is not even a generous score. It is an absolutely brilliant tactical RPG, and imo the best FF out there - it was a definite 10 in its US NTSC form and even more so now, what with the updated movies and story text. I've already alluded to the fact that its tutorial shouldn't downgrade the score to a 9, because some people (me, amongst others) feel they do get all the information they need from it and can play the game with ease.

    However, Rob Fahey thought otherwise and it's his review, so there. Either way, if you have a PSP and like tactical RPGs, you simply must give this title a go. The 9 is, in this case, justified albeit not entirely :).
    Edited by 1 at 08/10/07 @ 14:35

  • phl0w #96 4 years ago

    I've already alluded to the fact that its tutorial shouldn't downgrade the score to a 9, because some people (me, amongst others) feel they do get all the information they need from it and can play the game with ease.
    Exactly. And if it were any longer, people would moan about how they hate the lengthy text and why the devs didn't make an in-game tutorial in the first place. Besides, there are people like myself who want to find that stuff out by themselves.

    What I do criticize though is that the more than questionable AI wasn't covered. I love the game, but I would easily knock a point off the score for the stupid behavior of AI controlled characters and NPCs in general. It's an SRPG and AI is more vital than in any other game (safe pure-bred strategy games like, say, a chess computer). It can be game-breaking for many. Example? Why NPCs low on HP keep attacking chars with "Counter" ability is beyond me. If I have access to such knowledge I'm pretty sure the AI has too.
    Edited by 1 at 08/10/07 @ 19:32

  • VMerken #97 4 years ago

    >"What I do criticize though is that the more than questionable AI wasn't covered."

    I love how the enemy knight in the introductory battle has nothing better to do than attack Ramza with "Rend Helm" =)

    "Let's see, we're getting slaughtered by powerful attack magic, I am the strongest character in my party, what to do? Hmm yeah, I should probably break the boy's helm, that will certainly turn the tide!"